BOMM

They clean the bathrooms.

In America it's once and done. By time you hit 10:30 AM, by time you've hit intermission, the loo is overflowing and you enter gingerly, only if you truly must do your business. But in Bogota, they've cleaned it multiple times already.

That's just one of the differences.

There's also no bloviating. That's what you've got at the rest of the conferences, bloviating and wannabes. No issue of any importance has every been solved at a conference. Because the big people don't go and when they do, they only speak in platitudes, big issues are worked out behind closed doors.

But in Bogota it's different. There's no bloviating (other than by me!) and the talent is…positively first class.

Yup, I travel to another town where a hundred (a thousand!) bands have flown in for a chance at stardom. They flier the crowd and end up performing their substandard music to few, bitching about the system all along. But at BOMM, the Bogota Music Market, the showcases are during the day, there are almost no panels, and all the talent has you stroking your chin saying…wait a minute, this is good!

Although I must admit, the material hasn't always been A+. That's what you need, especially to break out of your home market into a foreign land. Undeniable material. And if you want to succeed in your own country, you can deliver no less than an A. In other words, you've got to be in the top track in your high school and you've got to get into an Ivy League college and still that's no guarantee.

In other words, if you're one of those slackers not fully applying yourself, making fun of the strivers, the joke's on you. Because in music, it's the strivers who make it. Not those who talk about their music, but those who do it.

Furthermore, BOMM is FREE! Imagine that, a conference that's not about lining the pockets of the producers. Oh, we've all got to eat, but BOMM is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, trying to spread the word. Hell, everybody but the U.S. has governmental support. That's how all these bands fly in from everywhere, they got government money! Not that I'm lobbying for more government support for the arts in the U.S., unfortunately it ends up going to the niche players as opposed to those truly on a rocket to stardom, those who know how to work the government game are usually best at that and not so good at popularity, and that's the real game.

Did you read the "New York Times Magazine" article on popularity? (http://nyti.ms/18Drjm6) A bunch of sour grapes but they got one thing right, popularity ain't what it used to be. You can be king of your world and the rest of the population can be clueless as to who you even are, never mind what your music sounds like.

But I did hear one band I liked. Diamente Electrico. I was standing in the hall and through the door I heard a sound…

Is your music that good? That I get it and want to hear more of it muffled through a wall? That's how good you've got to be!

Diamente Electrico is a three piece that sounds like a cross between Green Day and Muse, with a bit of Zeppelin thrown in. They could make it in America. If they played on the festival circuit they'd get traction. That's what you want to do now, play the festivals, where people haven't paid to see you specifically, where they're grazing and stumble upon you. The truly great and developed can go it alone. Everybody else needs the springboard of the festival.

Speaking of festivals, can you believe death and drugs are gonna kill electronic music festivals? Just when the big boys got in. Maybe they should have stayed out. But remember, after Woodstock every festival tanked. Because nobody wanted all those hippies in their backyard. It was only recently that communities could see the financial benefit. And I know people die at Bonnaroo too, but this is a serious problem and I'm not sure of the solution. Playing to the government is usually death. Remember the PMRC? But going independent is hard. Maybe EDM has to go small again before it can truly be big. The odds of death are fewer the smaller the crowd. Maybe the paradigm can't be festivals until we've got more traction in the U.S. Meanwhile, EDM festivals are still flourishing in Europe.

And they asked me about EDM in Bogota.

Sure, everybody's trying to get ahead here too. But everybody's so nice. And I saw bands with nine or ten players, nobody would do that in the U.S., they'd ask where the money is! They don't want to split it that many ways! But if you make it about the music first, then maybe you've got a chance.

And speaking of big bands, did you see Larry David's movie on HBO? What a mistake! Proving that it's not about the one big hit, but the continuous series. Your album can sink like a stone, keep putting out singles. Multiple episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is much better for keeping your name in the public eye than one movie I can't remember the name of. You don't want to make a big splash, you want to sustain. And if you do, you might get a "Palestinian Chicken," there were no hooks in that Larry David movie other than the girlfriends blowing the members of Chicago.

So I'm hanging at the venue all day. Everybody wants a picture. Instagram is the new autograph. It's about sharing your experience with your friends, not hoarding your possessions at home.

And I'm still loving Bogota. But you're lucky if you live in the U.S. Because of the REGULATIONS!

That's right. Don't listen to the Republicans saying we've got to get rid of them to drive business, that's complete hogwash. Because you know who gets screwed? YOU! Or your relative. I'm walking to dinner last night and there was a sudden longitudinal curb, created by a restaurant, and I fell off and I twisted my ankle and I'll survive but I haven't done it this bad in years. Wouldn't ever happen in the U.S. Because of regulations. And if someone screwed up, you'd sue. Not for personal gain, but to make sure businesses do the right thing! That's the essence of tort law. But the Republican blowhards keep trumpeting occasional big liability awards to get the public agitated to prevent them. Hell, corporations gutted whistleblower laws, and now we've got Snowden and the NSA. Come on, they put fingerprint recognition in the new iPhone and everyone's complaining online about security, even though Apple says no data will be stored on their servers. Everyone's paranoid, everyone's worried about privacy. And that's a good thing. Credit Snowden.

As for Apple, I just don't get it. The iPhone 5C costs almost as much as a 5S! The difference is only a hundred dollars! They haven't learned their own lesson, which in tech means you want to dominate. You don't want a share of the market, but all of it. Sell a phone cheap for the advantages of owning the ecosystem, what you can sell in the future. Jobs could see this, the new players cannot.

And speaking of phones, I was speaking with a TV star here in Bogota. You know what kind of phone she uses? A SAMSUNG! Why? Because they gave it to her! They even tried to convert me. The only promise they wanted to extract was I give up my iPhone. Which I won't do. Then again, Samsung never had an original idea in its life. Can you believe they introduced a phone just because Apple registered the term "iWatch"??

So I know I'm rambling.

But it's because I'm stimulated. Just when you think you don't care about music anymore, it sneaks back up on you. Because of its power, because of the community of people who make it.

Music is the most powerful medium on earth. And we've run it through the gutter ever since the advent of MTV. We've whored it out and abused it. Thank god it won't die, but not until we respect it and realize we're not on the same side as the Fortune 500 will it become the dominant art form once again.

Proof in point. They pick me up at the hotel and Wendy's in the front seat humming a song.

I ask her what it is?

Amy Winehouse!

A dead musician. Who'll never make another record. And she wasn't humming "Rehab," but an album track. Whatever Obama said last night will be forgotten, but great music lives on FOREVER!

--
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 --