Answering Back<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0
If they interview somebody for a story now and that person doesn’t like what they read, they print the entire interview, they give their side on their website\/blog.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, the public can see how the media works.\u00c2\u00a0 The games it plays.\u00c2\u00a0 Like propping up no-talent "singers" as the second coming.<\/p>\nYes, I switched from print to music, but it’s all the same.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer a top-down game.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer besuited men and women on the thirty-third floor pulling the strings.\u00c2\u00a0 Now the PUBLIC pulls the strings.\u00c2\u00a0 And the crybaby millionaires don’t like it.<\/p>\n
Used to be celebrities were iconized, they were FAMOUS!<\/p>\n
But now we’ve got complete idiots starring in reality TV shows with nothing being exuded but their visage.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re famous for being famous.\u00c2\u00a0 Credit MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 A friend ran into a "Real World" "cast member" at a restaurant.\u00c2\u00a0 As a WAITER!\u00c2\u00a0 You see MTV made all the money, not the person on screen.<\/p>\n
And MTV is a sister company to Paramount.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the tanking movie business.\u00c2\u00a0 Why see a shitty picture?\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be insiders knew if there was no review in the paper on opening day, a film sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 And the studios didn’t care, because the teeming masses DIDN’T READ THE PAPER!<\/p>\n
But every member of the teeming masses has a cell phone.\u00c2\u00a0 Movie grosses go down from Friday to Saturday for a shitty picture.\u00c2\u00a0 What with cells, SideKicks, e-mail, blogs…\u00c2\u00a0 The media world is no longer an insider’s paradise, EVERYBODY’S AN INSIDER!<\/p>\n
Everybody can make a movie.\u00c2\u00a0 Just buy an iBook and a four hundred dollar video camera.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you can only get distribution on the web, not in theatres, but what happens when all distribution IS ON the web?\u00c2\u00a0 And the majors have to compete with the true indies, with only their marketing dollars\/prowess helping them out?\u00c2\u00a0 Then it will be like the MUSIC BUSINESS!<\/p>\n
You can make a record on that same iBook.\u00c2\u00a0 But, distribution of music is already HERE on the web.\u00c2\u00a0 The number of files traded in a month far exceeds those sold on disc in a YEAR!\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, all the mainstream purveyors have is the power of hype.<\/p>\n
But now, there’s a backlash against that hype.<\/p>\n
IDJ might be thrilled they got Mariah on "Rockin’ New Year’s Eve", but if the company had been smart, they would have kept her off.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the web spin is she’s a COW!<\/p>\n
Yes, it’s all over the boards.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in my e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 Her image took a huge HIT!<\/p>\n
You see celebrities are now to be made FUN OF!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a topsy-turvy world, it’s the fifties no more.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re constantly in our face, getting plastic surgery, spewing inanities, there’s going to be a BACKLASH!\u00c2\u00a0 And this is rough if your business is based on creating stars.<\/p>\n
A music star is someone who performs.<\/p>\n
Ashlee Simpson doesn’t perform.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor do Hilary and Lindsay.\u00c2\u00a0 Because EVERYBODY knows that you can auto-tune a vocal.\u00c2\u00a0 God, every musician\/producer worth his salt has SAID SO IN INTERVIEWS!\u00c2\u00a0 Which are broadcast ALL OVER THE WEB!\u00c2\u00a0 The public knows it’s a SHAM!<\/p>\n
They know 50 Cent doesn’t write the music.<\/p>\n
Sure, little girls idolize the young teen stars.\u00c2\u00a0 And people want to dance to the beats of Fitty’s records.\u00c2\u00a0 But they just don’t believe in them.\u00c2\u00a0 Fitty?\u00c2\u00a0 Ask a net denizen about his wild weight fluctuations.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, for a man who’s been shot endlessly and isn’t afraid to die he seems quite vain.<\/p>\n
The old game is dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at the sales numbers of the big acts.\u00c2\u00a0 The RIAA used to issue DIAMOND certifications.\u00c2\u00a0 For sales of TEN MILLION CDs!\u00c2\u00a0 Seen one of those lately?<\/p>\n
No, the only way out is to go in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION!\u00c2\u00a0 Undersell.<\/p>\n
Instead of an act saying it’s god, or being sold as god, an act should be purveyed as being flawed to BEGIN WITH!\u00c2\u00a0 To blunt the backlash.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean why beat up on somebody who’s just like YOU?<\/p>\n
And, there can’t be overhype\/oversell.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter WHO IT IS, the public doesn’t want to be BOMBARDED by them.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll hate the act, talk shit about it, just to demonstrate they have power, and their mindspace can’t be abused.<\/p>\n
Oh, we’re going back to the days of talent.\u00c2\u00a0 The customer DEMANDS IT!<\/p>\n
You’ve got to TRULY be able to perform.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be able to sing and\/or play without help.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you want to be REALLY successful, you’ve got to sing from the heart, what you believe.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody knows that Hilary and Lindsay don’t write the songs.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, they don’t believe Mariah writes them EITHER!<\/p>\n
But the new model doesn’t fit the old financial game.\u00c2\u00a0 Of creating instant superstars, which go multiplatinum in a year.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors say it’s about downloading.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got half of it right.\u00c2\u00a0 It IS about the internet.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not about stealing.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about taking control.\u00c2\u00a0 As dramatically as when cable exploded the box to three hundred channels and everybody got a remote control.<\/p>\n
The CD is heading into the dirt like a Chinese rocket.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing can stop it.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not the pronouncements of aged executives clinging to a bygone era.<\/p>\n
The future will be ruled by people who know all the above.\u00c2\u00a0 Who RESPECT the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Who don’t talk down to people.\u00c2\u00a0 Who don’t fight for the mainstream, but play in their own little bubble.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what Phish did.\u00c2\u00a0 And the reason Trey is doing poorly today is he was too stupid to know this.\u00c2\u00a0 Phish FANS don’t like the way he treated them, willy-nilly.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans want to be treated as partners.\u00c2\u00a0 Either do this, or expect their wrath.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You see Tommy Mottola got us into the celebrity game. When Tommy perfected his over the top diva paradigm it was a different era.\u00c2\u00a0 It was before the internet. There’s a shadow society.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody in mainstream media hates it.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, the public now has its OWN media, and is talking amongst itself CONSTANTLY, with […]<\/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":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-4k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","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=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}