“Too Many Songs, Not Enough Hits: Pop Music Is Struggling to Create New Stars – Execs say that a deluge of new music — and the difficulty of influencing TikTok’s algorithm — has made building an audience harder than ever for new acts.”: https://bit.ly/3CCHSEz

You know it’s the truth when the mainstream press locks on to the story.

In every walk of life, the boomer-owned institutions profess the inaccurate claim that we live in one homogenous society upon which they exert control. But we live in an era of chaos. And today it’s nearly impossible to gain traction, which really means an audience. You can get noticed, but for a day. Yesterday’s meme is sophomoric today, if you employ it you look bad. Culture moves incredibly quickly, and almost nothing sticks. But the powers-that-be keep telling us they can make it stick, when they cannot.

Want an example? Beyonce’s new album. It was hosannas all around. Queen Bey has come down from her throne with her miraculous creations which all the “tastemakers” have frothed at the mouth over. This is what we’ve been waiting for, a glorified superstar firing on all cylinders.

Check the Spotify Top 50, there’s not a SINGLE Beyonce song! Not one!

Now in the old paradigm they would have sold millions of albums immediately, based on the mania, but today that paradigm is dead. Today it’s all about streaming longevity, and there is none with Beyonce.

As for the “Billboard” album chart, ignore it completely, It doesn’t reflect reality. Streams are king and on that chart physical and files mean more, but even worse, acts release vinyl to bump their numbers and everywhere you see they’re number one, but not in the eyes (and ears) of the public.

And then there’s that fiction that terrestrial radio still counts. That was the majors’ domain, they controlled it.

“‘A No. 1 radio song doesn’t mean fuck anymore,’ laments one longtime A&R executive.”

Whew, when the labels are saying it you know it must be true. This is their ace in the hole. The head of promotion made more money than everybody at the label other than the president. But now he or she has no effectiveness.

Let’s start with the statistics, tracks, where the chart is much more reliable:

“‘It’s a bigger and more level playing field, and everything is getting lost,’ says Chris Anokute, who co-manages Muni Long. ‘Everyone’s an artist, but almost nobody’s breaking.”

“There are many ways to judge — and argue over — what ‘breaking’ means today; label executives tend to use streaming numbers as a barometer, while most managers prefer to look at ticket sales. But the number of new acts vaulting into the top 10 of the Hot 100 has declined precipitously in the last few years. From 2001 to 2004, over 30 first-timers cracked the top 10 annually. In 2019, however, only 15 first-timers reached the top 10, and 2021 had the lowest number of new entrants this millennium: just 13.”

You can’t reach the top of the heap unless you’ve already established a beachhead, and as we’ve seen with Beyonce above, that’s no guarantee.

Acts like Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band benefit from breaking in the last era wherein music television meant something, they were all over MTV and especially VH1. That avenue is now dead. You can post a video to YouTube for free, but that doesn’t mean you’ll gain a mass of eyeballs, odds are no one will see it other than you and your friends!

And even acts like the Weeknd. He broke when insider buzz still mattered and there were fewer acts out there and streaming was not yet established. If Abel comes out today, he’s got much less mass, no matter how good the records are. Furthermore, that which is made for the mainstream, with the usual suspects following the established formulas, tends not to succeed, the public is looking for something new.

Like Zach Bryan. Who has got the #6 song in the U.S. Spotify Top 50.

This guy was unheard of, with no traction, and he sounds more like a singer-songwriter of the seventies than the dreck played on country radio. The public is looking for authenticity, Bryan delivers it. And quality songs, that are recognizable as songs.

The Morgan Wallen kerfuffle has superseded the music itself in the conversation. But if you listen to Wallen’s double album it’s fantastic, a step above. You can pooh-pooh its success, but that just means you’re turned off by a southern accent and biased against those in the south and…

“Dangerous” is #3 this week and I’ll quote from the “New York Times”: 

“‘Dangerous,’ released at the beginning of 2021, has now spent 90 weeks in the Top 10, matching ‘South Pacific’ — the soundtrack to a 1958 film whose songs go back to a 1949 Broadway production. In the 66-year history of the Billboard 200, the magazine’s flagship album chart, only five other releases have logged more weeks in the Top 10, all soundtracks and cast albums from the 1950s and ’60s.”

And Bad Bunny is the biggest act in the world and he’s Latin and Sam Smith might have a number one track right now with Kim Petras, but Sam also broke before the chaos became extreme.

Music is a business. People like to think of it as art, but that’s not how the major labels see it. They look for an edge, just like the people spamming you with e-mails and texts. They employ leverage, trade on their size and catalogs, but in today’s world, everything they bring to the table isn’t working:

“‘The market’s dry as fuck,’ declares a veteran major-label A&R executive who requested anonymity to speak candidly. ‘There’s less and less shit working. The front-line label business, signing new artists, is in trouble.’ ‘I can honestly say right now that nobody — nobody — knows what’s going on,’ another longtime major-label A&R says.”

As for the fiction that streaming playlists are everything:

“‘Now, just because you’re in a top 10 slot on a big Spotify playlist, it doesn’t mean your audience is growing,’ one manager says.

As for the old formula:

“Taken together, all these factors mean that seizing — and then holding — the attention of the music-loving masses is that much more challenging. ‘It used to be that you released an album, got Rolling Stone to review it, got on tour, got on late-night TV, and that was how you broke,’ says one senior executive at a major label. Even if luck was a factor, the path was clear. ‘It was four or five things. Now you need four or five things a week, or at least a month, or else your streams don’t go up.'”

As for the power of TikTok: 

“The rise of TikTok has complicated matters, too. The platform has become a hit-maker — helping Em Beihold’s ‘Numb Little Bug’ and Nicky Youre’s ‘Sunroof’ climb the charts, for example — but it’s an unpredictable marketing tool, less susceptible to manipulation and less responsive to star power than other platforms. Engineering a viral moment is akin to walking into a corner store and emerging with a winning lottery ticket. ‘There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what breaks there,’ says Justin Lehmann, who manages Aminé and Khai Dreams, among others. ‘And without breaking there, it’s difficult to say what else can cause a big moment to happen for anybody.'”

The lunatics have taken over the asylum. It’s a free-for-all. The supposed gatekeepers, the keepers of the flame, the manipulators, have been stopped dead in their tracks. You can do the same old thing, but you’re not going to get the old result, chances are you’re going to get almost nothing.

So the playing field is being leveled.

And the dream is dying.

You remember the dream, where you start out humble and end up world famous, known by everybody, and rich? Nearly impossible today. You can shoot someone, but you’ll only be famous for a day. Come on, we shrug our shoulders at school shootings now. And if you fight to be in the public eye all the time, it backfires. Elon Musk’s image has taken a huge hit. And the more Kanye and Trump talk, the crazier they look. So if you think you can just spam your way to a career by posting 24/7, buying followers…you can end up with statistics but no career, maybe not even any traction at all. And sure, today’s youth don’t mind you pitching yourself, but that’s if you’re a nobody, an influencer. But it’s different if you’re not a member of the rank and file, if you think you’re better than those on TikTok or other platforms, those are owned by the users, not you, the more you press, the worse you look. And then there’s desperation… No one wants to be close to the desperate.

So…

Today’s paradigm is you’re not a star. If you want to create myth and mystique, if you want to hold back your identity, if you want to do all the crap that worked from the fifties to yesterday, you’re screwed. Your only option is to get into the pit, reveal your warts and predilections, and say you’re no better than anybody else, but this is what you do, create music.

And in order for it to grow, you’ll need the public to adopt it. And you cannot push it, it doesn’t work. Believe me, the labels are in bed with TikTok, TikTok pushes priorities to big time users, but even if they make a video with the song…it does not mean it will be picked up by others and will become a phenomenon. First it must have that je ne sais quoi. AND, the creator/influencer has to add their own spin, so the concoction becomes MORE than just your song. This is anathema to the oldsters who were so afraid that their work tapes would become available on Napster. God, you’re dying to have your work tapes released, you’re dying for ANYBODY TO LISTEN TO THEM!

That’s the hardest challenge.

So we’ve got dinosaurs and…

Everybody else.

Everybody else must adjust their outlook.

Let’s start with the festivals. Coachella is bigger than any act, Coachella has the power, as do Lollapalooza, ACL and Outside Lands. Didn’t used to be this way. But after the festival books a headliner or three, which is harder than ever to do, the slots are precious. It’s the only way to expose yourself to a mass audience live. And the traditional ladder has lost its bottom rungs. The club scene is minimal and sure, arena business is good, but getting from here to there?

And the acts keep complaining, looking for culprits, pointing the finger at streaming services. But the truth is, if you’re not making much from Spotify, YOU’RE NOT BEING LISTENED TO MUCH! And no one mentions that Spotify killed piracy and turned recorded music revenues around. No, there must be a return to the past, where almost no one got a deal, you lived off the advance and there was much less, MUCH LESS, competition.

Do I think it’s going to formalize, turn around?

No.

The internet has the power to reach everybody, nearly instantly. But we’ve found out that there’s so much stuff that it’s hard to reach anybody. Adele had her big moment when CDs still counted. The albums after that, despite the hoopla, did nowhere near as well. And the younger audience…doesn’t care about her, not much anyway.

And in truth most people cut off huge swaths of media. They haven’t heard or seen or read it and it does not bother them at all. They’ve found what appeals to them and that’s enough. And it’s always visceral and human. That’s the essence of TikTok, which the same boomers living in the past refuse to explore. TikTok is where the PEOPLE are, where the INNOVATION is. And Netflix doesn’t have to worry about HBO Max or Disney+, it has to worry about TikTok, that’s where all the viewing hours of the young are spent.

Music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. And for a long time, the powers-that-be thought they could kill Napster, et al, through sheer will. And then the legal system. Nothing worked until the iTunes store and Spotify. You have to deliver it the way the public wants it. And if you want to enrapture the public, you’ve got to GET AHEAD OF IT!

Yes, now is the worst time for me-too, to be playing it safe. Now is the time to experiment, to be different, to be great, because innovation always sparks a reaction. Then again, the old model of hipsters gravitating to the outside act and then it becoming mainstream is gone too, once again, there’s just too much in the channel.

And no one cares.

You think you’re better than me? I don’t care about this, I don’t know that, I came late to the product… WE’RE ALL LATE! Assuming we see any need to go outside our own little satisfying purview. And they’re not making more time. I want to choose wisely, I don’t want to waste twelve hours on a mediocre series.

As for music, listening to the whole album… You’re lucky if you get people to listen to ONE SONG! Stop the blowback, that’s just how precious people’s time is. If you want our attention you must deserve it. And you do it through being truly great and special, and that’s no guarantee of stardom, it’s just the start of traction, which could die out.

Is it depressing?

Absolutely. But that does not mean it’s not reality.

The professionals are throwing up their hands, they don’t know how to manipulate the market, crack it.

The acts are complaining that they can’t be rich and famous like they used to be.

But the public? It’s overfed and overwhelmed, so it chooses its experiences wisely, wasting time is taboo.

You make your own schedule. Just like you choose your own wallpaper on your laptop and smartphone.

And you can’t trust pollsters, you can’t trust anybody telling you the way it is, THEY DON’T KNOW! You only know for yourself.

Becoming a brand? There needs to be a foundation. People were so focused on becoming a corporation that they ignored the underlying product. They don’t want to put that much effort in, they don’t want to be poor, they want it to be fast and easy…

Steve Lacy may have made it to number one, but:

“Lacy’s career began seven years ago, with The Internet, and his first solo album in 2019 had already earned him a Grammy Award nomination.”

He’s been around for years! That’s how long it takes. You want to succeed now or go to graduate school? Short circuit the whole process, just go to graduate school. Your ten year old sings and you believe they have talent and deserve a spot on the hit parade? Then they must drop out of school, work hard for ten years and probably still won’t hit. Better to at least get an education, which will ultimately pay dividends, which a failed career will not.

But the silver lining is the world has been flattened, and the monoliths of old are in the same boat as the pipsqueak in their basement.

And everybody can play. Put their songs online. Market the hell of out themselves, NEARLY FOR FREE!

The new world is definitely not like the old world.

It’s a longer road than ever to the top if you wanna rock ‘n roll.

But the audience still desires music. There’s still a marketplace. It just does not resemble the pyramid of old.

There’s no buzz.

That used to be the mark of success, whether people were talking about it. You could feel it, it was palpable, you had to investigate, check it out.

Now almost nothing has sustained buzz. You’re foraging by yourself, deciding whether to dip in or not. Sure, there might be hype at the advent, upon release, but after that you’re on your own.

What is it, is it hard to gain traction on Hulu?

Then again, people were talking about “Normal People,” I still here it referenced now and again. Then again, it was romance-centered, it was not challenging.

Netflix still gives you the best shot. But only for a short period of time if the production does not turn into a phenomenon.

Amazon is a black hole.

Disney+ is seen as kid-centric.

The sleeper here is Apple. With little product, and that which there is is dripped out week by week. Apple has got the show with the most buzz today, “Bad Sisters.” It comes up at dinner, Felice’s hair stylist mentioned it. I haven’t started yet, I’m waiting for the final episode to drop next week. And people have e-mailed me frustrated about the week by week drip, and I do not think that created the buzz. I think it’s about the quality. Apple could win this race by focusing solely on quality, not trying to be everything to everybody. Apple sticks with a show as opposed to canceling it willy-nilly. It’s a more diverse HBO, but without the attitude. Apple’s whole business has been about appealing to the elite, the thinkers, the creators, those who are not brain dead. It just may work for them in the streaming sphere. And they’ve got enough money to wait it out.

Oh, HBO Max. Who the hell knows what is going on there. Canceling foreign development. Few HBO Max-specific shows. The merger with Discovery now has a stink upon it, the press mania is gone, will the company, unlike Apple, be hobbled by financial considerations?

Which brings us back to Hulu. What exactly is it? A cable substitute? With both new streaming fare and on demand network and cable shows? People say they must have Netflix, I never hear the same thing about Hulu. Sure, they’ve got “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but unlike “Stranger Things,” buzz has not sustained. People don’t think of Hulu when they think about made for streaming fare, which leaves some shows unseen, like “Ramy.”

You must watch it. On a most basic level, it’s the singular viewpoint of Ramy Youssef. Even the most vaunted comedies are written by committee, and they feel like it. Whereas “Ramy” feels of a piece, it doesn’t waver.

So the first season is the best.

And the second season is really good.

The third? It starts off slowly, almost a caper movie, and just when you think that’s going to be the arc of the entire season, it settles back down in New Jersey, the true locus of the show.

So what you’ve got here is…

An American family, but they’re Muslim. And they’re believers.

Farouk, the father, is a dreamer. As are many who find themselves at the bottom, they’re trying to get rich. His wife, Maysa, played so well by Hiam Abbass, is an intelligent thinker subservient to her husband under Muslim law, but not happy about it. She doesn’t want to hear contradictory opinions, but she knows something isn’t right.

Ramy’s sister Dena is trying to escape. Going to law school. Not wanting to live by conventional Muslim mores.

And then there’s the supporting cast, who are just as good, if not better, than the main characters.

Mo. An entrepreneur with a ghost kitchen is up-to-date, positively modern, yet is still a believer.

Naseem, a closeted, self-hating gay jewelry merchant who believes the world is against him, looking out for those who want to take advantage of him 24/7.

And of course Steve. Who has muscular dystrophy, but that’s not what you focus on, his identity shines through.

So, Ramy has given up his dreams and become a jewelry entrepreneur in order to pay the bills. The progeny of immigrants want to fly from the nest, be artists, live their dreams, but like so many in America, Ramy’s dreams died, reality interfered, he’s earning a living.

And he’s conflicted constantly by religion.

How much does the average person know about Muslims and their religion? Well, other than that terrorist thing, not much. And I’d tell you to watch “Ramy” for educational purposes, but also because it’s so funny!

And the mix of religious issues with practical life issues.

Ahmed is married, but his wife won’t commit to a baby, which he wants so much.

Mo wants Little Mo to win the Quran competition like others want their kids to win the spelling bee, or soccer trophy.

And everybody wants love. But religion is never far away, it plays a part, it interferes.

I wish Ramy was featured in every episode, but ultimately the focus on the supporting characters pays dividends, getting into their unique problems.

Dena working in a law office before taking the Bar Exam… She screws up. Every young lawyer does. And is reprimanded by a higher up, and usually not nicely. She has a crisis of confidence, is this the right career for her?

And Farouk and Ahmed plead their case in their respective situations and you think everything is going to go their way, but it does not, just like in real life.

And the desire of the flesh, the Quran says one thing, but your body says another. You want to have sex but have to hold off and do you end up inexperienced and…

Some are re-evaluating their choices, and others are too fearful to look inside.

Maysa is practical. They’re going to lose their house. She turns to Instacart. But when she delivers for friends, the issue of status comes up. Do you want to admit you’re struggling?

And everybody wants more.

I’ve told you so much, but really I’ve told you so little.

Just like Liv Lisa Fries in the latest season of “Babylon Berlin,” Ramy has grown up, he’s no longer a child, but an adult. He’s physically aged. And once you become an adult the rules change.

And there are issues of friendship. What you’ll do for others and whether you disappoint them and…

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is I strongly recommend “Ramy.” The third season might not be quite as good as what came before, but it’s not like the usual sitcom in later years, just proffering situations to keep the series going and the money flowing. The Muslim religion underlies everything, and whatever religion you may believe in, the questions remain the same: do you do what’s in your heart or what the good book says, does religion ultimately make you feel better or worse, to what degree is God involved in your everyday life…

In a three or four network world…

“Ramy” doesn’t even get made.

In the old basic and pay cable world…

Well, sitcoms are hard to do, and HBO has focused more on dramas.

And in the streaming world, now financially challenged, it’s becoming more about mainstream fare, that which catches on immediately, but in truth, that’s what “Ramy” is. Everybody can relate. How do we get everybody to partake? The hurdles are too high. You’ve got to subscribe to Hulu, you’ve got to find the time…

The old paradigm that if you’re great people will find you is dead. You can be great today and no one can find you.

But if you don’t watch “Ramy” it’s your loss.

Really.

“New York Times” reporter Joe Coscarelli’s “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story” is the definitive book on today’s rap scene. Whether you’re a fan of rap or not, you need to read “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story” to understand the culture, not only where the rappers come from, but how they make their impact and cash. This is the story of what is happening now!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-coscarelli/id1316200737?i=1000582515519

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/00a9db38-cb92-490b-bae1-82daba71ef6c/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-joe-coscarelli

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/joe-coscarelli-207570360

Showtime trailer: https://bit.ly/3Vdo0R0

It’s great, I give it a big thumbs-up, but it’s not the movie I thought it would be.

You see today’s documentaries are not truth, they’re hagiography. The one that bugs me the most is the Bee Gees’…watching it you’d believe they were as big as the Beatles in the sixties, when nothing could be further from the truth, they were just another act, not to take anything away from their disco years. And unfortunately, as time goes by these documentaries become the historical record, because no one else cares enough, or can land enough cash, to set the record straight, meanwhile those who were there and can testify fade away.

So…

You’re watching this flick and thinking how Sinead O’Connor was ahead of her time, that she was right. Especially about the Catholic Church. But then this is all the film turns out to be, and you want so much more. Obviously, if there was more, Sinead wouldn’t have participated. Because if the acts do, it’s hard to get them to agree to something negative, but that’s what I was most interested in, the past two decades. It’s not like Sinead’s not been in the news, she’s been making news, which has left a lot of us scratching our heads. The film does an excellent job of telling us where Sinead came from, explaining her early behavior, but the four children with four fathers, the death of her son, the diagnosis of mental illness, the chest tattoo, the “crazy” statements in the press…these are barely referenced, if touched upon at all.

So what we’ve got here is a young woman from a broken home with an alcoholic mother who dies on her. Along the way, she’s put in an institution because of uncontrollable behavior and…

It’s amazing she survived, never mind became a big star.

But it was thirty years ago, even longer. You watch the movie and you’re shocked. Because it was such a different era. MTV still ruled. Everybody saw the “Nothing Compares 2 U” video. And when she ripped up the Pope’s picture on SNL… There might have been cable, but there was no streaming and certainly no internet and therefore it was big news, whereas nothing’s that big anymore, even Kanye, people have already stopped talking about his heinous remarks, and Kanye’s got the most media attention of any musician.

And it wasn’t hip-hop back in the late eighties, early nineties. Rock still ruled. Sure, hip-hop had a presence, and indie, especially punk and Nirvana, was nascent, but the big labels with their big spends still dominated the business. You had to be with a major to play, to get albums in the store, to get on radio and TV. And if you had a hit, it was EVERYWHERE!

So, it doesn’t appear that Sinead was inherently rebellious, but more that she was sheltered, couldn’t see the bigger picture, and saw no reason to compromise, to not be herself 24/7.

She’s probably still pissed at the Catholic Church, even though she’s now a Muslim. You don’t get over a background that bad that quickly, even though everybody tells you to, it smolders.

So…

Sinead O’Connor was Irish in an era where we didn’t really know what that meant. Before liberalization. Before women’s rights and abortion rights. Yes, they can have a national referendum in Catholic Ireland, and abortion can be legalized, but in the U.S. we’re going in the wrong direction. If only we had a spokesperson like Sinead with that reach. But music has fallen from its perch in importance, and the acts are all about becoming brands, and money is paramount. Sacrificing and standing up for your rights? No one does that anymore. Oh, they’ll e-mail me protesting, but believe me, times were different.

Then again, thirty years ago wasn’t like the sixties. By the time Sinead broke music was huge business and acts were making more money, were being ripped-off less, still being ripped-off, but there were more dollars in the pot and more awareness of what was going on.

Not that Sinead was involved in the business end of things.

Nigel Grainge found her in Ireland and brought her to the U.K. But since Nigel is gone, he can’t speak. But Nigel was an interesting character. With a sense of humor, someone who could see the truth and articulate it, a smart guy but also a fun guy, in an intellectual way, not a rousing, beer-drinking way. But we do get the opinions of Peaches and…how come they have to use contemporary voices when it comes to history? In time, these people will be forgotten. Sinead will outlast all of the acts featured in this flick, at least her music will. I don’t want reflections, I want the essence, what went down.

They do talk about her taking control of the reins and insisting “The Lion and the Cobra” be recut, she hated the initial version. And she resisted the label’s call for an abortion when she got pregnant. She has always had a backbone. And when she stands at the mic and starts screaming…

You realize what a long strange trip it’s been, how this isn’t the sound anymore. But she loved to scream, to get the energy, the anger out.

But Sinead could also be quiet.

And she always stood her ground. Standing up for Public Enemy at the Grammys and refusing to appear the following year. But the Grammys are a period piece too. Today “Hits” is rambling about secret committees at the top and I just can’t get excited, no matter how flawed the organization is. If you need an award to feel good about yourself, you must have huge self-confidence/image issues. And now no one watches, and no one remembers who won, but back then…

I remember being at the Lilith Fair at the Rose Bowl. I’d left the stadium to go outside to the second stage to see K’s Choice, remember “Not an Addict,” and Billie Myers, remember “Kiss the Rain”…you probably don’t, but the latter was a smash and even the former got MTV airplay, but in a moment of silence, through the tunnel, I heard:

“I am stretched on your grave

And will lie there forever”

I RAN to the football field. I had to get closer to the sound. I’ve got goosebumps writing about it now. Sinead’s voice transcended the venue. She had the loudest and most piercing and most memorable vocal of anybody appearing, and she was not at the top of the bill. And after that, “I Am Stretched on Your Grave” became one of my favorite songs.

Which had been “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance,” about her former manager Fachtna O’ Ceallaigh. I know Fachtna, a great guy. I figured representing an urchin and being from Ireland he would be dark and edgy, but he is not. But the film says he previously ran U2’s label and…I remembered the excitement of the old music business, when titans truly were, when everybody tried to get a foothold, when it was exciting, when it was EVERYTHING! TV and movies were behind the time, now it’s reversed, never mind social media.

And then there was the appearance on Letterman. I recorded it and saved it so I could watch it again and again. It was literally the best performance I ever saw on Dave’s show.

Crap, it’s been taken down from YouTube, but Sinead was singing “You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart” from the movie “In the Name of the Father” and she had her eyes closed when the music was quiet and then she started stomping her foot and the song became louder and she was completely animated, looking into the camera, and she was singing like she MEANT IT, which is something else that’s gone by the wayside.

So, who is Sinead O’ Connor?

That I’d like to know more about. This film is a canonization. But no one’s perfect, far from it. So she made it and offended people and…

That’s another thing, some things never change. The same crap they were mad at Sinead for thirty years ago, they’re still mad at today. She ripped the Pope’s picture…no one’s got a sense of humor, no one can say anything negative about religion. As for refusing to air the National Anthem at her live show… I mean come on, WHO WOULD WANT THAT? It’s your gig, people paid to see YOU, it’s not a baseball game, it’s not a law. God, why are people so offended.

Because they’re dumb and caught in a rut, defending that which oftentimes they cannot even see. Once upon a time, music made you question, the creators were vessels who had opinions we hung on, now they’re just mannequins for clothing, selling perfume and tchotchkes trying to get rich when in truth they can never be as wealthy as the rulers of this country. You might get seven figures to pay the private, but there’s a good chance people won’t even pay attention to you, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW LITTLE THE MONEY MEANS TO THEM! You’re just a court jester, when you used to be so much more.

“Nothing Compares” will rivet you. It will make you think.

But it will leave you wanting.

I’d like a subsequent documentary, but I doubt that’s forthcoming, after all the credits say this documentary was first played at a film festival back in 2019, THREE YEARS AGO! It’s a game, raising money, getting distribution, no wonder the youth just make it themselves on their hi-res phones and put it on TikTok, those clips have a lot more authenticity than the ones that are labored over.

At this point, Sinead O’Connor is a fading footnote. This brings more attention to her talents and career, which she fully deserves. If only we could have more.