Blackwell
A VALIANT attempt is being made to address standards in Jamaica's music industry.
Marjorie Scott-Anderson, former head of Bob Marley Foundation and co-ordinator of the Song-writers' Market Place, has deep concerns about the levels of professionalism being exercised in the music industry and the lack of opportunities for some sectors of the industry.
She has taken on the area of song writing in an effort to help raise standards.
Last year she piloted a successful songwriters' boot camp which was supported by music mogul Chris Blackwell. Find-ings from the camp was that material is being written, but people are not seeing opportunities and some don't know what to do with the material. The idea is to get them hooked up with publishers and that is the reason we are staging this next event," she said.
The workshop is scheduled for Friday, April 6 at the Liguanea Club. It will be an all-day event where writers will get to hook up with publishers and users of written work.
This will be the first of four events Scott-Anderson has planned for this year.
In June there will be a three-day event focusing on engineering. In September there will be another dealing with marketing and in October there will be a repeat of the songwriters' bootcamp.
"Hopefully general standards can be improved through these workshops. When we do engineering there will be field trips to studios and persons will get a good understanding of the foundations of engineering. We will explore old techniques and so on to ensure that even with modern technology, we'll have more rounded individuals.
"When we look at marketing we hope to explore the whole business of Internet marketing. We'll look at how the small person can go about marketing their products and so on. These workshops are designed to enhance development," she said.
