Last week at Musexpo, Tommy Nast asked me what my problem was with Clive Davis, why I spare no words in pointing out his faults.

IT’S BECAUSE HE DIDN’T GET MY FUCKING PERMISSION!

Do you read Seth Godin? Are you aware of "permission marketing"? To boil it down, we’re overwhelmed with marketing messages that we don’t believe, if you want to sell something to somebody you must have an ongoing relationship with them, you must have their PERMISSION to contact/interact with them.

Let me explain this to you in a language you can understand.

SPAM!

How much do you hate spam e-mail? Who are these fuckers who invade your inbox every day, wasting your time. Selling Megadik and asking you to front money for some dethroned African prince.

You’re not calm about spam… You want these guys STOPPED! You want them put in JAIL! You want your inbox to be CLEAN!

Clive Davis has been spamming my inbox. Everywhere I go, from trade publications to "Rolling Stone" to television this septuagenarian is telling me how fucking great he and his acts are.

Hate to tell you Clive, I NEVER thought Whitney Houston was that great. Might have had a slight desire to sleep with her for a minute or two before she hooked up with Bobby Brown and became a cokehead, but if her music comes on the radio, if I’m exposed to it ANYWHERE, I TURN IT OFF!

Shit, I’m trying to think of ONE FUCKING ACT YOU SIGNED AT ARISTA OR J that doesn’t make me sick, that I’m not overloaded on, that I haven’t had too much of.

Even poor little Alicia Keys. You know, the one who successfully ripped off that James Brown track to make her mark so she could continue to drop forgettable music into the marketplace. She’s friendly, she’s nice… SO WHY DO I HAVE TO SEE HER ON EVERY FUCKING AWARDS SHOW! Why do I have to see her change outfits. Why does she need a retinue of backup support. I thought it was about the MUSIC! And the more I’m exposed to her, the more I’m convinced, SHE’S NOT THAT GOOD! I went from mild fandom to indifference to HATE, all because of Clive Davis’ overexposure.

Clive… Did you sign the Beatles? The Stones? Nirvana? Radiohead? Is your catalog the most valuable in the business? NO! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Same deal with you Madonna. Like you haven’t got enough money. It’s no longer about the music with you, it’s solely about the fame. You need to be dead center, in everybody’s line of sight, getting their attention. You want us to believe you’re twenty five when you’re almost fifty. You buy an insurance policy, otherwise known as Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, just so the little kids will pay attention. This ain’t music, this is COMMERCE!

And I’ve got to see you on the cover of "Vanity Fair". You’ve got to hype your fucking movie. Do these mini-concerts where you lip-synch to your music for a fawning press. Do you REALLY THINK WE CARE??

I admired you Madonna… For being a brilliant businesswoman. Now, you’re as desperate as a kingpin at Bear Stearns. You don’t want to be thrown on the scrapheap. And what you’re producing is as lightweight and forgettable as all of Clive Davis’ productions.

You sold 280,000 albums the first week out in America. WHOOPEE!! Let’s see… That means…ALMOST NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU! You got a facelift, you worked out for hours a day, you paraded yourself almost naked in every medium known to man, everyone knows who you are, AND ALMOST NO ONE WANTS YOUR MUSIC!

This isn’t some stealth project. Something nobody knows about. EVERYBODY knows about Madonna, and most of the public is giving a shrug, they just don’t give a shit.

I’m pissed not only at Madonna, but a complicit press so out of touch with what the public wants to read, wants to hear musically. You wonder why papers are tanking. They’re out of touch with the American populace. What these sales numbers indicate is ALMOST NO ONE WANTS MADONNA ANYMORE! It’s like GM introducing a new SUV and only selling 10,000. WHOOPS! Sure, that’s a real figure, but was it worth all the R&D? Didn’t GM watch the Japanese, take into account the spiraling price of gas?

You don’t give GM a pass, so why do you give the press a pass?

There’s a gulf between the press and the public wide enough to sail the Titanic.

That’s what we’ve got today. A desperate industry trying to sell product the same way Tommy Mottola did fifteen years ago, by forcing it down our throats.

Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto IV rakes in 500 million in a week. Could that be because IT’S COOL? It’s got a slight underground FEEL?

Think about that, not everyone can partake. Won’t play on a Wii, you’ve got to have a new Playstation or Xbox. That leaves MOST PEOPLE OUT! And it ain’t cheap… $60 for the game, never mind what you paid for the console.

Does it seem like the glory days of rock and roll to you? When kids HAD to buy the new Zeppelin album, HAD to see them in concert, when you COULDN’T GET A TICKET?

Zeppelin wasn’t all over the news, but they sold millions of records. And they weren’t the only ones.

Enough with your corporate tie-ins, your endorsements. You don’t belong to the fans, you belong to the BUSINESS! It’s ONLY about the bucks. And it doesn’t matter what I think, even the little kids know. They know there’s more truth in GTA IV than "Hard Candy". And they’re voting with their dollars. If you think they’re dumb…

So, stop dunning me. Try building a RELATIONSHIP with me. Do something great. Let me hear about it from someone else. Let me come to your site. Let me join. Instead of telling me how fucking great you are and that I need to pay attention.

My time is precious, and you’re wasting it, blocking my view, preventing me from doing what I WANT TO!