{"id":6798,"date":"2013-03-19T08:22:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T16:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=6798"},"modified":"2013-03-19T08:22:48","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T16:22:48","slug":"thennow-media-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/19\/thennow-media-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Then\/Now-Media Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

THEN<\/p>\n

MTV was our national jukebox.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

There is no national jukebox. There is no universality. Want everyone to know your name? Then KILL someone. Making music doesn’t lead to ubiquity.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Being on the cover of “Rolling Stone” meant you made it.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Being on the cover of “Rolling Stone” means you’ve already made it and the magazine is kissing your butt, your PR person negotiated interview parameters, all so they could sell more copies on the newsstand.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

TV shows were on network and they were either hits immediately or canceled.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

The best TV shows are on cable, and most take years to gain traction, as a result, there’s little backlash. People don’t complain about “Walking Dead,” “Breaking Bad” or “Sons Of Anarchy,” because they’ve earned their keep. Try to jam Lena Dunham down our throats and there’s backlash. And backlash draws attention now, but burns your career our faster. Wanna last? Start slow.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Albums sold double digit millions.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You’re lucky to sell one million. Except for Adele. Then again, isn’t it interesting that she can sing and write. What a concept, TALENT!<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

CNN was on 24\/7 and featured news.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

There’s little news on CNN and if you want to know what’s happening, you go to the web. Hell, CNN’s site is better than the channel!<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You couldn’t sell a record unless you had major distribution.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Anybody can sell a record. Don’t be sour grapes. If you haven’t made it, it’s your fault, the barriers to entry are incredibly low.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The charts meant everything.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Charts are meaningless. Then again, youngsters don’t care about who’s winning, only who THEY’RE interested in.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

David Bowie comes back and he’s not only in the press, he’s all over MTV and the radio and he has a hit with “Let’s Dance.”<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

David Bowie comes back and he’s not on the radio and there’s no music on MTV and he doesn’t have a hit.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Rap was a view from the street.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Rap is a view from 36,000 feet, outside the window of a private jet.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Honesty was in rock.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Honesty is in country.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Musicians were leaders.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Musicians are followers.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You discovered new acts when they opened for your favorites.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You discover new acts at festivals, you don’t even bother to get there in time to hear the opening act at a regular show.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

TV networks had 90+% of the audience.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

TV networks have less than 30% of the audience.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Only insiders knew who ran record companies.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

The execs are more famous than the acts.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The key to success was a good manager.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

The key to success is a good manager.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

It was all about the album.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

It’s all about the single.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The radio was the tribal drum.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

The mobile phone is the tribal drum.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You could see upcoming bands in clubs.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Challenged record companies have stopped supporting clubs so it’s difficult to see new acts at a fair price in an intimate setting. Oh, you can go see crap acts at a cheap price in an intimate setting, but who has that much time to waste?<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Radio was the filter.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

There is no filter.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Jimmy Iovine was all about the music.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Jimmy Iovine is all about the money.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You salivated over magazines and fanzines, which there were not enough of.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You rely on websites, of which there are far too many, almost none of them of high quality.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Record reviews mattered.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Record reviews are irrelevant.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You were thrilled to be inside the building.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You can’t stop bitching about security, the seats, and the lines at the poor, overpriced concessions.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You came home from the gig and told everybody about it the next day at school.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You’re at the gig and you tell everybody about it from your phone.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You didn’t think your opinion was universal and deserved to spread.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You’re pissed if you don’t have millions of followers.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

It was clear who had talent.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Everybody thinks they have talent.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Stars were in bed with their fans.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Stars are angry with their fans, pissed that they’re stealing their music and won’t buy their crappy albums.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Music was expensive and everybody had little of it.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Music is cheap and everybody has more than they want.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

People wanted your free music.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

People don’t want your free music, hell, they’ve got the music of superstars free on their computer!<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Facebook was cool.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Facebook isn’t cool. If bands can fade, why can’t websites?<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You spent hours downloading music from P2P services.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You just watch what you want on YouTube. Just like the deficit, piracy in music is a red herring. It’s just too much effort. The reason you can’t sell your music in prodigious amounts is it’s just not good enough, not enough people care. When we had limited options and unlimited time we were interested in your substandard work, now with unlimited options and little time we are only interested in the very best.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The A&R man said he couldn’t hear a single.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

There is no A&R man, none with any signing power.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The record company was the bank.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

The concert promoter is the bank.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Videos were expensive and mattered.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Videos are cheap and matter.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You had to wait hours for your favorite video to come up on MTV.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You dial up your favorites on YouTube and listen to them whenever you want, as many times as you want…but you must still endure the commercials.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

You didn’t have time for TV because you were listening to music.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

You don’t have time for music because you’re watching TV.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Movie stars wouldn’t appear in TV series.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Movie stars are eager to appear in TV series.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Record companies were cool.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

HBO and Showtime are cool.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

Documentaries were rare, you went to the theatre to see them.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Everybody’s got a documentary and you can watch them all online but you don’t want to, because you haven’t got enough time.<\/p>\n

THEN<\/p>\n

The man wasn’t to be trusted.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/p>\n

Where do I sell out?<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THEN MTV was our national jukebox. NOW There is no national jukebox. There is no universality. Want everyone to know your name? Then KILL someone. Making music doesn’t lead to ubiquity. THEN Being on the cover of “Rolling Stone” meant you made it. NOW Being on the cover of “Rolling Stone” means you’ve already made […]<\/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":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-1LE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798","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=6798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6799,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6798\/revisions\/6799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}