MD introduced me to Vinnie (and Weckl, Bozzio, Tony, Elvin and many others I'd've never have heard of.) The first time I heard the name it was Bozzio who brought it up in his first interview: "Vinnie Colaiuta, who is now my favorite drummer, replaced me in Frank's band." When MD presents a drummer whose concept sounds interesting I usually check them out, i.e. buy something with that drummer on it. That's the way hobbyist periodicals are supposed to work, stir up enough interest to open wallets and purses. The music rags, be they MD or Rolling Stone, serve two masters: the record companies and advertising. Obviously they're a part of the soft white underbelly of that gnarly ball of wax we have come to know and love as the music industry. With this in mind when MD ran their first cover story on Vinnie I bought Joe's Garage and Nightwalker. But I didn't really see him till years later on the BRMS2 (which I read about in MD.)
It's common knowledge the industry is a cutthroat business and one hand feeds the other. In the beginning the Record Companies created radio stations and special interest magazines to help sell their products. All these offshoot bottom feeders serve their purpose, they get the machine up and running and the trickle down effect is often beneficial to the artist, i.e. endorsement ads will keep Rod Morgenstein's face in the public eye when he's between gigs.
Talents of the Colaiuta and Weckl caliber don't need no steenkin' magazines to get work. But it helps to have outlets like MD around when self-produced items like the Mathieson-Laboriel-Landau-Colaiuta double live CD need to be marketed to the right demographic. Once the word was out it was of course Vinnie's name that moved that product off the shelf because, like Peart is The Man in Rush, Vinnie is the major attraction of the band. Same holds true for Karizma and Jing Chi et al.
From the very beginning but starting about ten years ago MD really began slavishly kissing Vinnie's ass: one or two full page ads each issue that featured him in some context or another; deifying him in print; raving about his contribution to this or that CD. This hero worship was/is well-deserved in Vinnie's case. The last three or four years I haven't seen as much of it. And there hasn't been a Vinnie cover story for years. Why the trend has shifted can only be speculated upon. Did Vinnie bail on one too many MD Festivals they wanted to film? Did the hole left by Ron Spagnardi in the management team create a new mindset over there?
MD has played an undeniably large role in Vinnie's career. Until HOD I depended on MD for any updates on Vinnie. Nothing's changed here, but something's different there.
