If Susan Boyle can get tens of millions of hits on YouTube, how come a new music act can’t?<\/p>\n
Don’t think Ms. Boyle shocked Simon Cowell and the other judges with her appearance on "Britain’s Got Talent".\u00c2\u00a0 They knew exactly what they had.\u00c2\u00a0 And manipulated it and exposed it to greatest effect.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re gonna go on TV looking like you just came out of the shower?\u00c2\u00a0 You’re gonna get no media training?\u00c2\u00a0 The judges will have never seen you before?\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t take risks like that on TV, everything’s calculated, manipulated, for best effect.<\/p>\n
Something that the music business is expert in.\u00c2\u00a0 Only the end result has not been about music, not for a very long time.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about getting someone really pretty, who radiates sex, explicitly or implicitly, and matching them with a song so bland and meaningless, or so rhythm-heavy as to have no recognizable melody, and shoving it down the public’s throat.<\/p>\n
Do you really think people are that stupid?<\/p>\n
Obviously some are.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why this crap is selling.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not selling much.\u00c2\u00a0 With only one platinum album so far this year, it seems most people don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Is music history?\u00c2\u00a0 NO, people just don’t want what’s being sold!\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, if there was a new Beatles, it would be every bit as big as Susan Boyle.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one problem, a new Beatles doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n
Most people don’t want that Top Forty crap.\u00c2\u00a0 It works if you’re twelve, or looking to get lucky in a club, but you can’t sing it.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, if you can sing it, it’s meaningless.<\/p>\n
I heard "Take It Easy" on the radio yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 Just the intro guitar sound alone put a smile on my face.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can just see that girl in the flatbed Ford.\u00c2\u00a0 "Take It Easy" doesn’t exist in some rarified universe, one in which plastic surgery is a requirement for admission, rather it sounds like it’s sung by the guy sitting next to you at the bar.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think we can have no anthems again?<\/p>\n
Sure, they’ve got to be sold.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’ve got to be selling the right thing!<\/p>\n
We need melody.\u00c2\u00a0 We need pure voices.\u00c2\u00a0 You may see this as a sellout, a step back from the punk and alternative ethos, but neither of those genres mean much anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re like hula-hoops.\u00c2\u00a0 In a world where the bicycle has been banished.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got\u00c2\u00a0 ton of niches that special interests can love, but no Obama, who can get everybody’s attention.<\/p>\n
What kind of fucked up world do we live in where the President is bigger than any rock star?\u00c2\u00a0 Not one I’ve lived in previously.\u00c2\u00a0 But Obama doesn’t pander, he assumes a bit of intelligence, he speaks the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, the musical acts are so whored out you believe they’d change any position for a buck.\u00c2\u00a0 As for hating Obama…\u00c2\u00a0 WHO CARES!\u00c2\u00a0 You’re paying attention!\u00c2\u00a0 Rolling Stones fans hated the Beatles, not everybody loves\u00c2\u00a0 Susan Boyle, BUT THEY’RE PAYING ATTENTION!<\/p>\n
Beatle records have verses, and choruses, even bridges.\u00c2\u00a0 Is it so hard to write in this format?\u00c2\u00a0 When John sings you feel an emotion that touches your heart. There’s a richness to Paul McCartney’s voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, it’s these same elements that shot the boy bands to fame.\u00c2\u00a0 Great voices and great songs.<\/p>\n
But those songs were meaningless.\u00c2\u00a0 Written by behind the scenes men for adolescents.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the Beatles and the Eagles were men, singing from an adult perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than another barely pubescent child singing about love with no knowledge, how about the words of someone who’s been there and done that!<\/p>\n
Sure, modern media allows endless niches.<\/p>\n
But the Super Bowl ratings are still gigantic.\u00c2\u00a0 And the original "Survivor" finale was too.\u00c2\u00a0 Word can be spread instantly on something new and different and good. Imagine if all the buzz were about something truly great.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine if the public tuned in and said…SHIT, THAT’S GOOD!\u00c2\u00a0 A whole country could know about a new musical act OVERNIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 And if the act had the goods, it could SUSTAIN!<\/p>\n
This is what happened with Elton John.\u00c2\u00a0 One incredible hit song and two great albums released almost on top of each other.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 There was MANIA!<\/p>\n
We need authentic artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are making STATEMENTS!\u00c2\u00a0 Ones other than I NEED MONEY!\u00c2\u00a0 Artistry involves having something to say.\u00c2\u00a0 And you only have to listen to the Black Eyed Peas hit to know today’s acts have nothing to say.<\/p>\n
Let’s utilize the new media to truly break stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe have a TV show where we exhibit new acts every week, with the performances instantly available on YouTube, Hulu…EVERYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe make it a competition, who can knock off the reigning champion.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the public votes, maybe it doesn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public is certainly involved.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s instant merch.\u00c2\u00a0 Made to order IMMEDIATELY!\u00c2\u00a0 You can order a t-shirt with the band’s name and yours online and get it within the week.\u00c2\u00a0 You can interact on the social network with the band.\u00c2\u00a0 There are homemade video competitions.<\/p>\n
Maybe the original TV show does not get incredible ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it premieres in the summer when expectations are lower and the landscape is less crowded. But never forget, we’re talking about LAUNCHING stars.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about starting a CAREER!\u00c2\u00a0 Not making everybody aware of a singer, but introducing an ARTIST! Someone with warts, who’s not afraid of offending the powers-that-be, maybe speaks up about gay rights, yet is so great musically that everybody pays attention.<\/p>\n
Mainstream doesn’t have to be crap.\u00c2\u00a0 We just need people interested in quality to take over the process.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it’s not about record companies at all.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the star is built by Live Nation, or Ticketmaster.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not a Clive Davis overmanaged act, but an edgy, imperfect performer who has got so much charisma and so much talent that we can’t help but watch and get involved!<\/p>\n
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If Susan Boyle can get tens of millions of hits on YouTube, how come a new music act can’t? Don’t think Ms. Boyle shocked Simon Cowell and the other judges with her appearance on "Britain’s Got Talent".\u00c2\u00a0 They knew exactly what they had.\u00c2\u00a0 And manipulated it and exposed it to greatest effect.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re gonna go […]<\/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-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-ubiquity","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","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=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}