Maybe you have to know someone who died.

Hope. It’s an elusive concept, but you need it to survive. Not blind hope, but a belief based on facts, on odds, on the notion that if you do the right thing events will work out in your favor.

But not only your favor, but everybody’s favor.

But that’s not the way the world is going.

You grow up studying history, all the turf wars, you think it can’t happen now, but then it does. Why? Well, it’s got a lot to do with income inequality. When things are going badly, many abdicate their power to a strongman, who promises they’ll make everything right, and maybe they do for a while, make the trains run on time, but then you wake up with fewer rights as you’re lorded over by an omnipotent power. It’s happening in Eastern Europe. And Russia.

But we didn’t think it could happen here.

Timing is everything. There’s only so much you can control in life, luck plays a big part. And I was lucky enough to be born in the fifties. The fifties weren’t so great, but the sixties were. They started off with the election of JFK.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

We live in bizarroland today. George Costanza rules, people do the opposite of this.

“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Together. An interesting concept. The U.K. breaks away from the EU. The U.S. pulls out of the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and the W.H.O., as if we, and the world, can go it alone, when everybody knows you need a team to triumph.

So JFK said we were going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. We were torn, whether to put faith in the president’s proclamation or deem it a pipe dream. But then Americans rocketed into space, and despite setbacks like the Apollo 1 fire, in the summer of ’69 men walked on the moon, and we watched it all on television.

You might say we can Zoom around the world these days, but there’s no colony on Mars, we stopped exploring, because it was seen as too costly, but the truth is the space program paid dividends. Not only Tang, but computer development.

So JFK gets assassinated, but LBJ gets civil rights laws passed. The younger generation questions everybody and everything, and protests the war to the point that LBJ decides not to run in ’68. Sure, there was opposition, but both sides agreed on the facts, it was only a matter of spin, of opinion, what to do next.

But the sixties were thrilling. Kinda like seeing Prince. Or Freddie Mercury. You were either there or you weren’t. And you might be able to listen to recordings, watch videos, but they’re just facsimiles, you can’t feel it, you can’t live it, you’re at a distance, your heroes are dead.

And the truth is in 1970 a bunch of heroes died. Most notably Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison and Duane Allman in ’71. Suddenly, we were licking our wounds, we were living in a can’t do culture, and we’ve been living that way ever since, except for a brief period of internet excitement at the end of the nineties and the beginning of the twenty first century, before the techies became billionaires and we ended up with a Tower of Babel society, with no one taking responsibility.

Responsibility. Credibility. Morality. Honor. Important concepts in the sixties, irrelevant today. You’re just a person, equal to the billionaires and no better than those of color. But that is not the message you’re sent. You’re told you’re inadequate and if you don’t get in line, crawl for cash, you’ll fall through the cracks and no one will rescue you. We went from help your brother to put down your brother, and that had consequences.

So despite smartphones and flat screens, life is hard in today’s U.S.A. Both parents have to work and you can’t make it on minimum wage. Sure, you can save up for the front row for Drake, but then you can’t afford another show all year. Meanwhile, the banks and the corporations drink from the public trough and you’re parched, just waiting for a drop of water. Even worse, it’s deemed your fault. It’s your fault if you’re poor, if you get cancer, if you get Covid-19. Because the winners won’t succumb.

But they do.

I just got word a friend is in hospice for Covid-19.

It’s not like a car accident, it doesn’t happen suddenly. You get sick, then maybe you get a little better, and then maybe you get sicker and then, weeks after it all began, you pass.

How did he get it?

His granddaughter flew to a distant state to hang with a friend. If the states had been closed, if there wasn’t a quick reopening, he never would have gotten Covid-19, he would have lived.

This is not rocket science, you don’t need a genius to explain it. But somehow even if they can understand it, many won’t accept it. Why?

Because they believe it won’t happen to them.

But it always does, it’s just a matter of when.

Your kid gets cancer. You lose your job. Your wife leaves you. Life isn’t smooth sailing, the goal is to hang in there and survive.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Now you piss on your brother. Raise your head and you will be attacked. Even worse, those who truly commit faux pas, even when they’re caught, they skate. They just ignore it. Or wait for the afternoon, when another story will replace it.

There are no consequences.

The worst thing that could happen when I grew up was to come home with a note that your parent had to see the principal.

Today, if a kid comes home with said note, the parent goes to the school and tears the principal a new one, after all, their progeny can’t be at fault.

No one can be at fault in America today, it’s always someone else’s problem.

And then the music stops, and there’s no chair left for you.

Even worse, no one cares, except for your family and friends.

That’s America today, no one cares and there’s not enough money to go around. You can’t get ahold of the unemployment office in California, if you’re poor, it’s your fault, find your own damn health insurance, borrow money from friends, assuming they’ve got any, sleep on a couch, or on the sidewalk, after all, you’re responsible.

But what if your birth circumstances were not privileged? What if you got the short end of the stick through no fault of your own?

Tough nuggies.

Recent news says if we all wore masks, Covid-19 would be harnessed in three weeks. Is this true? Maybe, maybe not, but we could at least try it.

But that would mean you’d be responsible, you’d have a duty, you’d have to care about others, and that’s just not today’s ethos.

It’s a free-for-all, and no one is in power.

They fine people for breaking the rules in foreign countries, in America even when there is a law, the governor might choose not to enforce it.

So who should you listen to, who should you believe?

And then there are the optimists, who believe a regime change will solve all our problems, when the truth is you can never catch up to the computer age if you’re using fax machines, you’ve got to tear down and start over, rebuild the infrastructure. But that costs money, and the government is the enemy, and therefore you should not pay taxes and the rich shouldn’t either because they are the job creators, wrong, and they know where the money should go, not those in power, so screw ’em.

But it’s all irrelevant until it hits home.

If it hasn’t already, it’s gonna. It’s just a matter of time. No one wins forever. And when things don’t go your way, good luck. Chances are the government won’t be there for you, and in a country of 300+ million people, a few can be lost. But what if it’s you?

None of the above can be debated, it’s written in stone. How you choose to live your life is up to you, but actions have consequences, and in the old days it was incumbent upon bad actors to take responsibility, today they deny and that’s all she wrote.

Black Lives Matter was an illustration that America doesn’t work for everybody, whether you stand for the “Star-Spangled Banner” or not, that’s all show, it won’t put money in your bank account.

We’ve got a vacuum of leadership. We revere corporate titans, are beholden to their wares, but when it comes to what is between the ears, we get no food, no direction.

There are a lot of false prophets. Most especially religious ones. But if you believe prayer is the answer to all your issues, I hope you don’t get Covid-19.

We need someone to take control. Someone akin to JFK, or MLK, or even Mario Savio. Someone who’s driven by what’s right as opposed to what pays out.

While we’re waiting, there will be casualties.

Like my friend today.

Billboard Announces New Chart Rules: No More Merch & Ticket Bundles

Who woulda thunk streaming would break the charts?

The charts are for the industry. “Billboard” has to play nice or companies will find someone else to provide this information.

It wasn’t until 1991 that the charts reflected any modicum of reality. That’s when SoundScan appeared, tallying what actually sold, via computer information, as opposed to conversations with retailers that were then manipulated by the head of charts with input from the record companies themselves. Prior to SoundScan, a record started at the bottom and then moved its way up the chart. SoundScan flipped the script, albums started out at number one and then fell, because most sales for known acts come right after release.

But, going to a non-human compiled chart not only demonstrated that albums sold prodigiously and then less (except for developing acts, of course), but that more genres other than those featured on MTV were represented in the sales world, i.e. country flourished. Seen as a backward genre prior to this time, it turned out country sold incredibly well, and started to appear in the Top Ten, one can argue that it’s this chart change that turbocharged modern country.

But today, it’s all hip-hop and pop all the time. That’s what’s consumed most on streaming services, therefore, in order to get to number one on the “Billboard” chart in another genre, you had to manipulate it, i.e. bundle the album with merch or tickets or who knows what.

You see the labels want bragging rights. The execs may get little press outside the industry, but they can tell anybody they encounter they went to number one, it makes them feel good, it burnishes their image, irrelevant of how much money was made.

And the money is in streaming.

But once we went to a consumption model, we found out hip-hop was bigger than any other genre, and unlike with SoundScan, every other genre other than pop was completely squeezed out. With physical, you bought it, it didn’t matter how many times you listened to it. But now it’s all about how many times something is listened to, so… It’s the opposite of today’s television world. The truth is that network shows still tend to have the largest audiences. Even worse, in an on demand world, not everybody watches a show right away. Add on top of that the fact that Netflix does not report comprehensive data, so no one knows how many people watched a show, and the overall television ratings have become irrelevant. Newspapers still print the “Billboard” Top Ten, but even the “Los Angeles Times” no longer prints television ratings, never mind radio ratings.

But the truth is the average person does not read the physical newspaper. And the “Billboard” chart is buried so deep in the online iteration that unless you’re looking for it, you don’t see it. Most people get their news online, it’s a grazing activity, and you only go deep if the world exploded or it’s a personal interest, so no one knows your record went number one unless you tell them. As for all the non-hip-hop and pop acts that go number one based on chart manipulation, since they instantly fall down the chart, the story has no sticking power, although the PR industry hypes this achievement wherever and whenever it can.

But few talk about network television shows anymore. All the discussion is about Netflix, Amazon and pay cable, whose flagships have also entered the on demand streaming sphere. Television drives the culture today, after politics of course, and sex supersedes everything, but what excites people in television is that which often is seen by few. In other words, TV resembles the free-form FM radio stations of the late sixties, whereas music resembles the old days of three TV networks.

But the reality is more people are listening to more genres of music, and in quantity, than ever before. Concomitantly, what is number one is listened to less than ever before. You can have a number one track on Spotify and most of the nation is completely unaware of it. Its fans are streaming it prodigiously, but others don’t know it, even more, they’re not interested.

But what they are interested in is excluded from the chart.

Oh, “Billboard” has a zillion genre charts, as does Spotify, but those are seen as backwaters. And the old paradigm of crossing over from one genre to another is almost completely dead.

And the end result of this is music discovery is negatively impacted, and it hurts the industry at large.

Ed Sheeran was so successful, the Brits changed the chart rules so he couldn’t dominate, so other records could get a chance.

We need the same adjustment in the U.S., so other genres can get traction.

But it’s really not “Billboard”‘s fault as much as it is the streaming services’ fault.

In other words, just like Facebook, Spotify, et al, are not just pipes, passive conduits, they influence what people consume. So how do we get streaming services to reflect actual music listening/fans of bands and genres, and how do we get streaming services to boost bands outside hip-hop and pop?

This is not about denigrating or marginalizing hip-hop and pop, it’s about broadening the spectrum, to reflect what else is consumed, what else is worthy of attention, which would benefit the business and the consumer, would lead to a healthier marketplace.

Look at the concert numbers. They are not all hip-hop and pop, actually, their numbers are not even dominant, never mind that many streaming chart toppers cannot even sell a ticket.

So how do we come up with a chart that reflects reality and helps music as opposed to the three manipulative major labels who get rewarded based on the quantity of streams and therefore only sign and promote hip-hop and pop?

Once again, you’ve got to create a chart that the industry adopts. “Pollstar”‘s weighted chart means nearly nothing. “Rolling Stone” came out with a good chart, but the industry wasn’t interested. The labels want control, they don’t want to learn that what they’re purveying is not consumed.

Forever, this business has been one of hit material. Appealing to youngsters. But so much has changed! There are no constrictions on marketing and distribution, anybody can play, and not everybody wins, but many more than those on the “Billboard” chart do, some of them don’t even have a label, at least not one aligned with the three majors.

So, we need a new chart.

But the industry must buy into it.

But the industry just wants the chart to reflect what is already streaming.

And the touring industry goes completely by ticket and merch sales, and isn’t very interested in the “Billboard” chart.

The two are at cross-purposes.

Turns out raw consumption is not accurately reflective of the public’s interest. Like SoundScan, it’s a revolution, even though the interesting thing here is “Billboard” refuses to go to a straight streaming chart, because that would make its “special sauce” unnecessary. Streaming service consumption charts are the cutting edge, the most accurate representation of music listening, the “Billboard” chart is a joke, once again, only useful for industry bragging rights.

So, to repeat, we need a new kind of chart.

But we also need streaming services to accept responsibility for the fact that they have a huge impact regarding the breaking and acceptance of acts. If the services featured other genres on their homepage, promoted tracks by these other acts like it does the Weeknd, they’d break. But, once again, the labels don’t want this, they want control, they want a symbiotic relationship, and the streaming services, just like Facebook and Zuckerberg and the Administration, want to keep the labels happy and buy into their construct, which hurts the public, because it is aware of fewer genres and acts.

As for kids…

Few of them have credit cards, their parents are paying for streaming services. And many have family plans, and the adults stream too, but whenever they pull up the streaming service, all they see are tracks appealing to their kids, and if they dig down into the genres, it’s nearly impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff, the great from the dreck.

Yes, the streaming services must accept responsibility. Consumption is important, but it’s not the only factor driving success today. Furthermore, what is not streamed prodigiously oftentimes has great inroads into public consciousness and would grow even bigger if amplified by streaming services.

Do I expect change?

No, but ultimately there is revolution. When you accede to an old game, eventually that game is disrupted. There’s the assumption that new players will ultimately agree to be purchased by old players, but I don’t know why. If you’re not in hip-hop or pop the majors don’t really want you, and if for some reason they do, they want a piece of your touring pie, where you make your nut, and if you self-distribute, you make most of the streaming money.

So expect more manipulation of the “Billboard” chart. Read the memo, they didn’t totally exclude it, they just moved the goalposts.

There is nothing wrong with music, but there’s a lot wrong with what gets attention and the resulting charts. It all seems transparent, but the truth is it’s manipulated by the players. But the interesting thing, once again, is if you look at what sells tickets, the scene is wide open, and a lot of these fans care about the system not a whit.

The industry is trying to replicate the twentieth century, but we live in the twenty first, hallelujah!

Bonus Family

I loved this show.

We do not watch movies, I want something I can sink my teeth into, that I can enjoy for a stretch, something that is here and not soon gone.

But having said that, we did watch “Palm Springs.” Don’t. We only viewed it because “Bonus Family” finished and I was marinating in the feeling and it felt like if we started a new show it would be sacrilegious.

Before “Bonus Family” we watched “False Flag.” And “The Woods.” I prefer foreign series to American ones, they shoot for a higher target, there’s little chewing of the scenery, too often U.S. shows are a good-looking star surrounded by money, story is secondary, or unbelievable, or not thought out.

Also, we watch all of our foreign shows with subtitles, not dubbed. Just go into the settings on the streaming app, it’s not so hard to change. And if you can’t get used to subtitles, you can’t get used to wearing a face mask. In other words, it’s easy. The only strange thing is after watching for a while you expect the actors to speak perfect English, so when you see them on a Brit show and they don’t… Did you see Audrey Fleurot in “Safe”? That’s another Harlan Coben show, just like “The Woods.” Fleurot is magnetic, she is phenomenal in “A French Village,” and also “Spiral.” She’s red-haired and freckled and is a femme-fatale except when she’s not and when she had a heavy French accent in “Safe,” I was surprised.

And speaking of Harlan, he told me to watch “When Heroes Fly,” which we’re into now. WHEW! “False Flag” suffers from unbelievability. The twists and turns, especially at the end, they take away from the gravitas, but the first season of “False Flag” is definitely worth it. As for “When Heroes Fly”… The heroes are Israeli soldiers who are no longer in the army, but go on a personal mission to Bogota. If you like action movies with substance, you’ll dig this. The first fifteen minutes are war shots, but it’s all just set-up, so if you have an aversion to violence, just hang in there. Bums me out that streaming platforms don’t feature these foreign shows. As for Netflix’s vaunted “algorithm,” I’ve got no interest, it’s never helped me out. I just do research, my time is too valuable to waste, life is not getting longer. And I research all recommendations, but if the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are lousy, I don’t bother. Recommendation is a skill, just because you like it doesn’t mean I will.

Which brings me to “Bonus Family,” I don’t think most of you will like it. Because there is no action, no guns, it’s just about people, and in an era where everybody is into cartoon characters, superheroes, where men deny their feelings on a regular basis, I don’t think many will want to see their foibles on screen, but that’s what I’m interested in most, people, their motivations, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing. I’d much rather hear about your personal life than comments about the external world. Your personal truth is only your own, but in fact, so many of us share the same experiences.

So, in Sweden, a “bonus” family is a “blended” family in America. Patrik meets Lisa on a school trip and she leaves her husband for the already divorced Patrik and…Martin, Lisa’s old spouse, just cannot get over it. And Patrik’s father asks what kind of person leaves a spouse for another person, he feels there’s a defect in character, but Patrik and Lisa soldier on.

And Patrik’s ex, Petra, is high strung and always right, you can’t tell her anything, Patrik sits down for a discussion and he comes back to Lisa saying he knows why he got divorced. Ever have that happen? You pine for someone in your past, and then you reconnect and your insides rebel, you know you can’t go back to the well.

So, Lisa and Patrik go to couples counseling. There’s no taboo in Sweden, they start not long after they get together, even though it’s expensive, they persevere. And the shrinks are a husband and wife team, and the absolute best part of the show is when they interact after the patients have left. The wife is cold, but she knows the husband doesn’t have the balls to leave her.

And the truth is most of our lives revolve around the small issues, not the big ones. Who is gonna take the kid to pre-school, who is gonna get the car, did you hurt your mother’s feelings, what are people’s expectations.

Katja is totally together, Lisa is not. Lisa is a very good artist, but she screws up on a regular basis, can you be involved with someone like that, I can’t. But Lisa says she just takes things as they come, she sees no reason to belabor the point, to prepare. And one of the big issues between Patrik and Lisa is the withholding of information. Do you share everything? Oftentimes in a relationship, one person does and thinks they know everything about the other when they do not. The only way Patrik and Lisa get past the “lying” is by going to the shrink, too often people never get to the bottom of an issue, they just divorce, or by time they address it, it’s too late.

I discovered “Bonus Family” in the comments of the “New York Times” article listing the best foreign TV shows of the last decade. I never used to read the comments, but now I do, to get the feel of the public. We gave it a shot and got hooked.

Will you?

All I know is I want you to watch “Bonus Family” so we can talk about it. So we cannot only discuss the foibles of the characters, but our own. Would I put “Bonus Family” at the top of your list? No, there are better shows on streaming services, but there’s a good chance you are not watching them, or have already seen them. You’re watching what is served up by the service or what has been hyped while the gems are buried deep, even though they’re totally searchable.

Meanwhile, I’m reading that poker book, “The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win.” I don’t even know how to play poker, but the book has me analyzing my own behavior and that of those surrounding me and has me wondering how much of my outlook can change. I don’t believe in taking a book’s word as gospel, just as Maria Konnikova, the psychologist author, doesn’t believe in the 10,000 hour rule, but she brings up so many issues about behavior.

Welcome to the pandemic, where we’re all looking for entertainment, where we’ve all caught up with our desires and are now scrounging for what’s next. All of the above will intrigue you, but “Bonus Family” is the most true to life, just search for it on Netflix.

P.S. View the videos at the link above, they’ll give you the feel of the show, if it’s up your alley…WATCH IT!

Spotify

Pandora

Tune in tomorrow, July 14th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive