THE TRANSITION

We’re in the midst of the greatest transition in the music business since the Beatles, and I’m not talking about files to streaming, ownership to rental, but the transition from baby boomers to the younger generation.

Malcolm Young’s illness is evidence.

Voices change. Arthritis sets in. In other words, no one lives forever, and no one can do it forever. Sure, you might see ancient warriors still treading the boards, but so many of your favorite classic acts are not only over sixty, they’re seventy. In other words, if you want to see the Stones, go now, this is truly the last time.

And what this means is the legacy of the business is being wiped out, everything boomers were married to will be gone. Traditional radio, physical product, getting a good seat at a fair price, the music and everything attendant to it will be wiped out and we’ll end up with a clean slate.

So, if you’re waiting for the past to come back, sayonara!

The younger generation grew up in a pop world. Will there be a revolt against said pop music, will its “Sgt. Pepper” follow its “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” otherwise known as “My Humps”? Possibly, we’ll have to wait and see, but the people making the music will find the path themselves, they will not see themselves as part of a legacy business, but a whole new thing.

BLOCKBUSTERS AND MONEY

It only gets better from here, if you’re a winner. Income is only going up. Musicians have always had cultural power, they’re just leaving so much of it on the table. We live in a society of winners and losers, and music is the same. If you’re looking at your royalty statement or your touring income and you’re not happy, don’t keep doing what you’re doing, you ain’t goin’ nowhere. You’ve got to double down, change… Lemmings die, smart innovators live. That may mean you glom on to the sound of the day, that may mean you get a big investor, but it’s always been a hits business and it still is today, only we are not interested in B material, we need nothing to fill out the char…great, and only great, wins, and very little is great, but that which is is ubiquitous, and very profitable.

FREQUENCY

There’s been a big change in music in the last ten years. Used to be an act put out new music every three to five years. If you do that now, unless you’re Justin Timberlake, you’re forgotten.

Album cycles have sped up.

Acts put covers and live material on YouTube.

In other words, we are in an era of creation as opposed to marketing. It’s an artist’s wet dream. You have a ready and willing audience that wants to eat up everything you have to say. Feed them. Constantly. Singles may take longer than ever to happen on radio, but if you don’t think radio is losing its influence, you’re in it.

Furthermore, the tail of almost anything is not very long. Is anybody listening to “Gangnam Style” now? “Blurred Lines”? Beyonce’s latest?

Baby boomer thinking is that you make an impact and last.

Youngster thinking is what have you done for me lately?

If you haven’t done anything lately, you’re on the way to extinction.

MERGER OF SOUNDS

Country artists rap, some don’t even include banjos and fiddles in their music anymore. If you believe there’s a separation in sound, you’re unaware of the audience. Kids consume everything. All the influences. Don’t be surprised to hear EDM elements in country music soon. The younger generation thinks this is de rigueur, the same way they’ve got no problem with gay marriage. Times change. And they have.

RECORD LABELS

Everybody needs money. And leverage comes from catalog. Major labels have catalog, as long as they proffer fair deals, they will survive. Someone else could swoop in and replace them, but they’d have to have very deep pockets, because they don’t have that catalog cash cow.

INTERNET RADIO

Will not look like terrestrial radio. Despite all of its publicity, its festival, its awards show, Clear Channel has still not penetrated the new paradigm, which is personalization, or I hear what I want to on demand. iTunes Radio has put not a dent into Pandora’s mindshare, Apple’s only hope is to expand internationally before Westergren’s company. There is a first mover advantage, and Clear Channel/iHeart does not have it, no matter what they say.

FACEBOOK

Zuckerberg is smarter than everybody. Because he realizes Facebook is not forever. That’s what his recent acquisitions have been all about…tomorrow. In other words, Fleetwood Mac was right, don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, but the music business is famous for this. Expect further disruption by those not married to the past, this business leaves itself wide open for it.

SPOTIFY

Signed, sealed, delivered, it’s done, Spotify won. Why? Because it was a good idea, executed well at the right time. And the company had deep pockets and was willing to lose money. It’s the free tier that made Spotify win. Beats has no chance. Rdio and Deezer have already been forgotten. Only YouTube can compete with Spotify. There’s only one winner online, and if you think otherwise, tell me who competes with Amazon, which keeps getting bigger a la Zuckerberg, having just made a deal for HBO’s content.

CONCERT PROMOTION

The dream was with the decline of the labels, the promoters would step in and break acts, this has not happened, because promoters don’t want to invest, they don’t have the vision, if you sell tickets, they’ll book you, but if you can’t, they don’t want you. Artist development will continue to come from outside sources.

FESTIVALS

Are not where you break acts. Don’t believe otherwise.

But festivals work primarily because of the camaraderie of the audience, it’s very different from the traditional concert experience where you’re married to your seat, at the festival you get to interact with others, and we do live in a social network.

MOBILE

Desktop? Done. Tablet? Done.

Last quarter’s iPad sales were not spectacular, Tim Cook says it’s an inventory thing. But pundits believe otherwise. It’s all about the mobile handset, which keeps getting bigger. Mobile is going to be where you listen to music, buy stuff and get information. And if you’re not making it easier for consumers to do this on their handsets, you’re missing out. If anything, America is behind the curve on this. In India, in developing nations, in Europe…mobile already rules.

FOOD

Hot dogs and popcorn will not do. Even kids know good food. The whole country has gone upscale. This is the blockbuster syndrome in action. If your venue or festival is not serving gourmet fare, you’re losing money and disappointing your audience.

COKE

Is dying. That’s not my opinion, check the statistics, kids don’t want it. So everything you thought was forever might not be, everything is up for grabs, the future will be owned by those not married to the past, who are disrupting on a regular basis.

As for music and creativity…that’s king, because few can do it and it affects us so. How it will come to be will always be a gray area. Right now, tracks are massaged by many over a long period of time. Tomorrow individuals might write them in an hour. That’s the magic, never underestimate magic.

AMATEURS

Have tons of ideas, are excited about all of them and see none to fruition.

PROFESSIONALS

Have tons of ideas, pick one and do their best to make it happen.

AMATEURS

Think they can do everything.

PROFESSIONALS

Know it’s almost impossible to achieve one thing.

AMATEURS

Think they know everything.

PROFESSIONALS

Are always learning.

AMATEURS

Start with no preparation.

PROFESSIONALS

Do research, they want to know where the bodies are buried, what the landscape holds. Better to take all these factors into account before you start, because trying to adjust on the fly is so much more difficult, it wastes time and energy and it’s hard to put a fourth wheel on a car you designed with three.

AMATEURS

Don’t finish.

PROFESSIONALS

Are all about execution. Sure, they occasionally abandon a project when they see further effort is fruitless, but the mark of a pro is someone who begins and ends. If you notice someone can’t complete a task, run from them!

AMATEURS

Are worried about image.

PROFESSIONALS

Let their work do the talking.

AMATEURS

Demonstrate insecurity.

PROFESSIONALS

Are extremely confident.

AMATEURS

Can only see what’s in front of them.

PROFESSIONALS

Are all about the big picture.

AMATEURS

Hold those above them in contempt.

PROFESSIONALS

Hold no one in contempt, but they haven’t got much time for losers. If you’re an amateur trying to graduate to professional status and you have the good fortune to encounter a pro, DON’T WASTE THEIR TIME! Give just one or two compliments and ask your question. But most amateurs are so busy being sycophants the professional tunes out, or goes on at such length that the professional excuses himself.

AMATEURS

Have no idea what dues are.

PROFESSIONALS

Have paid their dues, and are still paying them.

AMATEURS

Believe in instant success.

PROFESSIONALS

Know anything worth accomplishing takes a long time, and what might look like overnight success is rarely such.

AMATEURS

Boast.

PROFESSIONALS

Never slap their own backs, and are oftentimes uncomfortable with others slapping their backs.

AMATEURS

Get nervous.

PROFESSIONALS

May be anxious, but they’ve performed the task so many times they let instinct take over, they go on their experience, nervousness never comes into the equation.

AMATEURS

Are looking for their one big break.

PROFESSIONALS

Know that life is about a series of breaks.

AMATEURS

Are afraid to fail.

PROFESSIONALS

Don’t like to fail, but when they do they pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back in the game.

AMATEURS

Interrupt.

PROFESSIONALS

Listen.

AMATEURS

Demonstrate their bile, they get frustrated or angry and it’s easy to see.

PROFESSIONALS

Are cool, calm and collected. You may read about the crazy owner/operator/entrepreneur, but if they’re truly nuts, they don’t last, their board replaces them, and the truth is most are not that nuts, it just makes a better story in the press to portray them as such.

AMATEURS

Bristle.

PROFESSIONALS

Show empathy.

AMATEURS

Are always telling you how busy they are and how hard they’re working.

PROFESSIONALS

Show up and stay as long as it’s interesting and profitable, bitching gains them nothing, so they don’t.

AMATEURS

Believe what people say.

PROFESSIONALS

Believe what people do.

I’m a sap.

I’ve never owned a black leather jacket, never a skinny tie, I’m nothing if not unfashionable.

But I’m human.

What does it mean to be human?

Anxious. Wondering if this or that is gonna work out.

Lonely. Wanting to connect, but not knowing how to bridge the gap.

Self-conscious. Worried if people are going to laugh at you.

I know what’s hip, and sometimes my taste squares with that, but if a song touches me…I don’t care where it came from.

Which means I don’t care what you think of me or my taste.

But that would be completely untrue.

But at home I play that which reaches me, like Luke Bryan’s “Play It Again.”

I know, this territory has been covered before, even better, by Taylor Swift with “Our Song.”

But this is just a little bit different, it’s a little less country and a little less adolescent.

She was sittin’ all alone over on the tailgate
Tan legs swingin’ by a Georgia plate
I was lookin’ for her boyfriend
Thinkin’, no way she ain’t got one

It’s easier when you’re older, you just look for the ring.

But when you’re an adolescent, an early twentysomething, everyone’s available.

Or are they?

Listen to Neil Strauss and you can embrace false confidence and employ the neg, trying to trick the women into paying attention by putting them down.

But I’ve been put down so much I’m never gonna employ this technique, furthermore I fantasize that if she just saw my true insides, she’d like me.

But still you have to make your move.

Despite the guy who hits on everybody, giving men a bad reputation, most of us are too afraid of rejection. You’re already out of our league, now you’re gonna kick us back to the minors?

Soon as I sat down I was fallin’ in love

The magic is in the change. But still there’s that moment when you’re talking to someone and you’re beginning to fall. You’re just being yourself, and she’s just being herself, and it works. Your self-consciousness fades away, you feel accepted, you don’t want the moment to end.

But in the song it does…

Talkin’ over the speakers in the back of that truck
She jumped up and cut me off

What’s going on? Everything was going so well and suddenly she’s jumping the tracks!

She was like, oh my God, this is my song
I’ve been listening to the radio all night long
Sittin’ ’round waitin’ for it to come on and here it is

Passion, that’s what attracts us. Conventional wisdom is it’s attractiveness. But that’s untrue, if we see the spark of life in you we’re completely sold, we’re undone.

She was like, come here boy, I wanna dance
‘Fore I said a word, she was takin’ my hand
Spinnin’ me around ’til it faded out
And she gave me a kiss
And she said, play it again, play it again, play it again
And I said, play it again, play it again, play it again

We males are bad at leading. We’re good on the ball field, amongst our buddies, but put us in front of women and we’re completely clueless, any guy can see it, the guy is talking but he’s faking it, he’s just waiting for the moment when the woman takes over.

And when you lead us beyond our comfort zone there’s nothing we like more. I’m not much of a dancer, but in the above situation I’ve got no doubt I’d be doing a two-step. And hoping the song never ended!

I’d ‘a gave that DJ my last dime
If he would have played it just one more time

Money isn’t everything.
Of course the construct of the song is suspect, it’s no longer the twentieth century, no one waits for the song to come on the radio. Still, we get it.

But a little while later
We were sittin’ in the drive in my truck
Before I walked her to the door
I was scannin’ like a fool, AM, FM, XM too

Little things make a difference, the XM reference makes me swoon. But there’s also evidence of desperation, and we males are nothing if not desperate. Pushing the buttons, scanning for a return to nirvana.

But I stopped real quick when I heard that groove
Man, you should have seen her light up

It’s the little things that matter, those are the situations you remember. Sure, graduating from college is a big deal, as is passing the Bar and getting married, but what truly makes our heart beat is when small things work out and the game continues, and our good feelings persist. Talk to any guy, he can remember these moments, especially the one where your eyes light up and focus upon him, giving him the green light he’s looking for.

And sure, everybody wants to get laid, but this is not what I’m talking about.

Pricks keep score and boast about it.

Real men are looking to melt. And it only happens a few times in a lifetime.

And if you’ve got your motorcycle jacket, if you wear your sunglasses at night, if you think punk is the best music ever made, you’re never gonna get “Play It Again.”

But most of the girls will. Because they’re optimistic and romantic. And they’re in control. They’re just waiting for that special someone to approach them so they can say yes.

And really the reason I like “Play It Again” has little to do with the lyrics.

It’s the sound.

That acoustic guitar intro and then the crystal clear strumming, setting the mood.

And the aforementioned change.

And the singable chorus.

So what I’ve done here is prove that I’m not cool.

But cool is for New York. For Angelenos who hit the clubs and the restaurants.

But me, I’m a human being, a dreamer. As old as I am I still fantasize my life will work out like a fairy tale. And when I hear “Play It Again” I believe it just might.

Play It Again – Spotify

Play It Again – YouTube-official video

Play It Again – YouTube-lyric video

P.S. Standing in the California desert I didn’t quite get it. But Luke Bryan’s performance of “Do I” had me surfing Spotify, checking out his tracks, as soon as I got home. And I discovered “Play It Again” and so much more. And now I feel I missed my opportunity, I can’t wait to see him again, so I can stand and sing along at the top of my lungs, amongst my brethren, all the women standing there dreaming life might just work out.

Can’t understand how you can be on TV but no one can see you. Having grown up with three channels, baby boomers can’t fathom five hundred. Gene Simmons trumpets the run of his “Family Jewels” show and it’s not even a footnote, to quote the Eagles, it’s already gone, and to quote Blondie, it certainly is not fading away and radiating.

Can’t understand why what was important to them is unimportant to their children, like Blondie.

Lament the fact that their favorite artists don’t put out new music but when it’s released they don’t want to buy it or stream it, and if it’s played in concert, they go to the bathroom.

Can’t understand why anybody would want to stay to the end of anything, because of the TRAFFIC!

Have all the latest gadgets but barely know how to use them.

Were brought up by hands-off parents and have counterbalanced this with being incredibly hands-on themselves. As if they don’t talk or text with their children multiple times a day, and their kids don’t check in with them to demonstrate they’ve arrived, they’ll wander off into the universe and die. We made it without our elders, why wouldn’t our children be able to make it without us?

Can’t square looking good with feeling bad. All the hogwash about fifty being the new thirty and sixty being the new forty has convinced them that they’re breaking the laws of science, but the truth is people break down, everybody does, and then they die.

Think their children are entitled, when the truth is every baby boomer alive believed they were entitled.

Can’t understand why anybody would want to stand at a concert. Ooh, my aching bones!

Want to do Netflix marathons but still want to be anti TV.

Still believe music can change the world, even though this hasn’t been the case since 1969 and the younger generations have no memory of this.

Want to drive foreign cars while their children are open to American ones, didn’t their progeny get the message, that Japanese automobiles don’t break and German ones have status?

Believed in acceptance during “Woodstock” and now won’t even accept themselves, they’re running for facelifts and Botox and want nothing to do with anybody of a lower social status.

Remember when the country was dominated by the middle class and can’t understand income inequality, it’s boomers this issue appeals to.

Were into the Great Society but now don’t want to pay tax, especially if the benefits don’t flow to them.

Couldn’t wait to get their drivers’ licenses but their kids can be in their twenties without them.

Believed boilable vegetable bags by Green Giant were the future only to find out fresh and local was.

Love vinyl, but sold all of theirs during the CD revolution.

Saw Florida as a geriatric graveyard and now can’t wait to move there.

Remember when Manhattan was the epicenter of the arts, before it became the epicenter of money.

Thought college was where you grew up and learned something as opposed to overpaying for an entry ticket to a job.

Can’t understand why you can’t get a good ticket. When you lined up in the morning, tickets were good. When you sit in your underwear at 10 AM clicking on Ticketmaster, you’re lucky to get a ticket at all.

Think because they’re old they can’t get STDs, but they’re growing amongst the aged.

Believe erectile dysfunction doesn’t apply to them.

Won’t talk about vaginal dryness.

The women are thinner than they were in school, the men are heavier.

Can no longer recognize the people in “People.”

Still believe in government, and that their voice and vote counts.

Remember when Manhattan was dangerous.

Remember TV shows that you can look up in Wikipedia, but you can’t see anywhere.

Can remember when almost nobody had flown in an airplane, as opposed to flying on a whim.

Are cheap. They’re the ones carrying their bags on board as opposed to paying to fly them underneath.

Realize opportunity has slipped through their fingers. But are still dreamers nonetheless, as if it’s only a matter of time before their fairy godmother descends from the heavens and gives them everything they want.

Lament they didn’t go to school during the hook-up era. Free love was nothing like this.

Know you can freeze your eggs, but having children after forty is strenuous.

Know that you work ever harder for less money.

Remember when companies were loyal.

Won’t wear hearing aids and glasses because of vanity, it’s going to be hard to communicate with them in the future.

Go to the movies to get out of the house as opposed to having something they need to see, otherwise Saturday night would look like the rest of the week, endless television.

Were fed by their mothers every night growing up, but have now become accustomed to takeout.

Can Google for basic information, but can’t go deep. A baby boomer has no idea their whole life is online, even if they’ve got an unlisted phone number.

Don’t need the best, but their children do.

Want to own, not rent, whether it be a house or music.

Remember when you didn’t buy a car with electric windows because they were gonna break, now tech never breaks.

Remember when you fixed stuff, now you just throw it out and buy a new one.

Want manufacturing to come back to the U.S., but still want cheap electronics.

Can’t understand hip-hop, never could.

Are all about designer logos even though they abhorred them when young.

Laughed at people with hairpieces but are now getting toupees.

Think the young are clueless, even though when they were growing up, they believed they knew everything.