Date: May.18.2004 Author: Chook Publication: TeganAndSara[dot]org Column: Versus Headline: 15 Minutes More

Commercial success is not a bad thing. Too often, commercial success is equated with over-played bubble-gum pop songs a-la Britney Spears or Avril Lavigne, but that is not always the case. Commercial success is important to maintain a career as a professional musician and can also foster such things as creativity, musical expansion, and the aiding of social awareness. Without commercial success music is your avocation not your vocation. Therefore, if Tegan and Sara are to continue with music as a career, commercial success is a necessity. As with most business, if there is no profit, there is no means to sustain a living. If your neighborhood mechanic doesn't make a profit, s/he will go out of business because the commerce could not support them. The same is true in the world of professional music. If people choose music as a vocation, it is their business. They need to continually sell enough of their product to allow them to sustain their financial well-being with the profit of that product. As time goes on, that means Tegan and Sara not only need to maintain, but to increase, their sales. Tegan and Sara need to be commercially successful, because without it, music becomes their hobby. Commercial success in reference to the music industry is easily misconstrued. Too often it is equated with overplayed Top-40 songs and the media overload of constant appearance in broadcast and print. Such media frenzy is not necessary for commercial success. Take Van Morrison, for example. A virtual recluse, Van Morrison didn't appear in the media for years, and yet he has had astounding commercial success. And, knee me in the balls for this comparison, but I dare anyone to make an argument classifying Ani Difranco as a "commercial" musician. For years she was ignored by mainstream media; however she's been commercially successful enough to earn millions of fans and a buck or two along the way. Like these artists, Tegan and Sara have the ability to become extremely successful on a commercial level without Pepsi commercials or jumbo-sized images of them lighting up Times Square. (Personally, I find a 40 foot Tegan somewhat disturbing.) Such success offers musicians the opportunity to work with a more diverse group of professionals. Sure Collins and Carswell produced a damn-fine recording with IIWY, and will probably do equally as well with the new album, but will they be able to grow and change with the growth and change of the band? Will the elements they contribute grow stale after several albums? Growing, changing, and expanding should be part of every career, and just as new employees expand the horizons of business organizations, so will new collaborators expand the possibilities of musical undertakings. Commercial success will give Tegan and Sara an opportunity to expand musically by collaborating with people who can help their music continually grow and improve. A common criticism of commercial success is that "everything sounds the same." No way. While there may be certain formulas that make songs more likely to become hits - a strong hook, a good melody, a certain length - musicians with past commercial success are poised to create new trends in the music industry. And, with Achtung Baby, U2 helped push techno into the ears of the public at large. Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam rode a changing form of rock to popularity. Perhaps you dislike the current trend in music, but trends don't come and go overnight, they take years to emerge and evolve. The commercially successful hit songs of the 70's are not the commercially successful hit songs of today. However, the hit artists of that era are still producing good, solid, commercially successful albums. Neil Young (gee, imagine that name coming up) and Steely Dan are examples. So, just as Tegan and Sara's sound changed from TBOA to IIWY, commercial success will not hamper musical evolution on upcoming projects, on the contrary, it could facilitate growth and change. Just as commercially successful bands help expand musical horizons, they can help broaden social consciousness as well. With "Janie's Got a Gun" Aerosmith lays out the evils of sexual abuse, U2 highlights the violence that's plagued Ireland with "Sunday Bloody Sunday", Pearl Jam brings the tragedy of teenage suicide into the minds of millions of people with "Jeremy", and Ben Folds Five and Madonna touch on unexpected pregnancy with "Brick" and "Papa Don't Preach" respectively. Each of these bands is able to bring social issue and commentary into the homes of millions, and along the way, inspire emotion in people on a level that elected leaders rarely can. Commercial success for Tegan and Sara would give them the ability to influence people's awareness in the same way. An indication of possible interest in using their success to sway opinion is Sara's newfound political voice expressing her opposition to the US lead war on Iraq. Perhaps her expressions were paving the way for future commentary. Commercial success is not the evil that it is often made out to be. Are there drawbacks? Of course. Can improvements be made to the "system?" Absolutely. Let's nudge those improvements along by doing what we can to help a band like Tegan and Sara achieve commercial success. Chook is happy to fill in for this month's Versus, but is somewhat disappointed at being unable to work a reference to "Killer Clowns from Outer Space" into the column.