Or lack thereof.

The sales figures are in.  Adele beat out Lady Gaga.  At least by the "Hits" numbers.  113,000 and change to 105,000 and change.  (One can ask why the SoundScan and "Hits" numbers are so similar and SoundScan charges so much for theirs but…)

So what do we want to say here?  That sales don’t matter?

Sales are only one piece of the puzzle.

But if you play the Top Forty game you live and die by airplay and sales numbers and in both those spheres, Lady Gaga is anemic.

Now if Gaga is going to launch a new career, something based on fame more than music, she’s got a great launching pad.  Everybody knows her, if not her music (yes, today you can have a number one hit and still be unknown to many…)

But Gaga broke the number one rule of the music industry.

IT’S ABOUT THE MUSIC!

Gaga dropped the ball.  Her album just isn’t good enough.  Ask radio, ask the fans.  She garners attention, but people would rather spin something else.

Doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers you’ve got.  If Twitter was about talent, Ronnie the Limo Driver would be bubbling up, hell, he’s got over 100,000 followers!

Ronnie the Limo Driver?

Yup, he’s Howard Stern’s driver.

Got it?

Twitter followers and Facebook friends are like MySpace friends.  A number that’s got nothing to do with talent and has everything to do with self-promotion.

It’s hard to create great music.

But when you do, the public rallies around you, especially when you’re coming off a fresh round of success.

How many times have we seen this movie?

Peter Frampton, star of the decade.  Released "I’m In You" and he’s just about over, hell, he never recovered.

Maybe if Gaga wants to start a fashion line.

Or wants to run for political office.

But if she’s interested in music she’d better stop the worldwide promotional tour and get back into the studio.  Strip it all down, sit at the piano and convince us she’s real.

Yes, this is what’s wrong with big time fame today.  It’s about marketing more than music.  Play to the middlemen, the ignoramuses at the newspaper, which are run by Luddites and are on the verge of going out of business.  Once upon a time music was cutting edge.  Now it’s just another piece of junk hawked by companies a hell of a lot less savvy than Procter & Gamble.

But one great thing about statistics is they’ll tell you where you are, but not where you’re going.

So Gaga isn’t dead yet.

But she’s pointing in the wrong direction.

And all that hogwash about Interscope picking a release date and sticking to it.  They should have put out the album the day of the first single, before the bloom was off the rose.

Enough with the set-up.

Music isn’t about set-up, music is about the NOW!

A hit touches people’s hearts.  Doesn’t matter if you tour, doesn’t even matter if it sounds like anything else.  You hear it and want to play it again. Others hear it and ask what it is.

Great music sells itself.

I’m not saying a major corporation can’t get you to GO.

But it can’t get you past NO!

The Fame Monster.

Where in that moniker is there anything about music?

What makes Gaga different from Snooki or JWoww?

What makes an artist different is the talent, the creation.

A musical star is nothing without the music.

And we love those most who create the music themselves.  They’ve got a constant well to draw upon called their life.  Otherwise, you’re just at the mercy of hired gun songwriters and businessmen interested in money, not music.

All this hogwash about Polaroid and the alternative retail venues.

Now here’s the truth.  I kind of like Gaga.  She’s us.  She’s not beautiful, she had to work hard to make it.  I’d love to see her turn it around.

But I will not sit here and listen to the bully label tell me what a great success this is.

I will not sit here as the mainstream press twists and turns and states inanities while demonstrating its cluelessness.

Everybody knows who Gaga is.

They know who Rebecca Black is too.

FAME IS NOT EVERYTHING!

MUSIC IS!

Make music your calling card.  No amount of talking about music, whether it be in e-mail or on Facebook or Twitter, is going to make a good song a hit.

Good.  That’s the problem today.

There’s more good stuff than ever before.

But we’re only interested in great.

We’re all time-challenged.  Even the prepubescent.  Music and entertainment are plentiful.

Music is the one art form that goes straight to the heart, that can resonate with a person more than any other.

Respect the music.  Make greatness your goal.

Jimmy Iovine is not a musician.  Nor Irving Azoff.  They can’t make the music and neither can I.

But we all know it when we hear it.

And it turns out most people don’t want to hear Gaga’s music.  They’ve moved on.

Don’t shoot the messenger.

Nothing triumphs like great music.  Ticketmaster fees are irrelevant when the act’s hot.  People don’t care about cost, they just want to get closer.

That’s music’s power.

Doesn’t matter what you look like.

Doesn’t matter if you’re rich.

Like they used to say in the days of vinyl, IT’S IN THE GROOVES!

More people are making more music than ever before.  The barrier to entry is low.

But that doesn’t mean we want to listen to it.

People have rallied around Adele.

They’ll rally around you too.

IF YOU’RE JUST THAT GOOD!