Why not give us the reality show we really want to see.\u00c2\u00a0 Fifteen studs
competing for an evening with Brooke Burke.<\/p>\n
Oh, we’ve got no idea who Brooke Burke really is.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all external.\u00c2\u00a0 She
has a surgically-enhanced body and a precious smile.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s enough for TV.\u00c2\u00a0
That’s what they’re selling.\u00c2\u00a0 The OUTSIDE!\u00c2\u00a0 When every legitimate rock star
has made it based on what’s on the INSIDE!<\/p>\n
Let’s take Perry Farrell.\u00c2\u00a0 See this dude on the street and want to spend a
night with him?\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think so.\u00c2\u00a0 But listen to the songs he writes, see him
animated on stage, and you just want to get closer, you just want to KNOW him.\u00c2\u00a0
(Well, in the old days, the days of "Nothing’s Socking".)\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the power
of rock stardom.\u00c2\u00a0 These artists create something so powerful, so meaningful,
that we just want to touch it.<\/p>\n
Not that we want to touch Perry’s old bandmate Dave Navarro anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this
a new kind of whore?\u00c2\u00a0 Ex-druggie, tattooed has-been?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s bad enough that
Jane’s broke up, but then Dave was essentially kicked out of the Red Hot Chili
Peppers, for with him the band was unsuccessful, nobody wanted to see them.\u00c2\u00a0 It
was all about Frusciante.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who didn’t belong in "Us", or on TV even,
but LIVED the part of rock star, who picked his guitar, played his tunes and
moved people.<\/p>\n
And in their own peculiar way, INXS used to do the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 But rather
than sell darkness, rather than sell experience, INXS sold energy.\u00c2\u00a0 Encapsulated
primarily in their Jim Morrison lookalike lead singer Michael Hutchence.\u00c2\u00a0
Only one problem, Hutchence died.<\/p>\n
Game over.\u00c2\u00a0 For Navarro and the remaining members of INXS.\u00c2\u00a0 In every world
but television.<\/p>\n
Believing he can do no wrong, Mark Burnett has entered the music field.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind
of like Andy Lack.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean how hard can it be?<\/p>\n
Really damn hard.\u00c2\u00a0 To find an artist with the innate ability to mesmerize you
from the depth of his soul.<\/p>\n
Not that the business is interested in that anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s too difficult.\u00c2\u00a0
The key is to take all the risk out.\u00c2\u00a0 To paint the band by numbers.<\/p>\n
But what is truly the failure with this show isn’t the music, but the
TELEVISION!\u00c2\u00a0 Television thrives on drama, on excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 And "Rockstar: INXS" is so boring as to be equivalent to watching paint dry.\u00c2\u00a0 But, at least paint doesn’t
sing.<\/p>\n
The members of INXS are in the neighborhood of fifty.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t deserve
another chance.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, we like seeing them fly around in a jet with their name
painted on the side, then again, unless this was footage from the eighties,
Burnett just paid a crew to paint the letters on this jet, and I’m sure they were
promptly removed.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, INXS hasn’t probably BEEN in a private jet since
Hutchence died.<\/p>\n
And the wannabes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re a sorry lot.\u00c2\u00a0 You wouldn’t want to hang with them.
\u00c2\u00a0It would be like mixing with the sad sacks from high school.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the art
chicks, not the brainiacs, just the losers.<\/p>\n
And they sing the songs…\u00c2\u00a0 Like they’re in a bar.<\/p>\n
Their performances are just about demonstrating their power, their raw skill,
whereas the true greats, everybody from Bob Dylan to Ray Davies to even
Bonnie Raitt, are about ANYTHING but perfection.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about personalizing the
song, emotion, not technique.<\/p>\n
And even phonier than INXS and the wannabes is the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been to
see bands at the Mayan who are STILL stars and I’ve never seen a gaggle of fans
mobbing their limos out front.\u00c2\u00a0 As a matter of fact, bands always enter
through the BACK DOOR!\u00c2\u00a0 And, sure, there are people hanging out there after the
show, looking to get laid, and maybe if they showed THIS on camera I’d be
interested, but all we saw were paid people applauding lame acts.<\/p>\n
Never underestimate the power of television.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on "Survivor" and
"American Idol" I expected "Rockstar: INXS" to BE a success.\u00c2\u00a0 And for the album to
sell.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about all that EXPOSURE!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what MTV is built upon.\u00c2\u00a0 Show it
enough and SOME lame sucker will line up and buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, we live in a
country of three hundred million and the sale of one million CDs is seen as a
huge accomplishment.<\/p>\n
But there’s no reason to watch this show.<\/p>\n
The wannabes aren’t sexy.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not talented.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t care who wins and
loses.<\/p>\n
And when Dave Navarro and INXS critique the performances, you wince.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe
INXS is too nice to be honest, but they needed someone like Steve Jones on this
show, speaking the truth, telling these people they SUCK!\u00c2\u00a0 I mean that’s why
they tune into "American Idol", to see Simon, right?<\/p>\n
Mark Burnett has misstepped here.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s like every overinflated impresario
before him.\u00c2\u00a0 He thinks his shit doesn’t stink, that ANYTHING he does is good.<\/p>\n
I can’t watch another episode.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not just that I don’t care, it’s that my
life’s TOO SHORT! <\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why not give us the reality show we really want to see.\u00c2\u00a0 Fifteen studs competing for an evening with Brooke Burke. Oh, we’ve got no idea who Brooke Burke really is.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all external.\u00c2\u00a0 She has a surgically-enhanced body and a precious smile.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s enough for TV.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what they’re selling.\u00c2\u00a0 The OUTSIDE!\u00c2\u00a0 When […]<\/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-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-1m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","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=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}