When Pontiac Meant Muscle<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nWhich I knew from the Ronny & the Daytonas song, but didn’t truly appreciate until the 1967 model, three years after the car’s introduction, when the Pontiac was the sleekest ride on the boulevard.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no idea that a Mercedes-Benz was an exclusive make, I’d see an XKE now and again, but if you wanted a real car, a hot rod, one that gleamed in the sunlight and impressed both the girls and your neighbors, you got an American car.<\/p>\n
We had an endless string of them.<\/p>\n
Trained as an engineer, my dad started off with Chryslers.\u00c2\u00a0 He purchased a Dodge that caught fire on the way home from the dealership, but he laughed, he felt confident in his selection, he knew that’s what the Chrysler brand stood for, great engineering.<\/p>\n
But then the next station wagon lasted barely eighteen months before falling apart and we switched to Oldsmobile. That VistaCruiser drove 87,000 miles.\u00c2\u00a0 Can\u00c2\u00a0 you believe it!\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing ever lasted that long.<\/p>\n
And by the late sixties my dad had finally arrived, so he purchased a used T-Bird.\u00c2\u00a0 Impractical with two doors for a family of five, he just beamed.\u00c2\u00a0 And ultimately replaced it with a brand new ’69, which the entire family went down to the dealer to pick out.\u00c2\u00a0 We ordered a four door, with suicide doors in a color known as "Indian Fire", with a white vinyl roof, and an AM\/FM radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And four years later, when my dad was finally feeling flush, he graduated, to a Lincoln.<\/p>\n
On a drive to Montreal, the wheel fell off.\u00c2\u00a0 Literally.\u00c2\u00a0 My dad was on I-91 and the car started to shimmy.\u00c2\u00a0 He exited the highway, slid into a gas station and got out of the car just in time to see the entire left front wheel buckle.<\/p>\n
I’d like to say Ford rode to the rescue, but this was before the days of J.D. Power and warranty TLC.\u00c2\u00a0 My father ended up paying for the repairs, traded the fixed car in for a Mercury whose engine burned up and then, through a connection, bought a used Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n
My dad never bought an American car again.<\/p>\n
He bought me a BMW.\u00c2\u00a0 My sister a Fiat.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother a Nissan.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was an endless string of Mercedes-Benzes, always slightly used, always the top of the line, all driven far in excess of 100,000 miles.<\/p>\n
My love affair with the automobile was not that much different from my brethren’s.\u00c2\u00a0 We studied "Car and Driver" in the school library.\u00c2\u00a0 We debated what machines we were going to own.\u00c2\u00a0 But after driving a ten year old Chevy convertible which required constant attention, its front end having a mind of its own, I went foreign and never went back.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I now drive a Japanese car, and four years in there’s been not an iota of trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got to bring it in for its final service under warranty, my last chance at getting problems fixed for free, and I’ve got nothing on my list!<\/p>\n
We used to make fun of the Toyotas.\u00c2\u00a0 The Corollas that looked like thirty year old vehicles, even though they were brand new.\u00c2\u00a0 But then one weekend my older sister’s boyfriend lent me his Datsun 510 and I was converted.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew driving could be so much fun?<\/p>\n
That car and the 240Z.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, Japanese cars were not only reliable, but desirable.\u00c2\u00a0 They were cool.\u00c2\u00a0 And at the time even cheaper than their American counterparts!<\/p>\n
Fiat’s got some cool products, maybe they can make a go with the remnants of Chrysler.<\/p>\n
Ford is looking to the future, dropping its reliance on large iron and focusing on new products like the Fusion. Took an exec from Boeing to turn the company around, but it will survive.<\/p>\n
The usual suspects at GM ran that outfit into the ground.<\/p>\n
And it’s hard not to think of the analogies in the music business.<\/p>\n
Detroit said it was just giving the public what it wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that what the music industry has been saying for years?\u00c2\u00a0 You want these divas.\u00c2\u00a0 You want pop music.\u00c2\u00a0 You want these beat-infused concoctions.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not our fault! We’re in business to make money.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s our job, to deliver what you want.<\/p>\n
But issues of quality, reliability, credibility, more than flash-in-the-pan excitement…\u00c2\u00a0 They’re hard to find.<\/p>\n
Do we really want to laud Jimmy Iovine for concocting the Pussycat Dolls?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that like slapping the backs of all those Detroit execs for selling all those SUVs?\u00c2\u00a0 Ignoring the coming rise in the price of oil, the environmental concerns?<\/p>\n
Then there’s concert ticket pricing.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t make foreign cars to order, there were not a string of extras, you just went down to the lot and picked out the car you wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 They were all similar, packed with what you wanted, not what the seller believed it could foist upon you.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the Detroit companies were selling customization, but only one car my father ever ordered came through as it was described on the invoice.\u00c2\u00a0 They lacked this, or you had to pay extra for that.\u00c2\u00a0 Even as a twelve year old I couldn’t understand it.\u00c2\u00a0 What caused the inefficiencies?<\/p>\n
And speaking of inefficiencies, the music business is rampant with them.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the essence of physical distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why the old guard hates digital distribution, their advantage has evaporated.<\/p>\n
I was eager to learn the changes each model year.\u00c2\u00a0 But then all the American cars ended up looking the same, and the exterior might be good, but what was under the hood sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 The Japanese and Europeans introduced a model and improved it over years, the same way a great band develops over time.\u00c2\u00a0 American companies kept on introducing new dreck, to the point I tuned out.<\/p>\n
Too much of the public has tuned out new music.\u00c2\u00a0 They just don’t know who to trust.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not the major labels. Nor radio, which featured 22 minutes of commercials an hour and was more about buying and selling outlets than what was broadcast on the stations.<\/p>\n
It’s about having a few well-marketed, credible products that wow the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you can start with one!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how Apple broke wide, with the iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 How Subaru flexed its muscles in the U.S., with the WRX.<\/p>\n
The usual suspects in the music business have expended all their capital.\u00c2\u00a0 People have tuned into video games and Web diversions because they’re more satisfying than music.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no bait and switch, no mist surrounding the product that leaves you pissed when you discover the core is vapid.\u00c2\u00a0 Music does not drive the culture. Facebook is much more important in people’s lives than radio or music.\u00c2\u00a0 Music has been devalued to the point where it’s a third class citizen.<\/p>\n
This has got nothing to do with P2P trading, nothing to do with piracy.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no mass pulse in the music world that is making the public salivate, the way they might over a new European or Japanese car.\u00c2\u00a0 The public has been screwed so many times that it’s put music in the corner, to be trotted out for a party, but not as every day soul food.<\/p>\n
I believe entrepreneurs will deliver better sounds.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe independent players will eat the major labels’ lunch the same way Japan ate Detroit’s.\u00c2\u00a0 But our problem is larger than that, how can we make music cool?<\/p>\n
"South Park" already did an episode on Somali pirates.\u00c2\u00a0 Where’s the topicality in the music business?<\/p>\n
Other than John Rich’s parable, there aren’t any big time musicians tackling economic or social problems in their songs, they’re not even taking a stand in the media.<\/p>\n
It’s taken years.\u00c2\u00a0 But the music world is in a similar place as Detroit.\u00c2\u00a0 After decades of coasting, it’s collapsed, and it’s not sure what the path out is.\u00c2\u00a0 Is the enemy traders, ISPs or the business itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that the blame lies on the pros who drove this business to the cliff, milking millions all the way, believing they’re entitled to their riches?<\/p>\n
Where is the next Michael Jackson?\u00c2\u00a0 Or Eagles?<\/p>\n
Where is the next act that the public can rally around and declare great?<\/p>\n
Britney might book revenue, but you’ll have a hard time finding believers.<\/p>\n
And you’ll find believers for niches that can’t expand, like trying to convince everybody they need a Honda S2000 or a Pontiac Solstice.<\/p>\n
We’ve got a music problem.\u00c2\u00a0 The music being purveyed is not seen as necessary to most people’s lives.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too discordant, or made for the cash register, not humans.\u00c2\u00a0 Until we change the product, we’ll remain in the doldrums.<\/p>\n
Companies of the future will see the public as their partner.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than suing customers, they’ll give them blankets, and a return of all fees when a concert is canceled.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no SERVICE in this industry.\u00c2\u00a0 And it was the lack of service that shredded Detroit’s reputation.\u00c2\u00a0 Quality and service.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re easier to lose than gain, and they can’t be established overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got a long way to go to reestablish music’s dominance on the popular culture landscape.\u00c2\u00a0 It can be done, but only if the execs stop worrying about their lifestyle more than the music and the acts get honest and stop scalping their own tickets, only if making music isn’t about fame but songs, only if stars earn that moniker from the music they make as opposed to the contests they win.<\/p>\n
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I’m fascinated by the decline of the American car industry. In today’s "New York Times" there’s an ode to the GTO When Pontiac Meant Muscle Which I knew from the Ronny & the Daytonas song, but didn’t truly appreciate until the 1967 model, three years after the car’s introduction, when the Pontiac was the sleekest […]<\/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-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-change","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","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=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}