No where in this thread have I said images in music haven't always played some roll in the popularity of an artist. But spending as much (if not more) time nurturing an image instead of establishing yourself musically is a sea-change from where we were 30 years ago. Rick James & George Clinton didn't just come out as the characters we'd know them later as. Acts like that spent years working on and defining who they were musically and then dressed the product up image wise. Today the image is where the focus is right out of the box... that can't do anything but hurt them musically. It's like spending all your time planning your album cover and then finally getting around to recording the content.

As for the people in here that want to make this into an old man rant... whatever. As much new shit as I ride for most of you should know better than to take such a lazy approach towards my posts... But y'all gonna do what you do. If you can't see there is a valid conversation to be had here I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise.
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