Justin Timberlake

Talk about overexposed.

Are we still living in 2000, when it was all about the first week and most people still had not discovered Napster?

Yup, that's when JT was at his peak.

You want to know the big arts story this week?

The "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter project. They've raised in excess of three million bucks by going to those who care, the fans, as opposed to JT, who's positively living in the past, believing that saturation marketing will convince all of us who don't care to. Huh? You're just pissing us off!

Meanwhile, I'm here to tell you sexy never left, but cool is back. Manufactured is trouble. Hubris is fatal. Hell, when the "New York Times" writes articles about the Taylor Swift backlash, about her bad Q ratings, you know that it's over.

Taylor Swift? You haven't got enough publicity? You're appearing in "Vanity Fair"? WHY? So we can make fun of you? Taking on comediennes is like having a guitar battle with Clapton, even Gary Clark, Jr., you just can't win.

Yup, Taylor's pissed at Amy Poehler and Tina Fey for making fun of her at the Golden Globes. Don't know that? You're lucky. "Vanity Fair" spammed the media and every non-thinking news outlet reproduced it.

Want some advice Taylor?

STFU!

You don't see Carrie Underwood trying to cross over, splashed all over the media. No, she stays in her own little backwater, therefore the country people protect her. Who's going to protect Taylor Swift?

And who exactly is going to protect Justin Timberlake?

Last I checked, his core audience has babies. Thank god tickets are sold digitally, because none of his fans could leave home to line up. As to whether they can get babysitters for the gig... Well, people only go to one show a year, and Justin Timberlake, whose last tour, before you grew pubes, didn't sell out, bought insurance this time, he's going out with Jay-Z, because he's afraid, very afraid. Not as afraid as Miley Cyrus, who's tabloid fodder and has lost her music career, but still scared.

Can't you see it? The desperation? What if I'm not big enough?

Want to know today's underground music story?

Prince at SXSW!

He didn't promote it, everybody else did!

That's how you want to do it today.

But that just doesn't fit in with your world domination, conquer all philosophy. You want to dun everybody into submission. You think if you're Gene Simmons and you screw thousands of girls, people will care. The only people who care about Mr. Simmons are the ones who in declining numbers go to Kiss shows. The rest of us have no problem ignoring him.

You see in the old world it was top down. Get the big kahunas to write about you so the little people will find out.

But now it's positively reversed. The little people build your career. And it happens very slowly. And when we see dinosaurs like Justin Timberlake BEGGING US to pay attention we have the classic twenty first century response. We laugh at him. We feel superior to him. We look down upon him just like the nincompoops on reality TV.

And when his album fails...

OF COURSE IT'S GONNA FAIL!

Come on, even U2's album failed.

If you're a superstar, we don't even want the album, unless we're hard core fans. We want the undeniable single.

Now if you're not a superstar, this rule doesn't apply. Make a ton of music, satiate your fans.

Then again, I'm a Ry Cooder fan, and I've stopped paying attention. I laughed when I heard a song of his on the satellite. Reminded me of him talking about making a new album...

You know Ry. Guitarist extraordinaire who gets tons of ink, but can't sell a record?

Welcome to 2013. When it's not only cult people like Ry Cooder, but stars like Timberlake and Bowie.

They think everybody cares.

But everybody doesn't.

Even "The New Yorker" writes about Bowie.

End result?

A TARNISHING OF THE LEGACY! BECAUSE WE JUST DON'T CARE!


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --