Kyle Andrews "You Always Make Me Smile"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nIt’s got in excess of one million views.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t premiered on "Ellen", he’s not on a "label", he’s doing it for himself.\u00c2\u00a0 But the song isn’t that good.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet he’s got notice.\u00c2\u00a0 Notice used to be impossible sans the imprimatur of a major corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, indies are doing it for themselves.<\/p>\n
The major label monopoly was distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 Majors could get records in stores and get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Now anybody can get their music on iTunes and get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Only majors could get their songs on the radio, and everybody listened to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, the hipper you are, the more you’re the maven of "The Tipping Point", the less you listen to the radio, it’s unsatisfying and uncool, you find your music elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you find something good, you and your friends spread the word to other like-minded individuals.<\/p>\n
I heard about Pomplamoose from James Saez, a writer\/producer\/engineer who records my podcasts.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be you had to be rich to enter a recording studio, time was expensive and it couldn’t be wasted.\u00c2\u00a0 But James has a fully-functioning set-up, far beyond a Pro Tools rig in the bedroom, with separate rooms for playing and recording, with the de rigueur couches and hanging bedspreads for a homey vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 As we look out the window to the mountains, our conversation follows an uncharted path into nooks and crannies.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re creative, that’s what you do in a studio, it’s a place separate from society, closed off so you can let your mind wander, so you can come up with something great.<\/p>\n
James was telling me about making money on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Pomplamoose.<\/p>\n
Huh?<\/p>\n
Actually, I knew who they were, I just didn’t know their name.\u00c2\u00a0 When I pulled up a YouTube clip, I recognized the girl.<\/p>\n
It’s funny.\u00c2\u00a0 When old wave media require plastic surgery, boob implants and nose jobs, you’ve got to be beyond beautiful to compete, there’s a whole segment of the population that has rejected this paradigm and is owning their bodies and identities.\u00c2\u00a0 This woman in Pomplamoose, she’s so normal as to be charismatic, you can’t stop watching her, she’s anything but studied, she radiates humanity.<\/p>\n
And it’s humanity that bonds us to artists.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s when they exhibit the flawed existence of Homo sapiens that we identify.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to relate to a robot.\u00c2\u00a0 And check out the Top Forty chicks, they seem to be manufactured in a plant, with no injection of heart and soul.<\/p>\n
Anyway, today I got an e-mail telling me about a creation between Pomplamoose and Allee Willis.\u00c2\u00a0 You know Allee, the eccentric who writes hit tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Does anybody need a hit tune anymore?<\/p>\n
Actually, all the songwriters are bitching, that music is being stolen and they just can’t get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell that to BMG Rights Management, which keeps snapping up catalogs.\u00c2\u00a0 If songs were worthless, would they keep doing this?<\/p>\n
But what if those carping stopped worrying about their bank accounts and started pursuing fun.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m especially speaking to those in Nashville, going from songwriting session to songwriting session, coming up with lowest common denominator crap to shove down the throat of a somnambulant population.\u00c2\u00a0 That can’t be fun.\u00c2\u00a0 Fun is taking chances, testing limits, doing something for the hell of it.<\/p>\n
What if Diane Warren wrote with Pomplamoose, what would that sound like?<\/p>\n
Well, for now, we’ve got Allee Willis.\u00c2\u00a0 And the resulting confection marries indie sensibility with pop craft and the result makes you smile, and isn’t that what music is all about?<\/p>\n
Watching this video makes you want to create yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 Like so many in the business did in high school, tuned up their guitars and formed bands in the basement.<\/p>\n
That’s the scene today.\u00c2\u00a0 Not world domination, but high school.\u00c2\u00a0 You remember high school, don’t you?\u00c2\u00a0 When you cared not a whit about money, didn’t have a job and got deep into your passions, developed who you were?\u00c2\u00a0 You loved the offbeat, you told your friends about your new finds, and you analyzed the lyrics endlessly.<\/p>\n
The MTV era was an anomaly.\u00c2\u00a0 When we all watched the same high concept crap.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who said the Net would kill music couldn’t be more wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 Music’s been set free, it’s being reinvented.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, a lot of stuff online is crap, but while Bono is appearing in ads for Louis Vuitton, there’s a whole new breed of artists who are focusing on the art more than the money.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, U2 just makes a new album so it can go on tour.\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t you make a new album because it’s fun?\u00c2\u00a0 And why does it have to be an album, and why do you have to wait three years in between productions?<\/p>\n
All those rules were written by a crumbling system.<\/p>\n
Pomplamoose is the future.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don’t know it yet.<\/p>\n
It’s not about top down marketing, working with Dr. Luke to ensure a hit, it’s about fumbling around by yourself, mostly for fun, with only the most dedicated and creative ultimately succeeding.<\/p>\n
Stop shooting for the moon.\u00c2\u00a0 Worldwide success is an accident.\u00c2\u00a0 Build your fanbase from the ground up. Pomplamoose exudes fun.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re drawn to them.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how you build an act, not by getting a stylist and learning dance steps.<\/p>\n
The tools of creativity are now in the hands of the proletariat.\u00c2\u00a0 The only one who you can blame for your lack of success is yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t wait for the green light from some fat cat who doesn’t get it, start by yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 And know hype doesn’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 I found out about Pomplamoose from a friend.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s all we trust anymore, our friends.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s us against them, the people against the corporations.\u00c2\u00a0 Which side are you on?<\/p>\n
\nPomplamoose with Allee Willis – Jungle Animal<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Music is supposed to be fun.Someone sent me this video by Kyle Andrews: Kyle Andrews "You Always Make Me Smile" It’s got in excess of one million views.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t premiered on "Ellen", he’s not on a "label", he’s doing it for himself.\u00c2\u00a0 But the song isn’t that good.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet he’s got notice.\u00c2\u00a0 Notice used […]<\/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":[5,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online","category-the-media","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Si","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366","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=3366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3368,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}