Used to be they went hand in hand.<\/p>\n
That’s no longer the case.<\/p>\n
I’ve been overwhelmed with information about the Salahis.\u00c2\u00a0 You know, the Obama gatecrashers on the new "Housewives" show.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s pissed Whoopi dissed her. "USA Today"’s got the story of her day.\u00c2\u00a0 I should be interested why?<\/p>\n
Michaele Salahi, and I had to look up her name, believes if she’s got fame, her life will work.\u00c2\u00a0 Have her speak with all those out of work "Real World"ers, who are stopped on the street yet are penniless.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re derided.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re known as two-dimensional TV characters.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got no intrinsic value.<\/p>\n
Used to be it was very hard to be famous.\u00c2\u00a0 But now Perez Hilton has risen from nothing to tell us…\u00c2\u00a0 What, he’s another bitchy man who wants to play on the A team?<\/p>\n
And what is the A team?\u00c2\u00a0 A bunch of no-talents drinking and drugging in the clubs?<\/p>\n
Everybody wants in.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, as if you get a badge and the club is endless fun.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 And you only get staying power if you’ve got money.\u00c2\u00a0 Fame doesn’t last.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Kara DioGuardi.\u00c2\u00a0 Now what?\u00c2\u00a0 A bunch more shitty top forty songs for girls who haven’t yet reached puberty?<\/p>\n
In the nineties, you could only be famous by being on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to be pretty, and be willing to do everything your handlers told you to do.<\/p>\n
But then we got "Survivor" and the plethora of reality TV.\u00c2\u00a0 And everyone got broadband and there was Facebook and Twitter and everybody was suddenly fighting for attention.\u00c2\u00a0 How many MySpace friends do you have?\u00c2\u00a0 How many followers on Twitter?\u00c2\u00a0 People want to win rankings, when artists win hearts.<\/p>\n
That’s much more ethereal, much more difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, it’s easy to buy fashionable clothing, but much more difficult to get someone to fall in love with you.<\/p>\n
The major labels are in the fame game, not the artistry game.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you’ve got a smidgen of artistry\/talent, that takes a back seat as they try to push you in front of everybody and make you famous so they can make money.<\/p>\n
And since newspapers and gossip sites need something to print, they focus on this information, when it’s here today and gone tomorrow and has no nutritional value.<\/p>\n
You know how someone’s a loser?\u00c2\u00a0 When they complain they just haven’t gotten attention.<\/p>\n
Making it in music, for the long haul, is so complicated.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to have the chops, you’ve got to be in play, you’ve got to get lucky.\u00c2\u00a0 Eliminate the dues, eliminate the luck, and you’ve got the major label top forty wonders of today.<\/p>\n
Isn’t it funny that the fame of the Silicon Valley wonders comes AFTER the success of their product.\u00c2\u00a0 No one hypes us telling us who Mark Zuckerberg is, we get hooked by Facebook and then want to know who the mastermind behind the site is.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Snooki says LOOK AT ME!\u00c2\u00a0 And after we do, we wonder what’s inside…nothing.<\/p>\n
So the whole music world has bifurcated.\u00c2\u00a0 Between those who’ve got fame and those who are artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, some of those doing well on the road have both, but these are the classics, the Eagles, the Eltons, the McCartneys.\u00c2\u00a0 But the new famous acts sell tickets for a short period of time, and then we forget them.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like we’ve forgotten Paris Hilton, famous for nothing, no longer hot.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we’ve got Kim Kardashian in her place, a pale imitation…but the paradigm still works, to a degree anyway.<\/p>\n
So who are you?\u00c2\u00a0 Someone seeking fame or an artist?<\/p>\n
If you want fame, start making friends on Facebook, try out for "American Idol", be grist for the mill. And if we pay attention at all, it’s for the train-wreck.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why we watch the "Idol" auditions…\u00c2\u00a0 To see bad performers who believe they’re good.\u00c2\u00a0 How could they be so delusional?<\/p>\n
But a great artist?<\/p>\n
He speaks through his instrument.\u00c2\u00a0 He doesn’t have to dance, he just starts picking his guitar or starts singing and your jaw drops.<\/p>\n
And a great artist is on a journey.\u00c2\u00a0 What happens today couldn’t happen without what came before, and tomorrow will be completely different.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why we no longer care about the new work of the classic rock artists, they’re playing it safe, it’s just a repeat of what’s come before.<\/p>\n
So focus on your artistry.\u00c2\u00a0 And know that’s what really sells tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to be so good that people bond to you.<\/p>\n
But that’s much more difficult than getting plastic surgery and saying LOOK AT ME!\u00c2\u00a0 So difficult, that the machine wants no part of it, the odds of success are too low.<\/p>\n
Sure, Ahmet Ertegun wanted hits, but a hit fifty years ago had a fraction of the impact it does today, and it generated a fraction of the revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 So the music was a key element.\u00c2\u00a0 How do we make the music so irresistible that people want to listen to it and we can make enough money to make more music.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s about investing a lot to create a sure-fire product that will rain down revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 In the seventies, you made your album and delivered it to the label sight unseen.\u00c2\u00a0 The A&R guy had no impact, you often recorded by your lonesome.\u00c2\u00a0 And the label put the album out, because they trusted the artist…to know more than they did.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, the label wants you to co-write, work with producers and won’t put out the album until they’ve got guaranteed hit singles.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s the artist here?\u00c2\u00a0 The player or the businessman?<\/p>\n
I know, it’s lonely in the wilderness.<\/p>\n
But that’s your choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Either you’re a lifer, practicing, waiting for your lucky moment, or you’re a fame whore, trying to rig the game so you can make some money.<\/p>\n
Too many of the old players are interested first and foremost in the money.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to be involved in productions they can’t control.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public is fickle. You can hype them once, but usually not again.<\/p>\n
This is the turning point in music.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the crossroads.\u00c2\u00a0 This is where the two roads appear.<\/p>\n
There will always be a market for train-wreck, but the real money is in artistry.\u00c2\u00a0 It pays dividends again and again, year after year.<\/p>\n
But it scares the old timers.\u00c2\u00a0 Does it scare you?<\/p>\n
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