You see in the sixties, when the Beatles hit, we lived in one big homogenous Top Forty world.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there was a jazz scene.\u00c2\u00a0 And a big band scene.\u00c2\u00a0 But Top Forty was dominant, until the advent of underground FM radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the scene bifurcated.\u00c2\u00a0 It became about those in the know, and those out of the loop.<\/p>\n
Funny, after Lee Abrams built AOR, after everybody got an FM radio in his car, almost a full decade after the advent of underground FM, the rock scene collapsed.\u00c2\u00a0 You can call it punk, but really it was disco.\u00c2\u00a0 You see when nobody was watching, a whole bunch of scenesters decided to reject the NEW mainstream for something completely different, a multi-beat per minute revolution.<\/p>\n
It took YEARS for the rock denizens to realize what had happened.\u00c2\u00a0 To revolt at Comiskey Park.\u00c2\u00a0 But said revolt didn’t bring back rock and roll, it just helped kill disco.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was no longer dominant, the juggernaut was over.\u00c2\u00a0 And then came MTV.<\/p>\n
What made MTV fascinating was it was Top Forty, the TRUE Top Forty of the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, maybe it left out Louis Armstrong, but eventually it even included Tony Bennett.\u00c2\u00a0 We had one mainstream channel again.\u00c2\u00a0 And TV exposure sold tonnage.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no better way to get the word out.\u00c2\u00a0 But then it all collapsed.<\/p>\n
One could say we’re back in the late sixties once again.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era of a bifurcated scene.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s worse than that.\u00c2\u00a0 There aren’t TWO scenes, but ZILLIONS!\u00c2\u00a0 And except for the mainstream, there’s no KING of the rest of the scenes, no definitive tastemakers that clue you in.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, you’re on your own.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s positively overwhelming.<\/p>\n
Let’s go back to the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 When you listened to WABC, or 1010 WINS, or WLS back in ’64 and ’65, you had the distinct feeling you were on the pulse, that you were where it was at.\u00c2\u00a0 No mainstream media outlet today gives you that feeling, has that perception anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 The last time we saw it was a handful of years ago, with HBO Sunday night.\u00c2\u00a0 Before that, Must See TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Now…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s every man for himself, we’re living in a Tower of Babel world.<\/p>\n
The Net is all about distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 Before everyone logged on, information was controlled by a very few, and it only went one way.\u00c2\u00a0 The big media powers were IN CONTROL!\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not in control any longer.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got nothing to do with lawsuits or DRM, it’s got to do with choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Why go see a heavily-hyped movie when you got an IM from the theatre on opening night telling you it was a loser?\u00c2\u00a0 Why care about the new release by the old rapper when the album’s been leaked to the Net and everybody says it’s bad?\u00c2\u00a0 These new communication tools are ANATHEMA to the old media powers.\u00c2\u00a0 But they leave the individual in the lurch too.<\/p>\n
What’s fascinating is how the old players think they’re still in control.\u00c2\u00a0 How not only Jimmy Iovine, but Les Moonves, thinks he has his finger on the pulse, that he knows what the people want, that he can build a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy and Les are now in control of sideshows.\u00c2\u00a0 If they build something interesting, people will pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 But shit, most people don’t watch "CSI", and you don’t have to be exposed to the Pussycat Dolls if you don’t want to.<\/p>\n
Yes, we had no choice in the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 We HAD to sit through "Hello Dolly" to get to the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 Same deal when there was only one music video channel in the eighties.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, why watch what you don’t want on MTV when you can log on to the Net and see any video you desire, if not STEAL said video!<\/p>\n
The network news?\u00c2\u00a0 Who gives a shit about Katie Couric.\u00c2\u00a0 Most people get the headlines online.\u00c2\u00a0 Katie’s purely entertainment.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t expect her broadcast to be any more real than Fergie’s boobs, never mind her music.<\/p>\n
The SoundScan numbers?\u00c2\u00a0 If you care that Daughtry has a hit album, then you’re obviously not a music fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Real music fans consider EVERYBODY on "American Idol" to be a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact that there’s an industry that sells discs by these people…fans aren’t even paying ATTENTION!<\/p>\n
But let’s go deeper.\u00c2\u00a0 Clive Davis resurrects Rod Stewart’s sales career with albums of standards, but all those who liked Rod the Mod in the beginning are turned off.\u00c2\u00a0 And even though ticket sales are reasonable, his cultural impact is nil.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a sideshow.<\/p>\n
As is Eric Clapton.<\/p>\n
Never mind everybody who ever hit on MTV.<\/p>\n
You can’t push crap onto the people.<\/p>\n
And the people don’t know what the hell to listen to and pay attention to anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Not initially that is.\u00c2\u00a0 Until they talk to their buddies.<\/p>\n
The Internet revolution has brought the public closer together.\u00c2\u00a0 People have contact with more human beings than at any time in history.\u00c2\u00a0 And that group has cred and legs.\u00c2\u00a0 Your BUDS are more important to you than your records, or the movies, or TV.<\/p>\n
Used to be lonely people listened to tunes all night long.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they log on to MySpace and connect with other disenfranchised souls.<\/p>\n
Not that everybody is so lonely, it’s just that the lonely are NO LONGER ALONE!\u00c2\u00a0 THEY’VE got a group.<\/p>\n
As do those more alive, more active.<\/p>\n
The exec?\u00c2\u00a0 He’s got his BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s e-mailing a large circle of friends all day long.<\/p>\n
And everybody else has Net access.\u00c2\u00a0 Checking their inboxes as well as their IM’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading blogs.\u00c2\u00a0 Gaining information.<\/p>\n
Sure, information may be passed by the old powers that be, the newspapers, the record companies, but the ANALYSIS, that’s in the hands of the people.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why movie critics no longer matter.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why rock critics don’t either.\u00c2\u00a0 Who ARE these people, part of the machine, dictating to us.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t TRUST them, we only trust our FRIENDS!<\/p>\n
Trust.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a word absent from the media mogul’s lexicon.\u00c2\u00a0 The bigwigs have CONTEMPT for the public.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s this attitude that’s killing them.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, unless you’re in bed with your audience, you’re fucked.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about the RELATIONSHIP!<\/p>\n
Trust and cred.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the only way to infiltrate the online dialogue.<\/p>\n
But that dialogue DOES NOT have to be about the mainstream product.\u00c2\u00a0 Online, the indie band, that cut its record in a garage, has the same level of importance, and probably more cred, than Interscope’s million dollar signing.\u00c2\u00a0 If something unknown, or left field, is actually GOOD, word will spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n
And everybody’s looking for something good.\u00c2\u00a0 And everybody’s overloaded with information.<\/p>\n
THAT’S the story of now.\u00c2\u00a0 Information overload.\u00c2\u00a0 You just can’t get a GRIP on things anymore.<\/p>\n
Used to be you could watch all the new TV shows.\u00c2\u00a0 That was before there were five networks and a zillion cable channels.\u00c2\u00a0 A movie buff?\u00c2\u00a0 God, with so many flicks released every weekend, many people have GIVEN UP!\u00c2\u00a0 Music?\u00c2\u00a0 With over 50,000 albums a year in circulation, many have tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why Starbucks was so successful selling music.\u00c2\u00a0 They picked a handful of good albums, and employing the company’s trusted relationship with its customers ended up MOVING THEM!\u00c2\u00a0 But then the company got greedy, and started pushing more product, much of which was inferior, and ruined the relationship.<\/p>\n
Everything’s cottage industry now.\u00c2\u00a0 Marketing is overhype, a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just about the product.<\/p>\n
Don’t spend vast sums to market a piece of shit, just make something good to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the story of "Little Miss Sunshine".\u00c2\u00a0 The audience will FIND the movie and keep it alive.<\/p>\n
"Snakes On A Plane" sucked, so people stayed away.<\/p>\n
As for good records, so much is perceived as crap, that people just buy the single at iTunes, or steal it.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, go to see the classic act live, figuring that Aerosmith is a lot more real than anybody scanning records today.<\/p>\n
It’s all new to the teens, they’re devouring information all day long.<\/p>\n
But the oldsters are immune to the hype, and therefore they’re COMPLETELY OUT OF THE LOOP!\u00c2\u00a0 You could break a record if you could penetrate the adult conversation, but it’s too hard for the old players to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s slow, and you’ve got to have the aforementioned trust, and something’s got to be good.<\/p>\n
So we end up with a scene that’s not really a scene.\u00c2\u00a0 We end up in a balkanized village where newbies check stuff out and drop it, not EXPECTING acts to be good in the future, trusting only the classics, and the oldsters only KNOWING the classics.<\/p>\n
Will this change?\u00c2\u00a0 I believe so.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’ll have to wait until completely new entities come along to service the public, in the way they now consume.\u00c2\u00a0 The old companies have just as much a chance of maintaining their power as IBM did of ruling personal computing.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, they just don’t get it, they can’t SEE IT!<\/p>\n
The old wave record companies have built a wall, between themselves and their consumers, telling people to pay up, the old price, if they want a look.\u00c2\u00a0 The new companies give it all away for free, figuring they’ll make the margin on live shows, or merch, or…<\/p>\n
The oldsters are trumpeting ringtones.\u00c2\u00a0 When the consumer knows that ringtones have nothing to do with music, but are just a badge of identity.<\/p>\n
In other words, the major labels no longer GET music.\u00c2\u00a0 And the public, which GETS music, just doesn’t know where to find it.\u00c2\u00a0 There are good bands, but how do you reach someone who’s tuned out all the traditional outlets, how do you penetrate his CIRCLE!<\/p>\n
That’s what someone’s going to do in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Penetrate the circle.\u00c2\u00a0 And he won’t only be making money, he will be providing a service.\u00c2\u00a0 People want to know where to go, it’s just that all the old purveyors are so sold out, so whored out, as to be completely untrustworthy.<\/p>\n
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You see in the sixties, when the Beatles hit, we lived in one big homogenous Top Forty world.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there was a jazz scene.\u00c2\u00a0 And a big band scene.\u00c2\u00a0 But Top Forty was dominant, until the advent of underground FM radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the scene bifurcated.\u00c2\u00a0 It became about those in the know, and those out […]<\/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-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-al","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","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=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}