Only Trump has figured this out in the social media age, one with incessant messages, most of which go ignored.

Used to be even if you were ultra-famous, you never heard from the hoi-polloi. The average citizen was a nobody who could only vote by consuming or not. Furthermore, there were few offerings, and real estate was precious, on television, in record racks, and the game was to find something that appealed to everybody.

That game is over.

Be happy if you have an audience at all. But if you do, you’re gonna have haters.

You see you have what someone else wants, the aforementioned audience. And those people below the attention status of yourself are angry, they think they’re better than you and deserve the attention, and as a result they try to tear you down, make you blink, hopefully so they can take your place.

Even successful entertainers are victims of this paradigm. Howard Stern has a rabid fanbase, but unlike in the pre-internet era, he’s inundated with negative social media comments. The key is not to blink.

Used to be it was about research, you tested the audience, tried to deliver what it wanted, shaved off the rough edges, pleased the boss.

First and foremost, today YOU’RE the boss. If you’re pleasing someone above you, you’re doing it wrong. That’s one of the problems with doing corporate sponsorships, the chilling effect. The man doesn’t say what you can’t do, but you’re wary of doing it, you’re inured to those bucks.

But the key to success today is making your own bucks. Hell, that’s one of the reasons Trump won, irrelevant of the truth of the matter.

And in a world where there’s no universal fact-checker, where there’s no single news outlet that can hold you account, you can lie with impunity. Rock stars wrote this script. Hell, they’re even employing it today! All those shows they say are sold out, a lot of them are not. It’s all about image. And it used to be the mainstream didn’t care about music, so there was no ink, but today there’s so much information, the mainstream gets no traction re the faux pas of even bigger constituents!

Look at Ticketmaster. People don’t stop railing against it, governments investigate it. But Ticketmaster doesn’t care, it’s aware it’s fronting for the greedy acts, they’re the ones responsible for fees, i.e. the fees are not commissioned, it’s the only way for Ticketmaster to make money! There’s usually no profit in the tickets themselves.

So Ticketmaster doesn’t fight back, and neither should you!

And then there are those who still can’t fathom someone moved their cheese. Blowhards who believe they can stop the juggernaut of streaming. Bitching they’re not making as much as they did in the physical/sales era. Well, let’s go back to sixteen baseball teams. Three networks. The era of no smartphones. The future arrives, he or she who is caught in the past is ultimately irrelevant.

But that does not mean they don’t attack you.

It’s so easy to do, just fire up your app of choice!

So the creator…is overwhelmed.

This is a new paradigm and there’s no instruction booklet. Kinda like when FM went rock. They were inventing it on the fly. The usual suspects were talking about ratings and three minute ditties but it was what was on FM, longer, different, that ultimately triumphed.

It’s hard to stay the course. But that’s why people like you to begin with!

Look at Frampton, who catered to a theoretical pop audience with “I’m In You” and went straight into the dumper, overnight. It’s taken him decades to rehabilitate himself.

But it happens faster now. And the truth is you’re remembered for your successes, not your failures. Which means the biggest people can fail, but when they succeed later, the failures are forgotten. Bieber has had a lot of stiffs with his hits.

And if you’re trying to be the biggest, you’re gonna get blowback. This is what Taylor Swift doesn’t realize, they don’t hate her music, but her! First her “aw shucks” behavior and then her retaliatory songs and then her girl squad and now her rainbow-embracing. She’s trying to appeal to people who don’t exist! She’s got her fans, she should be happy with that. As for the slings and arrows, she can’t stop complaining about them, when the truth is they’re a badge of success, she should just ignore them!

Art runs on emotion. So when someone hits you unexpectedly, it’s hard to fathom, it changes your mood. Which is why, supposedly, artists didn’t read their reviews. But today, you just cannot avoid the feedback. You’ve got to have a thick skin and brush it off. Otherwise, not only did they win, you probably compromised yourself.

Your fans want you. It’s your fans who will spread the word. The rest are irrelevant.

And the markers have changed. Like with the Blanco Brown track. It may not be number one on country radio, but if you have traction online, who cares? And genres are nearly irrelevant. Country artists rap and… All those people agitated about lines and crossing over…THE AUDIENCE DOESN’T CARE!

But too often artists fall for it.

You’re on your own path.

And if you’re not, you’re me-too, and nobody wants me-too in the internet age, we’re all looking for fresh and different. That’s one thing Hillary missed, which is why she lost. Never forget, research will tell you where you’ve been, but not where you’re going.

It’s those who think outside the box who gain attention and become victorious in the long run. It’s much easier to imitate what’s out there, and you might get a moment of fame, but then you’ll be instantly forgotten. That’s another facet of the internet era, you can get universal press, be a kingpin (queenpin?) in your era, and end up broke in your hometown slinging burgers. Which is why those with a brain get an education and find their way, you don’t want to end up as Snooki or Rebecca Black.

They are out to get you. Assuming anybody cares at all.

And if they’re needling you, what they want most is a reaction. Respond and you’re doomed. Trump and AOC blocking people on Twitter is unfathomable to me. Almost no one is gonna see the hate, and by calling it out, you create a conflagration.

Which means that even the famous don’t have it all figured out.

But you’ve got a chance. Yes, you can promote yourself for free online, but beware of the incoming negativity.

It’s a new game.

But one thing’s for sure, when you veer off course, by acknowledging haters, when you adjust because of the criticism, you’re on the wrong road, you’ve left your mission and are in a backwater.

We’re looking for singular heroes (heroines). We’re looking for people to believe in.

Forget the idiocy, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. It’s only the intelligentsia who truly care, she’s got traction with them and they’re pissed they didn’t think of it first!

But Goop is a sideshow, without many acolytes. Without all the hate she’d be doomed.

Yes, hate can bring you attention, but still, you’ve got to ignore it, you can’t acknowledge it.

Techies were the artists of the last few decades.

But that era is over. The internet is solidified. There’s no radical change coming in the immediate future.

So we’re back in the era of art, a message can have much more impact than a product. The software of music and movies and TV is now much more important than it was in the past two decades.

Everything you remember, from Jimi Hendrix to David Lynch, started on the outside, and don’t forget “Twin Peaks” wasn’t Lynch’s first project.

You must pay your dues. The more immediate attention you get, the quicker you will fail, we learned this in the MTV era.

You can woodshed in public, and if you’re good, you’ll gain some followers. The key is to keep developing and not change your viewpoint.

And that’s hard to do, because everybody is telling you to.

Should they leave from those Revolutionary War airports?

I’m stunned, positively stunned I tell you, that Democrats and the press believe that by publicizing the inanities and ignorant behavior and statements of Donald Trump they will somehow get change.

Change comes via Congress, and the Democrats refuse to impeach Trump, where his behavior would be on full display, reported in all media.

But that’s America, where the right unifies and takes action and the left argues amongst itself and does nothing, trying to fend off the blows of aggressors, refusing to define the debate. After all, it was the Democrats who allowed Hillary Clinton to be labeled as the nasty woman the right portrayed her as, causing those deaths in Benghazi, why didn’t she take a G5 over there and get into hand-to-hand combat? And using that damn private e-mail server… Hillary didn’t grow a set until after she lost the election. Meanwhile, the right is still making hay on her, she is the President on Fox News and in Trump’s brain, she’s the focus of his re-election campaign. It’s like Meek Mill dissing CeeLo.

You don’t use the strategies of yore to fight a new disease. Isn’t this how the U.S. lost in Vietnam? By not knowing how to engage in guerrilla warfare? Right is irrelevant, power is everything. And Trump’s got it, and is employing it, to the point where the never-Trumpers are thinking of aligning with him. Never forget, in America it’s all about family, we’re tribal, very few people won’t defend their relatives, blood is the most significant tie they’ve got.

And sure, Nancy Pelosi is a well-experienced player in the old game, but she doesn’t seem to realize it’s a new game. She’s like all those companies that got plowed under by the internet. First, they wanted no change, then they wanted gradual change, then they disappeared. And who destroyed them? Aged baby boomers? No, young ‘uns! Young ‘uns that still flummox Congress. They can fine Facebook $5 billion, but that doesn’t really hurt, hell, they can just raise ad rates, and the fact that Chuck Schumer uses a flip-phone… That’s like someone who uses cassettes telling you what goes on in the digital age. It’s all about experience, going into the unknown. Have you seen “Star Trek”?

Forget Trump’s base, they’re never gonna see the left wing light.

But the reason Trump won, despite all these hosannas about a great economy, is because his base is broke and those with any cash don’t want to cough it up. Ironically, those on the extremes of both right and left have the same problem, they can’t make ends meet. So Trump creates bogey men and the left keeps saying radical change is too much, we’ve got to fight for the center, meanwhile, we’ve got the Squad waving its arms, telling the Democratic leaders change has occurred, and the usual suspects tell them to take a seat at the back of the bus. And Trump senses this discord and pours gasoline on it, telling these women to go back to where they came from, even though three out of four were born in the United States, and it highlights the problem for all to see, making the situation worse.

Yes, the loser in today’s outburst is the left, not Trump. How can that be?

This is what happens when you lose control of the narrative, when you refuse to change, or do so gradually, when you refuse to unite with a philosophy.

That’s right, Trump scared traditional Republicans, he was unelectable, but then he won the nomination and the Presidency. But you’ve got to be a middle of the road peacemaker in the Democratic party. Biden is running on a record when America was completely different. It’d be like running Kenny Loggins for President, he’s a recognizable name, the old folks like him and the younger generation goes…WHO?

The younger generation, ruled by hip-hop and Instagram. Their heroes are influencers. Nobody cares what musicians have to say today, just those with a following online. The rank and file can relate to them. But every oldster with a brain says they’re no-talents, undeserving of attention. Today there’s a generation gap as wide as the sixties, but the boomers, dieted down to nothing, wearing their kids’ clothing, believe they know what’s going on when they don’t!

You fight an old man with youth, not another old man. After all, the youth will inherit the earth. On the left, everybody keeps talking about student debt and the climate crisis but they won’t let the victims have a voice, or they keep them at the kiddie table. Do you wonder why the youth aren’t inspired by alta kachers?

Hell, the left can’t even keep a story alive. Mueller in the hot seat is like grilling Paris Hilton, it’s already an old story no one cares about.

You win today by making news every damn day. Trump knows this, but the Democrats are still running like it’s the last century.

And it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, mistakes are forgotten in the tsunami of information. Old artists take years to make an album that is instantly forgotten. Can you say Madonna? Can you say Springsteen? Meanwhile, Ariana Grande puts out multiple albums a year!

So the left needs to plow ahead with new rules. You make the news, you define the debate, you lead. In today’s world, the naysayers get little traction, they can be ignored, ever notice the follower counts of those criticizing you? They’re almost always low, they live to hate, it makes them feel powerful.

You need to ignore them, just like Trump.

You must focus on your own mission.

You’d be better off reading Clayton Christensen’s “The Innovator’s Dilemma” than any newspaper.

Today’s wars are always fought off the radar, by time they hit the mainstream the insurgents have already won or been forgotten.

Trump tapped into discontent.

There’s even more discontent on the left. Focus on rallying your constituency, not railing at this tired old man who was elected king. Don’t you get it? It’s not the dyed-in-the-wool right/base who pushed Trump to victory, but the disillusioned left/middle who were sick and tired of being talked down to by the Democrats, who wanted change which the left refused to give to them.

Steve Jobs blew up norms. Replaced them with the future. He knew we were living in a changed world. Remember when the music industry was pissed-off about the Rip/Mix/Burn campaign? Now not only do computers come without disc drives, a healthy percentage of those eligible to vote are unaware of that campaign and never ripped a CD in their lives. Appeal to these people, they are the future.

We’re never going back.

It was a new day yesterday, but it’s an old day now.

The Git Up – Blanco Brown + Lainey Wilson – YouTube

The Git Up By Blanco Brown – Spotify

It’s not number one.

There’s all these hosannas about Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” going #1 on the “Billboard” country chart…BUT THAT’S NOT THE CHART THAT MATTERS!

Country is driven by radio. And “The Git Up” is not in the Mediabase Top 30, which means at best it’s a footnote in Nashville.

In case you’ve been in a media blackout, the song of the summer, the song of the YEAR, is Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.” At this late date, we can all agree that it was built by two things…TikTok and a false controversy. This is the kind of thing Shep Gordon did in the seventies, create a false press story around Alice Cooper. But you’d think in the internet era that would be impossible, but not only are there multiple fact lanes in the straight news business, but media too!

“Rolling Stone” launched its charts.

Right now, they’re meaningless, and will probably stay that way.

Why?

First and foremost because they blew the launch. They said it was gonna be one day, and then it was delayed over rights issues. To the point where when the charts finally went live, people had already moved on to other things. I was fascinated at first, because I thought “Rolling Stone” had a chance, after all, its charts were based on the best data in the business, provided by the company formerly known as BuzzAngle.

But NO! “Rolling Stone” launched with a weighted chart, eviscerating any credibility!

It’d be like counting discussion of Facebook on Twitter in addition to impressions on the Facebook app. Who can make sense of that? NOBODY!

That’s right, the internet is based on 0’s and 1’s, facts, and music is all about obfuscation.

Forget sales…STREAMING IS ALL THAT COUNTS!

Steve Jobs kills legacy ports back in the nineties, and the record companies are still counting physical and digital sales. The only people I know who watch DVDs are nonagenarians, literally. I’m tossing all mine. Why should I keep them? Oh, I’ve got a DVD player, but I haven’t turned it on in years. And neither of my computers have disc drives.

Computer software is a service, there is no physical product, but in the antiquated music industry?

So, “Billboard” endured a lot of heat, Nashville endured a lot of heat, as as a result of the pseudo-controversy over “Old Town Road.” Which, if you listen to it, is not country. That’d be like saying ZZ Top is country because they wear cowboy hats!

So now another track comes along by an African-American performer and “Billboard,” with a backbone of silly putty, caves.

And there’s a huge difference between “The Git Up” and “Old Town Road”… “The Git Up” SOUNDS country. It’s got the overused drum machine that somehow country has embraced even though it was last hip in the eighties, and Blanco sings in a twang.

But Nashville and country radio aren’t buying. So is it number one or not?

You can go on Spotify, and see that “The Git Up” has 28 million streams. Which isn’t even a hit in the pop world. Blake Shelton, whose “God’s Country” is #1 on the Mediabase chart only has 33 million streams. Meaning, your mainstream country fan…has not embraced streaming yet. It’s like saying you’re the best quarterback in Vince McMahon’s XFL… Maybe one day the XFL will rival the NFL, but it’s doubtful. But there will come a day when everybody is streaming and we’ll have better insight into what is truly popular, but now “The Git Up” is a niche product, driven by TikTok. Nothing wrong with that, just don’t tell me it’s #1.

P.S. Adobe switched from a sales model to rental. At first, revenue dipped, then it went through the roof, the customer was happy, being served updates regularly, not just once a year, and they had to pay every month, lining Adobe’s coffers. But music just can’t let go of that sales model…

Grace Slick hates it.

I didn’t like it when it was released, when they inserted the name of every local city for radio stations, but all these years later…it kind of cracks me up, anthemic rock, with exuberant vocals.

But the band didn’t write it.

So I’m just back from the Malibu hills, where I was talking with Grace Slick. You know, the untamable woman who was the sexual zenith of rock and roll, an icon of her era.

She doesn’t look like that anymore. But the personality…it remains intact. Opinionated and direct, if you close your eyes it’s forty years ago.

Not that Grace is trying to hide her age, she’ll be eighty in the fall. And although she had some plastic surgery way back when, in her forties, saying it was necessary if you were on stage, she has let her body age, and at first you’re shocked, but then you’re mesmerized, it’s her! What was it like being in that body all those years ago?

Actually, Grace doesn’t want to talk about it. She thinks none of the songs she wrote were perfect and at times she was so inebriated, she can’t remember. But she lived it, it’s all about being in the moment, having fun, and she did. Grace said if you’re talented and having fun, go for it. But you’ve got to be persistent, there can be no gaps in your resume, you’ve got to pursue your goal.

And after “Red Octopus,” which she considers Marty’s album, even though I LOVE “Play On Love,” Grace stayed with the outfit as Marty and Paul faded away and…

She didn’t like singing other people’s songs. It’s not like being in a band, living it together, having experiences…

And that’s another thing, the band did own that three story Victorian, but they did not all live in it together, maybe Paul Kantner slept upstairs for six months in between relationships, but really it was for business. And despite the reputation, the band was all business. Constantly on the road. And then…

It was the Jefferson Starship and they sang this song.

So Grace starts going on a rant. THERE’S NO CITY BUILT ON ROCK AND ROLL! AS A MATTER OF FACT, ALL THE CITIES PRE-DATE ROCK AND ROLL!

It’s like she’s sitting in the audience, she agreed with “Rolling Stone,” which called “We Built This City” the worst track of the eighties, or something like that.

And Grace is testifying, what do the words mean? Who can relate to them?

And then she reveals the nugget, the essence, the lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin, about the closure of bars in Los Angeles…you know, which was BUILT ON ROCK AND ROLL!

Whew, I never knew that!

And then Grace starts saying how that was stupid. Because bars are driven by people, and if nobody goes, they go out of business, but if the desire is strong enough, they’ll grow again, it’s kinda like Whac-A-Mole, the town elders/police are against them, but the people are for them.

But now?

I’m sitting in Grace’s house overlooking the ocean. She doesn’t hate L.A. She says her generation, OUR generation, was built on the movies, and they were all made in Southern California. She likes to talk on the phone, she doesn’t send e-mail, she uses her iPad as an encyclopedia, and her eyes bug out as she says what a great encyclopedia it is! We lament the passage of all those music clubs/bars, but is today’s generation demanding them?

You know what Chris Rock says, men surrender, they get married because they don’t want to be the oldest person in the bar. And I can relate to that as in I never go to a bar anymore, and it’s not just because I don’t drink, I can stay at home and interact, and old people are into lifestyle, being taken care of.

But I’d go to a music club to see name talent. That’s what brought me to the Whisky, the Roxy and the Troubadour way back when. But then the clubs all had seats, you contemplated the music, as opposed to it being an assault. Today you go to a club and it’s all about you, the audience. The music is not the draw, but the ability to interact with each other. People will pay to hear bands, but they’ve got to have a name, pub-crawling to see developing acts is dead, as dead as most of the places they used to play!

So Grace says Bernie’s a great lyricist, she respects him, but not on this one.

So she quit.

Nobody quits a good thing anymore, they’re too into the MONEY!

And “We Built This City” went to number one, it was a hit all over the world. But it was still dreck.

Ain’t that interesting in an era where if it makes money, it’s good.

But hearing the backstory, from someone who was there, who’s not into self-mythologizing…THAT’S PRICELESS!