{"id":1819,"date":"2009-03-30T07:23:29","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T15:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=1819"},"modified":"2009-03-30T07:23:58","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T15:23:58","slug":"critics-dont-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/30\/critics-dont-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics Don’t Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

"Monsters vs. Aliens" just broke the 2009 box office record despite having reviews that were mediocre at best.<\/p>\n

If you’re making your music for the cognoscenti, you’re missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 You only need to please your target audience, that’s it.\u00c2\u00a0 Music used to be a hierarchical world.\u00c2\u00a0 Who had the number one album, who got the most airplay, who had the biggest grosses.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re playing that game, you’re lost in the wilderness.\u00c2\u00a0 A number one album sells few copies and is no guarantee of profits.\u00c2\u00a0 So many people don’t even listen to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 As for box office, do you really thing Miley Cyrus will be selling out arenas five years from now?\u00c2\u00a0 Three?\u00c2\u00a0 Two?<\/p>\n

So when that hipster in black jeans says you suck, laugh in his face.\u00c2\u00a0 By putting you down, he’s just illustrating how out of touch he is.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody who can survive in today’s music world deserves credit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about gaining an audience, not reaching everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 If you make some people happy, you’re on your way.\u00c2\u00a0 If you try to make everybody happy, you’re doomed to failure.<\/p>\n

There’s no one powerful starmaker left.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not a rock critic.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even a record label honcho.\u00c2\u00a0 There’ s no one person whose imprimatur unlocks the gate to continued fame and riches.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in the era of the mob.\u00c2\u00a0 How can someone start a fire that turns into a conflagration.\u00c2\u00a0 That you may not be able to see from the other coast, but that appears positively gargantuan if you’re anywhere nearby.<\/p>\n

You can’t complain if growth is slow.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously, what you’re doing is ahead of the game, or not quite mainstream. Furthermore, if your career does blow up, enjoy the ride, but don’t believe it’s going to last.\u00c2\u00a0 Very few of these casual new fans are going to stick around.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you try to please them, you’re just going to alienate those who truly care.<\/p>\n

So don’t swing for the fences.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t adopt a star attitude.\u00c2\u00a0 Be reachable.\u00c2\u00a0 The more accessible you are to your fans, the more they’ll like you and spread the word.<\/p>\n

As for the haters?<\/p>\n

The haters aren’t going to buy your albums anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 To try and placate them is a mistake.<\/p>\n

\n
Partially inspired by this: Ignore your critics<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0
But like all the Darwin anniversary analysis says, ideas are in the air, no one’s got a lock on breakthroughs.\u00c2\u00a0 Movie writers have written for years that a film’s success is determined on opening day, when viewers text their buds from inside the theatre. Criticism is now a function of the population at large.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t live in a top down world, no one dictates taste.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s something we come at collectively.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there’s critical reevaluation years down the line, the way hipsters cottoned to the Carpenters and Axl Rose revealed his love of Elton John, but if you change your work to placate hipsters along the way, you’re in trouble.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Monsters vs. Aliens" just broke the 2009 box office record despite having reviews that were mediocre at best. If you’re making your music for the cognoscenti, you’re missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 You only need to please your target audience, that’s it.\u00c2\u00a0 Music used to be a hierarchical world.\u00c2\u00a0 Who had the number one album, who got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-tl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1821,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions\/1821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}