New twist on a age old problem...

A new wrinkle has been introduced in the game of artist management. The long and public battles of certain artists to maintain personal sobriety has been seemingly tainted by the instantaneous nature of the 24-hour news cycle. Radar Online, TMZ, and the Daily Beast have taken a place in mainstream media. The public lust for information, no matter how seemingly tawdry has become bottomless. So can management still do just that, manage?

Certainly there is news value in the lives of artists. The difference between celebrities and artists is that one group is at best “celebrated” by society. On the other hand, while artists are supposed to be at least in some way “talented.” While some of those same artists try to exploit the nature of the 24-hour news cycle, the majority of artist (and the managers) is trying to maintain reasonable relationship in the media with regards to their client’s image and behavior.

There’s been decades since the early 1970s when music was immersed in the depths of its relationship with lethal narcotics. The grim reaper’s grip hasn’t been so pervasive in the music industry in eons. The deaths of Whitney Houston, Vesta Williams, and Amy Winehouse followed the death of music icon Michael Jackson have refocused the topic of management responsibility and for lack of a better of correlating term: culpability of paid representatives in the life of their clients?

Before Michael Jackson’s body had the opportunity to be transported to the hospital for possible attempted resuscitation, the infamous photo of his possibly lifeless body was being peddled to the highest bidder within the famed 30-mile zone. Certainly the recent death of Houston and the whirlwind of speculation surrounding the artist’s death is no clearer example of the change. Much like the wall that once existed between the private lives of politicians and those who cover them; the wall has been torn down between “entertainment media” and the people they cover. The media’s distrust for managers and being “handled” is now the rule instead of the exception.

Interview with Atlanta based artist manager Delante “Butta” Murphy. (Murphy, 2008)

References

Murphy, D. (2008, September 01). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/delante murphy on the responsibilities of an artist manager