Rick Beato INSIDE, Top Gun TUESDAY!

Well... if you missed the live recording with Rick Beato, you missed an absolute masterclass from a legend. It truly is one of the most useful episodes we've ever recorded, and Rick's accessible wisdom is indispensable for anyone who makes or simply appreciates art. Coming up we've got a debate-to-the-death over whether the film Top Gun is great or garbage, and it's a lot less frivolous than it sounds. Kevin's position is that the world would be better off without it; Matt thinks it's a classic. Two will enter, one will leave. It's the TCU ThunderDome. On to Rick...

Rick Beato is ‘Everything Music’ and more. He’s played, taught, and produced music for over four decades, and his unique expertise in analyzing songs and the people who play them has resulted in an extremely popular YouTube channel. But how do you get to the point where you casually and appropriately mention someone like Steve Vai?

Rick explains his massive acquisition of stems from 20 years ago, and it turned out to be a fortuitous trade. He also gets songs from the actual source, because why not just ask?

A little secret creeps out about the best way to prepare for interviews and videos… and it’s simply spending a lifetime thinking about it already. When Rick talks to a musician, he’s already been thinking about the conversation for years – and maybe even decades. One of his early musical passions was grunge, and now that he’s had over 30 years to ruminate on its songs and its artists, he recognizes it as a unique combination of experiences and people. Kevin thinks this means the notion of the ‘rock star’ is unlikely to happen again, and he’s probably right.

Something weird is happening with the kids, though. They just aren’t listening to music. Rick says they’re playing video games, but they’re not sitting down and dedicating time to just listening to songs. It’s a tremendous societal shift that no one else is talking about, and there are serious implications for music and the other creative arts. Combine that with an algorithm-driven, carefully-curated experience and both listening patterns and discovery are completely different than in the past – and not in a good way.

There really is something about life experience, and especially a bit of hardship, driving good art, whether it’s songs or movies. It’s not the suffering of a tortured artist, it’s just… life, and that’s changing. You also can’t fake it. It helps to grow up in an area that’s never sunny, but the three of us are biased.

Rick answers questions about advice to a 20-something artist – and it’s AMAZING advice – along with whether perfect pitch is a blessing or curse, new music from Jack White and Steve Vai, the past and present of prog rock, and what’s next for music as a whole.

Thanks to the many people who came out for the live recording, and a special thanks to the Patrons who make this show happen each and every week. You really are the best. And thanks, of course, to Rick, who brought a lifetime of expertise to a 90-minute show and absolutely blew us away with one of our best episodes ever.