I know some artists give themselves names like 'The Bare Naked Ladies', or Kiss and paint their faces. Others dress up as transvestites or present themselves as hideously deformed vampire-like creatures and adopt the last names of serial killers. But what if one simply loves to create great music and write songs? Sure, there are many wonderful artist/songwriters out there who are 'normal' people and have made it. There are Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Sting, Shania Twain, Billy Joel, and Nora Jones. These are some of my personal favorites, and there are many more to be sure! But if you research their stories you'd find that they all, at some time or other, knew or met that one person in the music business about whom they could say "the rest is history".

But what happens to the less aggressive songwriters who continue to perfect their skills and simply hope that some day they'll be discovered by the millions who tune into their MySpace.com sites? What happens to the struggling artists who don't have the money to produce their own CD's or even update their instruments and musical equipment?

I used to think that "the cream rises to the top", but I'm not so sure anymore. I wonder how many truly talented artists there are out in the world who will never see their dream realized. How many Vincent Van Goghs musicians and writers are there out there whose music will only be recognized once they're gone, or never at all? It's really quite depressing. It almost sounds like something one could write a song about...hmm...sorry...gotta go. I need to get some lyrics onto paper while they're still fresh in my mind...Perhaps this will be the song that puts me over the top!

Learn more about this author, Bohdan Rewko (Bo of T.O.).
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