JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Katy Perry insult to Taxi and it's members

I used to belong to Taxi and have nothing bad to say about them. I appreciated the feedback and learned a lot.

Tom

Well, I missed this one the first time around
JUST to clear up that Linda reference, that's regarding Polly saying I *look like* Katy Perry.... but I believe the resemblance stops there

I can't imagine everything TAXI gets is terrific.
It's called a "slush pile" for a reason, folks.

I've worked as a freelance editor, and I can tell you from experience that my crankiest clients also happened to be the least talented, least capable of change or improvement, MOST sure they had the next hit novel in the bag, and couldn't have been MORE wrong.

I believe Brian about the death threats. It's sad.

But IMHO those writers/artists (of any variety) who are open to change, improvement, editing, listening to suggestion and implementing them --IE their ego is not in their own way-- are those more likely to succeed than those who just think they're the bee's knees from the get-go and that the world should be buying their art. And if the world doesn't, it's the world, not they, who are stupid.

Ugh.

Below is the text from an article where she mentions Taxi

When you read the quote in that context (maybe not complete, but OK), you can see why parts of that job pained her.

Kevin

I think most of us have found ourselves in places that drove us crazy.Now if we couple this with a love/obsession with something like music, double whammy. Now add to this the friends that tell us we are great and "Idol" or Nashville is your destiny. triple whammy.
So we get on some sites that might be the breakthrough we hoped for and reality slaps us down. If you never had to deal with the real world, things might snap or get severely bent out of shape.
Out of the 42k songs that Brian talked about there were 60% or about 25000+ people that believed they were in the top 10% and knew it was there time.
I think we all have to be there for our music and the grand canyon of rejection sucks.
So I see both sides and both are valid and both suck.
Maybe tomorrow won't, another song another rejection, maybe not
From the publishers POV, they must ask themselves why people do this., put themselves through this hell. Isn't there a better way to find what they want, obviously not.
Later Wyndham

Actually our last awards had 42K full albums and over 600,000 songs. = )

I note that Ms. Perry will be on the next Victoria's Secret fashion show.
Have to wonder if she'll be singing . . . Got to give credit to whoever does her marketing.
Ott

I have stayed away from this thread mostly because I am really unfamiliar with Katy Perry's work and I have no real personal relationship with TAXI. I think they are fine for what they do and they are a sponsor of this site, so they are fine with me. Michael Laskow is a very good guy.

I am seeing something in what she said that I haven't seen commented on here and I just kind of wanted to mention it because it is something I see all the time.

If I am not mistaken, hasn't Katy Perry become a pretty big star? Isn't she a singer? And the fact that she didn't have hope but has gone on to achieve a lot, doesn't that say something.
The fact that she heard a lot of mediocre or downright crappy stuff AND she rose above it in her own career to me says a lot. By doing that she was conditioned to know what was good and what wasn't. And apparently worked out.

This is what I try to talk about all the time. There are a LOT OF SONGS, A LOT OF ARTISTS OUT THERE! getting and keeping attention from the public is a VERY Hard thing. They are conditoined to turn things off very quickly. The more you hear this and emmerse yourself in it, the more you see it, the better your songs get. The more you step outside of yourself, work with others, the more you understand. The more avenues you are in, the more chances you get.

I didn't see any of this as a comment on Katy Perry or Taxi. I saw it as a statement that most songs and songwriters simply don't stand up to much scrutiny. They don't. Even in the hit writer's catalogues, very few songs really get much attention.

I have sat in the round with hundreds of hit writers and almost to a person the song that became their HUGE hit was NEVER the one they thought would be a hit. and they always play one that they LOVE and thought would be HUGE, but just didn't make it. That is the nature of this business.

So I would try to learn from this interview and apply it to my own work.
WRITE THE BEST SONGS YOU CAN.
WRITE WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
WRITE WITH ARTISTS WHEN YOU CAN.
GET ON THE GROUND FLOOR WITH ARTISTS, NOT WITH COMPANIES.
WORK HARD TO GET THEM OUT THERE.
WRITE MORE SONGS. REPEAT THE PROCESS. EVERYDAY.

MAB

Great points, MAB.

As to the Taxi critiquers themselves - I remembered reading this a while back and I'm so glad Taxi still had it archived on their site:

http://www.taxi.com/transmitter/0705/taxi-music-screeners.html

Folks can bitch and moan that they are not getting value from their Taxi critiques - but Taxi has checks and balances in place to keep the critiquers in line as well. Now THAT is refreshing.

Just sayin'.

~Bubbles

Bubbles,

One of the things I admire about TAXI is that it instills the discipline and knowledge to keep moving forward, writing songs, getting demos, getting "outside of yourself" educating yourself on markets, studying song styles, structure,etc.
There are goals in each segment. Getting forwards, having songs pitched.It is all about building catalogue.

And with events like the "Road Rally" it gives people a chance to meet face to face, share stories, music and interact, becoming friends for life. That is the key to the music business.

I would say TAXI presents a pretty good vehicle for that.

MAB

No pun intended. LOL

I get Katy's frustration.

She was asked what her worst job was and had to answer something.

When she worked there it was a time in her life when she was trying to get her career going. She thought she had talent, She believed in herself, she'd had some success as a christian singer but her pop career hadn't gotten going so she had to do something. I imagine most of what Taxi screeners hear is pretty awful. Just as MAB has talked about going to open mics around Nashville, he's written very rarely does he hear a great song, most of the time it's the same stuff over and over.

There are so many talented people in Nashville, LA & New York who's careers never get off the ground. Unless the wanna be star, their spouse or their parents are wealthy they have to get a job.