Cindy,

It's a generalization and what I am talking about is a certain mentality. The overall thing is that you have to be careful how you address things over the internet. Particularly when you are new. There are a lot of people who believe that and the conversation almost always start the exact same way. I am trying to head off something before it turns into something it doesn't need to be. and show you by example how things can be taken wrong.

If you had been around very long and has studied some of this first, you would have seen we have discussed this all the time. It is one of the most talked about subjects on every writer's site. It is kind of always "much easier than it looks." this is what you said:

"I guess one thing that surprises me is the bad songs that do make it-mostly in the country genre and mostly the past few years. Songs that make me want to put my hands over my ears and I always turn it fast. Why do those make it? They are badly written, poorly performed, and just stink! ha."


The point I am making is that is a broad brush statement and in return I painted it with a broad brush statement.I don't put anyone anywhere. They do that themselves. i am sort of the little concence sitting here on the shoulder tapping people and saying "excuse me, I don't think you quite want to say that." The examples I give you are from those exact things. Those people who do that think they are not coming off like they are either.

People don't mean ill. But they can say things in ways that they don;t see how it looks. And we all do it. Yesterday I posted something about this guy from American Idol who was on Fox News. I thought he was crap and said so. then, upon re-reading it, I deleted what I said because I didn't like the way it read. It sounded very much like what you said, but I didn't want to do that. So I fixed it.

The good things about these threads are that they progress. You can see how dialogue progresses. As people get to know each other the opinions clarify. You are new and it takes a while to get used to this.
Now, if you had mentioned a certain song or artist, i might have been able to discuss that.

A career in the music business is about 15% what you see and 85% under the radar or behind the screen you don't see. ARtists being writers, previous track record, marketing research, just cause someone wants to say or do something, all have parts to play. That is what most writers find it hard to understand. They hear things they don't understand and can't figure it out. They are quick to say "How did that piece of crap get out there?" without realizing maybe it was written by the artist's best friend.

So I don't want to hurt your feelings and if I did I apologize. that is never my intention. i am a reactionary individual and mirror much of how the industry feels when challenged or dealing with complaints. I try to be measured in my responses, but try to be very thorough in my explinations. Some times too thorough. But I would rather people have a lot of information, discard what doesn't work for them, and use what does. Once I started getting onto sites like this one, I found out that people were printing out things I said and making their own little books of "MABBISMS". One day there will probably be dozens of books by me that I never wrote. But that is the way it is.

If I can help one person make a little better decisions when it comes to money or process, that is what I do. Sometimes, like all things Internet, it might not come out exactly right, but I always try to address anything I need to. I always respond.

MAB