Hell Yeah

“I was a terrible waitress so I started to write songs.”
-Ani Difranco

So I have had this lyric stuck in my head for the past few days, probably because I am not a very good waiter. I am not horrible, like bring you the wrong food or ignore you for long periods of time, but I am just not very good at all. Although I am better than people have been treating me.

But anyway, this lyric has made me wonder if the music industry is really a service industry. At first glance the question seems stupid. Of course it is a service industry, people want to hear music from time to time, but don't need to. But after working, even however briefly, in a real service industry there are important differences.

We go to restaurants and expect everyone there to make us happy. It is the waiter's job to do anything, REASONABLE, to make your experience as enjoyable as possible. That is what we expect.

I wonder if we expect the same thing from musicians. Take Ani for example, I get the sense that she makes music that makes her happy, and doesn't care about the rest. That is probably why she started her own label after all. Maybe that is why she was a terrible waitress, she just wasn't very good at trying to make other people happy. I mean, if an artist takes steps to make as many people happy as possible, something every restaurant is trying to do, then they are called sell-outs.

I don't know, I am tired and my body hurts...and I smell like hamburgers.