So you can’t understand it. You think it’s awful drivel.

You’re entitled to your opinion, but can you step back, put on your business hat and see why it’s a hit?

NO!

It’s trash and that’s all there is to say about it.

Now in truth I got much more positive feedback than negative feedback about “Move.” But it is this definitive opinion that something that is popular, that is embraced by the masses can’t be good that is contributing to the division in our world, both culturally and politically. I mean if you can’t understand the viewpoint of the other side, irrelevant of whether you agree with it…

The younger generation looks at music differently. They either like it and listen to it or they don’t like it and don’t listen to it. It’s a binary world. They don’t feel a need to excoriate those who like something different.

This oldster thinking is a relic of the twentieth century, when we lived in a smaller, much more comprehensible world, when there were guys in leather jackets and black jeans who’d never been laid telling us what was good and bad. Now no one listens to those people. Criticism in general has faltered, because no one is trustworthy and you really want to listen to the opinion of someone who knows your tastes, as opposed to someone who laughs at it.

If you can’t understand why “Move” is such a successful track…

That means you don’t understand the music business. Which is fine, but I’ve got so many writers telling me that “Move” sucks and THEIR track is much better!

Well, the barrier to entry is essentially zero, why doesn’t your cut have 500+ million streams on Spotify?

Oh, that’s right, the game is RIGGED!

We hear excuses like this across society. If you’re not winning, the game is stacked against you. And in some cases it is, but in most the purveyors are not that talented, their complaints have more substance than their music, and they spend the majority of their time complaining as opposed to making music.

There are still Democrats who can’t understand why Trump won. They believe everybody who voted for Trump is a tool. Now some of them are, but a lot of them are not. A lot of them felt bamboozled by the Democratic Party which kept telling us Biden was capable and then foisted the undesirable Harris upon us. Hell, even Amy Klobuchar went on record this morning that there should have been a Democratic primary.

BUT NO!

It’s orthodoxy. If you voted for Trump you hate women and the rule of law and should be ignored. When in truth the border was overrun and economics were not good.

Now don’t argue with the points, because that’s not my point. The question is can you UNDERSTAND what the other side is thinking, can you weigh it and separate the wheat from the chaff?

No, everybody who voted for Trump is a loser who should not be given the time of day!

And the funny thing is so many people who voted for Trump know that you feel this way about them and this is one of the reasons they voted for Trump!

Why do you so definitively have to hate on “Move”? In truth, no one cares about your opinion, listen or don’t, it’s your prerogative. The old school gatekeepers are gone, the public is the gatekeeper today, the game is wide open.

And unlike in politics, the choice is not binary. It’s not either or. You can listen to this and that. And if you like more than one thing it increases overall consumption of music, and…

This is what we’re seeing across the board. Acts that can sell out stadiums that are not universally liked. The press doesn’t acknowledge this, it would have you believe today’s big musical acts are icons, when they have less impact overall than all the superstars of the recorded music era and…

If you’re making a big deal about what you hate…

I’m just trying to edify you here. A song you may not have known has more streams than the songs the press is telling you are hits. Why is this? How did this happen? When you just say “Move” sucks you’re completely missing the point.

But that’s the modern day world, where everybody gets a voice on the internet, and everybody is frustrated that someone has more of a footprint/impact/money than they do.

That’s the main complaint… Someone else is successful and you’re not.

Maybe you’ve got something, a spark, a talent, but understanding the landscape might help you turn it into a success.

However, all we hear is social media is bad, Spotify doesn’t pay enough and while we’re at it, ticket prices are too high! When social media breaks records, Spotify is the #1 payer in music and ticket prices are only high because people are willing to pay them. 

Sure, you can stay home, but more interesting is trying to determine what is going on, why is this selling and this is not.

If you want to be successful in any endeavor today, you must hook the audience. After you’ve made it you can explore and test limits, but a hit is what allows you to do this. Sans hit, no one wants your drivel.

And a hit is just something that people can’t get enough of. Oftentimes it can’t be quantified. Hell, do you see Alice in Chains’ “Rooster” in all kinds of all-time charts? No, but if you’ve ever listened to it, it’s got this magic…

I get it. You’re frustrated. You think you know better. But the only way you can succeed in today’s world is to jump in, become part of the morass as opposed to sitting on the sidelines.

“Rolling Stone” is irrelevant. Even Pitchfork means little. All the old arbiters have been torn down. And this makes the scene incomprehensible, you don’t know what to listen to or watch, but it allows everything to have a chance, to begin from the same starting line.

You think you know better. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret. NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK!

And the sooner you accept this, the more successful you will be.

Sure, some people care what some people have to say, but you have to EARN your attention, and it happens slower than it did in the pre-internet era, but it happens.

It’s a lot of work. And there is great stuff out there. We’re all looking for it. I can understand why the Kendrick Lamar/Drake bitchfest was successful, but that does not mean I want to listen to the tracks. Hell, even Questlove said it was the end of hip-hop.

But the truth is people want something to believe in, something to defend, something to live for. Will they live for you?

Possibly, but you’ve got to catch fire first. That’s the primary skill of the social media influencers, their train-wreck value. But they gain your attention in very innovative ways.

You think if you shout loud enough everybody will listen. But we live in the age of cacophony, not everybody has an audience, most people’s voices are ignored. How do you get people’s attention?

That’s job #1.

And the best way to do this is to understand the game. Why certain things are successful and certain things are not.

But people would rather say the baseball player with fifty home runs a season sucks. Do you think that opinion is gaining any traction?

Maybe on talk radio, which specializes in conflict, but…

If anyone gains traction and maintains it today, ask yourself why.

It’ll help you.

It’s a one listen smash.

I was reading this article about the resurgence of dance music in the “New York Times” (did it ever really go away?) and I came across these words:

“Still, dance is eclipsing the pop it has used to infiltrate the mainstream. ‘Move,’ a track released last year by Adam Port, one of the members of the German label Keinemusik, has over 542 million Spotify streams — more than any one song from releases by Charli XCX, Katy Perry or FKA twigs.”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/arts/music/dance-music-boom-nightlife.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.4oXx.aKEckafsdUrI&smid=url-share

Now wait a second, isn’t Charli XCX one of the biggest acts in the world? Didn’t she just headline Coachella? Isn’t her name splashed across the mainstream media ad infinitum, saying we should pay attention even if we don’t care and never will? Wasn’t a year ago the beginning of Brat Summer? Didn’t people call Kamala Harris BRAT?

Maybe that’s one of the reasons she lost. Because most people had no idea what Brat was/meant.

So of course I’ve got to pull up “Move.” And a lot of dance music is…just that, made to dance, not much more. It fades into the woodwork. I mean if you’re high at the gig it’s fun, but for the casual listener…

So I go over to Spotify to check the numbers and damn if the article isn’t right.

And as I’m thinking as to why this should be…

I get hooked on the track.

At first I’m analyzing this as…you know, you put the song on an endless loop because you’re dancing to it and that’s why it’s got so many streams, and this is true, but there’s something more about “Move,” it’s infectious.

Not that there’s much there… I mean the lyrics are…the kind of English lyrics you think would be written by Germans:

“Girl, I really like the way you move”

https://genius.com/Adam-port-stryv-keinemusik-orso-duo-and-malachiii-move-lyrics

Then again so many of the classic rock tracks of yore…the lyrics were not much deeper, then again, it was all about the RIFF!

And that’s what makes “Move” so appealing, it might not be played on a guitar, but the repeated “riff” has you nodding your head just like to a hard rock/metal song of yore. But this sounds modern, much more so than the Active Rock dreck purveyed by the tattooed leather-clad laughable men prowling the stages. (Wouldn’t it be more revolutionary to NOT get tattoos at this point? To leave the leather aside?)

And unlike Active Rock, and unlike so much hip-hop, so much of what we’re told is for everyone, “Move” truly appeals to everyone. It’s primal. It’s the beat. Not that I expect all the dyed-in-the-wool rockers to admit this.

And whereas today’s country music is the rock music of the seventies, “Move” is positively modern, it sounds like today, not like yesterday.

And it’s on the German Keinemusik label as opposed to one of the three majors. All the focus is on the majors, but all the action is with the indies (which the majors sometimes distribute). You don’t need much to start, it’s not like you need the cash of yore, you can make the music on the cheap (even though the oldsters will protest you can’t get something good this way).

“Move” is not belabored. And unlike the “hits” it’s not wall to wall sound, there’s room to breathe in the track.

Meanwhile, everybody doing it the same way keeps bitching about Spotify payments. Believe me, Adam Port made bank on “Move.”

Not that Port is unknown, he’s played Coachella. Then again, you know if you’ve been that all the press is about the main stages but all the action takes place in the dance tent.

And “Move” spread via social media, because it’s hard to keep a good thing down. The old paradigm of radio/print/TV is broken, you go straight to the fans.

If you don’t hear it, you don’t know what a hit is.

It’s been a sh*tty season. One thing about the Brits and the Europeans, they know when to end a show. It’s not only that they leave you wanting more, they stop before the series become clichéd, using the tropes of television that have now been established over seventy five years.

Now if you’re new to the show, you must know that Jean Smart is phenomenal in the role of Deborah Vance. I mean PHE-NOMENAL! Totally believable. A narcissist who has sacrificed everything in life for her career. She lives for the adulation of her fans, but she keeps them at arm’s length. Like almost all professional entertainers. They live for the applause, but they don’t want to hang out with those who clap.

As for Hannah Einbinder… She’s gotten much better over the seasons, but she slips in and out of believability. But tonight!

If you watch “Hacks” and haven’t watched this week’s episode, this is when you can tune out. Then again, what I’m going to say doesn’t affect one’s enjoyment of the episode. But I’m going to go straight for the jugular. Hannah Einbinder’s Ava Daniels quits this week.

Now there is a theme. Of her bonding with her writers as opposed to being the boss. And when she realizes they’ve been taking advantage of her all along, and have always kept her separate from them…she quits.

And Deborah Vance has to go to this fake awards show to promote her show… Never forget, it’s show BUSINESS! Sure, there are some outliers, like Larry David and Don Henley and Dave Chappelle, who refuse to play the game, but most people don’t have the balls. They’re afraid of not working again. It’s hard to stay in show business.

So, in the backstage area Deborrah Vance runs into Rosie O’Donnell, who is playing herself. And Rosie congratulates Deborah for improving as a comedian, when no one gets better, she says it’s like a sports star, and that’s when the light bulb goes off, far too deep into this season, as the war between Deborah and Ava has continued, that she NEEDS Ava. So she goes in search of Ava and finds her at the beach and the final scene is set at an outside restaurant on the sand, a veritable shack, just before it closes. And sitting there, Deborah tells Ava she needs to come back.

And this is where Ava shines, this is where we get the nougat. Deborah promises Ava it will be different, but it doesn’t work, because Ava doesn’t TRUST Deborah anymore.

All relationships come down to trust. And commitment.

But in this case they’re talking about trust. Once trust is broken, the relationship is doomed. We’ve all been there, unless you married your grade school sweetheart. You’ve been through so much together, but when your significant other tells you this time it’s going to be different…

You don’t believe it. Ava can’t be convinced, she’s done.

Not fake done. But absolutely done. She’s spent all day in her mental morass adding up the numbers and seeing that the equation doesn’t fit, this is not the job for her, head writer on Deborah’s late night show, she’s gonna go.

And she stays with this. She actually doubles down.

Even if she did trust Deborah, which she doesn’t, she’s not cut out for the gig, she can’t make TV for millions.

And there you have it folks, the difference between show business and art, between the middle of the road and edge.

Real artists live on the edge, they won’t do what’s expendable. In Ava’s case she tried to play the game, but it’s not her. She’d rather be comfortable in her own skin than play a role that doesn’t fit.

What is so great is Ava is unswayable. We’ve all been there, at the point where nothing will change our mind. We’re not angry, if anything we’re depressed. But we’re one step beyond that, we’ve looked in the mirror and convinced ourselves it’s better to go it alone, to give up the person or the dream.

Now in relationships… Most people get back together one or more times before they truly call it quits. But there comes a point, no matter how painful, where you just can’t do it anymore.

Ava is at that point. And her performance is completely true to life.

Now ultimately Deborah does convince Ava to give it one more shot. She admits that Ava has become her voice, and without her she’s screwed. But Deborah ultimately seals the deal with an inside conversation. You’ve shared a life, and oftentimes the way you get over the hump is by referencing a common experience, a moment of connection. Deborah starts dumping on the HR person who is playing referee and Ava can’t hold back from joining in and they’re laughing, but…

You know Deborah will screw Ava once again, it’s in her blood, she can’t help herself, she doesn’t want to help herself. You think people will change, but they don’t, no matter how much you want them to.

Ava’s still not gonna trust Deborah, no one should, not even her daughter. But this is a job. This is a show business job. And the stars…are not average people, they’re incomplete, they need the aforementioned applause, it’s what you sign up for.

So you go back to the Big Top for another go-round.

But we’ve all been there, licking our wounds after loss, picking ourselves up and refusing to compromise one more time.

And Hanna Einbinder nailed the belief, the feeling to a “t” tonight. She resonated in not only the role, but in the heart of the viewers. It wasn’t phony. The system had beaten her. She’d given it her all. She admitted defeat. She’d live another day to do another thing, but not this one with Deborah Vance.

But now…

Comedy is hard. And sometimes to make it work you’ve got to inject a bit of pathos. As Joni Mitchell sang…laughing and crying, you know it’s the same release.

Tune in Saturday May 10th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz