The Greatest Showman
This could be the biggest act in the world.
I was clueless until my buddy Jeff Laufer hipped me to it, singling out the track “This Is Me,” an empowering anthem straight out of the “Fame” playbook, why is this phenomenon getting no ink, despite hiding in plain sight for six months, the flick having been released back in December 2017.
This has been on my mind, because Jeff keeps e-mailing me and because Saturday night as I was hiking in Will Rogers Park they were screening it at Street Food Cinema
and there were more attendees than I’ve ever seen for any screening there.
And then, today’s “Record of the Day” informed me that in the U.K. the soundtrack was number one for the nineteenth time in twenty three weeks.
But we never hear about it!
Then again, the single “This Is Me” went to number three in the U.K. and only to number fifty eight in the U.S., could this be further proof that terrestrial radio in the U.S. has lost touch, that the U.S. is no longer the greatest country in the world?
Yes, if we want to make America great again, maybe we need to start playing the world’s hits, not only “This Is Me,” but “Human.”
Now “The Greatest Showman” is bigger than “Hamilton,” that’s right, it’s got more streams on Spotify, that’s the power of film.
Five out of the eleven cuts on “Greatest Showman” have triple digit million streams on Spotify. And the remaining tracks are deep into double digits.
Not a single cut on “Hamilton” breaks triple digits.
Although both cast albums are released by Atlantic, does Craig Kallman know something the rest of the industry does not?
As for the iTunes Store, “The Greatest Showman” is number three right now.
So what we’ve learned is despite the lauding of hip-hop, it’s not the only game in town.
But media loves a sexy story, which is why there’s a dearth of info on “Greatest Showman.”
And the barrier to entry in music is not as big as we think it is. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote “The Greatest Showman” songs, ever heard of them? I didn’t think so. Then again, they’re not complete unknowns they won an Oscar for their song for “La La Land,” but mostly they’re working off the pop radar, in stage, films and TV. Are they being unjustly ignored?
Seems so.
So everything we thought was kaput, training, dues, melody, it seems the public still has a hungering for all of it. We keep reading in “The New Yorker” and other august publications about beat makers, top-liners, and I’m not saying they’re not successful, but they’re not the only action deserving attention. All the popsters going urban, they’d be better off going “Showman!”
So, you sing along with the tracks to “Greatest Showman.” You’re not going to be offended, you’re not going to want to take it off immediately, you might just get hooked.
But there’s no associated lifestyle, there are no shenanigans featured on TMZ. All the trappings of today’s success are missing, other than the LISTENING!
