You don’t need a good voice, you need good material.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean a manager isn’t important.\u00c2\u00a0 With anybody but Irving Azoff, Christina Aguilera would have already been forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 But he keeps getting her on shows, and it’s working for her here.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not her voice, which is pedestrian in that it’s nothing special, but her personality.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew she was so bawdy, she appears to be fun!\u00c2\u00a0 The Super Bowl is in her taillights.<\/p>\n
Adam Levine had almost no charisma to begin with, TV eviscerates what little he’s got.<\/p>\n
Cee-Lo ain’t bad, but I’m thinking I’d rather see him as a cop or a criminal on "CSI" or in a movie, this is a bad use of his talents. We don’t want to see him be a coach, we want to see him be unique.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, is he that big a star?\u00c2\u00a0 Wow!\u00c2\u00a0 That must mean Danger Mouse is a superstar, because as good as Cee-Lo’s voice is, Mr. Mouse is the creative talent.<\/p>\n
As for Blake Shelton…\u00c2\u00a0 He’s the hee-haw factor.\u00c2\u00a0 For those living in the heartland who feel abandoned by the mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 I like some of his records, but explain exactly why he’s got tattoos again?\u00c2\u00a0 Does he think they make him look dangerous?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have to have a tattoo to sing?\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be a bigger threat to go ink free?<\/p>\n
As for Carson Daly, call him Brian Dunkleman.\u00c2\u00a0 Carson’s always walking the line between credibility and incredulity, but he’s survived by being in ridiculous situations.\u00c2\u00a0 TRL was all about little girls coming into puberty, no one watches late at night, to see Carson effusing in his hipster\/sincere style here is positively creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 Fire him.\u00c2\u00a0 Say he fell down the stairs or something.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the role for Steven Tyler, not being a judge.<\/p>\n
But that show is different.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, they both focus on finding a voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is very different from having creative ability.<\/p>\n
This is a race to the bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think the public is going to support "American Idol" and "The Voice" and "X Factor" to the tune of 20 million viewers apiece?\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody can copy a formula, just like anybody can easily imitate the Top Forty… Rebecca Black proved that.\u00c2\u00a0 You may think "Friday" is shite, but it’s catchy and the obligatory rapper is as good as those on so many hit records.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, tighten up the lyrics and put Fergie in the video and it’s a number one record.<\/p>\n
Actually, "Friday" is a number one record, as voted where it counts, on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio is irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s part of an old disappearing game that record labels think is important but is going the way of Smith Corona.\u00c2\u00a0 If you truly want to make it in music, run away from these shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Do something so original that people are drawn to it.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, that’s how everybody learned who Cee-Lo was, he was the voice on the song of the decade!\u00c2\u00a0 Long after we’ve forgotten the written by hacks crap of the likes of Diane Warren, we’re still listening to "Crazy".<\/p>\n
But I don’t want to say this is bad television.\u00c2\u00a0 HD gives the whole affair a visceral effect that draws one in.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like watching "Jersey Shore", you ask yourself, WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING IT?<\/p>\n
The stars are doing it for the exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 Their handlers have convinced them credibility is for pussies and if Steven Tyler can make it work, so can they.<\/p>\n
But Steven Tyler is not making it work.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s no longer seen as dangerous and he hasn’t had a hit in ten years.\u00c2\u00a0 To think "American Idol" is helping Tyler is to think Ozzy’s TV show helped Osbourne’s musical career.\u00c2\u00a0 In case you haven’t noticed, Ozzy can barely sell a ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 He can reunite Black Sabbath one more time or retire.\u00c2\u00a0 TV killed his act.<\/p>\n
So there you’ve got it.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to take the easy way out and get close, or do you want to go the hard way and play for all the marbles, everything, ownership!<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, everything about this show is safe.<\/p>\n
The network invested in a proven concept with a proven hitmaker, Mark Burnett.<\/p>\n
As mentioned above, the stars want some of what Tyler and J. Lo got.<\/p>\n
As for the performers…\u00c2\u00a0 You want to be famous and hopefully rich.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone said they wanted to play for the Yankees and could field but not hit, would they be signed?\u00c2\u00a0 Singing is only part of the equation.\u00c2\u00a0 In music, you’ve got to do it all.<\/p>\n
And unlike in sports, in music there are no rules.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a vast landscape.\u00c2\u00a0 You invent the game.<\/p>\n
And you have to recognize the difference between marketing and art.\u00c2\u00a0 "The Voice" is all marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 A video clip is marketing. Josh Freeze’s solo work is all about marketing, he gets plenty of Internet ink with his promotions, but no one wants to listen to his records.<\/p>\n
"The Voice" has got it part right.\u00c2\u00a0 Greatness should not require a visual, you should be able to hear it.<\/p>\n
But that hasn’t happened in music for a very long time.<\/p>\n
Don’t be confused by the ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t be confused by the hype.\u00c2\u00a0 The next big thing won’t start on television, it will come completely from left field.\u00c2\u00a0 And if the new superstar is on television, he or she will use it to their advantage as opposed to the other way around.<\/p>\n
That’s what’s wrong with Steve Stoute’s screed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like all the artists he defends had no choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Eminem could\u00c2\u00a0 have boycotted the Grammy ceremony, Justin Bieber too, but they just couldn’t turn down tens of millions of viewers.<\/p>\n
Unless you’re willing to forgo the easy way out, you’re a pawn in their game.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re not bought by Mark Burnett, you’re bought by your label or your agent or your manager.\u00c2\u00a0 Hate to tell you, but they’re supposed to work for you, not the other way around.<\/p>\n
Bob Dylan could never win a television singing competition.<\/p>\n
But he’s the best songwriter of the modern era.<\/p>\n
And Diane Warren, who I like personally, has never written anything lasting and meaningful because she’s writing for someone else as opposed to herself.\u00c2\u00a0 How about a song about a rich workaholic who forgot to get married?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d be more interested in that then the pabulum she writes for here today gone tomorrow stars.<\/p>\n
Hell, she wrote one for Aerosmith…\u00c2\u00a0 Does anybody want to hear "I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing"?\u00c2\u00a0 Does anybody consider it an Aerosmith song?<\/p>\n
In other words, take the easy way out at your peril.<\/p>\n
It’s a new era.\u00c2\u00a0 The images alone make your jaw drop.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I remember five or six years ago when I could watch the test pattern on HDTV, it’s like these people are in your living room, like you know them, but you don’t.<\/p>\n
We want to know your inner life.\u00c2\u00a0 Your attitudes.\u00c2\u00a0 Your hopes and wishes and losses the way you confide them to your best friend, not how you’d put them forth on television.<\/p>\n
That’s what makes Howard Stern so great.\u00c2\u00a0 He gets people to speak the truth, to answer the questions we all want to ask.<\/p>\n
We’re not learning anything watching "The Voice".<\/p>\n
You wasted all that time making a record with Mutt Lange and it stiffed?\u00c2\u00a0 What does that feel like?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you’ll find out when Adam Levine goes on Stern, but not on "The Voice".<\/p>\n
And Blake Shelton, what makes you different from the rest of those weenies with hats?\u00c2\u00a0 I can tell the difference between Waylon and Willie, but I’m not sure you and Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley are not the same person, have you ever seen them in the same room?<\/p>\n
Cee-Lo has to go a little more Tyler.\u00c2\u00a0 You were a forgotten member of the Goodie Mob and now you’re on network TV, I guess that’s why he’s always smiling but wasn’t he supposed to be dangerous and who exactly is this guy?<\/p>\n
It’s only Christina Aguilera who wins here.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who grew up on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Who doesn’t know how to live off it.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got a good voice, but she ain’t no Janis Joplin.\u00c2\u00a0 Janis’s voice had character, Christina’s trick is a big sound comes out of a little girl, singing inane material.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s at no risk of losing a little piece of her heart.<\/p>\n
So the mainstream continues to tell us it’s important.\u00c2\u00a0 To be thrilled that music is on prime time, that they’re doing artist development.<\/p>\n
Make me puke.<\/p>\n
This is commerce.<\/p>\n
Greatness is art.<\/p>\n
There’s no art to be seen here.\u00c2\u00a0 Just money and desperation.<\/p>\n
Move right along.<\/p>\n
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You don’t need a good voice, you need good material. That doesn’t mean a manager isn’t important.\u00c2\u00a0 With anybody but Irving Azoff, Christina Aguilera would have already been forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 But he keeps getting her on shows, and it’s working for her here.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not her voice, which is pedestrian in that it’s nothing special, but […]<\/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":[2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-television"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-148","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100","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=4100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4101,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions\/4101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}