{"id":2231,"date":"2009-09-10T06:55:34","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T14:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2231"},"modified":"2009-09-10T06:56:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T14:56:06","slug":"fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/10\/fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"
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‘You know what, Jimmy? Fuck you. Take that beat and shove it up Timbaland’s ass.’<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You don’t talk to Jimmy Iovine that way!<\/p>\n

What kind of crazy, fucked up world do we live in where the pop stars are the goody-goodies, the ass-kissers who made our eyes roll in high school as they obeyed all the rules and respected their elders.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like Eddie Haskell has come back to haunt us!\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t want to piss off the big bad record company, your career will be ruined!<\/p>\n

Or will it?<\/p>\n

I’ve met some of the rock stars of yore, and they’re not like you and me.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t believe in rules.\u00c2\u00a0 And they don’t take orders.\u00c2\u00a0 They do it their way.\u00c2\u00a0 With contempt for society, the norm, what everybody says they should do.<\/p>\n

I mean if you’re working all day on the assembly line, do you really want to go see someone who tells you to never miss a day at the plant and to never talk back to your boss?\u00c2\u00a0 Is this the release you desire?<\/p>\n

Or you’ve got Lady GaGa, who thinks rock and roll is a fashion show.\u00c2\u00a0 When done right, it doesn’t matter what you wear on stage, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.\u00c2\u00a0 The music speaks for you.<\/p>\n

But the music hasn’t come first, we haven’t had a rule-breaker since Kurt Cobain.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Kurt had a way with a melody, but the reason he became an icon and still is was his refusal to play it any way but his own.\u00c2\u00a0 To call out posers.\u00c2\u00a0 To have no tolerance for b.s.\u00c2\u00a0 Hey GaGa!\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t you check out the sweater Kurt wore on MTV "Unplugged"!\u00c2\u00a0 With enough talent, you can dress like a nerd!<\/p>\n

Kurt complained of being abused in school.\u00c2\u00a0 Of getting no respect.\u00c2\u00a0 He was everything we wanted to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Honest.\u00c2\u00a0 And rich.<\/p>\n

Now the focus is only on rich.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be you used your talent to get to the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, talent is a diversion, the machine will provide that for you.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got songwriters and producers, stylists, we can turn you into someone…just like everyone else.\u00c2\u00a0 A two-dimensional character made for the brain dead medium known as terrestrial radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Once upon a time we respected radio, lived to listen.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine that!<\/p>\n

Used to be you told the label head which way the wind blew.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t allow any input into your music.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, does the exec know how to play? And, if you fucked with the President enough, he might blackball you and harm your career, but those days are through.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you can be completely independent, not beholden to anyone.\u00c2\u00a0 Free to sell your CD at Target.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n

Explain it to me all day Eddie Vedder, but I just see it as expedient.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you’re allowing the indie stores to play, but this has got nothing to do with the future, not even the present, but the past.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans want the music instantly, online, now.\u00c2\u00a0 Trent Reznor gives it away and you tie in with a retailer that focuses on fashion?<\/p>\n

We respect outlaws.\u00c2\u00a0 Not faux characters in scripts, like Sacha Baron Cohen sitting on Eminem’s lap at the MTV Movie Awards.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re watching the VMAs for anything but shits and giggles, if you think that show has anything to do with music, you don’t know how hard you’ve got to kiss the butt of the MTV team to get on.\u00c2\u00a0 What a marketing opportunity!\u00c2\u00a0 Who can resist the exposure!<\/p>\n

Trent called out Chris Cornell on Twitter, for his atrocious record with Timbaland.<\/p>\n

If Peter Frampton can kill his career overnight, with one record made for the theoretical masses, doesn’t that prove anybody can do it?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, while we’re at it, blame the stylist for Billy Squier.\u00c2\u00a0 Heroic rocker, blue collar king, dresses in pink and is never heard from again.<\/p>\n

It’s truly a new era.\u00c2\u00a0 The government might tell us to meet the new boss, same as the old boss, that Goldman Sachs can still rule, but do we have to continue to respect all the entertainment wankers who think they’re more talented than the creators they oversee?<\/p>\n

Music used to be the foremost exponent of creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it was the cheapest to make and the easiest to distribute.\u00c2\u00a0 But now music is moribund, even less hip than TV, singles are massaged, marketing campaigns are designed like a World War III invasion…\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve only got one chance, we can’t blow it!\u00c2\u00a0 How about putting out great music, that sells itself, for a long time?\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, an artist puts out something good and word will get out on the Internet, the same way everyone learned that Lenny Kravitz’s last opuses were crap and he’s been forced to tour "Let Love Rule" in clubs on the album’s twentieth anniversary to pay his bills.<\/p>\n

Do we really have to fear Jimmy Iovine?\u00c2\u00a0 Doug Morris?\u00c2\u00a0 Lyor Cohen?\u00c2\u00a0 Do they really get to be the final arbiters of taste?<\/p>\n

Oh, don’t give me shit, I’m just a constant warning to take the other direction, to think for yourself, like all my heroes from the past.<\/p>\n

They’re not making anymore heroes.\u00c2\u00a0 Just product.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s sad.<\/p>\n

You’ve got the tools to do it your way.\u00c2\u00a0 So don’t complain, take the road less-traveled, experiment, demonstrate your greatness.\u00c2\u00a0 Your hands are not tied, dazzle us!<\/p>\n

Full "New Yorker" quote:<\/p>\n

\n
"By the early aughts, Reznor had grown frustrated with the way Nine Inch Nails records were being released and promoted by his label, Interscope Records. ‘The Internet has decimated their business, and they still don’t know how instant messaging works,’ he told me. He was also depressed by the pressure from the label’s head, Jimmy Iovine, to make his records more ‘urban.’ As Reznor saw it, ‘This is simply, How do we smooth off all the rough edges and make you just like what’s selling now?’ Iovine commissioned a number of hip-hop remixes of Nine Inch Nails songs, all of which Reznor rejected, and Reznor soon ended the relationship. ‘You know what, Jimmy? Fuck you. Take that beat and shove it up Timbaland’s ass.’"<\/p>\n

High Fidelity<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read about Trent and Chris Cornell and Jimmy here:<\/p>\n

\n
Mr. Self-Destruct<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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‘You know what, Jimmy? Fuck you. Take that beat and shove it up Timbaland’s ass.’ You don’t talk to Jimmy Iovine that way! What kind of crazy, fucked up world do we live in where the pop stars are the goody-goodies, the ass-kissers who made our eyes roll in high school as they obeyed all […]<\/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-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-fear","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231","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=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions\/2233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}