Doesn’t mean as much as it used to.

I remember growing up, going to the Yankee game, we told our friends we would be there, to look out for us on TV. To be on TV was the thrill of a lifetime. Just to be seen, never mind heard.

But today, being on television is no big deal. Hell, what is a television appearance even worth? You’re on a basic cable show, or a news show, and fewer than 100,000 people see you…furthermore, you’re competing with zillions of other messages.

That used to be the goal, to become rich and famous.

But we knew almost no one could reach the brass ring. The barrier to entry was just too high. But today, the barrier to entry is nonexistent, such that everybody’s trying to become rich and famous. And there’s only so much money to go around, as for fame… The Oxford dictionary definition is:

“the state of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements ”

1. Being known… Are you known if you have a Facebook page with attendant friends? Or a YouTube presence with viewers? Or an Instagram or TikTok feed? Known used to be being the president of your high school. There was a great gulf between that and being truly famous, on television, known by many. As for how many people know you… I point you to this story:

“Influencers are royalty at this college, and the turf war is vicious – The University of Miami has embraced influencer culture, but the dean had to break up a TikTok spat last month”

Free link: https://wapo.st/47VHXD2

What we’ve got here is a war between a micro-influencer with 24,000 followers and another who has ten times that amount. The former was pissed that she wasn’t on the cover of the school newspaper featuring the school’s biggest influencers. The woman with the larger count put her down for being upset and the kerfuffle…

That’s exactly what it was, a minor scuffle. Who even knew that influencers were such a big deal at the University of Miami? And if they are, they must be a big deal on scores of other campuses and…how do you keep score?

Micro-influencers can get paid by companies who want a cheap way to reach a target audience… Have you seen any of the sites of these people who get free gear? They think they’ve made it all the way to the top! They’ve arrived!

2. Notable achievements… Today, even people with hit records don’t have such notable achievements. Oftentimes they’re just the face of a production, and it’s rare for many of these people to have continued success.

So what is success? There are people bitching that they can’t get paid on 1,000 streams.

Everybody’s trying to be famous and fame has ben devalued!

But it’s even worse, fame used to imply a distance, a gulf between the famous and the hoi polloi. But in a world where even the president tweets, that’s no longer the case. The world has been flattened, everybody’s fair game. If you post we know who you really are, and if you don’t post we judge you negatively for it, and anybody who cares is out to reveal your warts online anyway.

So if you’re in it for fame…

That’s now a phony goal. It doesn’t mean much. And even if you are famous…to how many people, where? In a nation where many have never even heard of the number one act, never mind their music.

Fame is an empty construct.

As for rich… There are more ways to make money. And you might be making bank but still not be famous in terms of the old construct.

So, at the end of the day you can fool yourself, reach artificial goals and say you’re rich and famous or…

You can know those are antique measuring sticks.

Today it’s solely about you and your audience. Those outside your audience may be completely unaware of you. May never be aware of you. Your clip can go viral on TikTok…and not only do you never go viral again, most of those who saw said clip don’t become followers and don’t see and aren’t interested in what you do thereafter.

So you have to be satisfied just doing the work.

But that’s not enough for most people. They’re after that elusive goal.

Maybe they want to be Kim Kardashian…

But you can’t even do that anymore. The Kardashians became famous via a cable TV show. They leveraged that into business opportunities. But today, if the basic cable channel still exists, almost no one is watching it. You can’t become a Kardashian, the lane is closed. Just like Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band became ubiquitous via VH1 airplay…there’s no outlet that everybody watches anymore, meaning more people are aware of and know the music of the old acts than the new, before the infrastructure of yore collapsed.

And it’s not only the players who abhor this, but the media, which likes things clear and coherent. What kind of world do we live in where the Top Ten isn’t representative of overall listening habits? Sure, the Top Ten might be listened to more than other songs, but in the aggregate, those other songs triumph.

So if you’re shooting for the moon…

Don’t.

There is no there there. There’s rarely any context. Look at social media, where there is no chart, everybody’s in it for themselves, building their own audience, and it rarely cross-pollinates.

Fame is no longer the goal. You want followers, you want superfans, but they may just be a tiny fraction of the overall populace. You’re famous in your niche, that’s it. And chances are you won’t grow from there…

Everybody’s trying to grow their fanbase. But in a world where you can pull the specific thing you want… Most people are not interested in what you’re doing, they’re interested in something else. And if you bland your product out, trying to reach more people, you’ll end up nowhere, because it’s the edges that hook people, that connect people.

So why are you in it? Why are you doing it?

Now in truth most people give up the dream, they get into their twenties, are sick of spinning their wheels and being broke and give up.

But the world is still clogged-up by the up and comers/newbies.

And you end up with those saying they’re famous but not rich…look at their follower counts!

And those with any followers at all who think they’re famous, complaining that they’re not rich.

And those who are truly rich and famous who think they dominate the culture but do not. I mean I’m at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony and people kept asking who some of the youngsters on stage paying tribute were. It’s easy to say those out of the loop are old…but maybe those new acts are just not that big…AND NEVER WILL BE! This is not a put-down of their talent, of the fact that they’ve got followers, but the concept that if you’re in “People” or on TV you’ve crossed a threshold and are now part of an insider club above the rest.

No, you’re just someone who had the benefit of some exposure. That most people didn’t see and those who did might shrug at…not even remembering your appearance soon after it ends.

Like at the University of Miami, seemingly everybody thinks they’re famous and entitled to the trappings/benefits thereof. God, talk to a retailer/restaurant…they’re constantly dunned for free items for the exposure of an influencer. And now most of the retailers/restaurants say no, because they know said exposure is meaningless.

So the metrics…

Are all personal. Do you have enough followers for you? Are you  making enough money for you? If you are, kudos. But don’t believe anyone else cares, or ever will.

It’s not a matter of everybody being famous for fifteen minutes, rather everybody is famous 24/7, and that begs the question…WHAT IS FAME WORTH?

In most cases, not much.

Rob Katz is Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-katz/id1316200737?i=1000736575595

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What kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where the most adventurous, most innovative album of the year is made by a Spanish artist singing in a multitude of foreign languages?

One in which everybody in music seems to be going in one direction, doing their best to distill their work to fit the precepts of their chosen genre, and everybody with a profile is afraid of going completely left field for fear of alienating their audience and never recovering.

Then again, how many of these people are truly artists? A lot of the rock and quiet music folks can’t even sing well, that used to be a main criterion of being a professional artist. And you can buy beats, get a ton of digital help such that you create something that might appear professional, but it is lacking the innovation, the nuance, the je ne sais quoi of great art. A left turn, a great leap forward, something that makes the listener question their attitudes and beliefs.

If you pull up “Lux” I doubt you’ll like it right away. You haven’t even heard anything like this before.

And to tell you the truth, I wasn’t going to listen, but Richard Griffiths, whom I trust implicitly when it comes to what is great, what is a hit, said:

“My big discovery this weekend has been Rosalia. Have you listened to her?

“I think she’s amazing!”

To say Rosalía’s is not in Richard’s wheelhouse is an understatement. This is the man who brought Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine to the public as the president of Epic Records. I know Richard likes prog, and he was the co-manager of One Direction, but Rosalía?

I knew who she was. I thought I’d seen her at an awards show. But to say I’d been paying close attention, knew her music, would be completely untrue.

So I’m in the back of a car Monday night, catching up on the “Washington Post,” and I come across this article:

“Rosalía made one of the year’s most demanding pop albums. Listen closely. The Spanish pop auteur’s sweeping new album is a test for shrinking digital attention spans.”

The first paragraph says:

“Let’s try to keep calm, because, for all of its ambition and grandeur, this new Rosalía album, ‘Lux,’ demands a sharpened mind more than a blown one. It’s an opaquely themed, scrupulously produced concept record in which the Spanish pop auteur sings about a handful of saints and martyrs in more than a dozen languages, backed by the unmitigated power of the London Symphony Orchestra — a stacking of lavish gestures that Rosalía hopes might help elongate our diminished online attention spans.”

Free link: https://wapo.st/4paOPU9

Now if that does not intrigue you…I guess you never lived through the seventies, which get a bad rap, but the first half of that decade was a fount of creativity and diversity. From Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell to Led Zeppelin to David Ackles… I could go on, but my point is the acts didn’t feel a need to sound like those who had hits. As a matter of fact, when there became so much money involved that acts did try to game the system, we ended up with corporate rock, which along with formulaic disco killed the record business. The public could smell a rat.

So I pull up “Lux” on my phone and…

The opening cut, “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas,” sounds like an intro/overture, but definitely doesn’t sound like anything else, certainly nothing in the hit parade. The second track, “Reliquia,” is more easily digested, closer to conventional popular music, but it too goes off the rails as it proceeds, as if Taylor Swift suddenly dressed like Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music” and started singing operatically in the mountains.

And one thing is for sure, Rosalía can sing.

And the next day I wake up to this review of “Lux” in “The New York Times”: 

“Rosalía’s ‘Lux’ Is Operatic. But Is It Opera?”

The headline tells all in this case. The writer’s beat is classical music and opera, the article was not written by the usual pop reviewer, because after all what is this? A pop artist bending genres, testing limits… This guy, Joshua Barone, coughs up some kudos, but ends with some caveats, after all, are we really going to put a lowbrow pop artist in the canon of those who train and take music seriously?

But Rosalía studied at the Catalonia College of Music, she’s not someone who developed her chops solely by listening to Top Forty radio.

And roots go a long way, they’re a springboard for innovation, the basics. In the seventies, said roots were the cornucopia of successful records, which inspired others to deliver their own opuses.

So last night hiking I decided to listen to the entirety of “Lux.”

And it’s different, VERY different. Reminded me of John Cale’s “The Academy in Peril.” Yup, I bought that one. Cale returned to traditional rock with “Paris 1919,” but his first solo album, on Reprise, was instrumental and closer to classical than rock. I bought it. And played it not ad infinitum, but a number of times, to try and get it.

And I did the same thing with “Lux” last night.

Talk about a musical adventure. My head was spinning.

The second time through it started to make more sense. Will you get that far? I don’t think the average person will even listen, and if they do, they’ll stop pretty quickly.

Now in the seventies, an album like this would not be a major seller. But we live in the streaming era, where the barrier to entry is essentially nonexistent, meaning anybody can check out an album. And people are…

If you listen to the press. The hype over the weekend was that “Lux” became the most-streamed album by a Spanish speaking woman.

I hate this sh*t. It’s now like baseball statistics. Parsing the numbers to come up with irrelevant stats. And the funny thing is ultimately they don’t matter, it’s just a way of stroking the ego of the artist involved. However…

Some people are listening to “Lux.” “Berghain” is #18 and rising on the Spotify Global songs chart. And Rosalía is the #5 artist in the Spotify Daily Top Artists Global chart. As for the USA…of course Rosalía is not in the US Top 50 daily chart. Used to be that the USA was the market leader, in every way, the most music consumed, the most innovative acts, Europe was a backwater, when it came to international acts South America/Latin was not even kept in mind, but today… In an era where the tools of production are available to everybody and the gatekeepers are history…

Yes, state radio calcified European music. It didn’t play the outré stuff  so few made it. But today…

For me, “Lux” is the most exciting thing to happen in recorded music this year. Because we’ve got a successful artist pushing the envelope, not for the sake of outrage, to solely get attention, but in pursuit of their own personal creativity.

And Rosalía is thirty three, she’s been around for a while. A break from the barely-pubescent molded by major label committee. I mean if you were unknown and came to a label with this music, the three majors would want no part of you. But with a track record, Rosalía could pursue her own path.

Now the game is different in the streaming era. It’s not about the debut, the launch numbers, but longevity. How long will people continue to listen to “Lux”? I don’t know.

But Rosalía has put a stake in the ground, “Lux” is a beacon for all the supposed artists repeating themselves, putting out tripe, taking baby steps as they use the producers du jour to try and game the charts.

“Lux” is what we need.

Listen to it. You may find it difficult at first. But while you’re doing so, think about the person who created it. Just like with the hit music of yore, you’ll ask yourself HOW DID SHE COME UP WITH THIS?

“Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu”: https://bit.ly/488Y0yH

 

Literally.

This book made me feel inadequate, like I hadn’t lived life to the fullest. Thank god I still have some time left, but I could never catch up.

Now I know Tom Freston. I even know the outline of most of these stories, a bit of depth, but my mind was blown reading all the detail in this book, never have I known such a nice guy to be so successful and get around so much and…

The thing is Tom is down to earth. Possesses no airs. Speaks to you as an equal, and actually speaks to you. He ran the cash machine known as MTV Networks, but when you talked to him it was like connecting with the guy who grew up next door.

Tom is the best corporate manager I’ve ever encountered. He’s not dictatorial, he delegates responsibility, and although he can be serious, he focuses on fun, adventure…

And this book is all about that.

I know the backstory, although I didn’t know his father suffered from PTSD, before we knew what that was, never mind give it a label. Some called it shellshock, but there were a ton of men who on the surface seemed to be living full lives, having families and bringing home the bacon, who were tortured inside as a result of the war.

And going to St. Michael’s, I knew that too…

But I didn’t know about the summer adventures in Lake George. Not only was it a blast, Tom met and became friends with a ton of people. That’s what it takes, getting along, without sacrificing your identity, knowing people…because you’re always going to run into them down the road, when you least expect it, and Tom does.

So to avoid the draft, Tom goes to business school at NYU. What I did not know was he was the valedictorian. Funny how Tom never told me that, since he makes a point of saying that Phillipe Dauman kept on bragging about getting perfect SATs. I hate those people. It’s one of the reasons I live on the west coast. No one asks you what you got on the college boards, where you went to college, you’re just here, you just exist. And attorney Dauman gains power and terminates Tom and ruins Viacom/Paramount, but that’s towards the end of the arc.

So Tom goes into advertising, but gives up when he’s got the chance to work on the Charmin account and a girl he knows calls him from Paris and implores him to quit and come travel with her across the Sahara. Which Tom does. There are people who can’t finish anything. But it’s also a special skill to know when to leave a job, to have faith in yourself.

There begins a year traveling through Europe, Africa and Asia…with a ton of time spent in Afghanistan and India. And you can’t do that anymore, the world is more sophisticated, but Tom did, when it was still wide open and safe.

And then he started a clothing import business.

One of those friends from Lake George inherited some bucks and Tom convinced him to invest and they built a company that ran very profitably, for a number of years. It was much bigger than Tom has ever let on to me, they sold clothing to major department stores like Bloomingdale’s as well as boutiques.

But laws change and it’s no longer profitable and Tom is out of a job and he answers an ad for what ends up being MTV. He’s selling himself. And I knew he had this import business, but I did not know he graduated #1 from NYU… People can smell it. Tom got a gig.

And there begins the MTV ride.

This book is not what I expected. I thought it’d be the in-depth story of MTV, and the bones are there, but the facts, the details have been told multiple times elsewhere. What you’ve got here is the business end of the story, dealing with Viacom, Sumner Redstone acquiring it, taking Sumner and his girlfriend to sex clubs in Thailand at the mogul’s insistence.

There’s a lot of inside dope like that. One of the best being the story of meeting Fidel Castro. Then again, Tom went with Brian Grazer and Les Moonves and Graydon Carter and… I knew Jimmy Buffett, who Tom almost got kidnapped in Africa with, but I don’t hang out with any of these people, yet when you’re with Tom you don’t think that he does either.

There’s more detail about Tom’s tenure at Viacom/Paramount than has been previously made public, and more about dealing with Oprah, Shane Smith/Vice and Bono/Red thereafter. Tom did not take another corporate job when he got blown out. Others would need it for their ego, Tom created a much more fruitful and fulfilling life. Building television stations in Afghanistan?

Now if you know Tom, you should absolutely read this book.

And if you don’t…

As stated above, this is not the story of MTV, but the story of Tom’s life, from soup to nuts, from then until now.

Most execs who write these books are boasting, all the while telling you how you can do it, even though you’re a completely different person.

That’s not what “Unplugged” is. It’s the story of a middle class guy who got bitten by the travel bug and morphed into a corporate executive whilst living in a rock and roll culture (as for MTV, Tom loved music, then again, we all did back then, in a way subsequent generations just cannot understand, music drove the culture) who then got promoted to the point where the status was real, but the pond was poisonous.

It’s the tale of an individual.

Like I said, I felt inadequate reading this book and you may too. Because Tom has been everywhere with seemingly everybody. And it doesn’t happen because he’s busy working the connections, kissing up to get ahead, but because he’s a good executive and a GOOD HANG!

But he’s also a leader. He was the one who got everybody to go to Kabul for New Year’s back in the seventies. Someone’s got to come up with the ideas, someone’s got to be the ringleader, someone’s got to push the needle forward, into the unknown, and Tom did that over and over again.

And, he hired Jill Lumpkin for his clothing company and she’s still in Asia to this day.

And the thing about Lumpkin… She was Tom Rush’s girlfriend, she’s on the cover of “The Circle Game,” he wrote “No Regrets” for her, and Tom discusses with James Taylor…did anything ever happen between the two of them? And it’s just amazing, in a nation of 200 million how one person, who is not famous, can be known by multiple people from different backgrounds, but…

I couldn’t put “Unplugged” down. It’s not the kind of book you can read in an afternoon, it’s deeper and longer than that. It’s a real book, not a typical rock memoir, not an afterthought, a cash-in.

How will you feel about Tom after reading it?

Well, it’s all there…

And if you know Tom, like I do, all you can say is WOW!