The best thing that ever happened to Katy Perry was she got divorced.

Have you read David Brooks’s essay "The Power Of The Particular" in the "New York Times"? I recommend it, even if you’re not a Springsteen fan.

That’s what it’s about. Flying to Europe to see the Boss. Brooks marvels at all the young people singing "Born In The U.S.A." when they most clearly were not. But they embrace Bruce’s myth, the full-blown story, which has so many twists and turns, from shunned schoolboy to star to divorce to marriage and family, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Springsteen delineated his journey, and that’s what attaches us to him.

We’re unattached to so many celebrities. As soon as the buzz moves on, we’re going to forget them. Because there’s no story. That’s what the Kardashians have done so well, create an entire world, however phony. We’re intrigued by the story.

Brooks posits if you want to succeed you should stop being everyman and just be yourself. Romney should can the jeans and stop talking about loving to hunt. Hell, despite the right wing hysteria, whenever Obama cites Jay-Z or references another hip-hop artist it actually benefits him, it humanizes him, he’s a human being with tastes.

Not that my goal here is to politicize the discussion. I just want to say prior to "Wide Awake" Katy Perry was just a girl with big tits singing songs written by committee. But now there’s a thorn in the fairy tale. They had his and hers tattoos, and now he’s gone?

"Wide Awake" is similar to Gloria Estefan’s "Coming Out Of The Dark", which referenced her bus accident. A good track, the overly sappy "Coming Out Of The Dark" was a smash because the public rallied around Ms. Estefan.

And they’re rallying around Katy Perry right now.

Forget the hype, the endless stunts, the ridiculous outfits, suddenly she’s just another girl who’s been hurt. And in case you didn’t know, girls stick together.

I’m wide awake
Yeah, I was in the dark
I was falling hard
With an open heart
I’m wide awake
How did I read the stars so wrong

You see, that’s how we all feel. How did we not see the warning signs? How did we allow ourselves to get so hurt? And the lyrics might not be groundbreaking, but the sound of the track is similar to nothing so much as Madonna’s "Live To Tell". The latter is a classic, but "Wide Awake" has a chance of surviving, unlike so much of the drivel populating the Top Forty today.

She’s wide awake. Isn’t that how it always is after heartbreak? You can’t sleep. You can’t eat. You can’t shut your brain off. You can call your friends but it doesn’t soothe the pain. The male rappers talk about kicking their exes to the curb and crawling from the wreckage into a brand new car, but that’s not how it happens at all. You can try to be Jerry Maguire, keep trying to move forward, but that eventually stops working for everybody.

I wish I knew then
What I know now
Wouldn’t dive in
Wouldn’t bow down
Gravity hurts
You made it so sweet
Till I woke up on
On the concrete

You’ve got to hear Katy sing it, from deep in her heart, belting "on the concrete", as if she sings loud enough all her troubles will disappear, they’ll be blotted out.

Thunder rumbling
Castles crumbling
I am trying to hold on
God knows that I tried
Seeing the bright side
But I’m not blind anymore

Trying to hold on… I sat almost right next to Katy a couple of months back, at the MusiCares dinner. She had her purple wig on, and a bunch of makeup. She was surrounded by old men who were really not her friends. They were business people, responsible for her career, but they don’t keep you warm at night, because you’re not number one, they are, they’re protecting their jobs. That’s what we hope for in love, someone who’ll put us first, who’ll sacrifice their job, be there when we need them.

You can’t be so set in your ways that you can’t admit you were wrong, that you can’t change course, do a one eighty and embrace that which you detested.

I used to keep Katy Perry at arm’s length. For multiple reasons. The rip-off of Jill Sobule’s song title with a far inferior song. The bright, sunny disposition, the duplicitous interviews. She was just another manufactured product. Here today, gone tomorrow, like New Kids On The Block and so many before.

But if "Wide Awake" doesn’t touch you, you’re dead inside. Sure, it was written by committee, it’s not quite personal enough, but the pain of her breakup informs the track. She’s laying down the vocal of her life. It’s important. In a pop music world where not much is.

Yeah I’m falling from cloud 9
Crashing from the high
You know I’m letting go tonight

Letting go. There’s so much pain in giving up hope. You never recover from a divorce. You stood up in front of friends and family, the clergy, and declared it was forever. But it was not. So what else isn’t? You’ve got to readjust your whole perspective.

But at least you made a commitment. Too many are afraid to dive in. Or serially date and ultimately keep their loves at arm’s length, for fear of being hurt. But hurt is part of life. It does make you stronger. But it’s hell to go through.

Which is what the endless repetition of "wide awake" is all about. It’s like there’s a chorus in your brain, constantly repeating the refrain, you keep reworking the details in your mind, you can’t forget them, if only you did this, if only they did that.

I can’t stop playing "Wide Awake". It’s got an emotion that they just can’t get in right in movies or TV, the human condition. That’s what Katy Perry’s talking about here. She nailed it.

Spotify-Wide Awake

YouTube-Wide Awake

David Brooks, "The Power of the Particular"

You’ve been sold a bill of goods. Chris Anderson wrote "The Long Tail" and now you’ve been hoodwinked into thinking there’s a demand for your music, that the Internet has finally made your masterpiece available to the masses and recognition, money and fame will flow into your inbox momentarily. But as the Who so eloquently sang, "It don’t really happen that way at all."

The Internet, along with five hundred channels of cable TV, has taken a hammer to our society and rendered a nation equivalent to the Tower of Babel. We’re all here, but we all speak a different language, we watch different TV shows, we surf different sites, we can barely converse. And it feels positively awful. That’s why so many go to see idiotic Hollywood movies, to belong. That’s a big reason people listen to Top Forty music, because that’s where everybody else is, they want to be a member of the tribe.

This is so different from the way it was in the sixties or nineties. Where there was a definite, overpowering mainstream, and it felt good to be alternative. But those alternative tracks got played on underground FM radio, ultimately even MTV, after being spun on college radio, which is a dying art form. Yes, did you know colleges are selling their stations? It’s cheaper and easier to broadcast on the Internet.

And that’s my point. Everybody can be a broadcaster now. And with so many options, we move towards professionalism, where everybody else is, and if you don’t meet these criteria, professional and quality, you’re going to have a very rough go of it. Sure, we can all be interested in momentary train-wreck, that’s what viral videos are for, but they don’t last.

The truly clueless are the classic rock acts, anybody who made it before the turn of the century. They think people are waiting for their new opus. They’re not. They think if they just employ carpet bomb publicity, everybody will know and care, but at no time in history has so much expensive hype been ignored so much. We know why that article is in the newspaper. You paid for it. We get our information other places. And we don’t care about you even if you’ve got great new music. Hell, if you’re an oldie first and foremost you’ve got to find out who your tribe is, you’ve got to get their e-mail addresses, market directly to them, otherwise don’t even bother to put out your new music. Unless you like to masturbate.

As for albums, we live in a playlist world. Maybe not the oldsters, but the youngsters. Yes, they don’t expect the Top Forty tracks to last, they’re here for today and barely remembered tomorrow. But this is what they’re growing up with, this is what they know. Gen X felt ripped off by the boomers, who got to do everything first, sex without AIDS, classic rock, so much. But Gen Y cares not a whit about the past, that’s their parents world, they’re creating their own world, for themselves.

And a generation based on belonging gravitates to Top Forty radio because that’s where all their friends are. And if you’re not in this world, even if you’re young, you have a hard time making it. Sure, Facebook and word of mouth helps. And at least it’s faster than boomer word of mouth, which is positively moribund.

And these kids grew up in the era of "American Idol". They focus on singing more than writing. Just like Christina Aguilera and the melisma makers were influenced by and copied Mariah Carey.

Listen to your old records, play your albums, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s got very little to do with today’s burgeoning music world. These kids are never going to come to your land. Instead, their land is gonna morph into something new. Top Forty today is like the early sixties. Who didn’t love those Four Seasons songs. But the act did measly live business. Compared to what followed. Something is gonna follow this catchy, irrelevant, auto-tuned Top Forty stuff. And we know it’s gonna be based on a tribe. Classic rock blew up as a result of the ascent of FM radio, after stations couldn’t simulcast what was on the AM band. There will be another technological innovation, a new clubhouse, on some level that’s what EDM is about. Hell, going and being there is even more important than the music. As for the music… It’s gonna evolve.

Where we go next is not perfectly clear. But we’re gonna go together. There’s mainstream and then niches so tiny they live in an echo chamber. The "New York Times" wants to be hip and reviews albums no one is gonna listen to.

You want to know what’s happening? Ask kids. Sure, some are loners, that’s the nature of DNA, but most communicate with more people in one day than you did in years. They know every kid in town, still talk to their camp friends not only months later, but years later. They’re all in it together. And if you want to blow up, you’ve got to penetrate their world. Good luck!

Louis C.K.

He’s a COMEDIAN! He shows up with a microphone. Talk about expenses…THERE ARE NONE!

Not that I want to castigate Mr. Szekely, but you think the enemy here is Ticketmaster, no, the enemy is your favorite acts. Who won’t go to the lengths Louie will, who won’t leave all that money on the table. If you don’t think the acts are the main driver of ticket fees you’ve got no understanding of the business. Did you read in Louie’s email that he’s absorbing costs? Just ask your favorite act to do this… Almost none of them will. They’d rather blame Ticketmaster.

So give Louie props. He’s made it and now he’s not only testing limits, he’s looking out for his fans, his customers, building good will. But as for truly keeping out scalpers… Ask Nathan Hubbard, it’s easier to talk about than to do. Whether it be throwaway credit cards or buying tickets and walking a posse in, it’s hard to eliminate.

But, give Louie props for trying.

But the people who don’t get tickets are still gonna bitch.

Louis C.K.

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Deadmau5/Paris Hilton

You’ve got to watch the video…

Paris Hilton – DJ Set

If that ain’t the most soulless white girl on the planet…

Meanwhile, the whole world has gone topsy-turvy. Those PR people telling you to hold back, to utter platitudes, that paradigm is gone along with the L.A. "Times" which is now so thin it might blow away in a storm.

Now you enter the fray. You say what have you have to say. Honesty is treasured.

Deadmau5 is fighting for the soul of electronic music. And he’s enlisting his army against the poseurs, even admitting he pushes buttons on stage. Yet, he’s illuminating the enterprise, saying it’s all about the studio, building tracks, if only the celebrity phonies would admit that they got plastic surgery and couldn’t sing.

I’d say Paris Hilton is killing electronic dance music, but at this point it’s unkillable, the kids love to go and party.

But just like in the sixties, the artists are speaking truth to power. Since when has that happened? Deadmau5 attached Madonna, who has now lost touch to the point where she’s flashing her tits and her ass, leaving nothing to the imagination, although she should. But that’s what desperation will bring. The Web is the great equalizer. We’re now all in it together, even you Madge. The best thing is to admit it and laugh at yourself.

But don’t be above getting in the pit and defending your position.

"Deadmau5 On Paris Hilton’s DJ’ing: ‘The Mayans Saw This S**t Coming’"

"We All Hit Play"

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"Spotify Is Now The Second Biggest Source Of Revenue For Labels"

That’s what I love about the great unwashed, the hoi polloi, they’re uneducated and can’t see the future. Spotify works when it gains scale. And at that point, you make more money too.

Then again, you’d rather bitch.

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More "Payphone"

It’s CATCHY!

My inbox is filling up with people criticizing the Maroon 5 track.

I hate to tell you, but the first criterion of any successful music is that it be listenable, that it gain prominence in a person’s headspace very quickly.

But too many would rather tell you to listen to something twenty times to get it. As if even a five year old has the time.

And too many would rather break the rules than adhere to them. Wow, let’s do a focus group and play your music and have you endure all the thumbs-down. But you’ll just say these people are ignorant. But then you’re gonna rail against them stealing your music, say the system is stacked against you, that you just can’t get paid. You’re gonna do everything but look at yourself, look at your music. Hell, listen to the Beatles, talk about CATCHY! Oh, that’s right, they sucked too.

How many ways do I hate Adam Levine?

First and foremost it’s the tattoos. Not so much that he’s got them, but that he has to constantly show them off, his sleeves are rolled up in every pic, even if the rest of his band are cuffed right down to the wrist. Hey, want to make a ton of money in the future? Run a tattoo removal or touch-up place, you’re gonna make millions!

And then he went on that show "The Voice". What a piece of shit that is. You want to know the defining characteristic? Not a single act from any of the worldwide shows has broken through. Hell, they even had to cancel the U.K. tour last week. I mean where’s your dignity man…

And you worked with Mutt Lange and ended up with a stiff album? I don’t quite know who to blame here, used to be Mutt wouldn’t let you out of the studio without a double platinum smash. Either he’s lost his touch or you didn’t bring the goods.

And then you come back with a mindless gutter ball called "Moves Like Jagger"? What comes next, "Emote like Bono"? Or "Dance Like Jackson"?

But no, Adam Levine and his bunch of pussies known as Maroon 5 didn’t continue on that tip. Instead, they abandoned the credibility ship entirely and threw in with the hitmakers, the usual suspects, and they’ve come up with a track so good I think I’m gonna give up the credible crap and only listen to Top Forty from now on, because that’s where all the good stuff is. The old farts may be self-satisfied, but the little girls understand.

In other words, "Payphone" is a stone cold smash.

Not that I’d even heard it until today. I’ve been avoiding this crap. Like so many in my age group, like so many holier-than-thou Gen-X’ers. But those with children… They’ve been inundated with this stuff. Like the TV agent I spoke with last week, his kids sing along in the car and ask him "Daddy, what’s a payphone?"

But it doesn’t really matter. Just like Wiz Khalifa’s rap in the middle, a blundering blast of posturing that doesn’t always make sense that fits not a whit the rest of the song… But his voice is like a musical instrument, it works that way.

And sure, the track’s got the groove of the rest of the Top Forty, but when the music breaks down and you hear Adam emote it will kill you…

You turned your back on tomorrow
‘Cause you forgot yesterday
I gave you my love to borrow
But you just gave it away
You can’t expect me to be fine
I don’t expect you to care
I know I’ve said it before
But all of our bridges burned down

Whew!

"You turned your back on tomorrow"… I’ve never heard it said quite that way. What a great concept, I can even see it visually, this is where music triumphs, these short turns of words, these aphorisms that enter our hearts and brains and never leave.

"I gave you my love to borrow"… Ain’t that the way it always is. We live in a state of impermanence, but what we truly want is a guarantee…unfortunately those don’t exist in love.

"You can’t expect me to be fine"… Sung by a male! Fake macho posturing has infected not only the Top Forty but our entire culture. Sensitivity has gone out the window. But here it is, in this "mindless ditty"… Men hurt in breakups too. Oftentimes worse and far longer than women.

I’ve wasted my nights
You turned out the lights
Now I’m paralyzed
Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise

Don Henley asked the question best, was it all just wasted time? And why do we have to hurt so bad when it’s over. And the concept of the sun setting in paradise… Sounds so simple, but I’ve never ever heard it put that way before!

If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairy tales are full of shit
One more fucking love song I’ll be sick

This is fantastic! The profanity and the concepts. The profanity adds an edge to the sappiness, adds some testosterone to the singer’s story, brings the narrative right into the real world, where we all talk like this. And when you’re down and depressed, paralyzed in a breakup, you can’t listen to music at all, you’re sick of upbeat optimism, all you want is to forget her…or get her back.

And the reason I’m focusing on the lyrics is I can’t delineate the magic of the music quite so easily. That’s the essence of music. You feel it, you can’t describe it. But this song is bouncy and catchy and it makes you feel good and you can’t wait to hear it all over again, which is why you buy it, the same way we bought 45s and played them until they turned gray.

Yes, we live in a singles world. The more we hear the old fogeys complain the more they fail to realize they’re being left behind. Today there’s a mainstream and everything else. And almost everything else is marginal. Sure, if you had success once upon a time, if you had traction in the classic rock era or the heyday of MTV, you can still do business. But if you’re a new act not making Top Forty music today, your ascension is going to go so slow you could do an endorsement deal with molasses.

And the reason I got hooked is because I heard Adam and the boys on Howard Stern this morning. Howard kept pressing Adam about his love life, which he’d cough up very little about. But Adam did say times were different. NBA hotels are filled with groupies. Their hotels are empty. Because the NBA players have all the money and to a great extent they’re more free than the musicians. This is canned music. But it’s done so well.

We’ve become unmoored. Everything you think you know is wrong. Just like Live Nation missed EDM adults don’t see we now live in a Top Forty world and what will come down the line is an outgrowth of it as opposed to the opposite. You see the outsiders are too often sour grapes. Hell, consider this a challenge. Make your music as catchy as "Payphone", then you’ll have a chance, then you’ll grow an audience.

So after a live rendition of the Beatles’ "Yesterday", which I wanted to hate but Maroon 5 did so well, Howard spun the single.

It only took one listen. "Payphone" is a hit!

Spotify-Payphone

YouTube-Payphone