Music Credibility Quotes

Steve Earle had a mainstream career. Dwight Yoakam had a mainstream career. Willie Nelson did. But they always made good music, they always stuck to who they were. They weren't relying on radio like a lot of people are in Nashville.

I wouldn't use a song I didn't think was my brand or image.

Just because something's kinda indie and whatever and only a few people know it, it doesn't give it more authenticity over Rihanna's 'Work' work work.

I felt very proud to be part of a music scene that was changing the face of commercial music and rock music internationally, but I also felt like it was necessary for Soundgarden - as it was for all of these Seattle bands - to prove that we deserve to be on an international stage, and we weren't just part of a fad that was based on geography.

For a lot of fans from the early days, they probably had issues they were A-ha fans, because it probably wasn't 'cool.'

People know 'Milkshake' like a jingle, but they don't really know who I am.

Priyanka and Red One made a great record that we think will stand on its own. People won't buy the music just because she is who she is. We want them to buy it because it's good.

It was important to me to find a label that wouldn't back out after a first single. Everyone's so used to hearing me with Hootie, they're going to be skeptical.

When I was in Pulp, I actively did more TV stuff because that was during the Great Britpop Wars, and it seemed important to prove that indie people could speak. That war doesn't exist anymore.

I hate that people have made the term SoundCloud rapper into a bad thing, because a lot of artists are underground and they don't have a way to put their music on. But to get that clout, to get that popularity, you might want to upload your music to SoundCloud - because how else is everybody going to hear it?

I never understood bands saying Nirvana had anything to do with derailing their career. Maybe those bands didn't have the goods.

I don't know why I keep saying this, and I don't know why I keep using their names... And I'm not dogging them. I'm not slandering them. I'm not saying they are bad musicians. But how can Taylor Swift or Justin Timberlake win for R&B and funk? They are pop singers.

YouTube was really good for building a kind of core, loyal fanbase. I didn't want to be a YouTube artist as such. I mean, there are people who are able to release albums and live off YouTube, but I felt - and not in an arrogant way - that I could be commercial and credible if I really put my mind to it.

I'm not a fan of anybody music who I feel like a sucka. I don't listen to you. They play you in the club, you can have the #1 jam, but if I know your character, how can I listen to your music?

People don't understand real musicians anymore. Jack White is great - he's the real thing - but he isn't having hits.

Bands that say they don't care about how their records sell are liars.

Since Bollywood is getting more corporate, it is getting difficult for the composer alone to take a decision unless you are a big name like Pritam or Vishal-Shekhar who can speak his heart out and say that 'This is the singer I want for this song.'

When people see that we're signed to Def Jam, the perception has changed.

It's hard for people to realize now, but my gosh, when I was in school, you could not name a group that was less cool than Kiss. Going in to school with a Kiss T-shirt, you were asking for ridicule. In '77, they were one of the biggest bands in the world, but by '80, there was a severe backlash.

I wouldn't want to end up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the 'Master of Hip-Hop Samples,' but you take what you can get.

I haven't talked to any young artists for a long time. But if we did sit down, I'd definitely tell them my viewpoint. If it was Lady Gaga, I'd say: 'You're talented, and you've obviously got the goods... what the hell are you doing with your image? How can anyone take you serious?'

I don't want to be a rapper that puts out, like, 600 songs a year.

I feel like too many people on the West Coast, they're too needy. They feel they need Snoop or Game. I never did any tracks with any West Coast artists. Not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't feel like that's what I had to do in order to get on. I just did music.

Look at someone like Ke$ha. I wouldn't say she's got the most rangy, incredible voice, but she's got a thing. She stands for something, and people are buying into that.

Musicians don't respect a lot of the stuff that is on TRL and a lot of musicians think that stuff on the radio is not good musically so when musicians say that they like us it obviously feels good.