even if the Russians came and named it something new, it would always look like Massachusetts Avenue

[jedusor]

Amanda Palmer recently broke a million dollars on the Kickstarter for her latest album, Theatre Is Evil. The original fundraising goal of the Kickstarter was $100,000. Here is a blog post wherein she talks about what she did with all that money. It involved a lot of wiggle room.

Now she's going on tour, and she's not paying her backing musicians. When people reacted badly to this, she wrote this blog post basically saying, "it's not about the money, it shouldn't be about the money, don't be mad because some musicians are happy to play for hugs and free drinks."

This intrigues me because of what it implies about her psychologically. I think the underlying problem here is that AFP doesn't understand how her social position has changed over time. She broke into the music scene in Boston, where there's a strong creative community that values art for art's sake and ideas like "it's not about the money." As she makes clear in that blog post, she used to be one of those struggling musicians who would happily play for bar peanuts. That's the kind of worldview she's coming from, and she's never shaken it off. She takes a lot of pride in that.

Which is fine, from an ideological perspective, but from a practical perspective, it means she acts like she's still a broke street performer. The way she talks about bumming off friends and family for eight months while putting together this record in the "what I did with my million bucks" post leads me to believe that she actually still thinks of herself as a broke street performer. Sure, she makes shit-tons of money, but then she spends it all on elaborate stage shows and music videos and Kickstarter rewards for her fans. If she pours everything she earns back into the art, I think she feels like it doesn't really count.

What it seems like she's missing, kind of ironically, is that social status isn't all about the money. She can spend every last cent in the bank on wigs and turntable decorations if she wants, as it sounds like she may have in fact done, and she'll still have fame, fans, and resources that put her in a position where it's very easy to take advantage of people. Yes, I'm sure there are many musicians out there who would jump at the chance to make music with Amanda Fucking Palmer on whatever terms she cares to specify. They might be the same people who would be perfectly willing to play a bar gig for free because a buddy asked them to. These situations are not the same, and the fact that AFP thinks they are makes it abundantly clear that she doesn't understand the influence she has. She uses it, constantly--did you see the part of that blog post about how she asks fans to bring free home-cooked dinner for her and her band at all the shows they play?--but she doesn't understand it.

Comments

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

I find it somewhat naïve of her to think that she lacks the power. That being said, what she does with that power is both not something I'd see as either good or bad. It's a complicated issue. She's still making money on the tour, and she's expecting musicians of a professional calibre to come play with her pro bono. I don't think I'd have too many issues with this except they're making the volunteers jump through too many hoops to do this.

Like, I manage volunteers, who give selflessly of their time, energy, and yes, in some cases money. But there has to be something else that motivates them - a carrot, if you will. It's sort of economics 101, actually, now that I think about it, in that in making the cost-benefit analysis that everyone has to decide when they do anything from volunteering time to changing careers, and while economically, it's great for AFP, it's not as great for those who are volunteering. As you said, it's one thing to help play a gig with a good friend. It's completely another to be an anonymous face in the orchestra.

Are there going to be musicians who think that this is a great thing for their personal cost-benefit? Sure, and if it works for them, great. On the other hand, I do think that her expectations for what she wants for the price she wants them is a bit ridiculous, especially since most, if not all, of the people she's seeking for the orchestra have been spending years of their life, spending a small fortune on an instrument, and spending yet another small fortune in both time and energy in searching for music gigs. It's not cheap. I'm no professional, but the amount of money that my mother spent on music lessons and instruments for me is a fairly large sum. (weekly private lesson at $50 an hour for over a decade plus an instrument that's about the same price as a small pickup truck does add up. Don't make me do the math. It's a large number.)

I feel that AFP is sort of milking her fans for all they have, and that doesn't feel right to me. It feels like an abuse of power, and I have issues with that.

[duckgirlie.livejournal.com]

My initial reaction was along the lines of "that's kind of shitty, but whatever, if people want to do it", until I read her follow-up blog where she said that in certain cities where they wanted the show to be more "tried-and-true" they were pre-booking the musicians and paying them. Which means that in some cities, people are getting a more "trusted" and prepared slate of musicians, even though the people who live in the other cities (who are presumably paying the same price) are getting all volunteers. (Not to say that the volunteers won't be as high-quality musicians, but they'll still have had a far more limited time to play the music/practice with the ensemble). That actually made me more annoyed then I originally was.

There's a huge sense of "I'm willing to play free gigs/my collaborators are willing to play for free, so you should be too" pouring off her. Never mind that when she plays ninja gigs it's usually somewhere where she's playing a paying gig and therefor isn't costing her anything to be there and is getting her free publicity, and that if someone who's already getting paid to be a support act wants to come on and play back-up for a track or too, they're still getting paid, and still in a position where they're well enough known that they have a name of their own to trade on.