34% in the 18-49 target demo, and 29.5% overall.

Is it television or is it the music?

Both.

Let’s start with TV, we no longer live in a monoculture, the only appointment TV is the Super Bowl, not because of the game but because it’s become a national holiday, many attendees at parties don’t even bother to watch the contest. Television is now personalized, on demand, you only watch what you want to see and the networks and cable channels have not yet figured this out. Furthermore, people are expecting honesty and edge, something lacking from the CMAs for eternity. It’s a last century show. Aw-shucks in a world where everybody’s got high speed cable and LTE, where country singers rap and we’re all sophisticated. The myth of flyover country is just that. People in red states don’t vote Republican because they’re uninformed, but because that’s what they believe. But never underestimate the power of media entities to underestimate the intelligence of the audience. This is how MTV was victorious with the VMAs, they realized it was a TV show, no one cared who won, first and foremost the show must be entertaining, something the Oscars have never realized, at least not in my lifetime. The Oscars are a party for the industry, and contrary to popular belief most people don’t want to hang out with these people, certainly not the business people, maybe some of the celebrities. You’ve got to give the people what they want, which isn’t necessarily lowbrow, but if you give them popcorn all summer don’t expect them to want to eat foie gras in February.

But the music…

Country is predicated on old rules. The songs are written by others, primarily about bland subjects, like house and home these days, and radio rules. Only it doesn’t. Many have tuned out. And even more will. Hell, the biggest artist in today’s country music, loved by both Nashville insiders and fans, is Chris Stapleton, and there’s only one of him, he’s honest and forthright and emphasizing the basics in songs he mostly writes, you’d think someone else would follow this formula. Authenticity rules. People want experiences. Awards shows are lousy experiences, furthermore, you have to sit through the music of all these people you don’t like. So the Grammys are doomed. Trying to please everybody means you please nobody.

But country is a narrower focus.

Could it be that country is not delivering what the audience truly wants?

There are few women on country radio, but the audience is more than half female. Maybe these listeners would like to hear more women, at least a woman’s viewpoint, that appeals to men too.

And Americana is shut out of the CMAs, shouldn’t Jason Isbell be on every awards show? And we’ve already determined that the awards are secondary, so how about an up and coming artist. Is Brandi Carlile country? Arguably so. People are passionate about Brandi, is ANYBODY passionate about Carrie Underwood? She sings, she married a hockey player, but she’s vapid. As for Brad Paisley… One hell of a guitarist who’s completely sans charismas.

And “Mayberry” has been in reruns for half a century. Nowhere does cornpone live anymore, but we still get the cornpone jokes. It’d be like the Grammys featuring the Royal Guardsmen singing about Snoopy and the Red Baron, then again, that might be more interesting than what we’ve got!

So the awards show is dead and buried. Most people believe there’s no reason to tune in. The time to fulfillment ratio is way off. Especially when I can pull up something I want to see on Netflix. And the competition is not only cable and on demand, but Fortnite and Facebook… The audience moved on and television hasn’t even realized it.

As for the music played…

We live in an old world with an old construct. That there are only forty records on the radio, if that, and the rest don’t exist. But that’s patently untrue. It’s a much wider world out there, and more people than ever don’t believe in the top forty, and now they’ve got choice. The Spotify Top 50 doesn’t really dominate, but those in it get all the ink and accolades and the rest of the audience shrugs its shoulders, it doesn’t care.

So what we’ve really got is opportunity. The world has gotten broader, people want more acts, but the business infrastructure is STILL operating on a pre-internet paradigm.

This is what’s going to change. For fifteen years we fought about distribution. Streaming won, it’s on demand, that’s it.

Now we have to focus on the content. Revolution is coming. Once again, the audience is ahead of the business. Those who follow the audience will win in the end. And the audience wants more than what we’re giving them, MUCH more.

“Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis”

Why are the tireless self-promoters always the ones who fall from grace? Why do they always have blind spots? Why do we buy their act and then find out it’s built on fiction?

We knew this. Sheryl Sandberg lived a charmed life with little loss, other than that of her husband ultimately, but that was after the die was cast. She went to Harvard, worked with Larry Summers, got a gig at Facebook, told us all to lean in and…

We bought it.

Oh, there was a backlash, from women who said they couldn’t have it all, what with kids and transportation and… Sandberg did a bit of a mea culpa after her aforementioned husband died, but she’s continued to be lionized as an upfront, honest seer, a beacon in a sea of darkness.

And now we know that isn’t the case.

Now this is a dicey situation. After Me Too, it’s very dangerous to attack a woman. But this isn’t about women in general, after all, Ms. Sandberg is not a woman in general. She’s a woman of privilege. A have in a world of have-nots. And don’t the haves always tell us we’re inadequate, that if we were just like them we could succeed?

But we don’t have the background, the enrichment in elementary and high school. The ability to pay for an elite university.

Meanwhile, these people run the country and blanch when we tell them they are out of touch. But what’s worse, nothing that happens affects their pocketbooks, they’re overpaid and insulated, they can’t go from hero to zero, but from hero to merely rich and possibly disgraced.

Sure, there are men who do the same thing as Sheryl. Maybe if there were more women in power her offenses would wash off of us. But since there are so few women of power, the media glommed on to her story, while doing no checking, they bought it hook, line and sinker, as if Sheryl Sandberg was the answer to all their problems.

Ain’t that America.

We need heroes so we buy the b.s. of those raising their hands.

But it’s not only Sheryl, it’s everywhere. The CEOs with PR people… Everybody wants to be rich and famous, they’ve paid their dues, they believe they’re entitled. They all want to be rock stars, with the trappings. Being normal is not an option. And we keep reading about YouTube stars and influencers to the point we feel inadequate, then we find out it’s all b.s. Notice that you haven’t been hearing about YouTube stars recently? Because to make a living you’ve got to work 24/7 to the point you’re burned out and now all the emphasis is on esports and Instagrammers, the machine needs fodder.

The machine needed Sheryl Sandberg. And she volunteered for the job.

There are a lot more women who deserve the accolades, many faceless, bringing home the bacon and bringing up the kids, but that’s not a sexy story, so that does not get covered. It bugs me when people keep jamming their story down my throat, when they’re portrayed as inevitable winners, like they’re better than us.

But they’re not.

This is what income inequality has wrought.

This is what the internet has wrought.

This is what the media has wrought.

A small cadre of “winners” in cahoots with the fourth estate inundate us with their supposed victories.

But really they’re losses.

Say it ain’t so Joe.

But it really is.

Clapton Christmas

Sometimes you try too hard.

In today’s competitive market, where you can make it but the label won’t put it out until it’s convinced it’s a hit, everybody feels the pressure, and this works against music. Whereas Eric Clapton’s Christmas album seems to be a toss-off, getting a group of people together in a studio to jam, to create product as opposed to shooting for stardom, and that’s why it’s so great, it’s REAL!

If you were alive back then, in the era of jams, when it was about the feel first and foremost, you’ll get this, you’ll close your eyes and you’ll be at the Fillmore, swaying with the crowd, enraptured by the music.

This is the past, but it could also be the future.

You’ll be stunned that this sound is still around, it’s totally in the pocket, it’s like running into a cousin, a college roommate, but they don’t look like they used to, they’ve experienced, they’re world-weary, just like you, they’ve got a tale to tell, and this is it.

Now if you need the Clapton of yore, where he’s working out on his axe, play “Christmas Tears,” he wails enough for any fan. But truly, Clapton’s learned the lessons of his old mentor Delaney Bramlett, that less is more, and there’s no upside in showing off, you’ve got to be in service to the song, the track.

And even though you recognize some of the titles, if you didn’t read them you probably wouldn’t know the track. The song is just a starting point. We haven’t had this spirit since 1968, with Al Kooper’s “Super Session,” where people who knew how to play reinvented the songs of yore and made them brand new.

But my favorite cut on the album is “Home For The Holidays,” it immediately lays down in a groove and you can’t help but fall into it, you find your foot tapping, your head nodding, your body twisting, even if you’ve never danced in your life. This is the blues. As filtered through the English musicians who popularized the sound. And it sounds as fresh as yesterday. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics to get to the future.

This is how it was. Before MTV reinvigorated Top Forty, when it became about the hit single and only the hit single. “Happy Xmas” is of a piece, you’re getting a peak into music creation not by machines, but people, then again, “Jingle Bells” is a tribute to Avicii, and done well. Yes, there is some stretching on this album, but you’ve got to get past the opener, “White Christmas,” the lamest cut on the album, it’s like they felt they had to put a recognizable track up front, as opposed to the best, whereas the album doesn’t really start to swing until “Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday,” the fourth cut in, when only the hard core is still listening.

You put on “Happy Xmas” and start to drift. Then you start to focus. It’s like the band is in the next room over, smoking, having a few drinks, getting into it, you want to break through the wall and join the party, just be in the space where the magic is being made. This is a far cry from today’s bulletproof music These tracks breathe. Primarily because no one steps out, all the players are together, a cohesive unit.

If you want to know how it once was, when an album was a statement, capturing a moment in time as opposed to a hit surrounded by dreck, all made for a theoretical audience that does not exist, listen to this.

Really, give “Happy Xmas” a play. All the way through. Even if you’re an atheist. It’s not about the holiday, but the music, and isn’t music our religion anyway?

The Eric Clapton Christmas album is amazing… and I’m a Jew…

I can’t remember when Clapton had a great album… You must listen.. It’s brilliant..

Kindest Cheers,

Jeff Laufer

This is the kind of stuff the papers should be covering, their upper middle class demo will eat it up. Instead I have to wait fully a month after its release to find out about it. I’m not a Christmas music guy, but I am a Clapton fan, and to the degree I’ve checked this out, it delivers. Forget the lyrics, it’s Slowhand playing new material in his signature style, this could be a million seller if the press just glommed on to it, they’re looking for something to champion, champion this! This is what so much of their audience is looking for. And they could own it, promote it, become heroes.
But they won’t.

“Happy Xmas”

P.S. Don’t be such a muso and reject this out of hand. You’re missing the point and proving that you’re still living in the last century when your opinion counted, but that skinny jean, leather jacket ethos is as dead as your iPod, today it’s not about judging someone’s music so much as finding something that works for you, and there’s too much for any of us to fathom, to know about, so we’re looking for pointers. As for one of Jeff’s other tips… Ghost, sold out the Forum this Friday night and you’ve never heard of them, but if you listened you’d dig the sound. Oh, that’s right, they don’t wear skinny ties and gaze at their shoes. This is another act that could be gigantic if the press got its head out of its ass and focused a bit more on what people truly want as opposed to following trends.

The way you do this is you search on an act’s name in Spotify and play their most popular track, the one with the most listens, to see if the music appeals to you. And if it does, you then go to the next most popular track and find out if the first’s a fluke and if it’s not you listen to more. But in case this is too much for you, here’s a link to Ghost’s most recent album:

Prequelle

Oh, you’re afraid of Spotify, of a free tier, you need to own your music? You officially no longer count. Don’t ask me why I’m in such a pissed off mood right now, it’s just that when you deal with the e-mail of wankers every day it gets to you, even though I know so many of you are reasonable.