Now my record’s up to number three
And a woman recognized me and started to scream
This all seems like a crazy dream
I’ve been invited to a dinner with a prominent queen

"Top Of The Pops"
The Kinks

Despite being absent from the core duo of the Beatles and the Stones, you’d be hard pressed to find a baby boomer who doesn’t know the Kinks’ string of hits. Everything from "You Really Got Me" to "A Well Respected Man" to "Tired Of Waiting For You".  Many people probably even know "Set Me Free", which made it to number 23 in 1965, never mind lower charting numbers like "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion".  You see Top Forty radio was the tribal drum.  You were on a first name basis with the deejays.  You listened to the countdown on Tuesday night.  You discussed bands with your friends and played 45s at sock-hops, Bar Mitzvah parties and Sweet Sixteens.

The number one record this week is by Lady GaGa.  Do you know the title?  Rather than embarrass you, I’ll tell you, it’s "Just Dance".  Now you’re in the know, most people aren’t.  Because radio is no longer the tribal drum.  Make it to number one and you can tell your parents, your label and management team will be thrilled, but there’s a good chance you can go to the supermarket unnoticed.  You won’t need a bodyguard.  And if you’ve given up your day job, it might not be for long.

Your agent won’t be unhappy that you made it to number one, but he won’t be jumping up and down.  Because in this century there’s been a growing divergence between what gets airplay and what sells tickets.  Those people who do listen to the radio, who do know the Top Forty tracks, don’t think just because you’ve got a hit you’re a career artist, that you’ve got anything else worth listening to.  They probably think you’re just a face for a producer.  And music isn’t so much about saving souls as providing grease to work out and socialize.  It’s kind of like deodorant.  You need it, but it’s not the main event.

As for the tours themselves, Madonna whored herself out to every press outlet that would pay attention, but unless you went to the show, you probably didn’t care, the hype bounced right off of you.  Sure, you might have been interested in the Alex Rodriguez angle, or even her divorce, but that’s got little to do with the music.  Which most people didn’t want, despite her hooking up with supposed star Justin Timberlake and uber-producer Timbaland.

Yes, Justin Timberlake is a star.  But he’s not as big as he was in N’Sync.  Irrelevant of the quality of his music, he’s absent the exposure he used to get on MTV.  Hell, MTV is laying off workers, viewership is in the toilet, they’ve just commissioned umpteen reality shows to try and save their bottom line.

Bon Jovi was the number three tourer.  But his country album stalled.  And Celine Dion and the Eagles are in the Top Ten, but these are all old acts, who made it by the old rules.  Where you worked hard to get signed, the label broke you through and everyone reaped the riches.  Now, there are barely any riches to go around.  Kid Rock sold in excess of ten million copies of his breakthrough album "Devil Without A Cause".  His recent smash "Rock N Roll Jesus" was the fourth largest selling album of the year, and it moved two million copies in 2008.

But at least people already knew who Kid Rock was.  How about new and developing acts?

Supposed best record of the year?  TV On The Radio.  Find people who’ve heard of the act, never mind heard the record.

Used to be when you made Top Ten you were a ubiquitous star, famous throughout the land, and rich too.  Now if you’re Top Ten I hope you’re self-satisfied, because it just doesn’t mean that much.

It’s not only in music.  Network TV shows have been declining in ratings for years.  To the point where NBC is going to place proven Jay Leno in prime time every night of the week.  Movies?  Despite the media hype, not everyone saw "Dark Knight", not everyone cares.  And there was that great story about how today’s hits have fewer admissions than yesterday’s forgettable pictures.

We’ve got a whole business built upon success, but what is success?

We revere the dollar, but today we hate the people who’ve got money, the Wall Street bankers who threw our nation, the entire world, into crisis.  Oh, they made tons of cash, and have got a lot of it left, but they garner no respect.

Fame?  Anybody can be famous.  TMZ and PerezHilton have proven this.  It’s all grist for the mill.  No one believes Paris Hilton has any talent.  Certainly not Nicole Richie.  We might know who they are, but they’re cartoon characters providing entertainment, they’ve got no crunchy center, they’re hollow.

Quality?  Who defines it?  So you win a Grammy…  Can you remember who won last year?  There are a zillion categories and everyone believes the voting is biased.  Awards are a quantification that most people scan and then discard.  It’s not how they feel.  To the degree they even care.  And it’s not much better for the Academy Awards, don’t fool yourself, ratings for that show have been tanking and you can’t remember who won Oscars either.

So today you just can’t reach that one rung on the ladder that indicates you’ve made it.  You can reach a high point, but chances are very few are paying attention.  Your life won’t suddenly work when you’ve achieved what used to be a milestone.  So the focus has got to change.  You have to decide when you’ve made it.  The outside world doesn’t really get a vote.

Can you give up your day job?

Can you go on the road and find an audience that wants to see you?

Can you make money touring?

Can you call your own shots, writing and performing the music you like, and still pay your bills?

We keep looking for stars.  We keep looking to quantify and define success.  But the standards the industry is using no longer apply, because the numbers are low and most of the public is not paying attention.  Instead of a funnel that winnows the available acts down to a few, that everyone pays attention to, we’ve got a garden hose, that is constantly spewing entertainment, and is overwhelming most people to the point where they no longer pay attention.

Don’t look for outside validation.  Today everything’s personal.  Doesn’t matter what the magazine says, most people aren’t reading it.  Movie reviews no longer matter, bad flicks do boffo at the b.o., like "Marley & Me".  You’re fighting to get ahead, to break through, and no one’s paying attention and there’s no coronation when you reach the supposed milestone.  You’re no longer a star, you’re a musician.  And that requires practice and innovation and delivering every night.  Sure, you’ll get paid.  But not as much as most baseball players.  It’s a calling.  And a rough road.  The reward is the music itself.  You’d better enjoy playing, because the trappings are less than they used to be, and in most cases they’re just not enough.