1

So Neil straps on this old white Gretsch and starts telling a story. How it’s stereo. Three strings go to one speaker, the other three to another. He’s unsure of the provenance of the instrument, how someone came up with the idea, how they executed it, but here it is.

And then…

Neil Young and Bob Dylan, they’re the only rock stars left. And unlike Bob, Neil has never sold out, never. Never did any commercials, never changed his look, he continued to be himself every day until now, and that’s revelatory.

Like his clothing. I ask you, do you wear running shoes? Maybe even HOKAs? Come on, that’s what’s comfortable, that’s your everyday footwear, why not wear your running shoes on stage?

That’s what they used to do. That was part of the magic. Sure, it was a show, but it was more of a concert. There was no production, and the audience wasn’t expecting it. They came for the music, to hear their favorites from the records come alive. And the performers were gods. They sauntered on stage in your burg, did their act, seemingly effortlessly, and then moved on to another town, not to be seen again for another year. They weren’t hawking products, they weren’t a brand, they were just themselves.

So Neil is wearing dungarees as we called them in the east, jeans as we call them in the west, and they’ve got almost as many miles on them as he’s got on himself. They’re faded, and they’re baggy in the back, Neil doesn’t have much of an ass. And he’s wearing a jean jacket. And a t-shirt that says ‘EARTH,” a subtle statement, which has more resonance since there’s no other message on stage, you’re not bombarded, and you can’t always see the letters anyway, because of his jacket.

And this is a solo show. Your expectations are different. You don’t expect the full band sound.

And then…

After a bit of hesitation… Neil speaks slowly, with a wink, a sense of humor. He’s not sacrificing his identity and he’s bringing you in on the joke. And he’s not taking it so seriously, the music isn’t precious, it’s just him, there, singing.

And then… Neil starts picking on this white Gretsch and it’s “OHIO”! And it’s the exact same sound from the record. I’m tingling as I write this, it was right there, 53 years later, the essence, IT WAS AMAZING!

That was enough to make the evening.

I mean come on… Today’s songs are about money, I’ve got it and look at my lifestyle. Or platitudes. Not about the current climate, whether it be the air or politics. Because the acts are not separate, they’re part of the scam, trying to get their cash, move up the food chain. But Neil? He’s the other. He’s separate. What he was selling last night you can’t get anywhere else, NOWHERE ELSE, and it’s this magic that the modern music business was built upon.

So he’s singing about tin soldiers and Nixon coming and I’m remembering May 4th, I’m remembering the picture of that woman with her arms outstretched on the Kent State campus. I’m remembering when everything was vital, when it was clear who the enemy was, when you felt that standing up could make a difference, when you weren’t afraid of standing up, consequences be damned, and this made the musicians, our pied pipers, even more powerful.

And there’s picking and distortion and wow. I had to give Neil a standing ovation, I didn’t care whether anybody else did. This is what I live for, this is what I am.

2

Now the audience was aged. There might have been some people under 50, but I didn’t see them. This is not Steve Miller playing his radio hits, which have continued to endure, passed down from generation to generation, no, this is something different. Neil Young was never AM. Well, except for a moment there in ’72, and then he went on an arena tour and played all new material and alienated all but his core. This is about more than the songs, this is about an artist, this is about a belief. So either you needed to be there or shrugged at best. But if you were there…

Do you remember rock and roll?

It’s dead, didn’t you know? Oh, there are acts out there that play in a rock style, but none of them have purchase on the entire globe like the acts of yore other than maybe Coldplay, and they broke before everything changed.

Forget that rock music became a caricature of itself at times. With the spandex and the hair ballads and…

You can still see rock music at the amphitheatre, some of the aged acts tour arenas. But… They’ve gotten plastic surgery, they’re trying to look young, like they used to, whereas Neil Young looks just like us, he’s lived, he’s not trying to pull the wool over our eyes, he’s not asking us to suspend disbelief, he’s right there with us, and it makes you believe.

And it was only a moment, and then he was gone.

And he may never be available this way again. Playing deep cuts solo?

It was like the old days, not only pre-internet, but pre-MTV. You had to be there. You have to tell everybody you know. Because what you experienced…this was it, the essence, Neil was still doing it, stunningly, and he was connecting with you personally, even though you were one of 1,200.

Yes, it was an underplay. You felt privileged to be there. A once in a lifetime event. The kind we used to live for.

3

So there were three keyboards on stage. Not the electric kind, but a grand, an upright and some kind of pedal organ with a unique sound. As for the upright, it was originally rented back in ’68. And worse for wear. But it was here, just like Neil.

And Neil is playing harmonica on almost every song. He’s got that contraption around his neck. And there’s a mic embedded in it, so he can march around stage playing his guitar, so he’s not rooted to one spot. And Neil is sorting through the harmonicas, looking for the right one. He throws one to the side of the stage. And whenever he finds one that’s right, he dips it in a jar of water, shakes it off, puts it in the holder, and begins another number.

And when he’s playing the guitar, he’s set up in that Neil Young position, style. You know, dipped a bit and sideways.

And then he says he’s going to play the first song he recorded in the studio. And it’s “Burned.”

I don’t think the little girls understand, however… Those of us who were alive, back in ’66, when this track emerged from wax, on the first Buffalo Springfield album, the one with “For What It’s Worth,” “Burned” is baked into us, deep in our memory banks, never to be forgotten, from a more optimistic time, when we thought everything was possible.

“Now I’m finding out that it’s so confusin’

No time left and I know I’m losin'”

Back when we had more questions than answers, when we were trying to figure it out, when it was a badge of honor not to know and to be figuring it out.

“Burned” was just like the record, but stripped down, sans the sixties trappings, and it didn’t play as nostalgia, but as a part of Neil’s life, you could visualize the situation that inspired him to write it.

And then another Buffalo Springfield song that Neil wrote but Richie sang, the opener from “Last Time Around,” “On the Way Home,” you know, the one with that delicious change…

“But you know me

And I miss you now”

Sung by Neil the sweetness was gone, authenticity was infused, you were elated, connected to what once was and forever shall be, and you also knew you’d better enjoy this moment, because it may never come again.

Then came a song from “Trans,” the one that’s on the album cover but not on the actual record, “If You Got Love.”

And Neil sits down at the organ and starts to play it and David Geffen comes to mind, how he sued Neil for making uncommercial albums. But here Neil still is, living, breathing, creating, proud of what he once did, whereas Geffen is putting his name on buildings so he won’t be forgotten.

And “Vampire Blues” from “On the Beach,” after Neil alienated his audience live, and with the live album “Time Fades Away.” Neil didn’t want to be a dorm room favorite, the girls’ crush, selling soft music like “Heart of Gold,” but he ultimately played that too last night. It was deep cuts and just a couple of obvious ones. Neil was making it interesting for himself. I mean how can these people go on the road and sing the same songs they’ve been performing for decades, by rote, getting the hit from the audience and the cash, primarily the cash. They’re calcified. Neil Young may be crotchety, worse for wear, but he’s not stuck in time, he’s soldiering on.

And speaking of soldiers…

The closer was “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

“We got a thousand points of light

For the homeless man

We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand

We got department stores and toilet paper

Got Styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer

Got a man of the people says keep hope alive

Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive”

These problems still exist, but half the country wants to overlook them, believing there’s no problem, nothing needing fixing. And it’s not only the red, but the elites too… They want their money, they believe they earned it, they want fewer taxes, these problems are someone else’s responsibility to solve, not theirs.

“Rockin’ in the Free World” never crossed over to AM, was never a hit single, but we all know it, maybe as a result of Neil’s performance of it with Pearl Jam at the MTV Video Music Awards, back in 1993, before the show became a self-promotional event, when it was still about music and attitude and a sense of humor, when the channel still meant something, when it represented the other, not only the youth, but the still vital boomers. And then everybody sold out, went home to their individual space and it was over, kaput. Today there is no center, and what is popular isn’t for the audience, but the artist, singing about their troubles. Why is everybody so unsatisfied? Isn’t being able to be an artist, sing your music on stage and earn a living enough?

Used to be.

Not anymore.

4

Not that it was a long show. Not even an hour and a half. Neil came out and did it, he didn’t need to convince us, didn’t have to rationalize the ticket price, he just sang his songs, and that was enough.

And even though the songs might have been old, the performance was new. Like Neil came over to your house and was playing in your living room, like we used to do in the sixties. It was alive, with hope and reverence… Yes, we revered Neil Young. This guy had survived and thrived, was a beacon for people no longer paying attention.

It’s hard to go against the grain, people don’t like it. But deep down everybody respects you, for being an individual, for having a point of view, for pushing the envelope in your art. Which is why the media is always interested in what Neil has to say, they never say no, and unlike Dylan, Neil is available. And…

Last night was a privilege.

And just like Neil Young doesn’t care what you think, those in attendance don’t care what those who weren’t there think. Judge it, put it down, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, it’s only Bob and Neil, the last ones rockin’ in the free world with their visions intact, making it interesting for themselves, and in turn making it interesting for us, the audience.

How would you like it if every time someone stopped by your house they told the same damn story. Enough is enough. Three times, not even four, you’d kick them out, say no mas. That’s what it’s like seeing Neil’s contemporaries.

Artistry… It’s not about commercialism. It’s about honing your chops so you can express yourself, and continue to express yourself. It’s about growing. It’s about exploring. And although the input of the world is important, you are not imprisoned by said world. You exist outside it, so you can comment upon it.

Artistry…it’s like pornography, you know it when you see it.

And we see it rarely today.

And people have no sense of history.

But if you were there, and remember…

Last night you were in the presence of a true artist, one of the very last, being himself, you couldn’t even call it an act, and it made you feel alive and hopeful and special, just like the music did way back when, which is why you held it in such high esteem.

We may never see the likes of Neil Young again. Rock is dead, the paradigm has shifted.

But Neil was positively alive last night.

And it was THRILLING!

Buy a Toyota if you want a gasoline car.

Never buy an American automobile, they are still not built as well as Japanese cars.

If you’re buying an electric car, only buy a Tesla or a Hyundai/Kia, the rest are not up to speed and won’t be until at least the fall of next year. Tesla wins on software, which traditional car manufacturers cannot compete on. Think of your electric car as an appliance, a computer, not an automobile. How it looks is secondary.

If you want a luxury car, buy a Lexus. It will last the longest and be relatively trouble-free.

German cars drive great, but their repair records are not so great.

Never buy an Italian car, only lease it.

Never lease a car unless you’re rich or the manufacturer is subsidizing the lease. You’re burning money. The key is to own a car as long as possible, because if you purchase a brand that’s relatively trouble-free you’ll have years of driving with no payments at all. Only lease a car if you’re rich or it’s tax advantageous. As for needing to impress others…they’re impressed for a moment, and then they go back to thinking about themselves.

Image is intrinsic, not external. No one cares about you. Stop spending money to keep up with the Joneses.

Say no to yourself for financial security. Everybody can’t own and do whatever they want, just like they can’t eat whatever they want.

Go to college unless you learn a trade. Forget all the blowback, a degree is the entry fee, you need one to play. The institution is irrelevant, as is what you study, just graduate. No one cares what your grades are, just graduate.

If you’re going to the Ivy League go to Harvard or Yale, the others don’t pay the same dividends. And the dividend is not based on what you learn in class, it’s about who you meet and ultimately network with.

Buy Amazon Prime. No matter what you think about the company. You’ll be saving yourself time and money and the planet in the process. You can take time and drive to the store, but too often you’ll find the retail store doesn’t stock what you need, whereas Amazon’s inventory is nearly endless and delivery is nearly instant. Don’t protest politically if it’s like pissing in the wind. Amazon is too convenient and too good for most people to give up, it’s not going anywhere. If you take a stand against Amazon, you make Amazon users roll their eyes, it illustrates you’re not living in the real, practical world.

Don’t watch cable news and believe it’s changing anybody’s mind. They’re there for the already converted, Fox for the right, MSNBC for the left.

Read the newspaper, whether it be in print or online or both. A half hour news show covers only a fraction of one page of the newspaper.

Don’t be cheap, you have to spend money to make money. As soon as you’re cutting back, denying yourself, you’re losing money and taking yourself out of the game. As for those who are truly poor…I feel for you. Take advantage of every government program to take care of your basic needs.

Buy health insurance, you’ll need it, and you don’t know when.

Eat fast food all you want, but you’ll ultimately pay a price. And it’s not usually in dollars. Schools should teach everybody to cook, but they assume you know how, which many people do not. In order to eat healthy you have to know how to cook or be rich enough for a private chef, your pick.

Buy the best ticket for the concert, if you’re bothering to lay down, why save a fraction of the money for a bad seat?

When something is cheap, buy the best, it’s much more satisfying. You can buy packaged cookies, or you can buy gourmet cookies from a shop and be elated.

Buy super-premium ice cream, i.e. Ben & Jerry’s, Häagen-Dazs, McConnell’s… Once again, you can live large for very little money.

Don’t keep your cash in a traditional commercial bank. Interest rates are far too low. And keep cash, it’s a hedge against the market and you never know when you’ll need it.

If you get paid in cash, never put it in your bank account if your goal is to avoid taxes. You can only avoid taxes on cash if it’s untraceable.

A house doesn’t always go up in price quickly. If you’re not planning to stay, beware of buying at the top of the market. However, if you’re willing to stay for a while, years, then odds are it’s a good investment. But you might get a better return on your money elsewhere.

Reading and writing are the building blocks of a great career. You must be like a shark, you must keep learning or you calcify and die.

No one is like you. Don’t read books by successful people thinking they apply to you. You have to find out what you do best.

Just because you love it, that doesn’t mean you’ll make any money doing it.

Making money is a skill. Learn it, or work for the man.

Who you marry is the most important decision in your life, choose wisely. Someone with the same values and ambitions. Looks are not everything. Nor are riches. You want someone compassionate. Divorce is not painless, despite what the celebrities tell you, it will sit with you your entire life. Plan to get married once, or don’t get married at all.

Pay off your credit cards every month, or don’t use them. If you need a credit card to buy something, paying interest, don’t, forgo the purchase, very little is necessary if you really think about it.

Buy an expensive phone. And buy the phone that is popular in your area. Over 50% of Americans smartphone owners use the iPhone. Even more if you’re a teenager. You want to use what the masses use, this is how VHS beat Betamax.

It’s not wrong to be an early adopter in tech. Sure, the price may go down in the future, features may be added, but you’ll be without the item and its benefits while you wait on the sidelines. Most tech products tend to work fine right out of the box, or they don’t. If you need it, buy it, don’t wait.

Go to the doctor. Ignorance is no match for cancer.

Every operation has side effects, none delivers a 100% result. If it’s elective surgery, know this and decide accordingly. Even if you’re getting corrective eye surgery, no one gets a 100% result.

Just because someone else says they’re happy with something doesn’t mean you will be.

People who buy things usually say they’re great, they’re invested in them, take their opinion on the product or procedure with a grain of salt.

Learn how to get along, but those with an identity, who can say no, who can risk turning people off, win in the end.

Vote, it does matter who is in office. You can’t complain if you do not vote.

Subscribe to Apple News+. Period. Don’t be a cheapskate, for ten bucks a month you get so much.

Ritzy hotel rooms are unnecessary unless you’re rich or you’re going to spend a ton of time in them. This is somewhere where you can save money. But that does not mean you can stay in a cheap hotel. The people who run cheap hotels know what they’re selling, if you want more you have to go elsewhere.

It’s easy to blow all your money on luxury travel, this is the number one way celebrities lose their money.

Research the TV show before you watch it, it’s an investment of hours. RottenTomatoes is your friend, and oftentimes your friends are not. Furthermore, even a lowbrow will enjoy a highbrow show more. Quality counts. Don’t trust the algorithm. Beware of people and outlets that want to make it easy for you when it’s not very hard to find the truth.

Check Amazon, the Wirecutter and “ConsumerReports” before a major purchase. Take all reviews with a grain of salt, you have to make your own decision, you must weigh the reviews and analyze, but don’t buy blind.

Ignore one star reviews, they are usually cranks complaining about shipping or something that was flawed on arrival or they’re just nuts.

Beware if there are not a lot of reviews, especially if they’re overwhelmingly positive. Creators have their friends post positive reviews to sway customers, beware.

Complain about traffic, but don’t let it inhibit you from going somewhere and doing something. Sure, if you can, drive when traffic is low, but if you consider all the impediments of life, you’ll never leave the house.

Don’t buy a gun for personal safety, odds are you’ll shoot a family member, yourself or someone innocent. If you’re a hunter, if you live in the wilderness, that’s one thing. But if you’re buying a gun to keep yourself safe in your house… Odds are you’re going to regret it if you ever use it. And odds are if you need it, you won’t have it handy and use it. And odds are you will never need it.

Make sure your computer and smartphone are still supported with software updates by the manufacturer, otherwise you’re opening yourself to a security breach.

Don’t be afraid of public Wi-Fi, transgression is a myth.

Don’t jump off the bridge just because your friends did.

Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/8entnzbw

“I Don’t Want to Change the World” – Ozzy Osbourne

“Changes” – Loggins & Messina

“Don’t Change” – Hall & Oates

“Them Changes” – Buddy Miles

“Day of Change” – Lee Michaels

“You Can’t Change That” – Ray Parker, Jr.

“World In Changes” – Dave Mason

“Money Changes Everything” – Cyndi Lauper

“Wind of Change” – Peter Frampton

“I’d Love to Change the World” – Ten Years After

“Gonna Be Some Changes Made” – Bruce Hornsby

“See the Changes” – Crosby, Stills & Nash

“Change Partners” – Stephen Stills

“Music Must Change” – The Who

“Cool Change” – Little River Band

“Changes” – Alan Price

“A Change Is Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke

“Things Have Changed” – Bob Dylan

“Change of the Guard” – Steely Dan

“Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes” – Jimmy Buffett

“Change” – Tears for Fears

“We Can Change the World” – Graham nash

“Change the World” – Eric Clapton

“Waiting on the World to Change” – John Mayer

“Change of Heart” – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

“You Can Still Change Your Mind” – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

“The Changeling” – The Doors

“Change Is Now” – The Byrds

“Change of Heart” – Eric Carmen

“Everything Changes” – Little Big Town

The light killed Hollywood. And once the mystery was gone, the old entertainment business was history.

There are no movie stars anymore. Except for oldsters, like Harrison Ford, who is 80, and Tom Cruise, who is 60. The paradigm shifted, the film is the star, not the actor. Which is why superhero movies can succeed. You’re invested in the character, not the actor. The actors? They’ve been revealed to be narcissistic and vain two-dimensional thespians at best. This is what the internet has wrought. With so much information, their foibles have been revealed.

As for music, it used to be based on foibles. Bad boys and girls who marched to the beat of their own drummers. Who were distanced from regular society, who couldn’t be controlled by regular society, who never kowtowed to regular society, and the public could not get enough of them. Of course there were two verticals in music, AM and FM. FM was for the mysterious speaking their truth, AM was pure commerce. Of course, FM acts occasionally crossed over to AM, but this happened most when the general public was still addicted to AM, when it had no access to FM, but by the middle seventies… Corporate rock, the invisible hand of the corporation then intervened, saw all that cash, delivered what it believed the market wanted, and it all imploded. Might have taken the better part of five years to blow apart, but 1979/80 was a disaster in the record business, Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America” was number one for six weeks, but the story was how few copies it sold compared to its progenitors. And then came MTV.

The change in the movie business happened about the same time, with “Jaws” and “Star Wars” ushering in the era where money was king, basically everything, and the kind of pictures made were skewed. The seventies rode out on a bunch of prestige pictures, but by time the eighties launched, the pendulum had swung. Money came first, appeal to as many as possible.

And television was AM to the movies’ FM. But it was in the eighties that cable outlets started to make original programming. Took years to flower, but when “The Sopranos” was launched in 1999 the dam broke, and we’ve been living in a heyday of television ever since. And like the movies of yore, series are based on story, not star power. With so many offerings people want to watch something good, not the latest project by their favorite star, like they used to do with movies. Will this golden age of television continue? That’s questionable, there’s sudden attention to the bottom line and Netflix is now focusing on mainstream fare as opposed to the highbrow projects that brought respect in the past ten years. Could this have something to do with the halt in stratospheric sign-ups? Possibly, but just like in the cell phone business, there are only so many customers. However, I’ve noticed a marked decrease in the discussion of television shows recently. Of course, with the “end” of Covid and a return to normalcy people may have less time to watch, but somehow streaming TV is losing its cachet, and the focus is on politics, which are vital in a way movies and music used to be, so much is at stake, and it’s a visceral experience. Used to be you didn’t have to pay attention to politics, but now everybody does. Everybody!

So once the internet came along and revealed so much about entertainers, the public became less enamored. There was a flattening of society. People in local burgs believed they had talent and were just as good as the stars and with new digital tools they started to play, to the point where there’s so much in the pipeline that it’s incomprehensible, one can only take a stab at what’s going on, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

So to triumph in today’s world you have to employ some of the tricks of the pre-internet era. You have to be less available, reveal less, be less connected to your audience, so you can be believed in. That’s one of the reasons the K-pop acts are so successful, they don’t speak English, you can invest in them whatever hopes and dreams you want to. Believe me, if you actually meet stars, whether they be actors or musicians, they very rarely live up to the rep, the vision in your head. You may be in love with them from afar, but when you connect you find out they’re just like you and your neighbors, only more flawed. It’s an image, and not much more. There are exceptions, but few.

So being allowed to expose themselves, everybody in entertainment decided to become overexposed. But none could do it as well as Kim Kardashian, who broke via a sex tape, which used to be a career killer. Almost nothing is taboo anymore, nothing a bridge too far, even racist comments, you may be excoriated by half of the population, but you may be embraced by the other half.

And it’s all in the name of money. There’s endless begging. Buy this, buy that. The product is irrelevant, you, as a fan, owe me. This is my business. I say the item is great even if it isn’t. And then move on to the next. Credibility is history. And when the past president of the United States lies incessantly… What you have is 30% of the public that are blind followers, Trump can do no wrong. Which is the same with BTS and Taylor Swift and so many. They command armies. Cross them at your peril.

And the bottom line is always cash. Always. Record labels remix records not to make them better, but to make them more commercial. Marketing costs are so high they don’t want to take a risk. In the old days, the acts were kings and queens, the labels had to put out what the artists delivered, unchanged.

A return to the past is a fool’s errand. Certain elements of the past come back, but always with a twist. But there’s no way society is getting smaller in the future, no way we’re disconnected. The world is shrinking, you can reach out and touch everybody you’ve ever known. The oldsters tell us about loneliness, but the truth is you know and are in contact with more people than ever before. The media and its journalists are stuck in the past.

When they’re not playing to the fans themselves. That’s the story of Fox News. The news! Cross the public at your peril. That was the story of the Dominion case. It’s all about ratings, money, and if you don’t give people what they want… Steve Jobs famously said the public doesn’t know what it wants, that you’ve got to show them, deliver it. That used to be the mantra in entertainment, now everybody and everything is sold out. Funny how Jobs is more memorable than any contemporaneous artist.

And let’s not forget that when Jobs owned Pixar every single movie was a success. The focus was on getting it exactly right. And every picture was innovative and different. This is the old music paradigm. But that’s been shot to hell. All producers have lowered their standards. And are stunned when some outside endeavor succeeds. It’s always about quality and vision. That’s the essence of “Squid Game,” so innovative that you can’t even describe it to someone. And the breakthrough of “The Bear” is the second season is completely different from the first. This is not “Cheers,” where the location never changes and it’s about petty issues amongst the characters, no, the second season of “The Bear” starts with a new restaurant, new love, characters evolve, you don’t think you’ve seen it before. And with so much today you think you’ve seen or heard it before.

So the professionals have ceded production to the amateurs. That’s where the eyeballs are, on TikTok, far exceeding the time spent on streaming platforms. Doesn’t matter what you think, the public is addicted to nobodies being innovative in ways the usual suspect purveyors are not. Furthermore, the music business no longer even develops acts, they just poach from TikTok, you build it and they invest in it, they refuse to take risk from dollar one, that’s not the business they’re in.

As for the older performers… Everyone in music with a portfolio seems to be selling it. Talking about coming tax changes that have never arisen, just like the carried interest rule has never been changed. They fought for creative control and now they are ceding it. And it’s all about business, believe me, Bob Dylan wishes he had held back and sold now, he would have gotten more money, whereas it used to never be about sales/money with Dylan, but cultural impact.

So the movie and music businesses are calcified. Which is why Netflix ate Hollywood’s lunch and indies keep gaining market share. The old players want no change. They just want a continuous gravy train.

Meanwhile, the TikTok performers sell out to become actors and it never works, because that’s not what they were selling to begin with, which was innovation and authenticity. They needed to stay where they were, but they couldn’t turn down the bucks. Then again, everything is about the bucks.

The above leaves lots of holes, many points of entry for outsiders. But to succeed you can’t do it their way, but your way. And that means slowly. More slowly than ever before. And it can’t be about money, because you can never make as much as the tech titans making music. What you’ve got is the ability to touch hearts and minds and speak truth to power. Believe me, this is no longer the sixties, the studios and record labels are out of touch, even though they believe otherwise. They’re so busy watching their ledgers that they’ve sacrificed the bleeding edge, the evolution that sustained them. Movies were being killed by TV until the younger generation came along with “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate” and “The Godfather”… Turned out if you gave the young ‘uns the reins, you ended up with something better. But it was a risk. And the funny thing is production is much cheaper in the music business, but there’s still no risk. Because the labels no longer know how to sell. They know terrestrial radio, which is dying. They have relationships with the music streaming outlets, but none of them break artists, that happens on TikTok and elsewhere online. To start from ground zero and build it, that’s just too difficult.

That’s your job.