If Stevie Wonder’s album had come out on J, would it have been a hit?<\/p>\n
Last night I heard an obscure Stevie Wonder song on XM’s 70s on 7.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, not knowing which of the hundreds of XM channels I’d left my tuner on before I’d walked into KLSX, I thought it was a NEW track.\u00c2\u00a0 And I was reminded how Stevie Wonder’s comeback album last year sank like a stone.\u00c2\u00a0 Was this because he was washed up, or because the audience had moved on and nobody made them pay ATTENTION!<\/p>\n
Tomorrow Jay-Z is going to release HIS comeback album.\u00c2\u00a0 To make sure no one has forgotten HIM, which might be next to impossible, since he never really left, the man has tied in with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard, TNT and NASCAR!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s saturation marketing that only a rapper can get away with.\u00c2\u00a0 We call it selling out if you’re white, if you’re black, it’s ripping off the man.<\/p>\n
Yes, that’s what I learned discussing Jay-Z’s record on KLSX.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as you don’t compromise who YOU are, don’t change YOURSELF for the man, you can take ALL the money, tie in with EVERYBODY, we, the audience, are ROOTING FOR YOU!<\/p>\n
Kind of funny that the audience is rooting for this mega-millionaire.\u00c2\u00a0 To me it seems desperate.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems more about the brand than the music.\u00c2\u00a0 And how important, how cutting edge can the record be, if America’s biggest corporations have endorsed it?\u00c2\u00a0 You wouldn’t have gotten Miller to feature N.W.A. in an ad when they were urging listeners to fuck tha police.\u00c2\u00a0 No, to me it appears that mainstream rap has lost its edge, turned into a cartoon, and most people know it, which is why sales have declined so dramatically this year.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re supposed to buy the music, not the marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s ASS-BACKWARDS!<\/p>\n
But Jay-Z has a profile.\u00c2\u00a0 What if YOU’VE GOT NO PROFILE!<\/p>\n
If you’re over fifty, you remember Stevie Wonder’s heyday.\u00c2\u00a0 A three album, maybe five album, run that has only been rivaled by the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 Now maybe Mr. Wonder has burned out.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe he can’t do it anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 But Stevie seemed to really want this.<\/p>\n
He just went about it the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Stevie is still living in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 When the artist was king, when you cut what you wanted to.\u00c2\u00a0 You had a contract that said you delivered an album, the label had essentially no input.\u00c2\u00a0 This is great for art, used to be good for commerce, but that was when FM rock stations PLAYED Stevie Wonder, before said rock stations either went out of business or focused on oldies or narrowed their playlist to something called Active Rock, which sounds like something you work out to but is really something that hurts the eardrums so much even Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t want to listen.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, this is an issue THROUGHOUT the major label system.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re making records with no shot of exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 Really, if you want to sell tonnage, you’ve got to get on Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 If this isn’t possible, don’t sign the act, or make the record on a BUDGET!<\/p>\n
Clive Davis is aware of the changed landscape.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, he HELPED change it.\u00c2\u00a0 Making it about Top Forty hits rather than deep album cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, Clive might have signed all those acts he takes credit for back in the CBS days, but at Arista, and then J, it’s been big image\/radio fodder music all the time.<\/p>\n
Stevie Wonder just didn’t release a radio-friendly track.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t realize the marketplace had changed.\u00c2\u00a0 He should have let Clive school him on what to put out.<\/p>\n
Artists HATE this, being told what to do.\u00c2\u00a0 But Rod Stewart was a has-been with a throat problem before Clive Davis resurrected his career.\u00c2\u00a0 And Barry Manilow had tanked with Concord before Clive took him back and built him up once again.\u00c2\u00a0 In their case, Clive took no chances, he had them cut the greatest hits of the past.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about Kelly Clarkson?\u00c2\u00a0 Good singers are a dime a dozen.\u00c2\u00a0 But most can’t write.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 So Kelly was hooked up with Max Martin, teen pop writer extraordinaire.\u00c2\u00a0 The result?\u00c2\u00a0 "Since U Been Gone".\u00c2\u00a0 A smash so catchy, so energetic, that even white boy rockers signed on.<\/p>\n
So first and foremost it’s about the material.\u00c2\u00a0 Recording HIT songs that can get played on the appropriate radio format.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to change the world, make a statement, then you don’t belong on a major label, you should be selling from the ground up, that’s what the Internet affords you, a chance to make inroads.\u00c2\u00a0 Major labels are mass media entities.\u00c2\u00a0 You SACRIFICE your credibility to play by the rules.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s your choice, hit songs or no sales.<\/p>\n
But Rod Stewart didn’t really get any significant radio play with his oldie covers.<\/p>\n
But like the svengali he is, Clive refined Rod’s image, and then marketed him appropriately.\u00c2\u00a0 Via television, via classy print ads.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to make people FEEL GOOD about an act.\u00c2\u00a0 Whitney Houston is perceived to be a crack whore who’s blown all her money.\u00c2\u00a0 The only indication we have to the contrary is she’s finally left Bobby Brown.\u00c2\u00a0 Did Clive engineer this?\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe insist she do it before he worked with her again?\u00c2\u00a0 And then, having separated her from the man she fell to the depths with, Clive dressed Whitney up and had her sing at private events.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s staging a comeback, not a desperate one, but an elegant one.\u00c2\u00a0 No new material is needed, just her appearance, with the voice and class she used to have.\u00c2\u00a0 Clive’s priming the PUMP!\u00c2\u00a0 He’s getting the media ready.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not asking for mainstream press, but the ever-present reporters are leaking the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Making the public feel like insiders.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestration is so low level, it’s not exposed for the manipulation it is.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, after a year, or even two, after going through HUNDREDS of tracks, maybe THOUSANDS, and recording an album with hits, Clive is gonna spend a fortune on hair and makeup and photographers and video directors and the sleek package that emerges will make you want to take Whitney home with you once again.<\/p>\n
You don’t jam product down people’s throats.\u00c2\u00a0 You make them think they want it.\u00c2\u00a0 You make them think they’re PULLING IT!<\/p>\n
The young ‘uns in the game have got it all wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 They came AFTER the late sixties\/early seventies explosion.\u00c2\u00a0 They believe running a record label ENTITLES one to endless riches.\u00c2\u00a0 And freaked that it’s no longer easy, they’ve become desperate, and are signing, marketing and SPENDING like it’s the end of the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, listen to these fucks rail about file-trading, doesn’t it remind you of despots near the end of their reign?<\/p>\n
Now most of the music Clive Davis releases not only isn’t my cup of tea, it’s got the shelf life of a taco.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s not meant to be art, but to be SOLD!\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s the mainstream environment we live in today.\u00c2\u00a0 Those are the FACTS!\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t argue with the facts.<\/p>\n
If you don’t care about radio, if you want to do it the hard way, build a career over time, that lasts, I’m behind you.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure you’ve got any real talent, but I support your vision.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re the future.<\/p>\n
But Clive Davis is the present.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Stevie Wonder’s album had come out on J, would it have been a hit? Last night I heard an obscure Stevie Wonder song on XM’s 70s on 7.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, not knowing which of the hundreds of XM channels I’d left my tuner on before I’d walked into KLSX, I thought it was a NEW […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-9F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}