Pink’s Plunge
I’ve got no sympathy.
Remember when rock stars used to O.D? Yup, that was the peril of being on the road, doing too much smack to the point where you nodded out and had a blind date with the Grim Reaper. If an "artist" is injured onstage doing a circus act, haven’t we lost the plot? Didn’t we start to lose our way when we confused music with movies during the MTV era, creating stars that lasted just about as long as a film runs in the multiplex, with no afterlife? Has everyone forgotten that first and foremost music is something you hear? I mean how often do you shut your eyes in a movie? Never. Whereas go to a great show and you close your eyes and let your mind drift. But in an attempt to keep up with the MTV visual nonsense, live shows became extravaganzas, the penumbra superseded the music. To the point where no one expects Britney to sing live and even Eminem lip-synched the other day. It’s one thing to have loops on stage as an effect, as James Taylor did in the days of yore, wheeling out a tape recorder to perform a duet with himself, but now it’s all smoke and mirrors, we’re not supposed to know that you really can’t sing or play. But if you can’t sing or play, unless it’s intentional, like with some of the punk acts, remind me why we should pay attention again? If you need to dazzle your customers visually to get them to come, you’re going down the wrong road. At least Alice Cooper’s theatrics had to do with the plot of his music, singing about his nightmares and dead babies, exactly what does flying in the air on a trapeze have to do with Pink’s songs again? And don’t tell me you can’t argue with the gross. They came this time, but they won’t next time unless you’ve got more evanescent hits on the radio and you’ve got an even bigger stage show with more tricks. The spiral goes straight down the drain. If the music is not enough, we’re doomed.
Music when done right is the hottest medium there is. Nothing can compete, not movies or sculpture or television or Facebook. But you’ve got to respect it, you’ve got to own the imperfections and build upon them, not get so much plastic surgery that you look like Jocelyn Wildenstein. Yes, that’s what today’s records are, plastic confections. Built in studios by Pro Tools experts, you can dance to them, but they’ve got the nutritional value of a Sprite, sweet and sticky, you might like it going down but then you get sick.
I’m glad Pink wasn’t seriously hurt. But come on. Can’t it be about the MUSIC!
