“Apparently Bob Lefsetz doesn’t have a TikTok or he’d see we *did* livestream Grammy Noms on the platform this morning. His other screed today was about ‘krinkly fries’ so dude clearly has a lock on the priorities of youth culture.”

John Loken @kidmedium

Followers: 859

Job according to LinkedIn: Marketer at the Recording Academy

Now if I was smart, I would not respond to this tweet, because it has absolutely no impact, just like the Grammy stream on TikTok…

Now what I said was:

“Yes, you might see a reference to TikTok on the show, but those in the know know that the nominations should have been on TikTok, think of the buzz!”

So, technically I was wrong. Because if you Google, and it is not easy to find, you will learn:

“The live stream of the 65th annual ceremony can be viewed on the Grammys’ official website and the Academy’s Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok social media channels. The full list of nominees will be posted after the event.”: https://bit.ly/3ExdGgu

Once again, I was wrong. John Loken wins. And by responding at all, I lose. But there’s something to learn here…YOU MUST CREATE UNIQUE CONTENT FOR TIKTOK!

Just broadcasting no longer works. This is the shotgun approach the entertainment industry has been employing for decades, despite the internet era completely changing the landscape.

One thing is for sure, the news that the Grammys would stream the nomination process on TikTok never reached me, and I’m devouring news 24/7. That’s testimony to how hard it is to reach ANYBODY these days. Furthermore, Mr. Loken is the only person who has alerted me to my mistake, and normally when I get it wrong, I hear from many people, they love to pile on. So if a tree drops in a forest…

If you’re trying to reach everybody, you’re reaching nobody. First and foremost attack the target demo, those who care.

And believe me, they’re not on Facebook, that’s all alta kachers.

As for Twitter… Even before Musk took over the numbers were staggering, as in the miniscule number of young people active on the service. Instagram has a stink upon it, just like Facebook, that’s where people who never got the memo still are.

Then there’s TikTok.

If you listen to the service itself, it tells advertisers not to employ their usual spots, to make content unique to TikTok, to have it fit in seamlessly with the other content on the channel. Which is usually user-generated.

Yes, anybody with a brain would know the way to reach TikTokkers is to employ TikTokkers, unleash their creativity, not just do a standard broadcast that is a waste of time knowing you can get the complete list of nominees shortly thereafter. Talk about being creative… So the nominations were on TikTok, BFD!

Yes, you might say I’m down in the weeds. But everything is in the weeds today, that’s where truth lies. That’s how the mainstream media missed the election, it was not in the weeds, it was the usual suspect echo chamber.

And we’ve got the knee-jerk reaction of an employee, my having questioned his efforts.

First and foremost I’ve got no idea who John Loken is, but I’m criticized every damn day online and I know not to respond. It goes with the territory. And by weighing in, Mr. Loken got me to amplify my point, add data, delineating how piss-poor the Grammys’ thinking was here.

Isn’t this the difference between the U.S. and China? In China (and Japan), they teach to the test, it’s rote, no creativity is involved. But it’s American creativity, its ingenuity, that keeps the country a fount of innovation, ahead of other nations. And it’s almost never the people who got straight A’s who change the world, but those who rebelled against the institutions, did it their way, looking at the problem through a different lens, not having even gone to college in many cases, never mind graduate.

And our entire nation is being hobbled by the lack of arts and music education in schools. The biggest person in popular music, the most successful, is Max Martin. He was educated in a Swedish music school. We don’t have anything resembling that in America. But we’re number one!

Yeah, the Grammys are number one in music awards. But what does that mean? To quote Edwin Starr, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Well, a bit more than that, but not much. Music evolves, but not the organization. I mean who would want to work at such a brain-dead enterprise, where change has to happen slowly, where you’re beholden to musicians who’ve got enough time to participate, whereas those who are changing the world are far too busy to sit on the fakokta boards and argue about minutiae.

Yes, I’m calling a spade a spade.

Yes, just by weighing in I take a hit to my image. Better to let it slide.

But just because something is technically right, that does not mean it’s emotionally right, that does not mean it’s right at all. That’s like the Chinese student who aced the math test. What does that mean in the real world? Not much. Maybe that you can rise up the ladder of the like-minded thinkers and be a cog in the machine. The arts are all about rejecting the machine, moving past the machine, questioning everything, everything is up for grabs.

But not the Grammy organization. They hire a woman and they fire her, she wanted change too fast. And to get paid off, Deborah Dugan had to stay silent. This is akin to the corporations who pay off the Me Too offenders in their ranks. Keep it quiet. Move on. But eventually the truth outs.

Take the temperature of the nation re the Grammys. The truth is almost no one cares. How do you make someone care?

Not by showing the same dead video on multiple social outlets, that’s for sure.

And in truth, I am on TikTok, every single day, sometimes for more than an hour, sometimes for less. You see it’s that addictive. But I don’t post, I have my own avenues to reach people. So Mr. Loken got it completely wrong. I don’t care, but in truth MOST people are lurkers.

So here’s the bottom line: TikTok is where it’s happening, it’s the only social medium that truly moves the needle. And it’s about user-generated content. Let me quote an email and leave it at that:

From: Nima Nasseri  (at Universal Music)

Subject: Re: The Grammy Nominations

Date: November 15, 2022 at 11:40:48 AM PST

To: Bob Lefsetz 

Not to mention how the glass animals ‘slowed’ UGC version on TikTok that we eventually took to DSP (and is the 2nd most popular song on their Spotify page) really helped drive it to #1 finally after all those weeks on the charts 

The power of TikTok is real 

P.S. I got a ton more responses about krinkly fries than I did about the Grammy nominations, that’s just how much people care about food, food is hipper than music.