If you say something long enough, do people believe it?<\/p>\n
In other words, do tireless self-promoters succeed?<\/p>\n
Once upon a time I believed in Clive Davis.\u00c2\u00a0 When he got fired from CBS and wrote his autobiography, when he started Arista Records.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought Arista was the new Asylum, that albums could be bought on label name alone.\u00c2\u00a0 So I purchased Patti Smith’s "Horses".\u00c2\u00a0 But did I need to believe in Barry Manilow?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll admit, Barry had talent, but how to explain Milli Vanilli and Kenny G?<\/p>\n
But Clive says we should call him the Ears of the industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though the untrumpeted Chris Blackwell has a far better track record.\u00c2\u00a0 Even David Geffen himself, album for album, with Asylum and Geffen Records, put out a higher level of quality, with artists that have lasted.\u00c2\u00a0 Geffen released Guns N’ Roses.\u00c2\u00a0 Clive put out Whitney Houston?\u00c2\u00a0 GNR can tour without the whole band and still play stadiums.\u00c2\u00a0 Whitney?<\/p>\n
But the reason I’m covering all this is an article in yesterday’s "Los Angeles Times" about BC Jean.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein Randy Lewis sucks Clive’s dick and repeats the record executive’s hype about the artist literally verbatim.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this what a news source is supposed to do?<\/p>\n
I could make this L.A. "Times" specific.\u00c2\u00a0 Excoriating the dwindling left coast supposed newspaper of record. But even more fascinating is the role of hype in today’s marketplace.\u00c2\u00a0 Does it work?<\/p>\n
We all want to know what’s happening.<\/p>\n
But we all want to slow down and look at the car accident on the other side of the freeway.\u00c2\u00a0 But once we’re done, we barely give it another thought, unless it’s especially gruesome.<\/p>\n
Kind of like what’s hyped by the old wave machine today.\u00c2\u00a0 The story is ever more dramatic and even less meaningful.<\/p>\n
The musical story is not BC Jean, but the Dave Matthews Band.\u00c2\u00a0 Which tours tirelessly to in excess of 10,000 devotees per gig year after year.\u00c2\u00a0 And behind them there’s a plethora of bands most of the public is unfamiliar with, from Phish to the National to even the Hold Steady, who have audiences, real fans who support them in good style for a long time.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you want to talk new acts, how about Mumford & Sons?<\/p>\n
In other words, even if hype works, does it pay?<\/p>\n
It appears not.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying you can’t make money telling everybody your message.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m just saying that’s not where the real money is.\u00c2\u00a0 Because most people don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty radio is not the NFL, but hockey or maybe even lacrosse.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, even those sports have diehard fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty radio in most cases is a phase young people go though and outgrow.\u00c2\u00a0 If Clive were so fucking special, he’d create a band of musicians who lasted, who created a groundswell as a result of their incredible live performances, not by releasing an overmanaged single written with the usual suspects.
If BC Jean were as talented as Clive says she is, why did she have to cowrite with the Matrix?<\/p>\n
Clive doesn’t want to play in the new world because it takes too much time.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s not sure how much time he has left.\u00c2\u00a0 But even more so, his connections are all in the old world.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a Smith Corona salesman, Clive is busy peddling typewriters to the few, out of the way outposts that don’t yet have computers, who haven’t heard of the Internet, who certainly don’t have high speed connections.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, the papers determined what was the news.\u00c2\u00a0 But now we know there are many more stories than fit between their ever-shrinking covers.\u00c2\u00a0 And that given options, people will go elsewhere.<\/p>\n
We’re bombarded with marketing messages all day long.\u00c2\u00a0 What the old wavers don’t realize is we’re immune to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Detroit kept telling us how great its iron was, but we bought Japanese, because the quality was there. Look at Hyundai…\u00c2\u00a0 Pieces of shit upon first importation, paragons of cheap quality today.<\/p>\n
If you want to make it in today’s marketplace you must focus on quality.\u00c2\u00a0 Promotion will get you momentary notice, but only quality sustains.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it might be harder than ever to get your message out, to truly gain traction.\u00c2\u00a0 But when someone finds something good today, they tell everybody they know.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how you build an act, that’s how you build a brand.\u00c2\u00a0 Not by calling the usual media suspects and spewing shit about how your vapid new artist is the greatest thing since sliced bread.<\/p>\n
\n