From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Hey Elton!
To: Elton John

Hope you’re good.

I know you’re a big new music fan.

Today’s music world is incomprehensible, we need curators who will make sense of it for us, and not just endless playlists on streaming services, so…

Can you recommend ONE recent track (now, or from the previous two years) that you think is a stone cold one listen smash?

I’m not asking you to be obscure, I’m not asking you to come up with one that burnishes your image. I’m asking you to put your programmer hat on. What’s the track you think would resonate with the most listeners?

Any explanation as to why would be helpful but unnecessary.

I was listening to the new stuff on Spotify and was overwhelmed, especially by the dreck. And then I was listening to some of my favorites on  my iPhone and I got this idea of reaching out to experts and you were the first I thought of…

Thanks!

Bob

____________________________

From: Elton John
Re: Hey Elton!
To: Bob Lefsetz

Dear Bob, nice to hear from you. I agree that the majority of songs on the charts are awful mass produced robotic drek. However,“Human” by Rag And Bone Man should have flown from day one.

Although it is gradually rising up the radio charts it is taking its time.

I am not sure what Sony are doing but this is a number one record in my opinion and has been all over the world. It has a great hook, beautiful production and his voice is wonderful.

My theory is it is too sophisticated and too good a record. Therefore it does not fit in with the tinny, vapid crap constipating the top 100.

I still think it will get there, but Why so long?

All best wishes Elton x

There are three record companies, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.

If you want to know what it was like in the late sixties, during the seventies in the record business, look to streaming TV.

Not the eighties and nineties, those were victory laps, when MTV blew up bands beyond comprehension and then the CD rained down coin. No, go back to the sixties, when record labels were the poor stepsisters of movie studios and then…

Kids couldn’t get enough of the newfangled sounds.

What started out as a singles business evolved into albums, with a concomitant increase in revenue, and said revenue funded…Warner Cable. That’s why Steve Ross paid Mo and his crew so much money, they were throwing off cash that could be used to fund new projects. And record companies were not like Snapchat, with fake valuations based on financial mania, rather none of the labels was traded separately on the street and they were all selling tonnage. Because people couldn’t get enough of the music, it captured the zeitgeist.

Like today’s streaming TV.

Now the big change is on demand. This is what hindered the record labels, what put them in second position. They kept trying to hold back the future, whereas Netflix was ahead of its customers, when it went streaming the public blinked, but Reed Hastings was right, never forget, the customer is always last, he doesn’t know what he wants, but brilliant seers like Steve Jobs do.

And now we just can’t get enough of our TV shows.

Like Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None.

No, he’s not an unknown. He played in a band, known as “Parks and Recreation,” but he wanted a solo deal and Netflix gave it to him.

This is how it was way back when in the record business. Labels were in the habit of saying yes instead of no. They wanted to keep the talent happy, because the talent was everything, the keys to the kingdom, this was before the execs started to believe THEY were the talent, which happened first in movies, and look what a black hole that industry is today.

So Netflix makes a deal with Ansari and he makes an award-winning season and then…

He doesn’t repeat himself. That’s what the shock is of Season 2. It’s different. Just like Dev doesn’t want to host “Clash of the Cupcakes” for seven years, Aziz just didn’t want to do bro riffs about being South Asian in New York City.

So the series starts off in black and white in Italy, with a takeoff on “The Bicycle Thief.” Did you see that in college? Does anybody even watch foreign movies anymore? That’s what I love about Aziz, he assumes you did, and if you didn’t, he’s not gonna pander to you. Everybody’s pandering. Did you hear Howard Stern excoriate Ryan Seacrest’s new hosting gig with Kelly Ripa? He said Ryan was too busy working to prepare, going from his radio show to TV, and that he was just coming up with lists and the more Howard talked the more you realized he was right, Ryan is stupid, and we want smart.

Aziz is smart.

And the show moves back to New York and it’s uneven.

This is what happens when you test limits, you don’t always get it right. But if you’re not willing to fail, you can’t succeed. In music, everybody’s repeating themselves, trying to be just like everybody else. You jump from hit to hit and are desperate in between. But a real artist follows his own vision and takes risk.

So, there’s an episode Aziz is barely in.

And another with a long, lingering shot of pain, the kind after a great date when you realize you’ll never get what you want. That loneliness, inside your own head.

And the episode on acceptance? His gay friend’s family won’t accept her lesbianism, won’t accept any of her girlfriends, but ultimately they come around, it’s a beautiful thing, a real thing, what we need in our lives today, for right and left to come together and find out they’re both human, work together to be as one.

Aziz is our new Woody Allen. BECAUSE HE’S GOT SELF-RESPECT! As Woody woodshedded he became comfortable being the winner, not the loser. He could see his appeal to women. Could demonstrate his wit and intelligence. Instead of saying he’s not good-looking enough, not enough period, Aziz ventures through life like he’s an equal, although if you categorize him, lump him in with all Indians, he barks back, like any minority, when you’re downtrodden you take no gruff, but somehow it’s the whites today who see themselves as underdogs, don’t ask me how.

But the truth is these downtrodden whites watch Netflix too. That’s right, we all listened to the same music back in the classic era and now we all watch the same television shows. We’re more together than apart. This is what we want to spend our time doing and talking about. Going deep into series and then wrestling with the concepts, arguing about them with our friends.

And this is all because Netflix, Amazon and Hulu spend. And give control to the creators. Their win to loss ratio ain’t great, but neither was that of the record labels back then. A few hits make up for all of it. A couple of “13 Reasons Why” and “Narcos” fund a zillion experiments wherein you might find the next pot of gold. This was the Warner Records formula. And they didn’t give the money to just anybody, but those with a vision, artists.

So enjoy the new golden age. Whenever I write about television my inbox is inundated with recommendations. When I write about music it fills up with insults. How can I not like this hit, how can I have such terrible taste? But music is nearly incomprehensible, there’s so much product, so many niches, and then you tune in the hype of the month and listen and say…Eh. But you watch one of these TV shows and they titillate you.

It won’t be this way forever. They’re gonna run out of potential subscribers, they’re gonna tighten the spigot. But Netflix has already eclipsed HBO, not only in subscribers, but content. Every comedian jumped from HBO to Netflix, because of the MONEY! Kinda like the live heyday ushered in by Led Zeppelin. If the gig was gonna sell out anyway, the promoter should only get 10%. Everybody wants to see the new Chappelle and Chris Rock specials, and you sign the stars and that’s where the newcomers want to be.

The second season of “Master of None” is not perfect. But the peaks are new and different, they touch your soul.

And isn’t that what living is all about?

He spent too much!

And he was Doug’s guy and it’s now Rob’s company.

Come on, you expect history to repeat itself ad infinitum? For things to never change? For the wall to fall and democracy to reign in Russia and Napster to happen and for recording CEOs to continue to be big swinging dicks?

The power has shifted. To promoters. To managers. To producers. The guys at the labels are traffic cops, signing based on relationships and heat, they’re about as memorable as the guys running movie studios, can you name ONE? Sony just upped Tony Vincequerra to the top post and I doubt even insiders know who that is, proving the point.

First and foremost you’ve got to spend less. L.A. Reid was in the league of Clive Davis, who pissed off the Germans, even if you’re making dough, why do you have to live such a large lifestyle, why do you have to waste so much money? Do that at a tech company and you’re history, and today record companies are tech companies. It’s all about the data. And when the data says yes you push go, if the data says no you hold your horses, maybe make a few small bets, try to build a fire, which is the exact opposite from flying everybody across the country to appear on late night television, with all that hair and makeup, nearly six figures, for no impact.

Maybe a slot on the Grammys still counts. But that’s all about relationships, not bread, and Ken Ehrlich runs that with an iron fist.

And today’s execs have learned the Doug Morris lesson, who got so big for his britches he got canned at Warner. Doug flew lower than that thereafter, you want to fly low today, the talent rules, not you. However, right now the talent is evanescent and it’s your job to promote acts that last but you won’t take a risk, you won’t make the long investment, because you’re paid on yearly numbers and who knows how long you’ll be there.

And the era of Ahmet and Jac Holzman is deep in the distance, music lovers with their own money at risk. Just about everybody at a label today has come up through the system, they don’t know what it’s like to lose their own cash. The recording industry is mature, no wonder it no longer attracts the best and the brightest, they’re looking for room to move, but all the label says now is NO!

But the generations are changing, and that’s a good thing. Royalty deals will get better, because the acts will have leverage. You don’t need the major to get started, and if you start yourself and get traction you can extract a better deal. The dirty little secret is all these companies need the revenue, for their market share, for Wall Street, if they suddenly show no cash flow the majordomo is gonna get blown out, proving once again that finance is key and L.A. Reid is out of time.

And we’re headed for a wholesale revolution in the business anyway, because no one seems to see that the hottest medium, i.e. music, is taking a back seat. Comedians are all over the news, but musicians are just famous for their TMZ antics. Why is that? You can’t say it’s a lack of publicity, we’re all on Beyonce baby watch.

And the new acts will realize they are not a tool of the machine, not there to be manipulated by either the media or the major, but to direct their careers themselves.

And other than the trades, who knows what labels these acts are on anyway, it’s not like you’ve got a 45 with a spinning label, and all the hit acts have vanity/custom labels… It’s a banking deal, you just want someone you believe in to push the button. You don’t need the label for guidance, to make the record, all the greats are hirable individually, from Max Martin to Jeff Bhasker to even the radio promotion people. The label develop you? Once again, the label says NO! And just like in tech, we’re in a world where you develop yourself, and then the big boys buy you.

So if you’re waiting for a deal, for mommy and daddy to save you, you’re living in a bygone era.

L.A. Reid was living in a bygone era. He thought he was a kingmaker.

But that was in an era when we all watched MTV, physical dominated and we all knew the hits on the radio.

Now music is much more surgical. You’ve got to learn how to win on bunts and singles, with the occasional doubles. If you’re lucky a home run like Ed Sheeran or Drake will come along, but you can’t count on it, and now, more than ever, acts have a hard time repeating.

So, those on the street are empowered.

But just like with your tech devices, there’s little help.

They’re still evolving the record company of the future.

And there’s no room for old farts overspending anymore.

Now you don’t lead with your relationships but your data.

Data is everything.

Except for the tunes, of course.

Have a hit tune and you can own the world!

L.A. Reid just did not have enough hit tunes, not enough for the amount of money he spent. If he can come up with more hits that others can make money on he’ll re-emerge.

Otherwise…

Kevin Bacon is a revelation. Like a less loquacious Don Henley. A not quite as nice J.D. Souther. He’s a Texan of few words who’s completely confident in his opinion and is unafraid of expressing it.

And Kathryn Hahn is obsessed with him. Believing herself a filmmaker previously, at dinner Bacon cuts to to the bone, outs her personality, identity, her hopes, wants and dreams and she becomes infatuated with him, becomes a writer, pecks out all her fantasies.

And this happened in real life. Only it was the downtown art scene, not Marfa, and it wasn’t about visual art, but writing. And to be this naked and honest is what art is all about, which is why “I Love Dick” became a cult classic, not that this was clear back in ’97, when it was released, it had to marinate in minds for years and be rereleased to get its well-deserved victory lap, and this limited series on Amazon, which is a failure.

Not the initial episode. Watch that, it’s all you need, it sets it all up, delineates all the issues and the tension and…

Is that really Griffin Dunne? We’re unallowed to age in today’s world, but he did and gained not only weight, but gravitas. He plays Hahn’s husband, she worked so he could write, they both gave up children for their careers, which they believe are still gonna happen.

Hard to fathom if you’re living in internetland. Actually, that comes up much later in the series, one of the institute attendees makes a viral video, and of course its attraction is sex, i.e. nudity, but it gets Bacon wondering, the five hundred people who visit his museum a year, his work, is it worth it?

People like this still exist. But they don’t live in Manhattan, they can’t afford to.

Some smarties go to Harvard and get on the fast track, write for late night comedy shows, become rich and famous.

Then there are Oberlin graduates like Lena Dunham, who through sheer will and pluck and endeavor capture the zeitgeist and are recognized for it.

And then there’s a plethora of nobodies going nowhere, part of a community of analysts and creators that does not include us, with its own hierarchy, its own fellowships and rewards, and “I Love Dick” is about them.

Now prior to Reagan, prior to the great greening of America, and I mean mazuma, cash, dollars, your mind was more important than your bank account, and if your mind was good enough you could always find a way to survive. But those times have passed us by. Even the elite institutions are focusing on jobs, with their entrepreneurship courses, the parents paying 60k a year want to see tangible results. As for the schools further down the totem pole, it’s always been like this. But we relied on the best and the brightest from the elite institutions to be a beacon, to show us where to go, to be the soft underbelly of our culture, to illustrate that life is worth living, that it’s all just not work and accumulation. But as the rich got richer the intellectuals became self-satisfied, resentful of their low economic status, and drifted apart from you and me.

And if these worlds have ever touched yours, you’ll be reminded of all this watching “I Love Dick.”

Which got made because Jill Soloway had such success with “Transparent,” deservedly so. And we need deep pockets like Amazon to fund creativity. And creators don’t always succeed. But there is something different about this production, it has a woman’s viewpoint. And the end result is it’s much more raw than a man would make. You feel Hahn’s desires, you see both the weakness and the attraction of Griffin Dunne. If you can endure the four hours you will be rewarded with a foreign film, the kind you used to go to the theatre to see, that made you feel good about yourself, a member of the club.

And some were better than others.

This is not a good one.

But Kevin Bacon, whew! He’s just so calm and collected, yet coiled tight like a snake inside. This is not the sneering a-hole of the past. He’s mature, he’s past his peak, he’s comfortable in his clothing, and that makes him oh-so-attractive, it draws you to him.

And Kathryn Hahn’s intellectualism. Men believe looks are everything. But watch Ms. Hahn long enough and you become attracted, even if you weren’t previously, to her character anyway. Who is brave and not subservient, a woman of heart and mind who cares about you, but not at the cost of herself.