Terry Kath Quotes

Music industry is like fashion. Things keep coming, things keep going, trends keep changing.

I consciously did not want to put a sub-Mr. Bungle band on the map. I don't think the world needs that.

When I was young, I was offered my first recording contract in 1971 and was offered quite a bit of money if I would change my character and be a '70s version of Cher.

I don't see that there are any particular changes in popular music.

People spend their careers trying to figure out what makes a hit single. But I learned a long time ago that you can't anticipate what people want, because it's always going to change.

I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars.

Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it became rock & roll. That's marketing. Why couldn't it still be R&B? The bass pattern didn't change. The song didn't change. It was still 'Yakety Yak' and 'Searchin'.'

You know, I am just a musician and I have no idea these days what good and bad is in terms of labels.

Rock became an incredible commercial success, people just became bored with serious music, and it was forgotten.

The tough thing about radio is I've met a lot of people in it who like my music. But it's hard for them to figure out how to play what they like when there's somebody up above them yelling 'you have to play this.'

I'm still involved in the business of Cheap Trick, so I keep my eye on that kind of stuff.

Everything goes in cycles in the music industry.

I remember Mitch Miller saying every week, This rock and roll stuff will never last. But one doesn't like to bring that up to Mitch.

We have incredible record labels in Australia, but sometimes they have a preconceived idea of how to do things.

If anything, I'm the most hesitant to bring on a label. That terrifies me. I think people believe major labels are linked to success. They're absolutely not that.

That's just the music industry. They always want you to write something like the one that was popular.

Today, there's so many different types of music out there that it's difficult to keep up. Things do change; it's only natural.

In rock n' roll music, you almost have to apologize for being around more than four or five years. I don't know why.

Often by the time writers and producers try to get a new hit song, the industry has already moved on. Whatever you're creating might not be as hot as it would have been during the time of your first hit. It definitely compromises the creative process when the music is changing and evolving so fast. If you're not on top of it, you will be forgotten.

It seemed record companies wanted bands to be creative because they didn't know how to manufacture underground music. We could do our own thing and go at our own pace. But that changed when major labels started wanting bands that would sell 7 million records.

When I made hip-hop, I made hip-hop. I didn't make R&B or make it for the radio.

Major labels have always been around our band since the beginning, and we just waited. We knew we had to do some things, and we needed to grow as a band before we made that step. We needed to do it our way and not do it how it works for other people.

Who were the biggest acts in the world in 1987? Guns N' Roses and Metallica. I shamelessly pandered to surfers and skateboarders, and in pictures from then, you'll see Slash and those guys wearing N.W.A stuff. If they thought it was cool, people in Kansas and Wyoming would buy it. That's how we broached the subject.

The music industry has become so unpredictable. And I think people know that if someone has a Number One song, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have several ones after.

England's a small nation, and the pop music industry is built on fashion.