Cult musician Scott Miller dies at 53
The music community worldwide suffered a great loss upon the passing of prolific musician and songwriter Scott Miller on April 15. He was 53.Miller is best recognized as the frontman for 80s power-pop group Game Theory, which was frequently spun on college radio throughout the decade. The group's disbandment in 1989 paved way for Miller's work in The Loud Family, another successful venture among "college rock" enthusiasts through its break-up in 2006. But, both projects did not receive the popular acclaim fans expected from Miller's intricate, but still accessible, musicianship and songwriting. Thus, Miller represents a core dilemma of the college and independent music scenes, where a musician's artistry and passion alone may bring overwhelmingly positive critical response and a devoted fanbase without the merited, matching level of commercial success.Though, this cult status, among Miller's overall humbleness, allowed for an incredible level of intimacy between Miller and his fans, through his music and other means, akin to his long-running Q&A forum "Ask Scott."A well-read man of insight and appreciation for all forms of art from music to literature, Miller often paid homage to not only his own influences (such as Vladamir Nobokov, whose novel Lolita inspired the namesake for Game Theory's Lolita Nation), but to the works he thought would have a major impact on others. His critical analysis of the pop art-focused environment around him resulted in his authorship of the book Music: What Happened?, in which he reviews songs released each year between 1957 and 2009 (with later editions including 2010 and 2011).Before his passing, Miller planned to reunite with Game Theory to record a new album this Summer, Supercalifragile, which would have been the band's first collection of new material since 1988's Two Steps From the Middle Ages. However, according to a post by Loud Family webmaster Sue Trowbridge on loudfamily.com, Game Theory's records are available for free download here (via Dropbox) to "prevent people from trying to capitalize by selling these long out of print albums for lots of money."You can read the official announcement of Miller's passing and learn more about his legacy at www.loudfamily.com.
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