It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Mostly teenagers, guys in their early 20s and older guys like Randall who like heavy rock and metal with shredding guitar solos.
You misunderstand me. It's not that I can't be bothered to verify that he's top of the Amazon blues chart. I believe you. Although you're right that I can't be bothered and will continue to not bother.
The mystery - to me - is who's buying it. As I said, I've never heard or seen any reference to him outside of this forum or YouTube. I get endless emails from Amazon listing "rock and metal new releases" or "blues and rock bestsellers" and there's never been any mention of Rob Chapman or Dorje. No posters, no popup ads, no press mentions, no interviews, no word of mouth, no nothing. Maybe I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I’m with you on bluesy stuff being boring, for me it’s where guitarists go when they think they need to grow up and play unimaginative music.
I dont always need to be challenged by music but the mainstream bluesy rock stuff is just not exciting, doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a hat, it’s still shit.
In that case, I wonder if you're underestimating the power of YouTube? These days, there doesn't need to be any mention outside of YouTube (well, other than the usual social media outlets - particularly Facebook and Instagram) for an artist to be successful.
Seems surprising given the investment in production that it isn't slicker in that regard (to me anyway)
I think with his strong and growing Youtube presence the Americans will lap this up in droves and he'll do well from guitar sales over there. There's not many Youtuber guitar reviewers that are also putting out commercial recordings, videos, tours and manufacture thier own guitars in the US with a strong Youtube following along so he's kind of breaking new ground from a marketing perspective.
Regardless of our view of the quality of songs and singing I reckon he's in a unique place commercially. With the traditional 'record company' contract model looking jaded, unappealing and unnessesary to many bands, social media self promotion and self production is much more viable.
Not unlike the post punk New Wave and beyond indie scene back in the day.
Also, Rob Chapman isn't afraid to change up and drop things if they don't work, this Clockwork Wolf thing was formerly The Rob Chapman Band with different members but that died quickly for some reason, so he'll move quickly and keep reinventing as the fickle tastes of the Youtube masses change. He's also announced several initiatives in the past that have never materialised to date, such as a range of pedals. I thougt he had a Mythos signature model coming out as well.
With nearly 700,000 Youtube subscribers he doesn't really need our armchair critique to be successful. If just 10% of those subscribers buy his stuff he'll be laughing.
You'll notice that he doesn't actually release videos on his channel that often either any more. Love or hate his music...he's put the graft in over the last 15 years, and basically he's living the life that most musicians want. That deserves a certain amount of respect, I think.
There’s this thing he often does at the start of a video where he plays this long bent note and unbends it while doing a full “blues face” - it makes my skin crawl. I’d never have thought that it was possible to pack a fathomless lack of musical taste and decency into the act of unbending a note but somehow he has honed this technique to a rarefied level.
Good on him for his various business projects though - I wouldn’t touch his boggin’ guitars with a bargepole but it’s no mean feat to build a series of successful businesses and he’s made jobs for a bunch of people along the way.