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Endorsements/promotion/education/etc...



This ain't gonna be short.

In my opinion, there are two challenges:

1) Making the public (or at least the musician's community in general)
more acutely aware of everything looping can do/be.

2) Making the currently-existing looping community more acutely aware of
everything looping can do/be.

To me, these are intrinsically interrelated.  In order for new people to
be drawn into the looping fold, current loopers need to have a good
sense of the possible tools and their myriad applications, and they need
to be able to demonstrate some hint of the possible range of all of it. 
The more people there are who are finding new technical AND STYLISTIC
niches for their looping, the more new people will be exposed to the
stuff.  

So: reaching the public?

The main thing that will "sell" looping to people is an actual audible
(and, ideally, visual) demonstration of what the stuff is (and CAN BE,
in terms of the different ways that potential customers might use it). 
An ad with a reasonably well-known musician touting looping might
help... but I recall Lexicon running JamMan ads with photos/quotes by
Torn and Mark Isham (amongst others) back in the day.  Would Gibson have
more success with an EDP ad these days?

At the very least, such an ad would need to include web links to
specific sound examples of this stuff, so people could actually fire up
a web browser and HEAR it.  But that could be tricky, since some people
might never get around to doing that looking up.  Even still, a good ad
with some intriguing copy and interesting pictures/quotes/descriptions
could lure some interested parties into checking it out.

A more costly, but probably more effective approach, would be to include
an audio CD (or data CD-ROM with mp3 files) with a specific musical
instrument or technology magazine, showcasing different artists and -
probably even more importantly - different technical and stylistic 
applications.

For instance, Gibson could enclose a CD with every copy of Electronic
Musician or Keyboard magazine, with recordings by various EDP folks
using the tool in a variety of different contexts.  If you put out a
disc with Neal Schon, David Torn, Benny Reitveld, Amy Neuberg, Tom
Heasley, Todd Reynolds, Hans Lindauer, Jon Wagner, and Steve Lawson on
it, you'd have nine very different technical applications of one looper,
in nine different STYLISTIC areas.  

Everything from electric guitar to voice to violin to bass to tuba to
solo acoustic percussion to dance electronics would be covered.  That
could open a lot of people's ears, in a lot of different genres, and it
could be a nice way to bring more widespread exposure to some more
obscure artists.

Or a more focused approach could work: a Bass Player Magazine EDP disc,
a Guitar Player one, etc.  It could reach players (and I think "players"
are probably the prime market for the EDP, at least) who might not be
inclined to read Electronic Musician or Keyboard.

For that matter, a general article in a magazine would be great.  If one
or two companies and/or record labels were willing to put some
advertising money into an issue, that could help spearhead an article
that, for instance, could talk about different applications for guitar
looping.  It could cover the usual guitar-loop suspects like Fripp,
Torn, Michael Brook, Chet Atkins, Keller Williams, Trey Anastasio, etc.
as well as the not-so-usual ones: guys as far-flung as Neal Schon, Paul
Dresher, Steve Howe, Claude Voit, et al.  (And since he's a damn fine
guitarist whether looping or not, I think Matthias Grob is LONG overdue
for some recognition of his wonderfully musical touch on the six-string.)

More to come?  We'll see...

--Andre