I don’t go anywhere where I don’t know anybody anymore.
This was a feature of growing up. Especially college. You walked in alone and you had to find your way, you talked to this person and that, trying to find your group. Maybe it’s different at the state school where people go home on weekends, but if you’re in the hinterlands at a private institution, you’re all thrown in together, with none of the status markers of regular society to divide you, you all were accepted, you’re all equal, now you’ve got to find your way.
But it’s not only college, it’s kindergarten, maybe high school, but especially summer camp. You start off sans status, all you’ve got is your personality, your ability to integrate. On your mark, get set, GO!
I’m only now experiencing the cost of lockdown. I got too isolated for too long. And so much that used to be out is now in. Even medical appointments, they’re virtual. And you rarely have to talk to anybody on the phone, texting systems are incredible, you can make and break appointments, and I appreciate that, but raw socialization, it’s fallen by the wayside.
I was in the swing of things prior to March 2020. I was scheduled to go away ten days later. It was an endless merry-go-round, from here to there to there, I didn’t think twice, I counted my airline miles to find out how far I was from the next level of status, I was in the groove. But it’s different now.
There are fewer events. A lot have not picked up again. And I got older, which changes your perspective and others’ perception of you.
Which is all to say I was anxious about coming to Stream. Because of the challenge of navigating the people, the relationships. I know from the past that eventually you find your place, you fit in, but my social anxiety coupled with lockdown… Let me just say it’s easier to stay home. And easier to say no to that which you’ve done again and again. I mean how many times can you see ____________ again. I want new and different experiences, but mostly they come via streaming television.
WPP is the world’s largest advertising company. “WPP” stands for “Wire and Plastic Products,” it’s just a shell upon which Martin Sorrell built the empire. Sorrell was exiled in a contretemps I’ll leave to your own research, and now Mark Read is the CEO. And at Stream the CEO is accessible, and I love talking to the top dog, to gain information, to see what makes them tick.
So Stream is held multiple places over the year. It’s a free conference of WPP employees and affiliates and clients and tech leaders and… Well, me!
Fewer than two hundred people, the sessions are created by the attendees. There’s a big board, anyone can start a group. So it’s not the usual topics. And you banter and try to get to the truth.
And there are dinners and fun and…
I just arrived today and I’ve already had my most stimulating conversation of the year. How does creativity interface with AI? Not from the perspective that the sky is falling, but the role of each. And how do you make the financial winners more creative and vice versa. We live in a world where money is everything, but the world runs on culture, which gets pooh-poohed. It’s all about STEM, but how often do you go to dinner and discuss coding?
My anxiety has not completely evaporated. Then again, based on past Stream conferences it will only be a matter of time before I meet more people more intimately. And, once again, the level of discussion is higher than I’m used to in the music business. I already feel the excitement of analysis. It’s fun to be where everybody is equal, where the ideas trump the totems.
If this were the old days you’d know who I was talking about.
I’m reading the new Kristin Hannah book “The Women.” I loved 2018’s “The Great Alone,” unfortunately the sequel, “The Four Winds,” is not as good, but that didn’t put me off reading “The Women.” I’m hooked on the plot, but this is not literary fiction, this is a disappointment, despite being a huge best seller, furthermore one of the main characters, the Black nurse Barb, is not fleshed out. However, it is interesting to read a book set in the Vietnam era, Hollywood seemingly having exhausted the topic.
But I was getting lightheaded, needing sustenance, so I put it down and…
Picked up my phone. I wanted to know if there was any new news. You know, if the world had blown up. But when I checked the major outlets and saw this was not the case I devolved to Apple News+, an endless scroll of sticky headlines usually with very little nutrition once you click through, but a headline in the Sunday “Times” caught my eye. The LONDON “Times,” not the NEW YORK “Times.”
And here’s where I contradict myself. In more ways than one. I just told you how worthless the stories on Apple News+ are but now I’m going to tell you you need to subscribe, you HAVE TO subscribe, it’s only ten bucks a month and it’s the best news investment you’ll make. However, best to ignore the endless scroll and just read the publications you choose, which include a cornucopia of titles, from “The Washington Post” to “The Wall Street Journal,” never mind “The New Yorker” and “The Atlantic.” We live in the information age now more than ever before, and he or she with the most information wins. That’s why your smartphone is so valuable, it’s your link to information. Yes, the world runs on reading and if you don’t, you’re out of the loop. And sure, you can read your biased blogs, but if you don’t read the more mainstream publications you don’t have your finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist.
The other contradiction is that I found CMAT via publicity, hype, a newspaper story after I told you publicity was worthless. Then again, CMAT has gotten a smattering of publicity in the United States but it doesn’t seem to have made a dent, unless you’re an information junkie like me you wouldn’t know that CMAT was nominated for International Artist of the Year at the Brits, the English music awards that have some of the gravitas the Grammys lack, if for no other reason than there are many fewer categories.
Actually, if you search the news you’ll also find out that CMAT has gotten accolades and publicity in the U.K., as a matter of fact:
“It (CMAT’s debut) was named the second best album of 2023 by the Observer and earned her a place on the BBC Sound of 2024 list, as well as the Brit nomination.”
And:
“The two LPs have already made her a superstar in Ireland, both going to number one, with the debut winning the Choice Music Prize for Irish album of the year.”
BBC: https://t.ly/bv16v
And she’s been bullied to boot!
You’d think she’d have an impact in the U.S., but unless you work for her, you’re probably clueless, like me.
But this article in the “Times” said CMAT was beloved by Elton John and Robbie Williams, the headline said:
“CMAT, the Irish country star loved by Elton John and Robbie Williams Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson talks to Blanca Schofield about grappling with trolls, acting with Paul Mescal and baring (nearly) all at the Brits”
Unfortunately, unless you pay for a subscription to the “Times,” which not many U.S. citizens do, certainly not lefties, you can’t read this article. But if you have a subscription to Apple News+ you can: https://t.ly/wezxg (And sometimes you can read articles in the feed for free, click the link, it might work for you.) Information is very expensive, if you don’t pay you will end up ignorant. Sorry to insult you, but this is the truth.
But I read the article after clicking through to Spotify. Elton and Robbie Williams both like this singer, I’ve got to check her out.
And I was stunned. Her music was positively palatable. I immediately got it, didn’t want to turn it off, let it play through.
But I’m not going to provide a link, because I don’t want the hatred.
Yes, I’m on react. But the world is black and white, and people either agree with you or they don’t, and they respond accordingly, especially if they don’t.
I was caught completely off guard. Listening to CMAT was like listening to Elton himself, when you dropped the needle initially. You didn’t have to hear the songs many times to get them, you got them upon initial play and they only grew upon you.
Not that CMAT sounds like Elton. I’d put her closer to Fleetwood Mac. Or even the sixties.
But CMAT does not sound like she’s competing in the rap wars. She doesn’t sound like a Disney star with a thin voice making vapid pop. She sounds like an artist. Not someone prepubescent, but 28.
And I’m going through the songs, looking for a clunker, and I can’t find one. Research tells me there’s a new single, “Aw, Shoot!,” and that was good too. Too often you like one track, but not the rest, but that is not the case with CMAT.
I get it, we no longer live in a monoculture. Therefore you don’t have to listen to anything you don’t like, and there’s a solid chance you won’t like CMAT. But I’d posit that more people would like the music of CMAT than many of the tunes in the U.S. Spotify Top 50, her music has melody and a genuine quality oftentimes lacking in today’s “hit” music. It’s made for the mood, not the money.
Not that you’ll hear it on radio. The terrestrial outlets in the U.S. aren’t spinning it. And I didn’t see it on a plethora of Spotify playlists.
So nothing is happening. Which stuns me. Here’s an act that a great swath of the public would resonate with if they only heard it. But they’re not.
First of all, kudos for being one of the few people left in our business willing to have an opinion! It’s interesting that we saw the Kate Hudson performance on the Howard Stern show. Although I maintain he is still the best to ever sit behind a radio mic, now that he has essentially become accepted as a mainstream celebrity, he has gone from the ultimate example of not giving a sh*t, to often kissing the ass of his fellow celebrity club members. Now to Kate Husdon, the rock star. As an actress, she was good in Almost Famous which I attribute largely to her being quite young and Cameron Crowe doing an excellent job. But because I travel a lot, and refuse to watch good movies on crappy airplane screens, I have had the dubious pleasure of watching some of “Bride Wars” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. It would be hard to be more annoying than she was in those films. And now she has to bring that same mediocre acting talent to music. (I can only assume that Chris Robinson feels he dodged a bullet). So for people who are exclaiming that she can sing … yes, perhaps compared to someone who is tone deaf. I have spent a career coaching and producing young singers. There is a real giveaway as to who is imitating a performance, and who is the real thing. Undeveloped singers have what I call “vocal ticks”, little mannerisms they think sound cool but they overuse because they don’t really know what they are doing. Kate Hudson dips the pitch at the end of EVER SINGLE NOTE! Once you realize this, you can’t unhear it. Listen to a great singer like Bonnie Raitt, sometimes when it is emotionally effective, she will dip a note, but it has impact because she only does it sometimes! It is the same thing with all the ridiculous flourishes & melismas you hear on American Idol … did Aretha or Stevie do it, yes, when it counted, not constantly. That is certainly not my only complaint with the superfluous new music from yet another famous person … but it is a start.Thanks again for being willing to call this trifle out.
Steve Postell
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You have truly turned into the old man yelling, “Get off my lawn!” Why you needed to do a hatchet job on this woman’s work is beyond me. The world you live in is one I no longer want to be a part of. Wading through your narcissistic pablum daily is a chore rather than an informative read. Please insert Lefsetz for Hudson in the sentence you wrote,“I mean who gives a crap what Hudson has to say.”
Please take me off your list.
Terry Lowe
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She has 18 million followers on instagram alone. You are getting angrier by the day. Your rants are all over the place. You keep saying nobody cares and you are right Bob nobody cares. Light one up, have a drink or get a prescription for something.
Ron Maiorino
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Well at least she didn’t try to make a movie and a documentary with it.
Brian Martin
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On celebrities or actors doing albums I’d say the end year was 2010.
I signed Hugh Laurie to Warners when I ran Warner Music Entertainment. Hugh is a blues pianist and vocalist and he can really play!
We made a beautiful New Orleans inspired album “Let Them Talk” with Joe Henry, a PBS “Great Performances” special and sold close to 2m copies globally (across that album and the follow up).
But it was a different time.
TV still sold albums. Retail still sold albums.
It was the year YouTube started to really make traction with Spotify hard on its heels. Times were changing.
Many, many labels copied what we’d done with Hugh in subsequent years and almost without exception they failed.
Now I’m indie and running a label doing the modern equivalent. We sign artists with fan bases growing fast on socials. It’s the same thing as I did at WMG, but re-cut for the 2020s. Go where the audience is and amplify.
We do 200m streams a month and 90% of our signings are profitable.
#movewiththetimes
Love your work!
Conrad Withey
CEO
FRTYFVE.com
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Benson Boone and Zach Bryan are two recent acts that come to mind that built completely from the ground up, created huge followings, and didn’t have leading hit singles … not saying that’s par for the course these days, but there are a few cases here and there.
Michael Pukownik
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Wait, did you just call her an idiot? Seems a bit harsh, no? Maybe I missed context down the page. I stopped reading right there. Do better, Bob.
Tim Fricke
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YEP AGREE re Kate Hudson.
Holly Knight
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Marvelous!!!!
Sent from Peter Noone
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I like listening to Kate speak. She has that very likable, upbeat quality to her personality. She sounds fun. Like her mom. And her voice was surprisingly good. That girl can really sing.
Howard tried to sound enthusiastic, but her songwriting was nothing. And her cover of Voices Carry was karaoke.
Hope she’s having fun. On to the next.
Paul Gigante
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I love, admire, and respect Howard Stern. The non-stop classic rock worship and drum beat – hilarious coming from any boomer – is over the top. “Billy Corgan has one of the best voices in music.” He said that in a serious manner! And more documentaries about sidemen nobody knows please!
Rob Warden
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Her music has merit. It’s her thing. She told Howard Stern it’s been her thing her whole life but the family machine channeled her into a career that bestowed her a massive following. I see the Black Crowes and Stevie Nicks in her presentation. She’s got a slamming drummer, knows show biz, has 18 million followers on instagram, 260 thousand follows on Spotify. And now Bob Lefsetz bringing her to a whole new audience. All to help feed her family. She’s doing what she can. I respect that.
Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker
P.S. I can hear Taylor Swift saying ‘Kate – this could be the best thing for your career!’
🙂
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You’re right about one thing, we’re all looking for artistry. But are you kidding me? Actors are two dimensional?? Like you have any idea how difficult it is to create a character from the text on the page and bring it to life and make people feel something? Sometimes your thoughts are insightful, and sometimes your head is shoved so far up your own ass its laughable. Please quote me and include me in your ‘mailbag’.
Benjy Dobrin
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Well…you just gave her a bump. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Billy Chapin
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Crickets. Right up there with a new Eric Estrada album.
John Brodey
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I haven’t even read your whole post below, but I happened to be up the other night and Kate was on The Tonight Show. Probably like you, my expectations were *very* low, but I was pretty taken aback at her vocal talent. She nailed it! I was somewhat shocked.
I can’t imagine who her audience would be, but it definitely wasn’t the lame performance I was expecting.
Good for her…
John Van Nest
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The Kate Hudson thing is the epitome of modern day, good ol’ USA. Her money and celebrity let her cut to the front of the line. So boring, but round and round we go.
I’ve run a record label (Royal Potato Family) for 15 years. I’ve put out countless amazing, supremely inspired, enduring records. I’ve never looked at all the indicators. I’ve always signed artists and released records by my gut, what I hear, how it makes me feel and my belief that it can bring something sustinent to others. But aside from a small loyal audience, it’s impossible to get any attention or traction – even our distributor doesn’t care. It’s only about numbers and $$. Nobody even listens – people in fancy offices, making lots of money and all they can say is get a TikTok page, get more likes on social media. I have to always be working four or five other jobs – PR, management, consulting, etc. to keep the dream alive. Everyday, wake up, roll the stone back up hill.
I’m sure most people would respond by saying I suck, my artists suck, play the game better, stop whining. Release something that masses want and the masses will come. Fair enough. I get it. We’re not entitled to anything. Live by the sword, die by the sword. We’ll keep pushing. That small community of people who care will be enough. There are some brilliant artists, with pure artistic expression, who still break through. But it’s getting tougher everyday. I can’t help but think collectively we’d be doing a little better if quality mattered as much as the fastest path to money. I’m not sure how much longer those of us who embrace that notion can financially sustain without more reach. Never mind the mental health aspect. Speaking for myself, I’ll keep going. Maybe I completely burn out and have to take a job as a barista. At least I went for it.
I’m not even sure what point I’m trying to make anymore other than there are still some of us out here for whom artists who’ve toiled over their craft, write songs that speak to our human condition, get in a room together and create music that vibrates with both the trials and beauty of life, is everything. We put on records and we feel better for 22 minutes. It makes the world a richer, more vibrant place and is a bridge for soulful people with open hearts in their day to day lives.
This leads me back to Kate Hudson. She has every right to make a record and put her artistic vision into the world. But it’s the access, the dumb f*cking corporate hacks who care about nothing but money and celebrity, who amplify her at the expense of those way more compelling who should be getting that opportunity. Again, I get it. It’s the way of the world, nothing my bitching is gonna do to change it. But it’s heartbreaking.
Listen to this Chris Kasper record we put out today. If it was 1973, it might stand a chance.
Kevin Calabro
Royal Potato Family
PS – I was Chris Robinson’s publicist for five years.
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I don’t know Bob. I think you might have missed the boat here. I stumbled across Kate’s performance on Howard’s show on social media and heard an amazing performance of one of my favorite songs from the 80’s. I thought she took on a tough song to sing live and absolutely owned it! Moreover, she seemed to be really enjoying the moment and obviously loves to sing. So she’s happy, and I’m happy to have heard it. Isn’t that how music is supposed to work? What’s wrong with that??
Neil Barry
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You’re burying the lead here. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in Kate Hudson…but Howard putting her on?? Baba-boring. (Love Howard still but…oof).
Kevin Berntson
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I’ve got no time for a Kate Hudson album..I’m too busy listening to Rita Wilson deep cuts..The box set of demos is out, on colored vinyl! SO glad I bought that Dolby Atmos setup!
Celebrities get to skip the line at Disneyland..They also get good tables at restaurants, and when you’re famous you can just walk up and grab em’ by the pussy..
And they get some oxygen for their vanity projects..Music, children’s books, cook books, charities, and other such claptrap..It counts as content on the daytime TV talk circuit..Are there even any housewives/stay at home moms that watch network/syndicated TV? Maybe some rest home residents? Do they consume new music?
I’d conjecture that the audience for a Kate Hudson album overlaps with the people who listen to Dr. Phil’s WIFE’S podcast..(Not making that sh*t up!) (Of course, rock stars hawking their paintings isn’t “cringe”.)
I can’t believe Stern allowed this..His musical guests have always been top-notch.. Someone called in their last favor.. Hudson’s exes (Chris Robinson, Matt Bellamy) wisely refuse to indulge their wife in her fantasy..I’d have been LIVID seeing a Muse featuring Kate Hudson video!
Some stars WERE so hot, a single WAS a way to capitalize..David Soul, Jack Wagner, Patrick Swayze, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy,etc..But Jeff Bridges, Juliet Lewis, Kevin Bacon, Keanu, Steven Segal, Kevin Costner, Billy Bob Thornton,etc., etc.? Of course, they can play the fly-over circuit, and people will come, just to say they saw a celebrity..
The Ryan Gosling movie? I had to look it up You can’t open a summer with a non sequel/superhero flick! Warner Bros lost $200 million on the “Suicide Squad” video game..The manosphere is claiming it was “too woke”..
The #1 Repugnantc*nt talking point, from Kelly Ann Conway to Joe Facebook to Kid Rock is now, “Well Trump didn’t start any NEW wars.” To be blurted out, when asked “tough” questions..
Huh? He continued the war he RAN on stopping..It’s like a fireman who brags about not starting any NEW fires..(While failing to put out the one he was hired to.) THAT’S their silver bullet? They’re peacenicks now?
What’s next? The Biden Tornado Cabal? “I caint recall Trump having sew mini tornadys! And why come we never sea nary nun of them twisters in the blew states?”
P.S. Letterman and Petty laughing about Jennifer Love Hewitt’s tour, on national TV was hilarious! She was still in the green room!
