No Talent Required

A friend of mine was looking to start an all female rock band and posted an ad up online. this is one of her responses. This is what is one of the things that are very wrong with music industry today.
just read.

Subject: Looking for band- all female linkin park, limp bizkit, etc...
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 04:23:55 EDT

Established L.A. based entertainment company (film/TV/music/print/management) Looking for female for some upcoming national projects and opportunities. We currently represent various television stars (NBC, UPN, USA, FX, etc...) and we have placed models/actresses in film and TV ranging from Paramount to New line, and from CBS to TNN to Showtime. In addition we have placed talent in print from Maxim to Playboy. We represent some of the nations top TV, print model, vocalists, musicians, dancers, and even Playmates. We are also currently lppking to put an all female rapcore style band with vocals together. The only pre-requisite is that you must be EXTREMELY attractive, a beautiful face and Magnificent body, as this is the current wave in all areas of the entertainment industry. Please note: This does NOT involve any adult work, it is strictly mainstream, nor does it involve any extra work, it is strictly featured or bigger. If you are a female actress, model, vocalist, musician, or dancer, and you feel you meet our pre-requisite and standards, and you are interested, please e-mail Photos (at least one head shot and one body shot, although a few of each would be preferred) or a weblink to your images, for our review and consideration, along with your contact # so that we may contact you and set up a meeting while we are in town.
Thanx and God bless.

extremely offended, as any musician would be, she wrote back and really tore him a new one. I dont have the email she wrote back to him, but you can use your imagination. Expecting to never hear from this guy again she was surprised to see this in her inbox shortly after.

Hi, I apologize if anything in our initial e-mail offended you, it was not intentional. You appear very, very angry, and I'm not sure exactly why. I don't even know you, and you told me to "go to hell." I don't know what could have possibly illicited a response of that caliber, so angry and disrespectful. I assure you that the e-mail we sent you is the very same e-mail we sent to over a hundred other potential candidates, and not one other person has responded in this fashion. In fact most have been very excited, appreciative, and have sent us the photos we requested. at the end of this e-mail I will add a couple of the responses we have received. I appreciate your love of music, and your position that music should come from the soul, in fact I agree with it. I myself have been an artist, a producer, and songwriter, but the fact is that business is business, and there is a reason why there are no new Aretha Franklins and Mellissa Ethridges bursting on to the scene. Even people that talented would not get record deals today, but there are many young ladies with a fraction of Aretha's voice, signing multi-million dollar deals, because of their face and body. In just about every genre of music, the industry is dominated by the beautiful ( Britney, Christina, Pink, Alicia keys, etc...) when you think of a massively successful female fronted rock band that dominates the airwaves of MTV or the covers of major magazines in the mainstream world, only No Doubt comes to mind. That has a lot to do with the fact that Gwen is hot and can wear shorts and a pink bikini top on the cover of Rolling stone and wear it well. When they first came out all everybody talked about was how hot she looked in those midriff tank tops. Even in Country music the big crossover stars are Shania, and Faith. Even little Leann Rimes took her top off for an extremely sexy cover of Maxim Blender. Even artist who were already established like J-Lo, Mariah, and Janet Jackson now use skin to sell every single record they put out. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is the population and consumer base at large. Even the male artist are all marketed this way now. This is the current standard that drives the industry. I never meant to imply that talent wasn't necessary, but why is it any different for people to admire you because of ability, or looks, or both for that matter, they are both part of who a person is. Do you see any knew Sally Fields, Sissy Spaceks, or Meryl Streeps blowing up in the film industry today? No, but you do see a lot of non talented, or non trained or experienced girls becoming stars because of the way they look. I cannot change society, or what the masses at large want, the reason labels look for beauty, is because it sells, and it sells because that is what people want. I never said don't be deep, or don't come from the soul, or don't use your gifts and talent or don't be edgy with your look, I just said use your beauty and sex appeal along with everything else you have. A person can be tattooed up, and pierced and still be fine. The reason there are not more hugely successful female fronted, or all female bands, is because in most cases when you find a girl that can play, she isn't hot, but instead looks like a dude. When you find a girl that is hot, she usually can't play. When you find one that has both, and is packageable for super stardom in the rock genres, she is usually unwilling to use that either because she is a feminist and thinks it's wrong, or because she is a lesbian and doesn't want to excite men, or because she wants to be bad ass. If they would just use their looks, they would end up with a platform for the whole world to be affected and touched by their music, as well as be espected for their abilities, and would have a platform to reach the world at large with any message they want. but instead they choose not to use their looks and get lost in local obscurity. Once again, this is a business situation, and I meant no affence, for that I am truly sorry. I hope we can agree to disagree, and part with mutual respect for one another.

who else wants to punch this guy? whats most fucked up is that he's right. This is the sad state of the music industry. It may not 100% reflect what the masses want tho. But even if that is what the masses want... the masses are stupid by design. they've been conditioned. if you dont give them a choice of real talent they will pick the good looking hack.

Look at the 70's ... real song writers with great songs making hits that become classics. and they were UGLY! but it didnt matter it was music The industry is insulting us by giving us vacuous celebrity with nothing to offer but eye candy thinking thats all we will accept. There's room for heart throbs but dont confuse pretty faces with talented artists.

Douche bags like this need to be stabbed in the crotch by scorpions.