In an era where technology has made sharing music with the world easier than ever, Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch has highlighted a significant challenge for young musicians: the overwhelming saturation of talent in the industry. It’s like we are drowning in talent, so to speak.
In a conversation with the Everblack Podcast, Welch both praised the abilities of today’s youth and pointed to the obstacles they face, noting that some of the most gifted voices may never reach the wider world: “It’s crazy, man, it’s really crazy,” Welch remarked (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “These kids are wired differently than us, and they’re… like, you see all the singers — there are people that have a voice like Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, that nobody will ever know.”
The issue, according to Welch, isn’t the lack of opportunity but the sheer number of exceptionally talented individuals vying for attention in an already crowded space.
He continued, “But they’re so wired. Their generation is so wired on a mass scale, so brilliantly. There are too many of them to… you know, you see The Voice or American Idol here, all that stuff? There’s just so many singers, and they’re so good, and sometimes we’ll never hear about them, because there’s too many of them.”
This phenomenon reflects a double-edged sword: while technology has democratized access to platforms, it has also made the process of breaking through more competitive. The road to recognition is no longer just about raw talent but also about navigating a noisy, crowded digital landscape.
Yet Welch offers a refreshing perspective on what it means to succeed in music. Not everyone, he emphasized, needs to achieve global fame for their gifts to have value.
“It’s like talent overflowing. And I guess you just gotta figure out what you want to do with it, because, not always will you be rich and famous from it. Maybe it’s for your local community. Maybe it’s for your church, maybe it’s for your family. I don’t know, but you could still use your gift and not be on a mass scale.”
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