Why Joni Mitchell tried to quit the music business
Joni Mitchell recently announced her return to the music industry, which is much welcomed, and looked impossible following her life-threatening stroke in 2015. Ultimately, the decision to leave the business was taken out of her hands, but Mitchell had previously attempted to retire.
In 2002, Mitchell’s career had arrived at a hinterland, and she was unhappy with her position in the industry. The singer felt pressured to bow to the demands of her record label and believed the business had sold its soul in the name of corporate greed. It had dramatically changed since the beginning of her career. Interestingly, Mitchell resented it from the start, and she finally decided that making music was no longer worth the hassle.
Mitchell had felt completely disconnected and disenfranchised from the contemporary scene. 2002’s Travelogue was supposed to be her retirement album, but the singer-songwriter couldn’t stay away and released another record five years later.
At the time, Mitchell was serious about her retirement, and in an interview with W Magazine, Mitchell insisted Travelogue would be her last. She referred to the music industry as a “corrupt cesspool” and added: “I’m quitting because the business made itself so repugnant to me. Record companies are not looking for talent. They’re looking for a look and a willingness to cooperate.”
Meanwhile, she told Rolling Stone during the same press run: “I hope it all goes down the crapper. It’s top-heavy, it’s wasteful. It’s an insane business. Now, this is all calculated music. It’s calculated for sales, it’s sonically calculated, it’s rudely calculated. I’m ashamed to be a part of the music business. You know, I just think it’s a cesspool.”
“I’ve been screwed from the beginning,” she recalled. “There wasn’t any bidding war for me in the beginning. It was like I was like Rachmaninoff, a late romantic or something – what I was doing was already over, you know. Nobody wanted to really take a chance on me, so the deal that I got was just atrocious. I mean, it was like slave labor, really – no points, no budget.”
Reflecting upon Mitchell’s comments 20 years later provides food for thought, considering the state of the music industry. In 2002, it was still viable for musicians to make a healthy income through record sales alone, and Mitchell was fortunate enough to break through when she was paid fairly for her art. For better or worse, artists now have no choice but to be calculated in their approach to creativity, and if they ignore the business side of things, there’s a strong chance their work won’t be heard.
