You Wanna Own It

That's what's wrong with today's marketing, it doesn't allow for percolation, it doesn't allow for growth, it believes the instant smash is more powerful than the long term build, that if everybody knows your name right away you've made it, when just the opposite is true.

I can't get over "House Of Cards." I live for art, I could watch this thing all day if they had that many episodes. But there's no buzz. And therefore the cognoscenti, the prognosticators, believe it's toast, when nothing could be further from the truth.

They call it the NEWSpaper. And if there's no news, they don't write about it. And the web is even worse, some stories don't even last a day. They want the now. And they can't see any spikes with "House Of Cards," and therefore they don't write about it.

But the fans don't stop watching it.

This weekend we're going to be exposed to the abomination known as the Video Music Awards. But I dare you to name last year's winners. Hell, I dare you to name this summer's blockbuster movies. Both were the beneficiaries of hype. There are so many VMA stories you'd believe the channel still drives the culture and sets the music agenda which is so far from the truth that to say so is to believe Jimmy Ray and those guys who did the "Macarena" are still charttoppers.

Then there's that story in the "New York Times," saying YouTube/Internet is the new MTV. Yeah, if you want to have a momentary hit. But last summer's "stars" are already done, and if you believe Carly Rae Jepsen and PSY are coming back you're making Eggs Benedict with year-old English muffins.

How did we get here?

The money. That's the ultimate arbiter today, how much you've got. And the hoi polloi can never have as much as the entrenched rich, so they go for fame, which frequently generates little capital at all.

Credit MTV for the latter, with "Real World." Suddenly, you had people everyone knew the name of who were absolutely broke. And newbies who were lining up to take their place. And today's musical stars are no different. They believe instant is what it's all about.

But that which lasts rarely is.

But back to my original point. The way you make a fan is by having him believe he's the only one who knows about you, that he's a point person in the war of building your career. To him, you're everything. Mow him down by looking for fly by night fans and you do yourself a disservice.

In other words, if you keep looking at new women everywhere you go, don't expect your girlfriend to stick around. You know, the one who makes you breakfast, washes your clothes, listens to your foibles and has sex with you. She's dedicated to you, she provides what no one else does because she believes in you, she loves you, the two-dimensional women on the street do not.

And you may say a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, but you can flip the above scenario around very easily. Men will tell you you're pretty, pay for dinner and hold your handbag and go to movies they hate just to satiate you.

And neither will tolerate anyone talking crap about the other, that's how solid the bond is.

Careers are not built on transitory relationships. They're constructed brick by brick, a solid foundation, on the belief and efforts of hard core fans.

You can blame the labels too. Artist development is history, they're public companies that require an instant return, and if you're not the kind of act that can provide this, you're not needed.

And the kind of act a fan desires is one with rough edges, who's unique, who speaks about his or her insecurities and foibles. Sure, there are some aspirational ones too, pontificating how big and successful they are, but really, they're just fodder for the age, perfect for the times, they rarely last. In other words, people keep listening to Taylor Swift and Jay-Z and Kanye's records go up and down like a rocket ship.

I'm not sure we're gonna see any change, not soon.

But the history of the world is always the outside crushing the inside. The unseen coming along and eradicating everything in its path.

There's always been popular music. Top Forty fodder. But there used to be a slew of well-trained musicians doing it their way. Now these well-trained players keep bitching they can't get paid and are not famous enough and where can they sell out?

Which is why music is not what it used to be.

It begins with the tunes.

But it goes nowhere without the fans.

It's kind of like an automobile. Sans gasoline/petrol, it's just a showpiece.

And you don't have to push people to spread the word, they'll do it on their own, it's what they live for, it's part of their DNA, to let others in on what the believe is so great. It's not about a contest, it's nothing artificial, it's positively real.

And if you do it right, your day in the sun comes. "House Of Cards" will win a bunch of Emmys and everybody will be talking about it and viewership will skyrocket. The believers will keep testifying, and those suddenly in the know will jump to watch the same way they used to buy the Grammy Album of the Year.

But the Grammys, like the VMAs, are a joke. A marketing exercise. Ultimately meaningless. With acts and their handlers negotiating for airtime.

Wanna make it long term?

REFUSE TO BE ON!

P.S. I'm gonna tell you how the Internet works. By saying that some women make breakfast and wash clothes for their significant others my inbox is going to be inundated with outrage, feminists labeling me sexist. Forget that this describes many relationships, that even some rich and powerful breadwinning women still do these tasks for their husbands, you can't write it down. Because if you do, you get a tsunami of blowback. Everyone is working the refs these days. Trying to get you to not write a truth you believe in. It's hard not to succumb. I'm trying. (And yes, of course there are house husbands who do everything, but what is the point here? That there's one specific way to life your life and that if you perform a formerly gender-associated act you're a patsy? Be free, do what you want.)

"Pop Music Videos? I Want My YouTube!": http://nyti.ms/1daGCIG


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