I feel the only musicians I put out of work are the ones who don't show up for rehearsals, the drunks, the egomaniacs, and all the other problem makers/starters, not even mentioning the low talent wannabes.
If there is a talented musician who can and will pull his or her own weight on any instrument that coincides with my repetoir I would welcome them in a fast moment. The more the merrier as far as I am concerned.
To me music is not just about the sound but also the working together of different personalitys and talents.
At the moment it happens to be myself, my fiance (soon to be wife), and all the people who made the styles and sounds which are available to me.
After all, aren't we helping to keep those techies and un-known musicians working also?

Jim

Enjoy your talents and abilities to entertain.


[This message has been edited by OldNewb (edited 07-07-2007).]

In the 70s when the synthesizer first started getting widely used the British Musicians Union tried to introduce a ban on using synths in clubs saying they were putting other musicians out of work by replacing them with synth parts. Obviously this was short sighted and didn't last for very long. There is always a backlash against new technology but there really is no stopping it.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 07-07-2007).]

OTOH, Nigel, there was a ban on Broadway for synths when used as ersatz string sections, etc.. That ban was eventually broken, and now only a handful of shows have any string players, etc..

I think there is a big difference between a small venue, who if faced with the cost of a full band simply could not afford it, and large venues and On-Broadway sized theaters, who always HAVE used real musicians (and been easily able to afford them) until the technology comes along to replace them. Then it's simply a case of corporate greed.

And, as the players of those replacing technologies, we are only a technological step away from having exactly the same thing done to US! Witness how many Broadway (or at least, off-Broadway) musicals use tapes (or rather, computerized playback) instead of any musicians at all!

What we have lost is any sense of collective bargaining power. The move away from unions, and the government and big business sponsored union-busting that has gone on since Reagan and the ATC fiasco has made us all collectively forget about (or ignore) the reasons we needed unions in the first place. They are an awful solution to the problem, but as the early decades of the 20th century showed us, corporations and big business, when NOT balanced by an equally powerful union, will squeeze it's labor force for everything it possibly can.

We are more productive as workers than at any time in our history (the American workforce, that is), but wages have NOT risen in proportion. Executive pay and perks have shot through the roof, though. So SOMEONE is benefiting from the longer hours, less holidays, less benefits and sped-up workflow. But it ain't us....

It is maybe distasteful as 'artists' that we should consider collective bargaining even necessary (isn't the world supposed to recognize our value and pay us accordingly? ), but sooner or later, we are getting squeezed out, just like everyone else. The only thing that keeps us going is that a club owner can't outsource OUR gigs to India or SE Asia, and America hasn't developed a taste for Tex-Mex, Mariachi and Conjunto, yet!

But they HAVE developed a taste for a music (guided by the handful of huge corporations that own ALL the radio stations?) that relies very little on live musicians, and uses tapes and computer playback for most of it's 'sound'.....

Rap and Hiphop and trance and techno....

The squeeze is on.