Brenda wrote: > Two follow-up thoughts on this. > > How much of Joni's repetition is by design and how much is by selection? Meaning, > do we keep hearing this because when she talks, its one of the few things that the > press reports? As Catherine noted, she talks a lot. And I'm betting there other things > she repeats as much as she does her comments about the business. However, those > things may happen to be far less interesting in print.
I totally agree and have maintained here many times in the past in her defense that the press can be selective and take her comments out of context and that we shouldn't take it all at face value. The press generally looks for the one or two controversial snippets and then blows it up, usually out of context. > Her comment about no one wanting to hear what she has to say can be a very real > response to what she is told by the people who promote and market her records. > When they can't get her on the radio or do get her on the radio and the stations get no > phones, when you sell 200,000 out of a potential music market of 24 million, it's easy > to conclude that "no one" -- meaning the public at large -- wants to hear it. (Especially > when you write songs titled "Sex Kills"!) She can't help but take it personally, because > the response is to her work specifically when her manager reports back from the VP of > radio promotion. I do get that. What worries me is that she may be starting to believe it herself to the point of feeling a little insecure about it. > But I wouldn't draw the line from that to insecurity or a self esteem issue. I would be > very surprised (and disappointed) if she thought any less of her own work because of > it. I think she ultimately is very self confident in her work. However, the fact that she would show such a personal vulnerability about it to virtual strangers like myself and a few others here on the list, tells me something deeper is happening. It makes me think that she has experienced some things that have undermined her confidence. I don't think being confident and having a generally high self esteem is mutally exclusive from having doubts and insecurities. In my original response to Azeem and Roberto I was also thinking how she has at times named names and been highly critical or dismissive of other female artists. I think this is one area that has bothered people a lot. It bothers me, not because I don't think she is right in some instances, but I feel for the artists, some of whom name her as their inspiration, getting slammed in print. I always wondered why she would do that - surely from her lofty perch she does not have to put others down, but sometimes people do just that when they are feeling a little pushed out or threatened or maybe insecure in whatever it is they do. Kakki
