If there's one thing I hate about the cultural stereotype of the Celts, it's alcoholism. I know this is ironic or even hypocritical considering half my album titles are about “drinking songs”. I've written more than my fair share of drinking songs to fit that theme too. Yet, as much as I use that term, it's the connotation that I am scared of.
FACT: When I first started playing more drinking songs, I started drinking more.
I drank, in part, because I was trying to understand the culture. Early marketing of the Pub Songs Podcast and the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast included toasts and comments on alcohol.
Thank God I met my wife. Thank God we had a child. Because of those things I cut my drinking back ten-fold. I still enjoy my occasional beer or whiskey. But I don't drink daily like I did a few years back.
It's only recently though that I start to worry about even using the term “drinking song” in my titles.
I love the title Sci Fi Drinking Songs. I've used it for show names at sci fi conventions for the past few years. It attracts a lot of new fans. People like to drink. People also like drinking songs. At cons, it's the best of both worlds.
Let me step aside a moment though and think about the name “drinking song”.
Years ago, I bought an album of Irish Drinking Songs. I was looking for new Irish songs to learn, and I found a plethora. I also found that most of the songs weren't about drinking. They were Irish songs. They were fun songs. They were good sing-alongs. That's when I realized that “Irish drinking songs” are just fun songs.
Well, that's the way I think of it in any case. So when I say Sci Fi Drinking Songs, I'm actually talking about fun Sci Fi songs that are great to sing-along to. But the connotation will attract more fans and sell more CDs. Will it also bring more alcoholics into the fold? Or worse, will it create more heavy drinkers?
People are responsible for their own actions, but as a marketer, will I be responsible for creating a negative environment and reinforcing a negative cultural stereotype by perpetuating a myth.
TRUTH: Not all Celts drink alcohol.
Yup. That's right. In fact, I've met a LOT of Celts who don't drink alcohol at all. Let's start with my friend and former music partner, Andrew McKee. When I first met him and throughout the years of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Andrew didn't touch a drop of alcohol. Not one drop!
He wasn't alone. I had a guy email me when the Bards first broke up asking if I'd make an album of non-alcohol drinking songs. I considered it. It's still in my idea notes, but it kind of broke my theme.
Of course, last year I broke the theme myself. I included “The Alcoholic” on my album Not Every Day Is St. Patrick's Day. I was hoping to hear more of a response about that track when I added it to the album. Not only is it a scary story, but it's based on Hugh Scanlen's experience with alcoholics suffering from PTSD. It also seems to run parallel to the drunken Irish experience.
Again, I know each person is responsible for their own actions. But I also know as a marketer that we can influence in much the same manner that I influenced myself to drink more.
What does the term “drinking songs” make you think of?
Have you started drinking more since you started listening to my albums?
The bigger question of whether I keep the album title or not is up to me.
