{"id":762,"date":"2007-04-17T17:25:33","date_gmt":"2007-04-18T01:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/04\/17\/the-strange-case-of-brandi-carlile\/"},"modified":"2007-04-17T17:25:33","modified_gmt":"2007-04-18T01:25:33","slug":"the-strange-case-of-brandi-carlile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/17\/the-strange-case-of-brandi-carlile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange Case Of Brandi Carlile"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bob,<\/p>\n

Speaking of what we know…what’s your take on Brandi Carlile and her awareness strategy?<\/p>\n

A year ago she was a "discovery" with big word of mouth following, and now she is everywhere. <\/p>\n

2 weeks ago,\u00c2\u00a0 "The Story" was itunes free single of the week and then a week later ABC ran a "greatest moments" episode of "Grey’s Anatomy" that closed with a "music video" of "The Story" — Brandi and her band on a stage belting out the song, cross cut with a montage of all the Grey’s Anatomy clips we had just endured.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s actually not a bad song, but I’m wondering what effect this obvious big massive push is going to have on her cred?<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n

Michael in Toronto<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was turned off before I heard a note.\u00c2\u00a0 There were just too many MARKETING messages!<\/p>\n

Funny business we’re in.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a gang.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t say anything negative about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can decry the shenanigans of the personalities, but you can’t question the underlying belief in the power of men to ram product down people’s throats.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s their birthright.\u00c2\u00a0 People need this stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 If they just would stop stealing, everything would be all right.<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

It’s not 1985 anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even 1995.\u00c2\u00a0 When all publicity was good publicity, when the world was music hungry.<\/p>\n

All publicity is no longer good publicity.\u00c2\u00a0 Doubt me?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why don’t you ask Britney Spears, never mind Michael Jackson.\u00c2\u00a0 Their images have been trashed.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, maybe they self-destructed, maybe they asked for it, but each misstep was covered in the press, amplified for the world to see.<\/p>\n

You see it’s not that hard to get the message out.<\/p>\n

Oh, the wannabes will tell you otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0 That they just need a BREAK!\u00c2\u00a0 That they’ve been fucked by the system, unjustly.\u00c2\u00a0 And if they just got a chance…<\/p>\n

They don’t deserve a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 They suck.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s more bad music than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a GREATER PERCENTAGE of bad music than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 But the people making it and flogging it, they don’t believe this.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t like their stuff you’re an old fart has-been who just doesn’t get it.<\/p>\n

Well, it seems the whole country doesn’t get it, because they’re not interested in this crap either.<\/p>\n

So on one hand we’ve got Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Playing a very narrow selection of music over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, that’s the story of TERRESTRIAL RADIO!\u00c2\u00a0 You know what’s number two on AC?\u00c2\u00a0 Snow Patrol’s "Chasing Cars".\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, has that been out for the better part of a YEAR?\u00c2\u00a0 And number three is the equally aged Fray’s "How To Save A Life".\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, AC’s notoriously calcified, but how can you have a vibrant business when records have such long chart lives?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this inherently a tune-out?\u00c2\u00a0 When you hear the same damn songs on the radio FOREVER?<\/p>\n

Yes, the average listener has tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors are in bed with terrestrial radio, which is in bed with advertisers.\u00c2\u00a0 No one cares about the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s the fault of the audience, RIGHT?\u00c2\u00a0 Wrong.<\/p>\n

But what if you can’t get on terrestrial radio?<\/p>\n

Then we’re gonna carpet bomb the audience into submission.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re gonna have so many marketing messages that you can’t miss out, you must be ensnared by the campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re gonna have TV show tie-ins, and commercial tie-ins and…<\/p>\n

Now maybe some oldsters are living under a rock.\u00c2\u00a0 But everybody under the age of 35 is surfing incessantly.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re EXPOSED to these messages again and again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a TURN-OFF!\u00c2\u00a0 But no one in major media, no one at a major label, no agent, will admit this.\u00c2\u00a0 Because these marketing techniques are all they know, and they’d rather take the easy way out.<\/p>\n

We’ve lost our audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we’ve browbeaten people to death.<\/p>\n

Oh, there are some casual buyers who’ll purchase the hits of the American Idols.\u00c2\u00a0 But all those people who used to follow the scene, live for the music, they’ve tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve been sold expensive crap for too long.<\/p>\n

We’ve got to bring these people back.\u00c2\u00a0 Doing the same damn thing over and over again is not going to achieve this.<\/p>\n

You’ve got to start with trust.<\/p>\n

And trust only grows person to person now.\u00c2\u00a0 NOBODY trusts the machine.\u00c2\u00a0 EVERYBODY knows it’s just about the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 That any star will appear in any ad, sell his soul for exposure, to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 Advertising is history.\u00c2\u00a0 And product placement and overhype is the same.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just the machine trying to convince us to buy.\u00c2\u00a0 And we don’t care anymore.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, in the last two weeks, I started hearing about Brandi Carlile over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 Did she kill somebody?\u00c2\u00a0 Did she write the new "Jagged Little Pill"?\u00c2\u00a0 Did she do anything to deserve such attention?<\/p>\n

Go to her MySpace page.\u00c2\u00a0 It ain’t very convincing.\u00c2\u00a0 A developing artist who doesn’t deserve this kind of attention.<\/p>\n

But I only went to the MySpace page to prove my point.\u00c2\u00a0 I was boycotting her before this.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to give the company my money, and most people don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in a pull world, but the entertainment business is pushing harder than ever.<\/p>\n

Hey, why don’t you check out this guy: Russell Chesham<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Hi Bob.\u00c2\u00a0 Met you at the Strombo show (at the CBC etc.; you wrote back).\u00c2\u00a0 I spent part of my day off reading a backlog of your letters, because I could.\u00c2\u00a0 One of them made me want to send you this.\u00c2\u00a0 He recorded it in his apartment, on his mac, probably in his bathroom (I’d know because I talk with him).\u00c2\u00a0 He does this sort of thing full-time.\u00c2\u00a0 Gave up the day job and all…<\/p>\n

Frank Salvino<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I spoke with this guy for ten minutes in Toronto.\u00c2\u00a0 But he didn’t try to sell me anything, he’s not in the music business, just passionate, with a keen intellect.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I’m going to check out what he recommends.<\/p>\n

He’s a fan of the last MySpace track.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m more into the very first.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s an honesty, an immediacy that you don’t find in the overproduced crap.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the promise of the future, the tools, a computer and MySpace, allowing artists to reach the public.<\/p>\n

You want to know what kind of new music I like?\u00c2\u00a0 This!\u00c2\u00a0 Not trendy stuff, but honest stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this the best thing I’ve ever heard?\u00c2\u00a0 Absolutely not.\u00c2\u00a0 But, it’s on this side of the line, I want to hear it more than once, it touches my insides, it doesn’t just bounce off.<\/p>\n

And there was no machine involved.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody selling me.\u00c2\u00a0 If there was, I wouldn’t be telling you.\u00c2\u00a0 But since it’s all private, just between us, I am.<\/p>\n

Don’t sign this guy.\u00c2\u00a0 He doesn’t belong on today’s major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not making radio-friendly music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not 1973 anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrestrial stations don’t play singer-songwriters.\u00c2\u00a0 The form is still valid, it’s just the system that’s moved on.<\/p>\n

So, you can whore yourself out to the highest bidder, like Brandi Carlile, and get your handlers, your INVESTORS, to try to convince us by beating us over the head, or you can just make your honest music, and if it’s good, it’ll find us.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re always open to something good.\u00c2\u00a0 But not interested in being sold.<\/p>\n

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

Bob, Speaking of what we know…what’s your take on Brandi Carlile and her awareness strategy? A year ago she was a "discovery" with big word of mouth following, and now she is everywhere. 2 weeks ago,\u00c2\u00a0 "The Story" was itunes free single of the week and then a week later ABC ran a "greatest moments" […]<\/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":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-ci","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","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=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}