---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 22:41:28 -0700
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Mitchell slates music Industry
Mitchell slates music Industry
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2329001.stm>
15 October, 2002
Veteran singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has hit out at the music industry,
saying she is "ashamed" to be part of it. The 58-year-old folk rock
artist, who releases her new album Travelogue next month, told American
magazine Rolling Stone that she may stop recording altogether.
"I just think it's a cesspool," Mitchell said of the music business.
"I would never take another deal in the record business, which means I may
not record again, or I have to figure out a way to sell over the internet
or do something else."
Mitchell also hit out at MTV, complaining that her three-year-old
granddaughter is already imitating dance moves she sees from the videos
shown on the music channel.
Outspoken
"It's tragic what MTV has done to the world," Mitchell said.
The Canadian artist is known for her outspoken opinions and has in the past
described
contemporary music as "appallingly sick, with boring chord movement and bad
acting."
And holding up Bob Dylan and herself as the standard for songwriting, she
has slated Sting,
Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow, all of whom have admitted to being big
fans of hers.
The musician, once described by her friend David Crosby as being "about as
humble as
Mussolini," has also attacked David Geffen, the head of her former label
Geffen Records.
She accused him of never paying her any royalties.
Hit
Mr Geffen responded by saying that her albums never sold enough copies to
cover the advance payments she received from him.
Mitchell, who was born Roberta Joan Anderson, is one of the most respected
artists of her
generation, with a career in the industry spanning 35 years.
Her biggest hit in the UK was Big Yellow Taxi, which reached number 11 in
1970. Her albums
include 1971's Blue and the jazz-influenced Court And Spark, released in 1974.
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