Perception is that new music sucks.

It’s time to stop labeling those who don’t like the wares offered old farts, or Luddites, and start to realize this is a serious problem.

Music was king in the sixties and early seventies.  Music drove the culture.  But, disco ended that era, not MTV.  MTV was an exciting train-wreck that one couldn’t help but look at, but it truly turned music into entertainment, if for no reason other than the fact the performers were suddenly AVAILABLE!  And in the flesh, speaking like the inarticulate, uneducated bozos they oftentimes were, "artists" lost all charisma, all mystery, it ultimately became about the track.

And after MTV wiped the slate clean of credibility, Tommy Mottola moved in.  Clive Davis gets the credit, but it was Tommy Mottola who ruined the music business.  Clive is a slow-moving micromanager.  Tommy can fire on all cylinders, running a major empire while putting his personal stamp on just a few projects, like Mariah Carey.

Mariah Carey can sing, but she’s got nothing to say.  Yet the hype, the SELL, was deafening.  And she made it.

How do we know Tommy was responsible?  Because when Mariah switched labels she couldn’t sell a record.  Of course, she came back on IDJ, but that’s because L.A. Reid is the new Tommy Mottola, with the same bet the farm, let’s not worry about the bottom line approach (actually, it’s Clive who wrote this script, Tommy didn’t overspend with nothing in return until the end of his reign).

With the rise of Mariah came her clones.  I.e. Christina Aguilera.  And what a sad state the business is in today when Ms. Aguilera is seen as CREDIBLE!

Why is Christina credible?  Because she can actually sing.  She writes no memorable material, but at least she’s not a complete studio creation, like so many of the manufactured acts.

Yes, the soul has been removed and everybody knows it.  But those in charge want to deny it.  They believe if you just stop the stealing, health will return to the industry.  But this is not to be, because people no longer believe in new music.  They believe in OLD music.  When boomers were kids they didn’t like Perry Como or Frank Sinatra either.  But today’s kids consider Zeppelin and the Doors and so many other decades-old acts to be the true paragons of quality.  And the hype of vapid new acts has become so overpowering, that the average citizen thinks EVERYTHING sucks.

It is a game of perception.  I’ll give you an example.  Justin Timberlake.  He sings, he dances, he doesn’t really write his own material, but some people BELIEVE he’s real and the press treats him that way and his music sells.  Whereas Janet Jackson has about the same musical talent, i.e. not much, but her latest comeback is almost certainly doomed to failure, because of an exposed breast and a dramatic weight gain with a subsequent loss as mysterious as that of Star Jones.

In other words, sales depend on perception.  The more real you appear, the larger your career footprint/impact.  Pearl Jam being the classic example.  If you think anything the band has recorded in the past decade rivals what’s on their first album, you’re deaf, but because they took themselves off the hype merry-go-round and won’t play by the rules the perception is they’re real, despite how many nonbelievers puke whenever they hear Eddie Vedder’s name.

But Pearl Jam doesn’t mind.  For a platinum record is only a million copies and a sell-out arena tour doesn’t reach this same number, BOTH in a country of three hundred million.

So, you’re better off playing to your niche.  Go broad and you’re in the sights of the web, your career is in the hands of bloggers who live to denigrate those in the public eye.  It’s the OPPOSITE of the Mottola formula, you CEDE all control.

But here we’re talking about individual acts.  What about the business at large?

Wow.  Never forget that the height of Napster coincided with the greatest CD sales in history.  People were EXCITED about music.  With the P2P lawsuits not only has the excitement been eviscerated, people feel the record companies are their ENEMIES!  Think about that, that’s INSANE!  Iran should be the enemy.  Maybe even George W. Bush.  But not record companies.  Record companies used to be your FRIEND!

Now don’t e-mail me and tell me about the labels you believe in, they certainly exist, as does good new music, but it’s only a small fraction of the public which digs this deep and believes, the mainstream says WHATEVER!

The music business has lost the hearts and minds of its audience.  And it’s not only the recording end of the game, people will begrudgingly pay excessive amounts to see stars live, but they feel ripped off and mistreated and don’t want to pay ANYTHING to see developing artists.  Hell, the culture of live developing artists is at a nadir.  The club circuit?  Worse than it’s ever been.  A band might be performing in a bar, but that band’s not going anywhere.

And radio is so formulaic that NOBODY believes.  You used to trust the jock, now you know he’s sold out to the man, and the records he plays are so limited in scope that there’s no excitement, no sense of discovery, no BELIEF!

This is what new music is up against.  Not the classic acts of yore.  Pink Floyd can still sell out stadiums.  Other than maybe the Dave Matthews Band, no act under ten years old (and the DMB is now OLDER than that) can say the same thing.

So, we’ve got believers in history, but disbelievers in the present.  This has to change.

Artists should come out AGAINST MTV and terrestrial radio.  Show some backbone, show that they’re on the side of the audience, not the man.  THAT’S the kind of press story that will get people to believe, not shots of skinny guys hanging at the club or a fashion show.  It’s WHO you are, not WHERE you are.

Yes, first and foremost, we need new artists backed by the majors who refuse to play the game.  Because, ultimately, it comes down to the acts/music.

But the labels can help.  By giving away more, rekindling the artist/fan relationship.

Agents and managers can refuse to raise ticket prices for anybody who gains traction.  There should be a rookie salary.  And for two years you can’t play a venue over 5,000 seats.  So you can establish BELIEVERS, who talk about your music to EVERYBODY and stick with you FOREVER!  And if you think you’re leaving money on the table, then you don’t have a real act.  A real act should last for decades, like what’s left of the Who!

The endless hype/promotion…  There should be an RIAA website with quotes/info from acts that REJECT the system.  These acts say file-trading is okay.  They pledge not to appear on the "Today Show", not do any endorsements, not appear in fashion spreads in "Rolling Stone" or "Blender".

Yes, to rekindle you must reinvest.  In the music business it’s about leaving the short term money on the table so the long term money pours in.

We need to abandon the vapid and promote the real.  Acts who write their own music, who have something to say, who the audience can RESONATE with.  That’s what makes people fans.  Sure, some cover acts triumph, but very few, because the public just can’t relate.

In other words, despite his limited perceived credibility, Justin Timberlake should be abhorred by the industry.  Because for every album he sells, all the airplay he gets, it TURNS OFF MANY MORE PEOPLE THAN IT TURNS ON!

There’s got to be some planning, some steering.  Otherwise music’s not going to be an artistic force to be reckoned with for years.  That’s how long it will take the new entrepreneurs, denied access at television and radio, to triumph.  And triumph they will.  Because they’re playing it the OPPOSITE way from the majors.  It’s ONLY about the acts and the music.

Don’t tell me about all the bands you’re into,  how much you love new music, because you’re in the minority.  Just ask those not in the industry.  Music sucks.  It doesn’t matter what the truth is, that’s the PERCEPTION!  And the perception must be changed, not only so we can sell more music/tickets, but so people will aspire to pick up a musical instrument and practice as opposed to wanting to be a STAR who’s auto-tuned into the hit parade.  If the old formula was so good, Lindsay Lohan would still have a record deal and Paris Hilton’s album would have sold.  But, like Leonard Cohen once sang, everybody knows they’re not where it’s at, they’re evidence of a rotting corpse of an industry that used to DOMINATE television and feature films, which it’s now beholden to.