Never bet against Tom Freston.

And he’s bet on Shane Smith.

As MTV cedes its reign as the voice of a generation, as websites go click-happy, with an ever-descending parade of lowest common denominator drivel, Vice is rising like a phoenix to become the most important media outlet appealing to the younger generation.

That’s right, kids need something to talk about on WhatsApp. Steve Jobs famously said that Apple computers were just tools, long before today’s puffed-up tech titans will have us believe that their products are ends unto themselves.

Yes, what we’ve got is tireless self-promoters of the soulless and the worthless.

Welcome to 2014.

And into this mix we put Shane Smith. A Canadian who looks like someone you’d hang with in a bar, who’d have your back, but wouldn’t be unwilling to argue with you.

Argument. That’s something the younger generation doesn’t do well. They’re inundated with business advice how to get along. As if all rough edges should be shaved away in the pursuit of harmony. But the truth is there’s no center to many of these cliques. And the history of people illustrates that individuals who walk the road not taken triumph, they’re the ones who not only gain our eyeballs, but change the world.

You can’t stop watching Vice on HBO. It’s kind of like the “Sopranos,” if the “Sopranos” were real.

What we normally get with news is bloviating, arguing from a position, with two teams so loyal to themselves that you can’t trust a word they say. Come out against your party and you’re excommunicated, just ask David Frum, another Canadian.

So Shane Smith goes to Afghanistan and does a better job of asking what we’re doing there than MSNBC or Fox, never mind CNN, the all plane crash all the time network.

And then Vice goes to Greenland and frightens anybody watching into climate change belief, because pictures speak louder than words, when they’re displayed in a way that respects the audience.

And there you have it, the mantra of the twenty first century is SMART!

Forget the Kardashians, the rest of reality television too. That’s fodder for the ignorant masses, it’s all about money, and despite what the media tells you, with its endless scorecards, money isn’t everything, ideas are.

And there are plenty of people in business who are smart, but they’ve drunk the kool-aid. They’re loyal team players in search of financial security, they’re afraid to do it someone else’s way, they just want the CEO riches, so they can fly private and live behind walls.

Then there are people like Mr. Smith, who are willing to tip the world on edge to see what’s underneath.

It started with TED talks. But the people they feature are smarmy, it’s almost cult-like, with the endless backslapping and the exclusion of anybody provocative, Google Nick Hanauer’s talk for edification, never mind Sarah Silverman’s.

Yes, groupthink is prevalent on the left and the right, it pervades the young and old, but the truth is we’re drawn to the exception, those who march to the beat of their own drummer in pursuit of excellence.

Yes, Vice started with a bang, Dennis Rodman in North Korea, it got our attention.

But now it’s season two, and the focus is on information, which is king in today’s age. That’s why we’re endlessly surfing, why we’re addicted to our smartphones, we’re on a quest for information.

But too much is biased, it’s hard to believe in any one viewpoint.

And then this burly Canadian comes along and you say this is what I’ve been waiting for, this is the thing!

It’s only just beginning. Vice has been around forever, but it’s finally hit critical mass. By being smart it influences people.

And the most impressionable are those who push the envelope most, the young.

Yes, the young are gonna change this world, just like their parents protested and stopped the Vietnam war. The young are not beholden to their jobs, they’re willing to risk.

Assuming they’ve got a leader.

And right now, in this endless sea of b.s., where every website is asking us to click on worthless information so they can sell advertising, where Buzzfeed is lionized and idiots actually care what Arianna Huffington has to say, someone has sneaked upon the scene to change everything.

That’s the power of television.

That’s the power of Shane Smith.

That’s the power of Vice.

The streaming music service, not the headphones.

The headphones are going bonkers, despite every audiophile in the world castigating them for their bass-heavy frequency response, turns out music is a fashion item and everybody wants to be fashionable. Easier to spend a few hundred dollars on ear cans as opposed to a Rolls-Royce or a NetJet account. Everybody wants to appear rich and a player, even though the truth is the purveyors, the proprietors, the men who pull the strings behind the curtains (and it’s seemingly always men, did you read that Marissa Mayer is gonna start a streaming video service on Yahoo…why not a search engine and a smartphone while she’s at it!) are the ones making all the money, pulling away from the hoi polloi.

Yes, I’m talking about Tim Cook. You know, the guy who said he was bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. when the truth is it’s for the niche Mac Pro while everything else is still being made in China and Apple hoards more cash than it knows what to do with.

But the truth is Mr. Cook has been running on Steve Jobs’s fumes, the same way Al Teller ran on Irving Azoff’s legacy at MCA. Cook has yet to come up with anything new. Meanwhile, Huawei eats smartphone sales on the low end and Samsung is nibbling at every inch of consumer electronics shelf space and iTunes music sales are off.

Yes, it turns out Steve Jobs was wrong. Don’t criticize him, you can’t be right unless you’re willing to be wrong, everybody makes mistakes, and Steve was famous for changing course, delivering what he said he would not before, and the truth is people don’t want to own their music, they want to stream it, and Apple’s got no streaming solution.

Oh, the company has iTunes Radio. But it’s an also-ran in a mature sphere where Pandora dominates. But the truth is YouTube dominates in music, and before Spotify makes any more inroads, Cook has decided to make a deal with the devil, i.e. Jimmy Iovine.

Yes, Jimmy pulls one out of the hat once again.

You really didn’t think Beats Music could survive without a free option, did you? Didn’t Napster prove that you can’t compete with free? Isn’t that the history of the Internet, if people can get it for free, your business model is challenged?

So Beats Music is hemorrhaging money and Apple has a need and an acquisition was made.

However, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Iovine is ankling his Universal post to start an Apple record label, abandoning Interscope now that John Janick is doing the day to day work. Apple is smarter than to get into music production. Apple is about locking people into their ecosystem, and producing content has nothing to do with that. Distribution is king. Apple doesn’t care whose music you play on their devices, as long as you employ their devices.

That’s what Steve Jobs had right, a foolproof solution, an end to end answer to questions you didn’t know you had, but will uncover in time.

That’s still Apple’s iPhone ace in the hole. Sure, a Samsung Galaxy might make phone calls and display apps, but how easy is it to synch your music and your photos?

But the truth is music synching is passe. Which is why Tim Cook is making this Beats deal.

As for the price?

A cool billion.

Yes, Jimmy bought low and sold high. It’s not WhatsApp kind of money, then again, Facebook wasn’t interested, despite Jimmy flying to see Mark Zuckerberg once a month for the past year. And when Zuckie made the Oculus deal Jimmy knew it was time to pull the trigger, to take the Cook offer, even though he wanted more. Yes, Jimmy was angling for $2 billion, but in this case he had little leverage, he took the cash.

As for his minions?

In one fell swoop, Trent Reznor has made more money than he ever did in music.

As for Dr. Dre, who hasn’t had a hit single in eons and probably never will again, he’s rolling in dough. Jay Z keeps telling us he’s the man, but it turns out Dre is. Proving the man behind the console is always more powerful than the one in front of it. Acts come and go, producers, or at least their royalties, are forever.

And speaking of royalties…

Just like with iTunes Radio, Apple will immediately increase payments, to shame Spotify. Apple wants acts on board, especially since they utilize their devices and software, Macs and Logic. And we all know the money is in the tools one uses to create, as opposed to what comes out of the speakers.

Now despite this announcement, don’t expect Apple to launch its streaming service for quite a while, look to history, the acquisition of Lala, Bill Nguyen’s enterprise that launched as a CD trading site. But just like Mr. Nguyen was jettisoned, Ian Rogers will not make the transition to Apple. Mr. Rogers says it’s because of a lack of Cupertino skateparks, but that’s just a smoke screen, Apple wants none of the Beats employees, it’s going to take the code and upgrade it, the licenses are key, and the technical infrastructure.

In other words, whereas the Lala buy was about getting engineers on board, in the case of Beats Music, Apple wants the end product and will keep the present Beats team on for only a short while, to help in the transition.

Cook wanted to launch the service in September, with the iPhone 6, but now with Scott Forstall gone, Apple software development is still in disarray, and this timetable is impossible, so the launch will come in the new year, right after Christmas, before the Super Bowl, when Cook is scheduled to appear on the Howard Stern show to introduce the product.

That’s right, Stern now has more impact than football, and as a lover of Apple products he’s willing to host Cook for free. Furthermore, with endless reruns on both Howard 100 and Howard 101, the message will continue to get out. And, the interview will stream free on iTunes Radio, so you won’t need a satellite subscription to hear it.

Cook was very close to making a deal with Rush Limbaugh instead, but Rush’s hatred of gays queered the deal. That’s right, despite being an Apple fanboy, Rush’s political positions did him in.

As for Cook’s request that his sex life be off limits on Stern’s show…Gary Dell’Abate told me that Howard will not negotiate, everything’s fair game.

So where does this leave us?

1. Streaming wins. People have been waiting for years for Apple to get into the market, now it has. Is it too late? Apple owned the portable music sphere with its iPod, no one else could get traction, but Android has significant market share in phones. Therefore, despite Cook portraying this as a breakthrough acquisition, it’s really about catching up.

2. Jimmy Iovine demonstrates that he’s a winner, that all the naysayers are wrong. He went on “American Idol” with those godforsaken Beats headphones around his neck and he willed them to be successful. Now that he’s unloaded Beats Music, rumor has it that Iovine will be shepherding a return to rock movement, saying it’s all about being able to play your instrument and that hip-hop is dead. He will reunite Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty for another duet, maybe around the time of the Apple/Beats launch, Jimmy has always known it’s about marketing.

3. Spotify is history. Daniel Ek is no competition for Apple. In tech timing is everything. Spotify fought the war, got customers softened up to embrace streaming, Apple will gain the lion’s share of the revenue (and yes, there will be an Android version of the Apple/Beats streaming service, it will launch simultaneous with the Apple version, just like iPod for Windows broke Apple through, Cook is taking no chances, he’s replicating the formula.)

4. Tim Cook shows that he is willing to go against Steve Jobs’s wishes, that Apple is now truly his company.

5. Once again, the money flows to the techies. Yes, Iovine got paid, but only once, he’s got no ongoing remuneration coming from Apple, like Ian Rogers, he’s out.

So the war is over. Our long national nightmare is history. We’ve evolved from CDs to piracy to the iTunes Store to legal streaming services. Now the person proffering the best music wins. Distribution is available to everyone, if not marketing dollars. Then again, just like Apple has been jawboning labels for exclusives, expect this behavior to continue on the Apple/Beats service, home page real estate continues to be valuable.

And one more thing…

YouTube’s streaming music heyday is about to end. As part of the Beats deal, the heads of the three major labels have secretly agreed not to renew their YouTube licenses. You can’t win unless you kill the competition, and Tim Cook has made a preemptive strike.

This year’s Alabama Shakes.

I’m a triangulator. I wait until all indicators flash red. Then I pay attention.

I’m not saying I did not check out St. Paul & The Broken Bones from the initial e-mail regarding their music, but when friends start tweeting about it, when more people start e-mailing me about it, I know…there’s something going on.

And I guarantee you it’s manufactured.

How do I know? If you Google the band, one of the first hits is news of their scheduled appearance on “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” that’s tomorrow in case you want to set your DVR.

You see someone is working this.

But I don’t mean that as criticism, only explanation. See the music and the performance are driving this.

Let’s start with the performance. Because all links connect to the following YouTube video:

St. Paul and the Broken Bones – Call Me

Check it out. It does not reek of Los Angeles. No one that chubby is allowed over Mulholland. And it’s not New York, there’s no slickness involved. It screams nothing so much as Alabama, where the band turns out to hail from.

But as Kiki Dee sang, it’s all about having the music in you. And this guy definitely does. That’s the magic, not the track.

And the track is not resonating. It’s only got 185,398 plays as I write this, and the clip has been up since July 15, 2013.

What I’m saying is this is not an instant reaction record, otherwise the count would be in seven figures. It can’t go viral because there are no naked bodies and the song…just isn’t catchy enough.

But if you go deeper, and I did not months ago, when I first got the link, you discover…the track “Like A Mighty River” is far superior to “Call Me,” which is featured in the above clip. In other words, St. Paul, etc. may be addressing the number one problem in music, material. Especially for soul revues. Performance only goes so far, do we want to hear you on wax?

But the truth is today’s younger generation does not have this music in their DNA. Hipsters will talk about Sharon Jones, but the truth is the Commitments occurred decades ago. Is the public ready for soul?

In a world populated by phony, real always resonates.

That’s right. Everybody knows those pop hits are written by committee, and that one guy raps and another one, two or three provide the beats. It’s all assembly line, it might as well be fabricated by Foxconn or Pegatron. So when you experience something alive, that breathes, that does not reek of the machine, you stop and pay attention. Which is what is driving St. Paul, etc.

And the truth is we’re going down the wrong path, with curated playlists.

Unless we start rating said lists. Because we don’t want to sit and listen passively to anybody’s picks, we want our own, all the time.

But we’re all still interested in the direct hit, the anointed number we must pay attention to that delivers.

The point is I’ve known about St. Paul, etc. for a while. But the preponderance of e-mail and tweets has finally got me digging deeper today. And what I’ve found is substance, something to pay attention to.

Not that much attention, the label/manager/publicity person are going to do their best to force us to pay attention, to anoint this as fantastic, but it’s not.

But it is worth paying attention to, it is a start.

Proving once again, it starts with the music, performance thereof helps, and the only way to rise above is with the push of professional players, it’s the only way to float above the cacophony, to get the professional posters/tweeters excited about it.

Yes, there are tons of tastemakers out there. And I pay attention to very few. But when all of them are on to something, I pay attention.

P.S. The key with music like this is to entice people to see it live, that truly bonds them to the act and gets them talking about it. And then it’s about…delivering the killer track that makes the commitment of the fan worthwhile, allowing him or her to say…I TOLD YOU SO!

P.P.S. The first thing a surfer does is go to your Wikipedia site. If you haven’t got one, build towards one, it’s an imprimatur of legitimacy. St. Paul, etc. don’t have one, bad move. Second, make sure the first Google hit is your own URL, which you must have. St. Paul, etc.’s initial hit is Facebook, and nothing turns me off more, it’s the home of the self-promoters. If you don’t look legitimate, it’s hard for me to take you seriously, the hurdle is that much higher.

Check out “Like A Mighty River” live on YouTube here:

St. Paul and the Broken Bones/ “Like A Mighty River”

Check out the entire album on Spotify here:

St. Paul and the Broken Bones – Spotify

PEACHES EN REGALIA

Because most people would not believe it was him, didn’t know it was him and were surprised it was him when they heard it coming out of the speaker.

An instrumental, you cannot help but conduct the theoretical orchestra with your hands.

For the newbie, for the non-fan…you’ll be immediately enraptured, especially as the track unfolds.

This was not the most famous track on “Hot Rats” when it appeared, but it has become so.

WILLIE THE PIMP

The English cats were not the only ones who could write an indelible riff. “Willie The Pimp” was the most famous and played track off “Hot Rats” when the album was released back in 1969, featuring the vocal of Captain Beefheart when he was still perceived as a curio, during the “Trout Mask Replica” days…this is heavy, hypnotic music.

TROUBLE EVERY DAY

From the initial double album, “Freak Out,” this is Zappa’s take on the Watts riots.

Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guess

Can you imagine Pink singing this?

Welcome to the sixties, where musicians commented about the world around them, the injustice, the irrationality.

This track had limited impact upon release, the album was a stiff, but it lived on, as all great things do, its image was embellished with each passing year.

HUNGRY FREAKS DADDY

The opening cut on “Freak Out.”

Mister America
Walk on by
Your schools that do not teach
Mister America
Walk on by
The minds that won’t be reached
Mister America
Try to hide
The emptiness that’s you inside
When once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of
Hungry freaks daddy

We were the hungry freaks. Not all of us, not right away. But the hip listened to albums like this, the rest of us ultimately got clued in by the radio, and suddenly America was populated by a younger generation thinking for itself. Not worried about getting rich, not going to the gym to look good on Instagram, but focused on what was inside.

CALL ANY VEGETABLE

“Absolutely Free,” the second album, was when the Mothers started to get traction. Because it was so weird, but at the same time was not seen as outside, but a leader. Its titles entered the collective consciousness before the music did, if it did at all.

Suddenly, people would start saying brown shoes don’t make it, everybody knew the name “Suzy Creamcheese,” even if they had no idea where it came from, and of course there was the album’s opening cut “Plastic People.” But it was “Call Any Vegetable” that was most easily accessible and gained the most notoriety.

STATUS BACK BABY

Pure genius.

I didn’t hear it until I was in college, but it perfectly encapsulated my feelings about high school.

You see today everybody is indoctrinated, everybody drinks the kool-aid, no one wants to be a loner, we live in an era of groupthink, and nowhere is it worse than in high school.

But here we’ve got Frank and his band making fun of it all, even using the sing-songy melodies of high school numbers!

The other night we painted posters
They played some records by the Coasters
Bow wow wow wow
A bunch of pom-pom girls looked down their nose at me
They had painted tons of posters, I had painted three
I hear the secret whispers everywhere I go
My school spirit is at an all time low

FLOWER PUNK

And here’s where we come to the apotheosis, the breakthrough, the “Sgt. Pepper” parody, “We’re Only In It For The Money.”

You couldn’t say that back then. Money came last, you couldn’t admit that was your motive. There’s a reason Gene Simmons had no success in the sixties.

“Flower Punk,” a parody of “Hey Joe,” is my favorite cut on the album, especially because of the ending, wherein there’s a different soliloquy in each channel. Talk about cognitive dissonance! I was in a friend’s basement and he made me listen, that’s how into our music we were back then. And then you turned the dial to hear what was in one speaker, and then the other. Utterly fascinating.

YOU DIDN’T TRY TO CALL ME

And after his greatest success did Frank Zappa deliver what the label desired, did he build upon what came before? No, he issued an album credited to Ruben & the Jets that was a take off on doo wop. Huh?

This track won’t make much sense until you listen to the ORIGINAL! From the initial double album, “Freak Out.” It’s a totally different number in its first incarnation, it’s got the feel of sixties flower power. Frank wasn’t just recutting his songs acoustic for MTV, but totally reworking them!

And after you listen to both versions…the lyrics truly start to resonate.

I dig you so much man, why didn’t you call me
If you could have seen me in the afternoon
I was hung up, I even washed the car
I, I reprimered the right front fender, man
We were gonna go, we were gonna go out
And get some root beer afterwards, man
And I was gonna show everybody my new carburetor
And you didn’t try to call me

Reprimering the front fender, cracks me up every time!

Unlike today, you weren’t at home upgrading your RAM, but working on your car. But one thing remains the same, the waiting…it’s truly the hardest part, when they don’t call or text or…

DIRECTLY FROM MY HEART TO YOU

Featuring Don “Sugarcane” Harris, this proves, once again, that despite making innovative comedy and social commentary records, Zappa could play by everybody else’s rules and win.

MY GUITAR WANTS TO KILL YOUR MAMA

From “Weasels Ripped My Flesh,” like “Directly From My Heart To You,” it featured blistering guitarwork and the title entered the public consciousness like the titles from “Absolutely Free,” even if people had never heard the actual track.

SHARLEENA

“Chunga’s Revenge” never gets any love, despite being solid throughout.

It’s the first album featuring Flo & Eddie of the Turtles, Frank renamed them…their full names were the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie.

You’ll be nodding your head to this. Then again, maybe not, especially if you haven’t been hooked by the above.

THE MUD SHARK

Yes, from the Edgewater Inn, where the rock stars fished out the window and…

This was our first exposure to the story.

And truly, the whole album is the story. “Fillmore East” has to be listened to from beginning to the end, like a Firesign Theatre record, to hear the story.

There are so many classic lines that I quote on a regular basis… Most regularly the line wherein the rock star asks the groupie to come on their bus and the girl asks where they’re playing tomorrow night and the musician says…TIERRA DEL FUEGO!

Frank Zappa has done more for the godforsaken archipelago than anyone else, he made tons of people aware of it, like ME!

Furthermore, Bwana Dik is a legend, enormous thou art!

If you’ve got an hour…your mind will be twisted and edified more than it will be in days of endless surfing and Facebooking.

EDDIE, ARE YOU KIDDING

From the subsequent live album, “Just Another Band From L.A.”

You got it even if you didn’t live in L.A. and were unaware of Zachary All.

Check it out.

MAGDALENA

What the Barenaked Ladies would sound like if they were truly dangerous.

MONTANA

From the true breakthrough, 1974’s “Over-Nite Sensation.”

Yes, it took a decade and a plethora of albums and then a ditty about raising dental floss in Montana that got most paying attention.

I’M THE SLIME

Once upon a time, SNL was a ritual, we gathered in front of the set at 11:30 to see our leaders, they weren’t just commenting on the goings-on, they WERE the goings-on!

And finally, the show featured Zappa, and during this number…the slime truly oozed from the TV monitors, check it out:

I’m The Slime

DON’T EAT THE YELLOW SNOW

And now EVERYBODY knows Frank.

It was dumb, it was base, but our hero finally became a national star, and for that we were appreciative.

VALLEY GIRL

It made Moon Zappa famous. It was a hit when Top Forty ruled, and it defined an entire culture, even more than the movie of the same title. If you drive by the Sherman Oaks Galleria and this song doesn’t go through your brain, you weren’t conscious back in ’82.

The above is just a taste, an entry point, I’ve left tons of quality material out, as well as many fans’ favorites.

Zappa soldiered on, whether the records sold or not. He created a huge body of work and died before his time and unfortunately has been fading in significance as only the hits from the eras he played in sustain. But, if you were ever bitten by the bug, you’ll never forget him.

Rhinofy-Frank Zappa Primer