Y'dig?

When the Count Basie orchestra came from Kansas City to New York in the 1930s they were eventually recognized as having world class musicians in each seat of the orchestra, for example, tenor sax players like Lester Young and Herschel Evans, Harry (Sweets) Edison on trumpet, etc. However, when they gave their first concert and the famous Roseland ballroom on West 52nd street in Manhattan, what did the critics have to say about them? They didn’t like them much, some even said the band played out of tune….

What does this and countless similar examples say about what experts know? Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig is in the Guinness Book of Records, having been turned down by 121 book publishers before being taken on and fast becoming a million seller. Back in 1962, an old guy in a suit, head of  one of the largest record companies in England turned down The Beatles, pronouncing back that the days of the guitar bands were over! Harry Potter was rejected by 12 different publishers before being accepted by Bloomsbury Publishing, at the time a second or third division children’s publisher in the United Kingdom. In the USA, the explosion in popularity of Rock ‘n Roll and black R ‘n B was something that the people who run the major record  companies completely failed to see.

You might think that these and other example from every sphere of human artistic endeavor would persuade those in power, at the helm of affairs, who think they know, to think again. But not a bit of it, they continue to pontificate, to present their opinions to those who are stupid enough to listen, as fact. What they think is mostly based on what has happened, hence they will forever miss out on whatever will prove to be ‘the new thing’. Meanwhile, like lemmings head for the same cliff top, certain of what they know.