F-150

It'd be like Justin Timberlake making a country record.

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where all the creativity comes in business, and the artists keep repeating themselves, hoping that they'll get a different result?

One in which T-Mobile's John Legere is shaking up the wireless industry and the automobile market leader, Ford, is revolutionizing its F-150 pickup.

This is what musicians used to do. Remember the Beatles? One thing we knew about that band is every album would be different, they didn't repeat themselves, and unlike every other sixties group, they're gonna last.

The F-150 has been the best selling automobile for thirty two years straight in the United States. It accounts for forty percent of Ford's profits. You don't mess with an icon, do you?

OF COURSE YOU DO!

Because Ford could see the handwriting on the wall. That stringent fuel economy laws are going to apply and the public is wary of high gas prices. So they switched the body to aluminum, downsized the engines and got five more miles per gallon than their competitors. Sound like a triumph?

IT DOES TO ME!

But the customers won't like it! They're used to their steel trucks! They want big, V8 engines! Never mess with a successful product!

But this is how Detroit got its lunch eaten by Japan in the first place.

This is all about the power of the individual, Alan Mulally. Who reengineered Ford's finances, who did not take money from the government, who authorized this plan.

With all this hogwash about teams and getting along, the truth is triumphs are always the domain of individual visionaries. From Steve Jobs to Mr. Mulally. If you're looking for consensus, you're headed for mediocrity, or failure.

Kind of like today's music.

How many people wrote the song? The label weighed in with its input?

No wonder it's headed for the middle of the market and soon to be forgotten. No one's betting the farm in music, they're all just hoping the same crops grow until they retire.

Doug Morris, our lauded leader, looks back more than forward. I'd like to know what apps he uses on his iPhone.

Lucian Grainge is positively old school. Let me see... I'll buy up market share and pay for the best artists. Not a bad strategy, but not a revolutionary strategy.

Hell, look at Jim Dolan in the concert space. He's investing when everybody else is crying. Who else is gonna spend a hundred million to redo the Forum? Look what he did to the Beacon. People want to go to a first class venue and be treated right, but most concerts are held in places akin to prisons.

But it's the music that gets them there...

And what we've got is classic rock acts and a bunch of spectacle. Yup, most new shows are like the circus, with dancing and acrobatics...can you hear me Pink? What's that got to do with what goes in the ears?

But too many people have watched reality singing competitions. They think being beautiful is a prerequisite to making it. And if you can blow the door down like one of the three little pigs, you're ready.

Look at country, where they're replicating the rock sound of the seventies while leaving the outlaws out. Talk about a controlled environment.

As for rock, it's already dead.

At least there's a bit of innovation in EDM.

As for hip-hop... The goal is to sell out. If music isn't enough for you, I don't want to listen.

So what we've got is people salivating over the latest tech products. Companies thinking outside the box because they know competition is fierce. We're wowed on a regular basis.

But in music, all we've got is complaints! They're stealing my music, they won't listen to the whole album...

Want me to listen to the whole album?

MAKE IT DIFFERENT! MAKE IT INTRIGUING! TAKE A RISK!

But the only people willing to take risks are the untalented who have not made it.

Every day I read about ridiculous albums I don't need to hear. Kind of like Peter Gabriel's cover album and its reverse. Huh? MAKE NEW MUSIC PETER! YOU USED TO TEST LIMITS, NOW YOU'RE ABOUT COMMERCE!

As for the new acts... Tell me what Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have done that's any different from what transpired forty years ago. So he's a good imitation of what once was. SO WHAT!

You can't buy a Chevy Vega and no one wants the Ford Pinto.

But we keep putting a new body on musical trash and expect the public to get excited about it.

The problem is us.

P.S. You want an aluminum auto body? Then get a Tesla Model S, Audi A8 or a Jaguar, no mainstream automobile features one. Because they're expensive and hard to work on. So what we've got here is a mainstream company LEADING the public to a new world for the benefit of all. Do you see that in music? The land of the compliant? Where what's featured on radio today ain't much different from what Mariah Carey was doing two decades ago?


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