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GOING_DISCO

                                             February 10, 2008

            This is a pattern that
            shows up frequently in
            the arts world:

            Someone attracts attention
            of the cognoscenti with an
            interesting approach that
            gets dumbed-down when the         I often wonder if the
            time comes to try to              maneuver really makes any
            "widen the appeal".               business sense, or if
                                              it's like a lot of the
                And there's always            standard business advice
                some ambiguity about          these days: limited,
                whether the insiders          short-sighted, blissfully
                are whining about             unaware of the ways it's
                nothing.                      counter-productive.

                  "I was into X                   Maximizing short-term
                   back when X was                return in exchange for
                   *really* cool."                "diluting the brand".

                   Just copping
                   a pose?

                   After all, how can
                   you expect an
                   artist to do the         It's possible to get
                   same damn thing          so extreme that the
                   over-and-over?           only choice is to get
                                            less extreme or to
                                            stagnate: e.g. the
    Further: you can make                   "Vena Cava" release
    a case that the masses                  from Diamanda Galas
    *need* their popular
    arts -- perhaps there's
    a problem that there
    aren't enough people       (Hey man, whatever
    trying to do a *good*      happened to
    job working in a           The Beatles.)
    popular vein.




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