Rocker John Mellencamp likens Internet to A-bomb<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nHe claims it destroyed the music business.<\/p>\n
No, it CHANGED the music business!<\/p>\n
Suddenly, the game Mellencamp played was history.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t fly to the coast for a record deal, labels weren’t interested in signing anyone who hadn’t already sold 10,000 records independently and\/or was a pretty, malleable face willing to work with anyone and everyone, singing others’ songs in order to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, people were stealing music, but even before that, only Top Forty sold any records, and record labels were in the business of selling records.<\/p>\n
Eventually bands with a following declined to sign with the major, why give up all those rights if you don’t play Top Forty music anyway, why not be in charge of your own destiny?<\/p>\n
And with MTV airing few videos and active music fans tuning out radio, even those who got traction had less impact and made fewer dollars.<\/p>\n
And Mellencamp keeps recording music, which doesn’t sell, despite the fact he puts his heart and soul into it.\u00c2\u00a0 He keeps doing the same thing to less and less of a reaction, isn’t that the definition of insanity?\u00c2\u00a0 Or an indicator to take a different direction?\u00c2\u00a0 Or change your philosophy?<\/p>\n
But Mellencamp is not the only old wave musician decrying the Internet, Prince said it was completely dead, history.\u00c2\u00a0 He put out his album as a newspaper cover mount.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, he got paid, but have you heard the music, have you even heard anybody talk about it since the hype of its release?<\/p>\n
That’s what this is all about, the inflammatory Mellencamp remarks…he’s trying to get you to pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 And it works a bit with the old guard.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, you play the record once and…\u00c2\u00a0 In the old days, radio picked a track and infected your brain, today if you don’t instantly hear a track on Mellencamp’s record, you’re on to the next thing, because there’s so much stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 There wasn’t so much stuff in Mellencamp’s heyday, the system excluded it, can’t we return to the days of the system, when only talented, dedicated people played and won?<\/p>\n
Well, it’s still the same, only talented, dedicated people win.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s harder than ever to reach the ubiquity\/success Mellencamp once had, if it’s even possible at all.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to really want to be a musician, stardom may never come.<\/p>\n
But you’re in control of your own destiny, you don’t have to change your name, and your music is freely available everywhere, everyone can sample it.\u00c2\u00a0 Alas, you’ve got to be good enough to rise above the fray, and your only hope is that your fans spread the word.<\/p>\n
But that’s what it’s all about now, you and your fans.\u00c2\u00a0 You build a bond, with no middleman between you, and you go on a journey. Almost always slow, oftentimes very short in length.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s the game.<\/p>\n
And the problem isn’t only that the old stars don’t like the new game, but the old middlemen don’t like it either.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels hate the new game.\u00c2\u00a0 As do radio and TV.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s chaos, there’s less money to be made.<\/p>\n
But the fans love the new game.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, it’s all about the music.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not beholden to one style, they’re not limited by their pocketbook, they can discover what they like and play it as much as they want.<\/p>\n
Put any value judgment you want on the new game, but you just can’t eliminate it, the old ways are never going to come back.\u00c2\u00a0 You can try to corral people into listening to your handpicked stuff, but this only works if there are no tune-outs and you can only keep people’s attention if you’re honest and trustworthy and good, like the classic rock acts of yore.\u00c2\u00a0 This is tough when the labels hate the music and radio and TV are about commercials.<\/p>\n
Pay no attention to the singing nitwits on TV, the faces on "American Idol", Justin Bieber…they’re the last vestiges of an old era.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, it’s all about music.\u00c2\u00a0 Make good stuff and people will find you.\u00c2\u00a0 How many?\u00c2\u00a0 Interesting question.\u00c2\u00a0 But you got into it for the music, right?\u00c2\u00a0 You like playing music, right?\u00c2\u00a0 Because if you got into it for the money, notoriety and fame, you’re fucked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Mellencamp wanted a record deal.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the only way to bust out of Indiana.\u00c2\u00a0 He went to New York, signed a bad deal, changed his name and still didn’t break through.\u00c2\u00a0 But he got a toehold.\u00c2\u00a0 He was in the game.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where he kept on making records until Pat Benatar […]<\/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-3254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Qu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254","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=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3255,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions\/3255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}