"If you address yourself to an audience, you accept at the outset the basic premises that unite the audience. You put on the audience, repeating cliches familiar to it. But artists don’t address themselves to audiences, they create audiences. The artist talks to himself out loud. If what he has to say is significant, others hear and are affected."

They Became What They Beheld: Medium, Message, Youtubery

That’s the essence of classic rock, the essence of old school hip-hop. HOW DID THEY COME UP WITH THIS SHIT?

The best, most legendary artists of the classic rock era were unique. You might have been able to trace the connection to what came before, but what you were listening to sounded like nothing else. Kind of like comparing "Love Me Do" with the White Album. Yes, it was the same act, but the Beatles went on a journey of self-discovery, they refused to repeat themselves. The point wasn’t to give people what they wanted, but to test personal limits and hope the audience followed you.

To a great degree music is artistically bankrupt.

Let’s start with radio. We used to LOVE the radio, we were addicted to it. The deejays picked the tracks, respected us, and commercials were kept to a minimum. We couldn’t wait to tune in. That’s the first thing you did when you got home, never mind in the car. Can you imagine tuning in today’s stations at home? You’d have to be a glutton for punishment, there are so many better alternatives. The radio was a club, the tribal drum, something we were all addicted to, discussed and followed. Modern radio let us down. Blame the Telecommunications Act of 1996, blame the owners, blame the "talent". Sure, there are still some good outlets, but they’ve been tainted by the stink of their brethren.

Then there’s the labels… They only want what sells, instantly. Go to them with something left field, that is not radio-ready, and they’ll laugh. They’re out. They want what’s easy. Once upon a time labels were run by owners who loved the music, who loved money less, now the reverse is true. Cut the salaries of the label honchos by ninety percent and see how many stay on.

Now nobody bitches as hard as artists. But if you cut their salaries, however meager, they’d continue to play. You see music is a religion.

But those are the old people. The young ‘uns have been brought up in a bankrupt musical culture and just want to replicate what they see on TV, hear on the radio. I mean do we really need another Britney Spears, never mind Christina or Mariah? But that’s all they know. And their parents want them to be financially comfortable and they don’t stop telling their progeny how great they are so we’ve got a bunch of untalented me-toos fighting for attention from a public that pretty much shrugs its shoulders.

You see what the public wants is artists.

Not only the Beatles, but David Bowie and Roxy Music and Jethro Tull.

But everyone’s afraid to be an artist. They’re afraid to walk into the wilderness.

Until yesterday, I had no idea who Vi Hart was. But watching this video I got hooked. First and foremost by the voice. It wasn’t auto-tuned, it didn’t sound like someone famous, in the media, but someone real. Never underestimate the power of real. That’s what we truly relate to, connect with, cannot get enough of.

And Vi is asking the classic YouTube questions… How can I play the game, rig the system, so more people can know me and I can become more famous.

If your goal is to become famous, please give up. We’ve already got enough of those. We’re not interested.

And if your goal is to create a YouTube video that will get so many hits you can give up your day job as a result of the payments, give up too. Because the public hates lowest common denominator bottom fishers. Ever notice that the most successful viral videos are a party of one? It was a stroke of luck which cannot be repeated. The odds of having multi digit millions multiple times out is essentially zero. But you can create something of value and reach enough people to gain sustainability. You’ve got to shoot lower. You’ve got to know today everybody is a niche. And you’re out to grow yours.

Vi quotes a decades-old book, Edmund Snow Carpenter’s "They Became What They Beheld". It was written long before the Internet era, but it applies 100%. As does all truth. Whether it be the Greek philosophers or the aforementioned Beatles.

And like so many great things, Vi’s video doesn’t grab you instantly, it doesn’t hook you right away, like all those books about creating hit songs tell you to do. But it’s inviting enough that you stay with it, to reap its rewards.

And the video was so good, I decided to do some research.

This math whiz was so successful, she got a job with Khan Academy. Which was even featured on "60 Minutes". Khan is changing the world. Justin Bieber is not.

So are you an artist or a performer?

We’ve got enough of the latter.

We don’t have enough of the former.

You’ve got to enjoy the work. You’ve got to be happy if you never become rich and famous. You’ve got to toil long enough that all the pieces fall into place, that your work sells itself.

That’s how it once was in music.

That’s how it’s going to have to be again.

"Bending and Stretching Classroom Lessons to Make Math Inspire"

Notice that the above article was published on January 17, 2011, eighteen months ago. You think publicity reaches everybody instantly, it does not. But stories live on online, so if someone suddenly becomes interested, they can find out about you.

"Khan Academy: The future of education?"

Do you think Salman Khan started his academy with the goal to get on "60 Minutes"? It’s backwards in music, the end result is put first. If you’re great opportunities will find you, not the other way around.

P.S. I found out about Vi Hart virally. That’s how we find all the great stuff today, from links, from friends. And the sense of discovery is inspiring and ultimately overwhelming. I had to do more research, I had to find out what she looked like, I had to tweet about it. The old farts say we lost something with the death of vinyl album art. But we gained so much with the Internet. Now there’s a plethora of information online for those who truly care. And the hunt for nuggets is akin to panning for gold. We do it alone. Not told to by anybody else, but personally inspired. It’s so rewarding. And we hold dear that which we discover. And we tell everybody we know about our adventures, what we find. Not everything, just that which we know will resonate, which will not only inspire our friends but burnish our image as a connector.

If you’re waiting for a woman to take over Universal Music or Live Nation…

First and foremost, Marissa Mayer is an engineer. A far cry from the contestants on "Idol" who can’t write songs, the wannabes with no experience who believe they should be at the top of the pop chart. Hell, in music it’s now less about individuality than submitting to the starmaking machinery. Rape me, remake me, I’ll do anything to be famous.

Meanwhile, fame is overrated. And whatever power today’s musical artists have they tend to leave at home. Yes, Gaga stood up to Target, nobody in Nashville will stand up to anybody, for fear of being excommunicated by the cabal.

I’m not sure Yahoo is savable. Then again, they tend not to hand the keys to a woman on the first go-round. Then again, women are better consensus-builders. Better a woman than a man who’s more interested in his pay package than the destiny of the company.

Yahoo is like a British Invasion band whose hits dried up and whose market share was usurped by more profitable upstarts. If only the company could go on a nostalgia tour, reaping bucks from people who remember the nineties, who’d buy merch and then go home self-satisfied. But there’s no nostalgia in tech. Hell, you don’t want to use the old Nokia that’s stuffed in your drawer.

It’s interesting that so many acts are women. But other than Monica Lynch, who worked at an indie, and Julie Greenwald, they’ve never gotten a top gig at a label. You see in music, women are second class citizens, it’s a boys club.

But it’s not like I can point to a woman who’s been overlooked. Who’s ready. Then again, Dolan did give the Madison Square Garden job to Melissa Ormond. Isn’t it funny that the most hated man in New York is on the cutting edge of women’s rights? Hell, he gave his wife a ton of power too.

But all upward mobility at the labels has stopped. It’s all about turf protection now. In this game of musical chairs, if you didn’t have power before, you’re certainly not gonna get any now.

One can only hope that women will get a toehold in the new world. Built utilizing digital tools that too often the old men just don’t understand.

But that will require not only street smarts and political efforts, but training.

Marissa Mayer did the hard work. She paid her dues at Google.

No one wants to pay their dues in music.

Which is why if they break through at all, they don’t last. There are no underpinnings.

The longer it takes you to make it, the longer your victory lap.

Digital is a meritocracy. And if you’ve got no merit, you’re never going to make it and maintain it.

As for those acts who complain they’ve got talent, paid their dues, all I can say is to wait, it takes longer than ever to get consensus, for everybody to agree you deserve attention. As for the old school top down marketing, sure, it might work in the short term, but the public is sophisticated, they know it’s not real.

From: Chris Frantz
Subject: Re-Lying

Greetings from France, Bob. I remember Larry Butler well. We visited many a radio station and record store together promoting Talking Heads. He’s a good guy and I look forward to reading his book. Let me just say one thing about Tom Verlaine, though. I don’t think Tom ever recommended any band to play CBGBs and certainly not Talking Heads. I was the one who approached Hilly on our band’s behalf. As far as I know, Tom Verlaine has never done a single favor for anyone…not even himself.

Cheers,

Chris Frantz

"Lopez dumped from "Idol" after seeking raise to $17 million"

I’m reading Larry Butler’s book. "Larry Butler, who’s that?" Mr. Butler was an artist development guy at Warner Brothers forever, when it was still the WB we knew and loved. And before that he was a musician, he opened for the Stones! Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.

You see that’s a story Larry tells in his book. It’s full of nuggets. The basic concepts are not new, but it’s a fun read, to find out Hilly Kristal was an unwitting beneficiary of Tom Verlaine’s inability to find anywhere to feature Television. Yup, Verlaine asked Hilly to play at CBGB, a relatively dead bar, on a dead night, Monday, and Television played to the usual suspects, a dozen friends of the band. But amongst that group was a reporter for the "Village Voice". Who concocted the story that Liza Minnelli had been seen there, back when she actually was a scenester, and the venue filled up the following week. And eventually Hilly asked Tom if he knew of any other acts that could play. Tom said Blondie, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith…and the rest is history.

Yup, musicians have been lying forever. Hell, they’re still lying! They tell me they’ve sold 100,000 independent albums. If you claim that number I figure you might have hit 1,000. And if you claim 10,000, I figure somewhere between 150 and 250. Yup, you trump it up and we don’t believe it.

But it used to be the only outlets that printed this crap was "Rolling Stone" and the rest of the rock press, sycophants who wanted to hang with the band. But when you intersect with big time media, i.e. television, i.e. "American Idol"/Fox, you can’t pull those low rent games anymore. And what’s worse, there’s a whole Internet spreading the word.

J. Lo asked for too much. And Tyler wasn’t even made an offer. They’re operating by old rules. They think if they keep repeating a story, it’ll be true. But we live in a different culture today. You own your faults, your defeats, honesty is the only policy today, because the truth comes out online, especially if you’re a star, if you’re noteworthy.

Imagine if Tyler said THEY DON’T WANT ME ANYMORE! Rallied his troops in defiance of Fox. As for J. Lo, she completely flummoxes me, she’s without musical talent and whatever fumes her musical career is running on were fanned by the damn show. Hell, she should have paid them to be on it.

I love the new world. Because the Net is a giant correction factor. Everything’s up for grabs. Everybody can play. Sure, the demolition of the old edifice has its price, the plethora of wannabes who aren’t good enough who clog up the pipe and make the scene damn near incomprehensible, but that’s not gonna last forever. Meanwhile, the new game is coming. And, unfortunately, the wannabes are gonna be left out, expect them to cry.

As for Larry Butler’s book… It’s a whopping $2.99 at Amazon. Hell, if you’re a member of Prime, you can read it for nothing. It only comes as a Kindle edition. You see Larry may be old, but his thinking is new. He was squeezed out of the old system and realizes that rather than pining about going back, to nowheresville, where he’s unwanted, he’s better off going into the wilderness and trying to find his way.

And I don’t expect "The Twelve Lessons Of Rock ‘N’ Roll" (For Your Career And Your Life)" to burn up the chart, to turn Larry into a famous author, but he’s making an effort, he’s trying, only when you dive into new water can you find your next destination.

Butler’s book – "The Twelve Lessons Of Rock ‘N’ Roll" (For Your Career And Your Life)"

P.S. It takes about an hour to read, it’s a glorified magazine article, but if you lived through the era, you’ll love the stories.

P.P.S. Larry can write. Most people can’t. Just because you’ve got a story, that doesn’t mean you’ve got a book, not that anybody can read.