Clinton vs. the VMAs

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a 66 year old ex-President trumps the younger generation in buzz?

One in which one person knows it's about ideas, and the other thinks it's about money.

I didn't watch either. I've got the VMAs on my DVR just in case. As for the election, my vote doesn't count. I live in California. Yup, the election only comes down to a handful of contested states. And the parties are fighting over money and truth and our country has gone in such a bad direction that I can't pay attention. I've got no kids, I'm not that worried about the future, I've given up.

Kids. The millennials.

My brother Roy Trakin posts a blog on hitsdailydouble.com every week. It's a bunch of ass-kissing until the very end, when he has his "Gripe Of The Week." It's one of the highlights of my Thursdays, when just before midnight my phone buzzes and I get to read what Trakin has to complain about. I identify. But for the past couple of weeks, he's turned his Gripe over to his daughter, a recent college graduate. This week she complained that she failed a job interview because she wasn't given the questions in advance. Huh? Is that the generation we're raising?

Yes, it is.

A generation that calls its mommy and daddy twelve times a day, to ask how to drive from here to there, how to run the washing machine. And instead of imploring their kids to figure it out on their own, these parents tear a new tucas to anybody who gets in their way. I can't imagine my parents calling the college administration to complain. But that's what baby boomers do today.

And today's kids have been brought up in a nation so commercial, so absent of values, that they believe money trumps ideas, that if you're rich your life works, that if I've got mine, who cares about you.

I cared about the future. Until the reporters became fans of the politicians. Before CEOs believed they were beholden to shareholders instead of workers, and should profit at the latter's expense. And I'm not saying everybody's bad, I'm just wondering when we're gonna have a correction factor, based on truth, based on values, based on all being in it together.

Whatever MTV was it no longer is. The "M" doesn't stand for music and it's run by bottom-feeding ignoramuses made in the mold of the corporate titans who run their business, Sumner Redstone and Philippe Dauman, who overcompensate themselves and add commercials to Nickelodeon when they can't figure out a way to sustain ratings and make money.

Once upon a time, the train-wreck value at the VMAs was secondary to the music. But that's back when music still counted, when it drove the culture, before Apple, a corporation, became more revered than anybody playing an instrument.

Music used to be about cutting edge ideas, about truth. Now, we get Taylor Swift crowdsurfing, as if that's a brand new idea, we get Rihanna kissing Chris Brown, and if you know about either of these "highlights" of the VMAs, you're either under twenty years old or in this business.

The ratings were halved. And I'm not saying the ratings for the Democratic National Convention were stratospheric, but that's all anybody's talking about, Bill Clinton's speech.

I was getting e-mail during it. I got a phone call from my mother about it. Even right wing pundits gave him credit. Last night on Bill Maher everybody was in awe, of someone who slayed the Republicans using arithmetic.

I just watched Clinton's speech. The buzz became too deafening, I had to see what everybody was talking about, I wanted to become a member of the club.

Remember this process? It's how we used to break music, how we used to get people to listen to the radio, buy records and purchase concert tickets. Because they needed to belong!

Hell, you can't even belong in the music business anymore, and no one wants to. The acts can't stop saying they're being ripped off and you can't get a good ticket to the show because someone richer has gobbled up the best and furthermore, the best were never available to you at any price, maybe you can overpay a broker to get inside.

Musicians are all about greed. They don't want to stop the war, rail against injustice, they just want the corporation to line their pocket. Do you think this is appealing to their theoretical fans, who truly support them?

Without fans you're nothing.

And it appears that despite the impeachment, despite the bashing, Bill Clinton's got tons.

It's never too late to triumph. If you double down on what made you successful and deliver like only you can.

Bill Clinton was so good, he blew Obama and Romney away. You could listen to him, your mind didn't wander, he made sense. In a nation that's full of nonsense. Not only cut taxes and the budget will balance, but overpay CEOs and it will help corporations. It's like the USA is in the depths of a fire sale, with the rich raping and pillaging and the poor afraid the security camera will put them in jail. Yup, bankers don't go to prison, but dopers do.

Clinton had a great act. He knew it was about a show. Not about him, but the audience. He held people in his hand. He manipulated them. He made them laugh, he made them cry. You know who also does this? Prince! That's why he can go on his endless victory lap tour, people saw him on the Super Bowl and were wowed.

And Clinton talked about working together, left and right. When do you ever hear about acts working with their fans, successful acts, acts that can make a difference? Oh, they pay lip service, but they fly private, stay in hotels under assumed names, do their best to put a huge gulf between them and those keeping them in business, all in the name of profits.

Hell, wanna know how politics is just like the music business? Acts refuse to deny the fiction that Ticketmaster is responsible for fees. So there can be no solution. Until acts are blamed for the fees, we can make no progress.

But you can't say anything negative about an act. Because the public won't allow it. The public's too dumb to see the truth.

And it might be because no one can explain it to them. Everybody's got an underlying agenda. If you think TV talking heads are about the truth, you've got no idea how they're getting paid and how much.

Bill Clinton demonstrated it was important to be smart, it was important to be educated and that you run on your record. Sure, you might have had a couple of stiffs, some miscues, but if you can't own your past, you're nowhere.

I don't care whether you're left or right. But it can't be denied that Bill Clinton owned the discussion this week. He dominated public discourse. And the music industry's number one vehicle fell flat, faded away and didn't radiate.

Everyone thinks it's about exposure.

No, it's what you do when you get the spotlight, where it happens, whether you can create virality.

The history of recorded music is sitting online. How do you get people to pay attention, check you out and spread the word? By being talented, by having something to say, by standing for something.

Don't worry about the people you're alienating, but the people you're saving. If you're putting the money first, you're doing it wrong. Bill Clinton is a sexagenarian, he's still in his prime. You want to peak before you're twenty, everything you say is stupid and fades away. Kinda like Justin Bieber, who thinks Michelangelo painted the "Sixteenth Chapel." Role model? Idiot!

Bill Clinton's speech (video halfway down the page): http://yhoo.it/RbLouX

"President Obama killed the VMA's": http://wapo.st/RkVkCs

"Trakin Care Of Business" (10. Tara's Gripe Of The Week): http://bit.ly/OZLaDr

"David Letterman Rips Justin Bieber for Ignorant Remark": http://bit.ly/NZRNYf


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