Those musicians don't exist much these days because people worship hacks like Kurt Cobain and Bradley Nowell so that's what kids aspire to.
Like this. This tells so much more about you than you think it does.
Brad Nowell was a rip off artist. His songs are all covers of Motown and reggae songs. There is nothing special about him other than his early death, same with Kurt Cobain. If they had kept living they'd just be another washed up musician.
Not what I meant; your perspective seems to be a bit skewed. There's no particular shortage of educated musicians, they're just generally doing shit more financially stable than playing in a band. If they do have bands they tend to be low-key affairs. Nowell and Cobain are irrelevant because any musician who is serious about their music wouldn't limit themselves to mainstream music, and those that do limit themselves are white noise that has always been a part of the music scene and always will be. Most important, though, is that rock bands are rarely the domain of educated musicians and radio is rarely the domain of good rock bands.
It sounds like you're that type of musician that knows enough about music to have confidence in your claims but not enough to realize why they're wrong.
I think the point I was making is that talented and educated musicians are usually not the face on stage nor do they have the pocketbooks to go with it. This is frustrating. To know skilled musicians can be part of helping someone else make millions while they were left to rot (See the Funk Brothers). Instead, hacks (there are more than can be listed) make millions off of the talent of others, off the ignorance of the public and this in turn inspires young musicians to be mediocre rather than truly great. When people playing guitar want to be like Trey Anastasio rather than like Wes Montgomery, they limit their potential and really jip themselves of being great musicians. But I guess that's the way to go if you want to retire from music and not have to work at Burger King.
And there are no stable musician gigs. Not sure where you got that idea. I know many many GREAT musicians who hardly have any jobs I would call "stable." You might be able to call them "steady" but not "stable." Especially not in this economy. Those who do have a steady gig are few and far between and many people will never ever hear them play a note.
I used rock bands in my list because I don't think many people are going to know who the hell Hermeto Pascoal is. The sad fact is that these rock bands (HACKS) are the influence of young musicians. With music being largely cut out of schools you can bet that kids of the future won't give a shit about jazz or anything other than mainstream music.
And back to the REAL point, the bands I chose can only be covered by musicians with enough skill to alter their technique and style and sound to be able to play a cover song, which does happen because they have to pay their bills somehow. When hack musicians try to do these bands, they end up sounding like shit, because they don't have enough skill to adapt.
That's what makes a great musician. The ability to improvise, adapt, be versatile, listen and perform. I'd bet 1 in 1,000 musicians actually possess all of those skills, and that is being generous.
