“NBC Pulls Back ‘Tonight Show’ to Four Nights Per Week”: https://t.ly/mEKsD

Is this more about content or format?

There is no appointment viewing, everything is on demand.

And edge sells.

But baby boomers inured to the old ways control media and they’d like you to believe otherwise.

Fallon loses on both counts, content and format. He’s a man out of date. And no one will put us out of our collective misery. The problem isn’t that he’s still on TV, but the fact that we have to read about him, when he’s irrelevant.

Talk to Kimmel and he’ll tell you that late night shows are all about creating content for online.

And what sells online? Credibility, honesty, irreverence, novelty, the aforementioned edge.

But if you read the record charts you’d think otherwise.

Not only do we no longer live in a monoculture, that which is thought to be big is small and if you’re following the crowd, you’re headed towards irrelevance.

But creators don’t want to hear this. Because this means there are no rules, that you’re on your own. Everybody wants someone who can push a button, make them a star overnight, but that paradigm has evaporated.

The end comes suddenly. We heard for years that people were going to cut the cord. Younger generations never had the cord. Their laptop is their TV, and YouTube is equivalent to cable, never mind Netflix.

Zaslav had to write off billions because of the cratering of cable. And Paramount lost so much value, you’d think it was run by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (However, Bronfman’s sin was to look too far into the future as opposed to being stuck in the past. He bought Vivendi’s castle of sand, which turned out to be air.)

Nothing is forever. But when disruption is right in front of our faces, people miss it.

When there’s new hardware, like the iPod, people can understand that. But when it’s a trend, when it doesn’t bang someone over the head, people just see what is in front of them and miss the big trend.

Big trend number one. The customer is in control. And you only succeed by letting people consume on their terms. Streaming outlets may think they’re winning by dripping out series episodes every week, but this is antithetical to the way the public wants to watch. Sure, there are oldsters, hanging ’round the water cooler, talking up the show, but youngsters want to work from home, and if you make it hard they’ll just default to YouTube, never mind TikTok or Instagram. Max and Apple, et al, are not competing against Netflix, they’re competing against YouTube and social media and they’re unprepared for this battle.

What is the number one rule of social media influencing?

YOU’VE GOT TO POST CONSTANTLY!

There are too many diversions. Getting someone to come back is nearly impossible. You’ve got to hook them and keep them hooked. Which is why you need a steady stream of programming, and only Netflix has figured this concept out, even though it’s hiding in plain sight. The problem with Apple is very simple, the outlet just doesn’t have enough content. Maybe ten or fifteen years from now they’ll have enough of a catalog, but right now it’s a bad proposition, you just can’t figure out why you’d lay out so much dough for such a consumer unfriendly platform. That’s right, I’m not paying for a week to week show, and the truth is even after it’s completed I usually never go back, because there are so many options.

Jimmy Fallon is a nice guy.

Let’s be clear, no one is that nice a guy, it’s an image, Jimmy is hiding his real self. But in a world where everybody strips back the layers to reveal their truth Jimmy is out of step. And he doesn’t know how to do it differently.

The worst offender here is SNL, lauded by the boomer media, unwatched by younger generations.

SNL’s problem is there are just not enough broad tropes to make fun of anymore. People just don’t get the references. Meaning a show like SNL can’t survive, or must retool. Maybe SNL gets ahead of the audience, goes niche, so that when you see a skit you don’t understand you go online to research history. Kids do this all the time, they want to be clued in.

As for the power of late night TV… That ship sailed long ago.

So what have we got?

A brief, flaky monologue and lame celebrity interviews.

Only monologues with edge work. Which is why Jon Stewart is triumphant. He’s lost not a step, in talent and consumption. As soon as the show plays on Monday night, there are posts all over social media. What Stewart says is important. Because Stewart doesn’t get down into the pit with these people, he laughs at them. He can see the underside. He’s saying what we all feel, not broad tropes.

And the aforementioned Kimmel stopped worrying about pissing people off and spoke his truth also. Today appealing to everybody is a fool’s errand. No one can reach everybody, because everybody is too different, you go for a niche and grow it.

So they took the band from Seth Meyers… Eventually they’ll take everything but the desk, and then they’ll take that too. Hopefully, Meyers will wake up first and quit, like Trevor Noah. The future is uncharted and scary, but sticking with the past is death. Start recalibrating now, because it takes a while to figure out your act and for the audience to understand and spread the word on it.

Now there’s an audience for train-wreck. It might even scale. But your career is over with the last stunt. Eyeballs are not everything. How do you get people attached to you as opposed to the penumbra?

Being the host is not enough. You must have an identity, that people want to follow forever.

You can’t be afraid of offending people and you can’t worry about being canceled. And even if you are canceled, chances are there’s enough of an audience to sustain you, i.e. Louis C.K. C.K. does boffo business, the only difference is he’s no longer the darling of the mainstream press, a press his audience doesn’t read/pay attention to anyway. The masses are telling him not to come back the same way they’re saying Morgan Wallen has to do penance, maybe remove himself from the action for a while. Yet Morgan sells out stadiums. But I constantly get e-mail from people deriding me for noticing this. You’ve got to buy the left wing ideal, the northern ideal, the elite ideal… This is shooting yourself in the foot. Just like the sixties, you’ve got to think for yourself.

That’s right. Artists don’t choose a side, they lead.

Furthermore, all the goals of yore have disappeared. What comedian would want a sitcom? Who is it who actually listens to terrestrial radio? No wonder it can’t break a record.

But the people most dedicated to the old systems are those who are invested in it. There’s a guy from a station in Kentucky who claps back every time I write about terrestrial radio. But no matter what he says, I still can’t find anybody under twenty who listens.

You’ve got to be willing to change your spots.

And that’s tough for people on both sides of the curtain.

The audience wants to belong to a team, but is this to their detriment, do they write off that which is fulfilling?

Everybody’s afraid to change.

And it’s those who have changed who lead.

But leading is scary. Because you don’t know if people will follow you.

Today you’re no longer propped up by the system. YouTube and TikTok don’t need your wares to make their numbers. They’re free platforms, but you’re responsible for the content. And sure, TikTok may give you a boost, a leg up, but ultimately the audience accepts you or not. You can’t force people to watch, and you can’t force them to listen. I get e-mail from people who’ve made money from being on a Spotify playlist, but never another penny, and no one wants to see them live, because not enough listeners heard the track and wanted to go deeper.

And when you walk into the woods bring as much money as you can. Because it’s going to take a long time before you can refill your wallet, if ever.

There is no insurance. The gatekeepers of yore and the edifices they work for have almost no power. You can be on HBO, that does not mean anybody is going to watch your show. Hell, HBO is just one of the many choices on MAX. Are potential fans going to dig that deep to find you?

Only if their friends tell them to. And friends are dying to tell friends about great, and there’s very little great out there.

The whole concept of a TV network is passé.

First they came for the cable channels and then they came for the networks, and the pipe providers, the cable companies themselves, know it’s all about providing broadband, TV is in the rearview mirror.

Imagine if Jimmy Fallon swore. Started talking sh*t about Lorne Michaels. Then I’d be interested. To see him dance and play…WHO CARES?

And if I want to know what a celebrity has to say, I’ll listen to a podcast. Traditional hype is boring and doesn’t work. You’ve got a new project and it’s the best one you’ve ever been in/created and let me show you pictures of my kids and tell a funny story about falling on the red carpet. REALLY? And it’s the same thing, for every appearance.

But actors have been screwed by the internet. Turns out they’re two-dimensional vessels, they’re anything but heroes, which is why they can no longer open a picture.

And songs written by committee? Give me one out of tune track written in fifteen minutes and cut in an hour. It’s about capturing lightning in a bottle, but too often there’s no storm in evidence.

The audience knows all of the above, they don’t even think about it, it’s in their DNA, they’ve left the past behind. It’s just that those being paid big bucks don’t want to give up their power, visibility and money.

Whereas with no net, it’s those building it online who are interesting.

The consumer is happier than ever before. Unlimited choice of what you want when you want it.

The creator? Keeps bitching about the system. IT’S SPOTIFY’S FAULT!

No, that’s wrong, IT’S YOUR FAULT! If people aren’t listening, you don’t get paid. You got paid in the past, but those days are history. Big record contracts for few people. Stop knocking at an invisible door. Walk through it, adjust to reality.

But too many can’t handle it.

The bottom line is Jimmy Fallon is a man out of time appearing on a time-stamped format. Would you invest in that?

OF COURSE NOT! Whether it be your money or your time.

That’s not what we’re looking for.

We’re looking for the new and different, the edge, that which we want to tell everybody about.

And sometimes it takes ten years for the flames you’re blowing on to become a conflagration.

If you want a guarantee, go work for the man.

And if you’re not new and different, you can work for 20,000 hours and still no one will care. It’s that creative spark we’re looking for. That je nais se quois. That’s nearly impossible to find and create.

But that’s what we’re hunting for.

Netflix trailer (but I’d recommend not to watch it, so the plot is fresh): https://t.ly/muWoY

And here’s your weekend entertainment. At least two hours and eleven minutes of it anyway.

This is a seventies movie. The kind we used to pay to see on a Saturday night, or maybe a hot Tuesday evening, when we had to get out of the house and into deep air conditioning.

But now we see these flicks at home. And the experience is not the same, but you only go out for superhero movies, the studios are afraid of making something like this, they want insurance, they want sequels. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”? Really?

So what we’ve got here is a vigilante movie. Crossed with some of that deep south stuff we saw in “Deliverance,” you know, where you’re out of your element, the law does not apply, and the cops rule.

Be afraid, be very afraid. Especially if you’re Black, especially if you’re vulnerable.

But there’s another theme here, that if you work for the man you must go along with the plan. You can’t be a clean cop, the rest of the force won’t let you be. You’ve got to kiss your boss’s ass, no matter what gig you’re doing. And yes, as Bob Dylan sang, we’ve all got to serve somebody, but the game is different when you’re on top of the pyramid. Get married, have a kid or two and you can’t help but play the game, you’ve got to pay the bills. Sure, you could lack moral fiber and walk away, but not only are you going to screw your progeny but you’ll pay a price down the line, you can never forget, and this one bad choice leads to a bunch more.

Now this was a trope back in the old days. Northerners in the south. Even “Easy Rider.” You want to stick to your territory.

Live in the red south and good luck getting an abortion. And there’s a constant disinformation campaign saying California is a hellhole, and you believe it because those in charge wouldn’t lie to you, would they? It’s a great con, and you’re in on it. And you can’t break ranks. Because then you’ll have to admit you were duped and that you’re the schlemiel you truly are.

And you can be on either side of the political fence and still enjoy this movie, but remember everything is political, and when you say to keep politics out of it, you can’t.

So at first I thought this was going to be the story of how those rednecks killed that jogger. And there are parallels, but it’s not the same story.

What do you do when you’re caught up in the vagaries of the system, do you “Yes sir” or “No Ma’am” or stand up for your rights? This is the talk every Black parent has with their child, how to react when driving while Black. Then again, how many Black people even listen to Iron Maiden?

So now you can nitpick. You’re Black and your neighborhood is safe, and you love “The Number of the Beast.” Congratulations.

And now this is devolving into the anger I feel all day long, with people sending me their lousy self-produced tracks, sending me right wing crap from publications I’ve never heard of, that all you have to do is Google to find out they’re biased. I know, I know, you’re reasonable, but the rest of them are ruining it for all of us. Under the rubric of “free speech.” Hey, you free speech fanatics, how do you feel about Meta closing out those accounts sponsored by the Russians? Huh? Should we leave those up too? Just because the line is hard to define, that does not mean we should throw it out the window. Only a nincompoop like Elon Musk who knows science but not life would think that.

And there you have my bile.

But in truth so many of us can get along.

Leave your prejudices at the door. But know the system is rigged against you. You’re just a pawn in their game. Bob Dylan sang that sixty years ago, but today we have to hear about fake robbers and drug dealers in songs that are fantasies just like the superhero movies.

So, suspend disbelief at the door, when you press play.

When you find out what this is all about…it’s not that it’s so convoluted, it’s just that it’s not really that big a deal.

But we’ve got Snake Plissken to save the day!

Actually, I can’t even remember those movies, but in truth Aaron Pierce as Terry Richmond is the great equalizer, he cannot shy away from a fight, he’s got to right a wrong, even though at times he wants to leave it all behind, like Al Pacino in “The Godfather.”

We used to see A level films at the brand new multiplexes, but we also went to see the AIP and New World pictures too. They were gritty. They showed the true underside of life, not the gussied-up fantasy the major studios purveyed.

So the plot unfolds. It takes you a while to find out what is going on. And then you start to plot ahead in your mind, what if the cash really is drug money and the Chinese restaurant is a front.

And then you’ve got the classic white woman/black guy formula. Although love is only hinted at here. And that’s no longer seen as dangerous. Now all the focus is on gay and trans, but really it’s all the same thing, you can’t live and let live, and sometimes you’ve got to live and let die. Is that how this is going to end, with people dying?

And in truth, that was just a B level James Bond flick. Trading on the name, the franchise, as opposed to the plot.

“Rebel Ridge” is more serious, and looks for more gravitas, but you’re not going to turn off the TV and be fearful it’s going to happen to you.

AnnaSophia Robb reminds me of Mary Stuart Masterson not only in looks but intelligence, radiating a level of truth in an untrue movie.

David Denman as Even Marston is always good. There’s just something about his demeanor that bugs you.

Emory Cohen as Seve Lann? You know this guy, a wimp, not the kind who turns into a school shooter, but someone who joins the force to carry a gun with authority.

And then there’s Don Johnson as the police chief. So self-satisfied.

And that rings true, that is life, some bureaucrat standing in your way and proud of it. Forcing you to abide by regs that are irrelevant. Loving to see you squirm.

So you’re bombarded with incoming all day. It’s good to have a respite.

And I can list much better series, most of them foreign with subtitles that you don’t want to watch. But if you’re looking for good old American entertainment… THIS IS IT!

Tune in Saturday September 7th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

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

Spotify playlist: https://rb.gy/8bmrod

Listening to new music takes time. It’s not something you can do in the background, you’ve got to focus, and that’s too heavy a lift for many people.

Let me put it differently… Are you BUSY? I am, and I can’t slow down. It’s one of the many reasons I’ve stopped going to the movies. I plan it, the lights go down, and I can’t turn my mind off, it keeps racing.

But today I was in one of those spaces where nothing was working. I’ve got reverse jet lag. As in I’m home, but flying half a day in a tube…you’re enduring it, and it takes a couple of days for your brain to unclench.

So, I must admit I wasted some time on Instagram Reels and TikTok, and to be honest I saw some very interesting stuff there, but I finally tore myself away, made a quick trip through the news, and then started catching up on “The New Yorker.” The only must-read article I’ll mention is by William Finnegan, whose “Barbarian Days” is a classic, read it even if you’ve never surfed and never intend to. Ditto this article about Jock Sutherland:

“A SURF LEGEND’S LONG RIDE – For Jock Sutherland, being hailed as the world’s best surfer was just one phase in an unlikely life”: https://t.ly/JZx3s

Surfing is just the background, it’s about culture, and life.

It’s kind of like skiing, you can turn it into a job, but then you give up your freedom, which is number one when I’m on the hill, which is why I’ve never wanted to be an instructor or a patrolman or work for a ski company, it bastardizes the experience, and the experience is everything.

But in this week’s “New Yorker,” there’s a story about MJ Lenderman, and it was the second one I saw today, so I decided to check him out.

JOKER LIPS

MJ Lenderman

You’ll want to turn off the opening track, “Manning Fireworks,” it’s a slow dirge with a bad vocal and you’ll think Mr. Lenderman is exactly what he’s billed as, an indie rocker, and do we really need another one of those, haven’t we had enough of them in the past? I mean what ever happened to being able to sing? And don’t tell me about Dylan, he’s the BEST LYRICIST OF ALL TIME.

As for the lyrics… They’re vaunted in all these stories, but if you think they’re great, you’ve never listened to “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” And don’t give me sh*t for this ancient reference, that’s today’s’ reality, you’ve got to compete with the best tracks of all time, they’re just a click away, the history of recorded music is at your fingertips, so you’ve got to be as good or better, and that’s a high bar.

But then the album slipped into the second cut, “Joker Lips,” and I immediately got it, and it wasn’t the lyrics whatsoever, but the groove, the feel, and most especially the guitar work.

I’d like to say the rest of the album is as good as “Joker Lips,” but I won’t go that far. But the worst track is first on this album entitled “Manning Fireworks.” And the last cut, “Bark at the Moon,” will bring you out of your stupor, it demands attention.

But if you don’t like indie rock, DON’T EVEN START!

Based on the reviews you’d think MJ Lenderman is the second coming, that he’s about to be ubiquitous, and that is patently untrue.

NEVER GOING HOME TONIGHT

David Guetta, Alesso, Madison Love

I don’t know what I’ll get more hate about, Lenderman or this. People hate EDM, think it’s too easy to make, mindless, but that is false. Cast aside your prejudices and listen, and you’ll find that “Never Going Home Tonight” has the number one criterion for music today, it’s HOOKY, you want to listen to it again when it’s finished. Don’t tell me to play your tune five or six times to get it, I’m not going to, and other than your parents and your girlfriend/boyfriend, no one else will either.

This is not quite Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” “Never Going Home Tonight” might not be forever, but it’s definitely for right now. I’d much rather listen to this than Chappell Roan.

Your mileage may differ.

And it’s not only the deejays, Madison Love’s vocal is enticing, more than breathy, more than a whisper, it’s not the belting of a TV competition show, but it’s just right for this cut.

This is the last hot night of the summer. Staying up way too late. “Coke in the bathroom stall,” alcohol in your belly and “one more kiss before last call.”

They’re never going home tonight, and this is the magic of music, it takes you away to a new place where nothing else matters, AND YOU WANT TO STAY THERE!

CAN WE FIX OUR NATION’S BROKEN HEART

Stevie Wonder

Stevie has been lost for years. He had a run of classic albums in the seventies that seem to be lost to the sands of time, other than “Songs in the Key of Life,” which despite all the hosannas is not as good as the three LPs that preceded it. But after you reach the moon, what are you gonna do next?

“Hotter than July” was okay, but then calling to say he loves us… Ecch, dreck. So I wasn’t expecting much.

And at first you’ll be thrown off by Stevie’s voice. It’s lost something in the ensuing decades. Not like Mellencamp’s oversmoked pipes, it’s just that it’s not as clear and rich as it once was, not that you would be bothered by this if you’d never heard him before.

So I’m on guard, hesitant, waiting to be disappointed once again, especially considering it’s a message song, but…

The intro is rhythmic, melodic, and kind of hooky. And the verse stays with the same groove.

And then there’s a bridge, that’s a bit less hooky, but then there’s this exquisite change, after “humanity,” when Stevie sings “We’re family,” this is the magic Stevie specializes in, it’s so subtle, but it’s enough, the Beatles specialized in this too. Don’t bring in ten writers, don’t layer on instrumentation, just put it in the basic song.

And then that change repeats throughout the number, to the point where when it’s done you tell yourself, “Hey, that was pretty good!”

And I’ve got to mention the harmonica solo, which seems anything but superfluous, like too many of Stevie’s guest shots recently.

That change, it’s enrapturing.

And by time the song is over…you don’t think it’s going to be a hit single, what is, but you can see “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” as an album cut somewhere on “Fulfillingness’ First Finale.”

And irrelevant of the lyrics, if you listen to “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” you’re disarmed, you can’t be angry.

That’s the power of music.

HOLD OF MY HEART

Joanne Shaw Taylor

This was a surprise, because if I’ve ever heard of this woman, I’ve forgotten.

Take Bonnie Raitt and add a bit of edge, amp it up a bit, but really Joanne Shaw Taylor is her own thing.

Research tells me Dave Stewart discovered Taylor twenty years ago, that’s how long it takes for acts to develop and catch on these days.

LOOK WHAT GOD CAN DO

Rhett Walker

I heard this before I saw the title, I didn’t realize it was a Christian rock song, but if you’re looking for something straight out of seventies or eighties rock, this is it. As a matter of fact, there’s a section that’s a straight rip-off of Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me.”

This track is extremely palatable, but it’s nothing you haven’t heard before. But it’s the antithesis of what’s in the Spotify Top 50. Not that I think you’d ever see it there, this is a retread, the sound is not quite edgy enough, the entire track proves that imitation is a fool’s errand, you just can’t replicate a sound, you’ve got to go beyond, which is one of the failures of MJ Lenderman, you’ve heard that before. Whereas “Never Going Home Tonight” may be genre specific, but it’s just different enough to entice. Stevie Wonder has his own sound, and here he’s extending it. And Joanne Shaw Taylor evidences that being able to play, sing and write still counts for a lot, add a dose of magic and you’ve got something.

So there’s good music out there. But that does not mean it will run up the chart. And, unfortunately, you can’t trust the critics, because they want to promote that which is different, that the mainstream won’t like, or will have to endure to understand.

Oh, first I listened to English Teacher, which just won the Mercury Prize. I understand why it won, but I couldn’t make it to the end of the tracks, this music works more on an intellectual level than an emotional one. It’s indie rock adjacent, it’s not bad at all, but first and foremost people have to want to listen to the track. And don’t tell me that requires it to be conventional, remember the first time you heard Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”?

Having said that, the second time through I’m getting more into English Teacher, never underestimate the power of repetition. With enough spins I’d probably like “Manning Fireworks” more.

But what we’re looking for is not music that we have to work to get, that isn’t pleasurable, but something that hits us right away, like “Never Going Home Tonight,” or slowly reels us in, like “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.”

But, I was surprised to find such alluring new music today.

I’ve got to slow down more in the future.