Wednesday, March 5, 2014

This is War

Imagine for a moment your struggles in life and try to understand the nature of how things really are. True, that was a very short statement with a very broad connotation. The short simple reply is that no matter when you arrived, there were others here before you. In the race for success in life everyone starts out dead last. One should never feel disadvantaged for being small. To reach your true potential you should not hope for a push over, but rather you should hope for the epic challenge.

A phenomenal band composed of an amazing lead singer and wildly talented musicians took on their corporate label for the right to play their music on their own terms. How do you think the story ends? In a perfect world, the band wins and the corporation folds. In a more predictable scenario, the record company wins and the band continues to go deeper into debt to the record company with each passing album. Pause for a moment. Consider the driving motivation behind both the musicians and the record company.

EMI records sued a band under contract to them for $30 million. Less than a year later EMI was divided up and sold by Citibank. The band which EMI sued has went on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide, yet, to this day, has never been paid a single dollar of the earnings from their music. Some would call this scenario mutually assured destruction in which both sides lost. To understand why this was not a loss, but was actually a victory, one would have to really know the band and its members.

With less money to his name at any given time than the average Joe on the street, the lead singer of this amazing band has touched the hearts and minds of millions. He and his brother, who is also in the band, have been poor their entire lives and don't really seem to mind it. This singer also recently celebrated winning an Oscar for best male actor for his role in the movie, "Dallas Buyers Club."

Success is not always about money, and it isn't necessarily even about winning. If you're interested in a twisted true life story of courage, dedication and success even while losing everything, I highly recommend the documentary, "Artifact: Thirty Seconds to Mars."

P.S. I purposely omitted the name of the singer. Had I said his name, you would probably have failed to appreciate the beautiful and talented group of human beings that comprise the band this famous person just happens to be a part of.

3 comments:

  1. Great post. I had no idea. Writers and musicians suffer from corporate greed and stupidity in much the same way. To use a tired Star Wars analogy, sites like this and bands like the one in your story are part of the Rebel Alliance. Victory is about connecting. I am off to go learn more about this story and get my next salvos ready for the war.

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  2. Oh, great story! I LOVE Thirty Seconds to Mars, but I had no idea of this occurring. I'm going to share this with other fans, and bear it in mind always...for reasons of my own. We all should, really, shouldn't we?!

    Jason McBride, I don't find that analogy tired in the slightest! I think we are building quite an Alliance, indeed! :D

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  3. I can see why omitted to leave the band's name out. I was drawn into this story from the start and now I want to know more. I haven't watched the Oscars yet, but now I will just to see who you are talking about.

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