“Inside the Rise of the Multiracial Right”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/24/opinion/minority-voters-trump-right.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.UsOJ.lYWoS2WHSg0N&smid=url-share

This is the most important article you will read today.

When I wrote about Maggie Q in “Ballard,” I was accused of Asian hate. Not by an Asian woman, but by a white man. If I mention anything negative about a woman, I get blowback from white males, not women.

That’s the Democratic party in a nutshell. Elites defending those who don’t ask for it. People who think they know better who have no idea what minorities and women really think.

Israel is dropping food aid and halting some military action in Gaza. Was it because people protested in the street? No, it’s because the “New York Times” has been on the country’s case. for months now. And yesterday published an article saying that the Israelis admitted that Hamas was not stealing U.N. aid.

We live in a two-tiered system. The mainstream and the internet.

If you want to affect those in power, you must address them in the mainstream, most particularly in the “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal,” although the “Washington Post” does have some influence.

Those in D.C. read the opinion pages of these newspapers and the letters in regard thereto. That’s how they take the temperature of what is going on. The world is run by print, not TV.

The other tier lives on social media. And the irony is the two rarely meet. It’s not very often you get those in power living in both camps.

So if you want to effect change on a grand scale, you’re probably better off with a top down effort. If you want to reach the Democratic brass/elite, tell them the truth in the “New York Times.”

If you want to build a movement, from the bottom up, you do it online, and in podcasts.

Yes, at this late date the powers-that-be don’t understand podcasts and TikTok. All they know is they have power. Why and how to utilize them…they’re clueless. They just know they have to be on them. But sans understanding of the culture, their efforts are fruitless.

Now we see a similar thing in the music business. The major labels have been out of touch with what the public wants. It still believes that the vast majority of people are interested in the shenanigans of rappers who shoot each other and glorify violence. Sure, the world is a dangerous place, but in truth homicides have gone down. Hip-hop has become a cartoon, akin to Marvel movies, and if you follow the box office those are no longer a slam dunk. Some succeed, but a whole bunch don’t.

Which is one of the main drivers to country. Although the banal lyrics about family and church turn off large segments of the public too.

And if you say anything against hip-hop you’re a racist.

And if you say anything against country, you hate the South and traditional values.

The fact that hip-hop might be out of touch and unappealing and country music may have no edges to catch you is completely discarded, the knee-jerk people on both sides are defending their fiefdoms.

What does the public really want in music?

Authenticity, credibility. Which is why Zach Bryan can sell out multiple stadium dates and many in the Spotify Top 50 can barely sell a ticket. Whilst those at the top of the chart are busy building brands, making deals with the Fortune 500, those with more credibility are not. We’ve heard for eons that the public doesn’t care about brand endorsements, the same way we heard that Blacks and Latinos would never vote for Republicans, but they did!

Another must-read this week comes from the “Wall Street Journal”:

“It’s Not Just You—There Are No Good New Songs This Summer – Hits from 2024, and even 2023, continue to rule the charts”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/top-songs-2025-benson-boone-shaboozey-justin-bieber-swag-133fd33f?st=HAZeCB&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The headline says a lot, but the truth is a bit deeper.

Yes, the industry is out of touch with what the public wants. It created the construct of “Song of the Summer” which no fan ever cared about. The truth is the day of the ruling pop song is in the rearview mirror. Because everybody no longer likes the same thing. And the major labels and the media refuse to acknowledge this. They’re still waiting for new stars akin to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to emerge. But Swift started in the aughts and Beyoncé in the nineties, eons ago! The world has completely shifted today. Today it’s no longer about the hit but the career. Not worrying about chart numbers but a dedicated fan base.

But if this is true, the major labels have much less power. As does the attendant media that propped up their hype/b.s. It’s akin to the Democratic party, rather than a redo, a rethink wherein the entity gets in touch with the real movers and drivers, those on the street, there’s a belief that they still rule, in a changed world.

The Democrats are f*cked. Kamala lost and all they can do is beat up the Republicans, they can’t look at themselves and see what is really going on. They were afraid not to run Kamala because Blacks would resent it. The same Blacks who voted for Trump? They kept to the canard of Bidenomics, that the economy was doing well for everybody when nothing could be further from the truth. They catered to fat cats with money when income inequality has never been worse in our lifetimes and the rich are resented. Jeffrey Katzenberg? Who the f*ck cares what he thinks, who put him in control, pushing his Biden agenda? Everyone on the street could see that Biden was too old, it was only the insiders who couldn’t see or admit the truth.

You might find the above uncomfortable. But we live in a changed world where the old tropes and techniques no longer apply. Fads, trends, movements happen online, period. And almost all of them happen on TikTok. Instagram Reels with an inadequate algorithm is a distant second. As for YouTube…do not mistake its competition in viewing hours with Netflix for its impact on trends. Visual podcasts are a thing. But trends don’t start on YouTube, they start on TikTok, and then move over to YouTube and/or Spotify.

And it’s almost impossible to game TikTok, although the labels continue to try and do so.

But it’s outside their wheelhouse, they think TikTok is akin to MTV, that you only have to be on. That’s wrong, today everybody can be on, it’s about creativity. Unique clips that engender virality.

And then you’ve got the oldsters criticizing the successful youngsters on TikTok because their songs may only be thirty seconds long. But that’s the way you do it today, money for nothin’ on the device that’s in everybody’s pocket.

The Democrats don’t want to believe they’ve lost control of their constituents. Ditto with the labels. What is their response? That the audience is dumb! Voters are voting against their interest and the music that works on TikTok is tripe. But to quote Journey, who’s cryin’ now?

The Democrats can’t adjust, they need a rewrite. An expulsion of the out of touch oldsters hanging on to power and a takeover by the youth who are in touch with what the public wants.

As for the music business… In truth, the promoters have taken up the slack, they know that you don’t need a hit to sell tickets.

However, like the Democrats, the entire music community has been tainted by lowest common denominator cartoon music that has turned off a majority of the public.

If you said you didn’t understand Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance the problem was you. You were racist and out of touch, you didn’t get the references. But in truth it’s the reverse… Most people didn’t get either the music or the references, to them it wasn’t powerful. But to say that is racist!

But is it? Is that how far we’ve come, you can’t speak your truth because an elite cabal says so? This is why Trump got elected and one of the reasons there are no hits. I’ve got no problem with Kendrick Lamar, good for him and his audience, but don’t tell me everybody else must love his music and what it means or STFU!

You can’t speak truth anymore. You’re shouted down by institutions. Your only hope is to go online and find like-minded people. That’s the essence of the Joe Rogan podcast and those who’ve followed in his footsteps. But all we hear from the educated elite is we must read and watch Heather Cox Richardson. Fine if you do, like those who like Kendrick Lamar, but if you think the average person can relate to educated Richardson and her analysis, you’re plain wrong. They need someone they can relate to, on their level, who speaks their truth. Sure, Trump may be out of control testing laws and norms, but what does that matter if I lost my job and I can’t make ends meet. Who is speaking to me?

And the minority voters who switched to Trump in the “Times” article above have not let go of MAGA yet. That’s not how change happens. You can’t change people’s minds that fast. Just like in music, we keep being told we want radio and Spotify Top 50 hits when the audience is looking for something deeper and more fulfilling. And we need a number of these out of the box successes before public perception changes to the point people believe new music is worth listening to.

But it’s easier to just believe one is always right and bury one’s head in the sand and resist all change.

The world has changed, and too many in power don’t know it, never mind admit it.

But the joke is ultimately on them. Like the Democrats. They think it’s about the system and elections, whereas the public no longer believes in the system or elections. You’ve got to start there.

But they refuse to do so. That means everything they’ve invested in is now wrong.

But that’s the truth.

Distribution is king.

Thursday Cliff Burnstein e-mailed me about Gary Shteyngart’s new book “Vera, or Faith.” He loved it, he wanted to know if I’d read it.

I said I had it reserved at the LIBRARY! That Libby told me I’d get it in two weeks. But the very next day, it became available.

I’m loath to tell people about Libby, the same way I’m loath to tell them the models of coffee yogurt I eat. Twice I’ve said what kind of coffee yogurt I prefer and then found it unavailable at my local market while my inbox was filled with testimonials from readers on how much they loved this brand and flavor.

Libby is the public library’s e-book lending platform. It’s all free. All you need is a library card, which is also free. You go on the app, reserve books, get notified when they’re available and when they are, you get them for twenty one days. And on some of the most popular books you get notified that you can skip the line and have them for seven days.

My mother used to reserve books at the library. By time she got them it was six to twelve months after release. So I pooh-poohed Libby before I tried it. I was wrong, I’m now a convert. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!

I reserve a book in the app, get notified when it’s available and then send it to my Kindle. You can also get audiobooks too, which I happen to be down on. My mind wanders. I tried it with Eric Puchner’s “Model Home.” Waiting for a rental car, I decided to pick up on the Kindle app on my phone (I’d also gotten the e-book). I was stunned at how much I’d missed, POSITIVELY STUNNED! Then again, I’m the kind of reader who reads very comprehensively, needs to know every word, what it means, what’s the gist.

And having switched to the e-book version of “Model Home,” I lost it! It expired! But even though Libby told me it’d be nearly two months before it was available again, it came two days later! I debated buying it, but e-books used to be a bargain, before the Apple settlement, now they are not. I was two-thirds of the way through, I couldn’t justify it, I’d made the right decision.

Now no one is more against e-books than Bomers, even Gen-X’ers. They’ll wax rhapsodic about the physical book, browsing in stores, say that they tried the Kindle but it hurt their eyes or some other poppycock.

Bottom line, books have reached their Napster moment. And once again, the powers-that-be are pooh-poohing it. Just like CDs were supposedly better than MP3s, one must read physical books!

As for youngsters… I quizzed my friend’s college student son. EVERYTHING was digital. None of the books were physical. Do you expect this guy to start buying physical books in the future? NO!

And then there’s BookTok.

The same oldsters decrying e-books are not on TikTok, and therefore they’re unaware of this phenomenon. If you want talk about books, recommendations, it’s all on BookTok. And on TikTok the Kindle is king, people decorate them like their Crocs!

But the story finally hit the mainstream today:

“Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That. – Proposed legislation would pressure publishers to adjust borrowing limits and find other ways to widen access.”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/books/libraries-e-books-licensing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZU8.zMnH.3JnlgUAlsIsK&smid=url-share

And what do publishers say?

“Big publishers and many authors say that e-book library access undermines their already struggling business models.”

Where have we heard that before?

And:

“She added that authors need every penny in royalties they can get. A 2023 Authors Guild survey found the median income for authors from their books was just $10,000 annually. ‘We have always been supportive of more library funding, but don’t make authors subsidize access,’ Rasenberger said. (Several authors declined to comment by name for fear of review bombing.)”

Think back twenty five years. With the record labels saying that Napster was hurting artists. And what did so many artists say? THEY NEVER GOT PAID ANY ROYALTIES! Furthermore, the wide distribution of their songs on Napster allowed them to make new fans, tour in other markets.

I don’t want to debate the economics, other than to say the e-book is here to stay. And by denying it, established publishers and older readers have allowed it to flourish unconstrained. Instead of getting ahead of the problem, they’re behind it, just like the record labels. The labels were ultimately saved by Daniel Ek. But who is going to save the publishers?

Well, the difference is people are borrowing books that libraries paid for. The question is what should the economics be, should there be a limit to the number of reads, the amount of time the book is available…all contrary to the physical book model.

You can’t stuff the genie back into the bottle. E-books have triumphed and the publishing industry and oldsters not only don’t want to admit it, in many cases they don’t even know it! Remember, it was college students with high-speed connections who cottoned to Napster. Most homes were still on dial-up. And we’d been sold the canard that the CD was better. But once I used the service, I realized how great it was. But rather than license it, the labels killed Napster, which was replaced with other P2P models and revenue kept going down until Mr. Ek saved them.

But Ek is the enemy.

Not to the labels, Spotify is their HERO! Their number one account!

But acts with few streams say the model is unfair. This is kind of like the 10k author income above…most people don’t want to read most books! If you think that’s unfair… You’re either ignorant or a socialist.

The bottom line is if you read books and you don’t own a Kindle and use Libby…

You’re missing out.

You stream music, why not read digitally? That’s what you’re doing right now!

Start here:

https://libbyapp.com/interview/welcome#doYouHaveACard

Tune in Saturday July 26th 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

In the mid 1980’s, my public junior high school in Texas brought in a presenter to speak to the entire student body. The message was basically, if you listen to heavy metal, you are going to hell.

I thought to myself, I am a really good kid, love my family, never got in any trouble, I’m fairly certain I’m not going to hell… and I love Ozzy!

That was when I realized that sometimes the teachers/preachers/media are full of sh*t.

Thank you Ozzy, RIP

Mike Antognoli

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Thank you for your tribute to Ozzy. I absolutely loved Black Sabbath. At my summer orientation to freshman year of college back in the late 80s, I felt like a fish out of water. Everything seemed foreign and I was lonely. They housed us in dorms, and one night, on the way to brush my teeth, I saw a beautiful person sitting in the frame of her door to her room, smiling and….yep….listening to Back Sabbath.  She became my best friend (now in our mid-50s, we are still very close). What first connected us was music, and Ozzy was a part of that. We listened to Planet Caravan over and over on road trips, in our dorm room. It had such a whimsical, trippy feel. It created a mood. (I’m now learning how to play the bass line all these years later).

Music connects people together. It fills in spaces that words can’t. It makes you feel seen. And I am so grateful to music and to have met my special friend who shared love of Ozzy.

Rest in Peace, Ozzy.
Jen Rothman

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When I worked for A&M in the early ‘80s, and Peter was working for Quincy Jones in the mid 80s, I had the privilege of coordinating their activities with TJ Martell events (the wonderful charity that ‘brings the music community together to fight cancer’).

In that capacity, I attended a lunch at The Bistro in Bev Hills. I unbelievably found myself sitting at a large round table with the likes of Richard Pryor, Rae Dawn Chong, Quincy J and the legendary Dizzy Gillespie – and there, sitting to my left in a very modest gray suit and plain tie, long hair perfectly combed, was an almost completely silent Ozzy Osbourne! He was sweetly polite to a fault. He sat silently and listened intently, as did the rest of us, to Dizzie Gillespie telling amazing tales from his past. Even Quincy hung on Dizzie’s every word.

As Dizzie ran on about life on the road in the old days, I kept thinking, I just met and am having lunch with Ozzy Osbourne! He spent most of the lunch gracefully picking at his chicken dish, never once calling any attention to himself. I couldn’t help but compare the infamous bat biter to this elegant chicken chewer.

RIP Ozzy…

Manny Freiser

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I read you religiously but I’ve never written to you but I feel compelled to write now after reading Richard Griffiths’ email about Ozzy. I succeeded Richard at Virgin Music. He was very reassuring during the handover but, having heard the many stories about Ozzy, I remained somewhat trepidatious before meeting him. That proved to be unnecessary. The Ozzy I dealt with for the remainder of my time at Virgin was an amiable, gregarious guy.

In my dealings with Sharon she was tough but charming and totally professional. She showed appreciation for our efforts on behalf of Ozzy and was one of the few writers who sent ME a Christmas present!

Ozzy will be sadly missed by so many people and my heart goes out to Sharon who was utterly devoted to him

Steve Lewis

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When two staff members from Ozzy Osbourne’s management came into our office in 1993 seeking a guitarist, (and maybe drummer?), they looked through our paper resumes and wrote down phone numbers of players who looked promising. Then they called these selected people and told them to play something live right over the phone.  If the person played well, they talked a bit.  If that went well, THEN they set up an in-person audition.  Effective!  I still talk to some guys who remember this audition.

Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com

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1970. I was privileged to see an amazing, albeit abbreviated Sabbath set at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bill Ward pass-out performance. I had been working with Gentle Giant and Sweathog (Frosty’s band) and had been guested by management (Meehans and Lenny Stogel).

 

The set was too short, but to hear that degree of pace, dynamic and road grading on a diet of almost exclusively mid tempos was only suggested on record. Ozzy’s subsequent body of work is a gift, there won’t be another. But history tells us there won’t be another Black Sabbath either. As great as he is, Paul Rodgers plus May/Taylor/Deacon didn’t equal Queen. The surviving Doors never got there. Unsurprisingly, Springsteen nailed it: (paraphrasing) ‘Clarence doesn’t leave the band because he died, he leaves the band when we die.’ There is a reason the term “original” has come to have so much power. Where I live, the conventional wisdom would be “just ‘cause a cat has kittens in the oven, don’t make ‘em biscuits.”

 

Ozzy will be missed for ages. As will Sabbath. The enormity of influence will continue to span generations.

 

Murray Krugman

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I was very sad to learn that Ozzy Osbourne had passed away. I knew Ozzy when he lived directly across the street from me in Beverly Hills on Doheny Road. He was always a gentleman and a riot to be with, along with his beautiful wife Sharon and their kids. My late husband and I were invited to many of their crazy parties and I performed a piece on my guitar at one of them! I send my deepest condolences to Sharon and his family. I’m glad he had the opportunity to offer such a beautiful musical farewell to his millions fans earlier this month at his amazing “Back to the Beginning” concert in Birmingham. Rest in peace dearest Ozzy. You were a true pioneer and one of a kind.

Liona Boyd

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My first big rock concert was Diary of a Madman with Randy Rhoads on Jan 1, 1982 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. That concert was life-changing for a 14 year old kid. Ozzy and Randy were instant gods. I never watched The Osbournes (wasn’t a big fan of “reality” tv back then), but his show Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, really showed Ozzy’s humor. He was friggin hilarious! Especially if you could understand his Brummie accent. ;0))

Cheers,

Bill Lackemacher

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On May 22nd of 1982, Ozzy appeared on stage at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, ME, produced by Frank J Russo, who I was working with at the time.

During his legendary stay at the Eastland Hotel, in the days when the famed stay had a roof-top pool… “The Prince of Darkness got a little too rowdy at one of his parties at the hotel’s rooftop pool which led to him chucking pool furniture off the roof and down onto High Street. ‘Cause why not? If you’re Ozzy Osbourne, you can do whatever you want.

Well, not quite. Ozzy was police escorted out of the city and the pool was closed because everyone wants to be a rockstar and guests started hurling furniture off the roof just like their idol.”

Thanks Ozzy for the songs and the history.

 

Mike Flanagin