LA Times Critic Asks Industry To BackOff of Teen Prodigy

[DudeAsInCool]

Jay Greenberg's talent is immense, but for the teen to grow, the music industry has to back off.

I try not to be shocked by the depths to which the music business can sink. And I fail.

Remember David Helfgott, the mentally unstable Australian pianist? His handlers literally pushed him onto the stage and suckered a large classically clueless audience into feeling deep sympathy for this poor, lovable, deer-caught-in-the-headlights soul. Typically, his New York record company and Hollywood, which lavishly embellished his story in "Shine," threw him away once they had made their quick bucks off him.

Now we have the attempt to treat an unquestionably talented and perhaps profoundly musical 15-year-old as the next Mozart. I hope Jay Greenberg becomes a composer we one day cherish. But there is simply no way to know. Did I say he was born in 1991?

Read more at the LA Times