What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where politics is more interesting than music, where I’d rather listen to political talk than music on the radio?<\/p>\n
John Lennon got in trouble for saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, absolutely true in those days before the surge of evangelicals.\u00c2\u00a0 He was pilloried for this truth, but of course all is forgotten, now that he’s dead, unfortunately.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s acts won’t even take a stand.\u00c2\u00a0 It might offend some far-flung newbie, take ten people from the audience count…\u00c2\u00a0 What did we say in the sixties?\u00c2\u00a0 When you don’t stand for nothin’, you stand for nothin’ at all?<\/p>\n
The acts are befuddled.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, a few played the conventions.\u00c2\u00a0 But the only statement being made is by John Mellencamp, who sadly covered "The Times They Are A Changin’".\u00c2\u00a0 And certainly they are, because the hopes of Johnny Boy getting any exposure with that number are about nil.<\/p>\n
At least the talk show hosts have personality.\u00c2\u00a0 I lean to the left.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll take Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes.\u00c2\u00a0 But, even I’ll admit that Rush and Dr. Laura are fun to listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 Music jocks?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all like Ryan Seacrest, so bland as to be insignificant. Who are these people and their stations made for?\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got no personality, they’ve got no EDGE!<\/p>\n
Barry McGuire spoke of the eve of destruction?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no politics in the Top Forty.\u00c2\u00a0 Just forgettable tunes by forgettable acts.<\/p>\n
Used to be a rock star was someone who earned his stripes.\u00c2\u00a0 Who lived in his own little world, governed by his own rules. That’s why we revered them.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, we liked their music, but we LOVED them!<\/p>\n
Even Van Halen and the brown M&M’s.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what incredible riches\/fame based purely on your music bought you. Unlimited sex and the fulfillment of unlimited appetites.\u00c2\u00a0 You got to define the world!<\/p>\n
But then the world defined the artists.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to kiss Tommy Mottola’s butt to become a priority.\u00c2\u00a0 And then whore yourself out to lame radio and television.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to play ball!\u00c2\u00a0 You had to change your music to get into Wal-Mart, you had to suck up, you had to sacrifice everything you stood for, if you ever stood for anything at all.<\/p>\n
So now, following in these sold out footsteps, we’ve got young acts who don’t even know what a rock star is.\u00c2\u00a0 They want their own perfume and a bunch of money.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if they’re lucky, they’re featured in the hungry media for a spell and then dumped.<\/p>\n
Yup, music stars are grist for the gossip mill.\u00c2\u00a0 But Jessica Simpson’s fifteen minutes is almost up.\u00c2\u00a0 Eclipsed by her untalented sister who had enough plastic surgery to also become a babe and is married to Emo-Boy.<\/p>\n
So now they’re calling Sarah Palin a rock star.<\/p>\n
She’s no rock star.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s beholden to God when Jimmy Page and the rest of the classic rock icons were heathens.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even having the chance to thank the deity because NARAS didn’t honor them at the Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n
Sure, she did a bit of artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 But was she ready to blow up TODAY?<\/p>\n
The faster your ride to the top, the quicker your ride to the bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 If Sarah Palin doesn’t become Vice President, she’ll be forgotten, an historic footnote.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a brilliant ploy by the Republicans to win the election, but there’s not enough substance to maintain.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if she wins, the public will turn on her.\u00c2\u00a0 Since most Americans are for abortion, since most Americans don’t share her opinions.\u00c2\u00a0 Kinda like the aforementioned Jessica Simpson.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that her TV show is gone, why are we interested?\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t remember, and we’ve tuned out.<\/p>\n
If you want to have a long career in music, you’ve got to practice and pay your dues.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want people to believe in you, you have to make your own choices, not based on expediency or instant money, but what FEELS RIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t play to the masses, but your fans.\u00c2\u00a0 People have to BELIEVE!<\/p>\n
You must exude talent.\u00c2\u00a0 A pretty face is not enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Substance must triumph over surface appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t play and write your own songs you must pick material with heft, that exudes honest emotion or makes a statement.\u00c2\u00a0 Song doctors are AGAINST this!\u00c2\u00a0 They want to write something so bland that everybody can like it, for an instant, like Pixy Stix.<\/p>\n
Being a rock star is being able to say no.<\/p>\n
Being a rock star is leaving money on the table.<\/p>\n
Being a rock star is taking a stand.<\/p>\n
The press built Sarah Palin.\u00c2\u00a0 She had one good performance, now what?\u00c2\u00a0 She’s had a hit single, performing at the Republican National Convention.\u00c2\u00a0 But like an auto-tuned automaton, she’s afraid of speaking off the cuff, letting her true self out, and we tune out, because we want AUTHENTICITY!\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have speechwriters, I’m forced to answer the question, AREN’T YOU?<\/p>\n
If only she had a bit more seasoning.\u00c2\u00a0 Had played a few more clubs.\u00c2\u00a0 Knew more about foreign policy before she hit the big time.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like she went straight from house concerts to arenas.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s not READY!\u00c2\u00a0 And we know it!<\/p>\n
Then again, she’s just the opening act.<\/p>\n
But when the headliner gets sick, they usually cancel the gig, they don’t make the opening act carry the show, because IT CAN’T!<\/p>\n
The press is complicit in making these evanescent stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Once you play that game, you’re on a ride you usually can’t get off of until you’re dumped unexpectedly for the next pretty face.\u00c2\u00a0 If being a rock star is being in control, today’s overexposure paradigm is about handing control to the machine, which you were supposed to be rebelling against!<\/p>\n
David Lee Roth is a rock star.<\/p>\n
Jon Bon Jovi is not.<\/p>\n
Amy Winehouse is a rock star.<\/p>\n
Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears are not.<\/p>\n
If Barack Obama was ever a rock star, he’s not now.\u00c2\u00a0 Confronted with adversity, a rock star isn’t paralyzed, but bites back! Goes on the offensive.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t check the research, but does what he feels in his heart.\u00c2\u00a0 Which has been educated by experience.<\/p>\n
Does Barack Obama have enough experience?<\/p>\n
I’ll argue more than Sarah Palin, but that’s not the point.<\/p>\n
The point is we’ve abdicated our entire industry, our culture, at the altar of profits, most of which went to a tiny cadre of men. MTV no longer plays videos.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio’s ratings are shrinking.\u00c2\u00a0 The major labels’ business has taken a nosedive.\u00c2\u00a0 Why are you following these guys?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re fighting for survival and doing a bad job of it.<\/p>\n
If you’re interested in truly becoming a rock star, study the careers of AC\/DC, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 Know that rocking out is a singular experience, that you can’t act and be a politician too.\u00c2\u00a0 What the fuck is Bono doing in the venture capital world?\u00c2\u00a0 It just tells us he’s got way too much money and is being used as a glamorous front by rich men who want to get richer.\u00c2\u00a0 We stop believing.\u00c2\u00a0 The old rock stars, if they did this, if they invested their money in the system, at least they didn’t BOAST ABOUT IT!<\/p>\n
Boast about your music, your lifestyle, your identity.\u00c2\u00a0 Then people will care.<\/p>\n
But they’re not going to care about those in the Top Forty, those featured in TMZ\/PerezHilton or Sarah Palin if John McCain doesn’t win.<\/p>\n
Fame is for suckers.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an empty vessel.<\/p>\n
Whereas music, when done right, is timeless.\u00c2\u00a0 It has the power to change lives.\u00c2\u00a0 Concentrate on the music.<\/p>\n
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What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where politics is more interesting than music, where I’d rather listen to political talk than music on the radio? John Lennon got in trouble for saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, absolutely true in those days before the surge of evangelicals.\u00c2\u00a0 He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}