When I first came to Loyola as a bright-eyed, short-haired music business freshman, the traditional music business was booming. CD sales were high, and teeny-bopper tunes were the rage.
These days, though, my hair is longer and the music business seemingly has little direction, much like me and some other music business students at the beginning of this year.
As some of you may know, one of the co-chairmen of our program left the university at the end of last year, and many music biz kids were left worrying about what was going to happen next.
However, on Sept. 9, all of our collective worries about the future of the program were put to rest.
At what many music business students have called the best forum in the history of the class, New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint graced our weekly music business forum with his presence.
Toussaint, a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and rock ‘n’ roll hall-of-famer, entertained the captivated audience of wide-eyed young music business students with his virtuoso playing, amusing stories, and valuable advice. Among the songs to his credit are “Mother-in-Law,” “I Like it Like That,” “Workin’ in a Coal Mine” and (my personal favorite) “Fortune Teller.”
His songs, performed by everyone from The Rolling Stones and The Who to Patti Labelle and Lee Dorsey, have a timeless quality to them and are still re-worked today, which Toussaint says constantly amazes him.
As music business students, we can take some cues from Toussaint. He is a man who has succeeded in living his dream by staying true to his music, never giving up and remaining humble after all of his success.
“I see the money as a by-product of a job well done,” he said. He also said that you should learn to accept “no” as an answer but also to never give up.
For every song that was a hit for him, he said, there are more than thirty that were “so jive they shouldn’t have even been written.”
It would be wise for us to follow Toussaint’s lead – we should not worry about failing, but learn from our mistakes and constantly improve them.
The music business is ever changing, and all of us in this program are the ones who are going to help make it work. Loyola’s program prides itself on being above the moral standard of the rest of the industry, because we are based at a Jesuit university.
If we can continue to combine the strengths of both the music and the business schools, then we have a real possibility of training the best, most honest professionals in the future music business world. From now on, we’re going to be doing things differently around here, and I think that Toussaint’s visit is an obvious sign of things to come.
According to Toussaint, if you don’t keep on getting better and doing new things, then “you’ll come home to a house full of wishbones and feathers but no chicken.” True words of wisdom from a true music business success.
P.S.: R.I.P., Johnny Cash.
~ Greg Heaney is a music business junior
