If you don’t get on the gravy train, you’re a hater.

Oasis played five dates in America, in large venues. Let’s just call it 80k a night, even though that’s excessive. That means that…

400,000 people went to see Oasis.

In a country of 340.1 million.

Could they have sold more tickets? ABSOLUTELY! The Oasis tour was the ultimate in FOMO. Hell froze over, get it while you can. It wasn’t only oldsters who went to the gigs, but youngsters too. And if you’re on social media you’ve been exposed to video after video of the throng singing along, as well as Liam with his sneering voice actually endearing himself to the audience.

Fine. But is this what the mass of Americans want? Do the masses want ANYTHING?

______________________

From: Tim Brunelle

Subject: Lizzo on TikTok

She’s speaking your truth!

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Sdw7HM/

______________________

Watch this video. Wherein Lizzo says it’s nearly impossible to break through and your only hope is to focus on your hard core fans and superserve them.

This is a completely different paradigm from yesteryear. Evidence of which was displayed on last night’s VMAs. Once a must-see, now a drive by car crash. Most stars appearing for the publicity. Is there any underlying meaning? This was the 41st show. Talk about long in the tooth…

Kind of like the classic rockers, who if not retired are positively geriatric. But the boomers who supported them then still believe, you can’t say anything negative about their heroes of yore, even though they’re on their last legs.

So there’s no perspective. But a lot of people yelling telling you if you don’t agree you’re dog sh*t. It’s not much different from politics.

As for the media… They LOVE this stuff! All-encompassing tours/shows that they can milk for months. It’s kind of like all the press about “White Lotus.” I gave up after the first season, that was enough.

But it isn’t much different from the hype about “Succession” and “Severance.”

What do all these shows have in common? Like tours, they play out week by week, keeping the story alive. But the viewers?

One of the biggest hits of the summer was “Happy Gilmore 2.” What is a hit? SOMETHING PEOPLE WATCH!

“‘Happy Gilmore 2,’ the 29-years-later sequel to Adam Sandler’s golf comedy, set a record on Nielsen’s streaming charts for its premiere weekend. The film amassed 2.89 billion minutes of viewing time in the United States from July 25-27, the highest single-week total for a movie in the five-year history of the ratings provider’s streaming charts. Happy Gilmore 2’s total — 2.893 billion, to be precise…”

http://bit.ly/4geyU43

Yet media coverage of “Happy Gilmore 2” was de minimis.

As for “KPop Demon Hunters,” despite the recent press about live showings, the reality is that the film was released on June 20th, to veritable crickets. The fans adored it, watched it multiple times, but the media ignored it. The tracks dominated the Top Ten and there still were no stories. Because the success did not fit the classic paradigm. Of advance hype, continuing press, the milking of every ounce of potential news out of a production. No, that is reserved for classic fare released by classic streamers.

BUT THE AUDIENCE DOESN’T CARE!

And how many people care about Oasis?

If Oasis was as big as fans and attendees want you to believe, there would be concomitant streaming evidence. But there’s not a single Oasis track in the Spotify Top 50. You’ll find Coldplay and Fleetwood Mac and Radiohead, but not Oasis. Because despite the magic of “Wonderwall,” it’s a niche enterprise.

As a matter of fact, only two Oasis tracks have in excess of a billion streams on Spotify, “Wonderwall” has 2,473,583,534 and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” has 1,152,938,602. As a matter of fact, other than “Champagne Supernova,” which has 515,735,185 streams, not a single other Oasis track has half a billion streams, most nowhere close!

Fleetwood Mac has four billion streamers, with “Dreams” at over 2 billion. Radiohead has two tracks at more than a billion, with “Creep” over two. Coldplay? They have a double digit number of billion streamers.

So where does Oasis fit in here? Definitely a significant act, but based on the press and the buzz you’d believe they’re huge in America, dominant, when that’s completely untrue.

But if you say that…

Let’s have a little perspective. There are fifty percent more people in America than there were in the heyday of stadium shows back in the seventies. Meaning a lot more acts can sell a lot more tickets. Kudos. But if you’re trying to convince me they’re dominant, I’m laughing. They’re NICHE! Why can Lizzo see this and seemingly nobody else?

My point is not to diss Oasis. Then again, I’ll diss the fans, who’d have you believe going to a show is like going to see the Beatles. Hell, Oasis wasn’t that big in America even in their heyday. It’s a thirty year old band. If Noel Gallagher wasn’t a member he’d be pissing all over it. But no, he’s silent in this dash for cash.

Welcome to America. With niche news whose attendant readers/viewers believe everybody is in on the story, or should be.

My inbox is full of e-mail from right wingers complaining that the NYT, WSJ and WaPo are not covering the stories all over Fox, never mind the right wing blogosphere. Meanwhile, stories in the aforementioned NYT, WSJ and WaPo are not covered on Fox. And you can’t convince either side that these are not huge stories. They’ll argue about it, vociferously.

The same way they’ll tell you that if you don’t think everybody in the country is enamored of, enthralled by, foaming at the mouth over Oasis or Taylor Swift, you’re just plain wrong.

But in this case, they’re wrong.

But you can’t convince them of it.

“The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World”: http://bit.ly/480ozGy

1

If you’re going to music business school…

You’ll learn more in this book than you will in class. Class will teach you the mechanics, the elements of publishing, how to put on a show, you will be taught how to be a worker bee, but all the money is in controlling talent, being on top, and most people do not possess the skills to do so.

Not that the book is the easiest read. Not that any book is an easy read. Reading demands commitment. But the amazing thing about reading is it will take you 90% there. All you will need is the cherry on top, the personal interactions, which will be easily achievable because with your book learning you will STAND OUT!

How do you manage relationships… I haven’t seen this taught in any course. But that was what Colonel Tom Parker specialized in. Creating relationships and staying connected to people. It wasn’t as simple as shaking hands, he created his own fictitious organization, the Snowmen’s League of America, based on how one person snowed another. There were no meetings, and rules that the Colonel made up and changed and discarded on a whim. He inducted people at William Morris. Celebrities. It was humorous, it was fun. Colonel focused on this, fun. If it wasn’t fun, he wasn’t interested.

Fun used to be a core element of the music business, up until about twenty years ago, then it all became too corporatized, too institutionalized, too bottom line oriented, to its detriment.

What looks like blowing a ton of money is a good investment if it keeps your artist happy and producing. This is not the widget business.

Colonel was constantly cracking jokes. And in between asking for what he wanted. He was self-deprecating, stating that he could be wrong, and always warm at the end, noting a birthday or some other important milestone of the recipient of his correspondence. Sure, so much was transparent, but the letters certified that Colonel was thinking of you, you were in it together, on the same team. He continued to humorously ask for a bonus for being an outpost of the William Morris Agency at his home in Tennessee. When promised anything of his choosing from the RCA warehouse, he asked for a computer, long before there were desktop machines, when they were still huge and expensive! And you didn’t always know when he was joking, he kept you on your toes.

As for the record label… He viewed Presley as an industry within the company, standing alone. Not only did he insist on the best deal, but no returns. And if the salesman screwed up and something came back, it could only be replaced with Presley product, and nothing else from the catalog.

And Elvis was in total control of the creative end. What songs to record, how to record them, the Colonel paved the way as opposed to too many managers inserting themselves in the creative process and pissing off their acts.

And the Colonel learned to trust his instincts. Told by William Morris that Elvis’s initial movie deal was standard and then caving on his demands, the Colonel kicked himself soon thereafter. He knew better, as outsiders often do.

When RCA got its knickers in a twist and complained about a debt, the Colonel was incensed, you’re getting all worked up for THIS sum of money?

That’s the role of the manager, to be independent. And to get the most for his artist. Which means you just don’t send a letter of demand and sit back and wait for a contract, you have to establish a relationship with people, show how your interests align.

The Colonel is the kind of self-made person who built the modern music business. Entrepreneurs with big dreams who couldn’t fit into the corporate mold. That type still rules, but there are fewer of them.

2

The MONEY! Elvis was always running out! Spending more than he had.

At first tax rates were insane. 90%. But even when lower Elvis would buy things on a whim and his father Vernon would tear his hair out wondering how he was going to pay for all this.

For all the bad press, the Colonel kept his money separate. Elvis had his own accounts and if asked for advice the Colonel would give it, but otherwise he didn’t meddle.

As for the deals…

You can ultimately say that the Colonel was self-dealing a bit, especially with RCA. He started off with 25%, it could be a third, but then he had all these theories that certain product was under the deal and the rest were special projects, for which he was entitled to 50%. And a lot of the RCA deal wasn’t even on paper, but he held RCA to these oral agreements, he used his leverage.

And author Peter Guralnick says that it was not the Colonel’s idea or preference to sell the assets to RCA. It is said the deal was completed because Elvis needed the money!

And even worse, at some point Elvis no longer wanted to work. He went on a spiritual journey. The work just did not get him off anymore. And while he was on his hejira obligations would go unfulfilled and money would not come in, but…

It’s hard to do the same thing year after year and still stay excited about it. Singing the songs that made you famous decades ago. You grow up, you have other interests.

And Elvis surrounded himself with hangers-on, the so-called “Memphis Mafia,” who bled him dry and talked the Colonel down and although providing companionship, kept Elvis isolated.

So?

People are people. A lot of the same rules still apply. Which is why I recommend reading this book if you’re a wannabe. Parker ends up looking good, only those alive back then know for sure, but he was not the devious schemer he’s portrayed to be. He paid his debts/bills immediately, didn’t wait thirty days, not even a day! And if you didn’t pay YOUR bills on time, he dressed you down.

It was all cottage industry, while interfacing with some of the biggest corporations in America. If you’re intimidated by the big boys, you’re never going to win. But you have to entrance them, get them in your circle, and then bend them to your desires. And don’t forget, the company men have a different ethos, they want a salary, they’re not dependent upon innovation, they’re not as hungry. So change always comes from the outside.

All we see is brashness portrayed in today’s world. And there are some like this. Then again, most people talking down today’s bigwigs have never met them, don’t know their people skills, which have allowed them to triumph.

I can’t believe at this late date I’m finally interested in Elvis, but I am.

Because they were working without a net, innovating. Sure, he made all those junky movies, but that was the goal back then, to go Hollywood, and it was still the goal for a long time, Madonna “tried” to be in movies.

But it was all before the Beatles, who flipped the script, created a whole new business. And then came not only FM underground radio, but AOR and MTV and then the internet. Today’s hits are akin to those before the lads from Liverpool, made by committee, steered by execs for a commercial return. But there are still entrepreneurs on the fringes.

Go where everybody else is not. Where there’s room to be creative. Rather than complain about the label, figure out how to do it yourself, if you can create success, they’ll come running.

And the Colonel was never sour grapes, he kept on moving forward.

You need that attitude, that optimism to survive.

If you have success, you can change the system, if you have none, no one is listening to you.

Remember that.

Tune in Saturday September 6th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Who does this guy think he is and why does he believe his sh*t doesn’t stink?

RFK, Jr.’s performance yesterday is an indictment of the idle rich, the class system wherein those with a pedigree and wealth think they’re above the rest of us.

I don’t care what you think about vaccines, one thing we can agree on, or at least I thought we could agree on, is how to behave.

But NO!

Maybe it started with Trump interrupting people at debates. But whatever your thoughts, CAN YOU LET ME COMPLETE MINE?

We were watching this series “Confession” on BritBox, the true story of a killer of two women and without giving away too much of the story, the investigating detective is called on the carpet for not giving a PACE warning, which is akin to a Miranda warning.

So, there is a disciplinary action. When the complaint is first filed the officer confronts the detective with the charge and the detective says he’s kidding and gives his perspective. But then…

Said detective is brought in front of the big boss and told he is being suspended. And what does the detective say in response, when he is asked if he has anything to say? NOTHING! Because he realizes there is no upside, all he can do is piss off the boss, it’s not going to advance his case, the boss has already decided.

And when there’s the ultimate hearing the detective answers questions briefly sans passion, because this is how you behave.

A lawyer knows that with a tribunal of experts it comes down to the law (let’s forget about juries), that’s how the case will be decided, on the law, not histrionics. Which is why these hearings are relatively dry.

BUT NOT IN CONGRESS YESTERDAY!

It’s not like RFK, Jr. is going to lose his job. He was confirmed and it’s Trump’s decision. The hearing yesterday was just an exercise. But rather than sit there and listen to what the senators had to say, RFK, Jr. kept interrupting, attacking them, asking the interlocutors themselves questions. A performance so combative and out of control that the only person who can right the situation is Jon Stewart, who famously questioned the combative nature of “Crossfire,” said it accomplished nothing, and then the program was canceled.

Do you think you’re endearing yourself to us by arguing to the point where you look like a jerk?

And if you’re going to be so pugilistic, at least have your ducks in a row. As pointed out by a senator, RFK, Jr. seemed to know a lot about certain things and very little about others. Facts when they supported his anti-vaccine agenda, nothing when numbers were contrary to his beliefs.

I mean let the senators have their say. It’s kind of like being called on the carpet by your parents. You’re going to get slapped on the wrist or hit and anything you say in your defense will only make matters worse.

Then again, unlike in the fifties and sixties not only do parents not hit their kids, the kids have rights and standing and can argue back. How did it come to this? I’m against corporal punishment, but the kid is the kid and the parent is the parent.

And RFK, Jr. tragically grew up without a father in a very large family. Who was teaching him right and wrong, how to behave? The Kennedys of this generation have a long history of heinous behavior. As for going to Harvard…like he would have gotten into the college if his last name was different.

Then he trades on his name to make his money, unlike those with unknown monikers, and he even gets hooked on heroin but since he’s a Kennedy, HE GETS A PASS!

Unlike RFK, Jr., the senators were elected. And it ain’t easy to do so. But RFK, Jr. couldn’t make it as a candidate and was appointed by Trump to his position and is skating just like he has his whole life.

You can put the boy in a suit but that does not mean he knows how to behave.

If RFK, Jr. had just STFU yesterday’s hearing wouldn’t have dominated the news, with video after video illustrating his bad behavior. And it wasn’t only major news outlets, these videos were all over TikTok. And what conclusion should viewers take from them?

RFK, Jr. is a fighter. But like a six year old. He’s going to battle everything that doesn’t go his way, irrelevant of the truth. He’s going to say his accusers are wrong.

This is why criminals have attorneys in court, so they don’t behave like this.

But we live in a world of no consequences. Nothing will happen as a result of RFK, Jr.’s bad behavior. Yes, Trump may cut him loose, that’s his style, when things get too hot he takes action with no forewarning, but we haven’t reached that point yet, not even close. Furthermore, by arguing like this and making news, raising his head, giving oxygen to the issues, RFK, Jr. is doing nothing for his cause. Trump doesn’t want the Epstein files out so he creates diversions, he doesn’t want attention drawn to that which is not a winning strategy.

Maybe you don’t believe in vaccines, maybe you don’t believe in science. Maybe you believe more people were killed by the covid vaccine than were saved. Maybe you even believe the mRNA vaccine was not tested enough. Factually, all of the preceding are false, but good luck trying to convince believers otherwise. And it’s not only right wingers, but people on the educated left too. Like Kennedy, they believe if they just eat right they’ll be immune, read the analysis in today’s “Wall Street Journal.”

“RFK Jr. Is Dismantling Public Health. A Fringe Theory May Explain Why. – The Health and Human Services secretary has long embraced anti-scientific ideas that run counter to germ theory, the basis of treating infectious diseases”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/health/rfk-jr-what-is-terrain-theory-66b4c660?st=ZGyGPS&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

But this has nothing to do with how you behave in public. The decorum of a hearing. RFK, Jr. should have sat there and taken it. And responded quietly, if at all. The senators have no real power over him at this point. Why is he adding fuel to the fire, evidencing emotion and a lack of grasp of the issues and facts all the while. You don’t help your cause by appearing emotional and uninformed.

It was like he was being personally attacked, like he was on trial for his life. RFK, Jr. was so emotional, so out of control, that all you could do was cringe and then laugh. Has this guy never played at this level before? Does he really not know how the game is played?

Just because others are out of control and have no sense of decorum that does not mean you should too. We live in a society, if called on the carpet you take your lumps and if a defense is required you do so straightforwardly with facts, not emotions, and you don’t attack those in charge.

But that’s America today.

But really, it’s an indictment of the rich and privileged. This is how RFK, Jr. grew up, believing the rules don’t apply to him, that if he just yelled loud enough things would go his way.

How sad. For both him and our country.

Can’t we have a little dignity?