Hip Is History

Used to be you wanted to be hip, today you want to be knowledgeable.

You remember hip, where I know about what you don't and it's so much better than what you've been exposed to and as a result I'm so much better than YOU!

We all know these people... Tell them about something you just bought and they'll tell you about something better. Forget about being impolite, trampling what you've just purchased, they've got a desperate need to demonstrate their status, which is embroidered by their accoutrements. Even better, or worse, is that in many cases the people belittling what you've purchased, what you've experienced, have never ever utilized/listened to your purchase/preference, they've just got an innate need to feel superior.

And then came the Internet.

First and foremost, all information was available for everyone to see.

In other words, if someone tells you about their cousin who knows this or that...you can check it out, instantly! Especially in an era of LTE. You'd think this would eliminate old wives' tales or heresy, but the truth is many don't like facts/absolutes, they'd rather make up their own reality.

Like in the music business, where everything popular sucks.

Really?

Yup!

Now it'd be one thing if you listened to their choice and discovered it was demonstrably better, but this never happens anymore, because the truth is everything worth liking/listening to by most people gets traction.

But that's less stuff than ever.

Huh?

In a world of many, most gravitate to the few.

It's like selling shoes... Show the patron two and he'll buy one, show the patron five and he'll buy none, he's confused, and the truth is in the last few years we've all become confused, we're overloaded with an onslaught of information.

You'd think the self-styled experts, the faux hip, would acknowledge this, but instead they keep digging deeper into the ditch, removing themselves from the mainstream, all in an effort to demonstrate their superiority.

But the truth is hip is passe, today nothing lies in wait for eons waiting to be discovered. If it's any good, it blows up instantly.

That's if it's great, actually.

If it's good, it'll find a niche.

If it's not good, forget about it.

So the hip trumpet edgy and good, forgetting that to maintain, to grow, to dominate, it's got to be edgy and GREAT! We're open to anything if it's great, but there's very little great out there, and the hip denigrate the great, because usually all they've got is their self-anointed hipster status, and they can't bring themselves to acknowledge what everybody else thinks is great is.

Used to be we lived in a limited universe. Five thousand albums a year. Now we're deep into six figures, everybody's playing in music. But we've developed no new ears, no one to listen to all these tracks.

There used to be a filter, that's why there were only five thousand LPs. You needed someone to believe in you, because recording was expensive and distribution was a huge hurdle. Prior to iTunes, et al, getting your album in the store was almost an impossibility.

So, when the hipsters trumpeted their preferences...they truly weren't that obscure. Their favorites got written about in magazines, they got some airplay, there was context for their choices.

But now there's no context, because what the hip are into almost nobody else is. There are no walls for their message to echo off of.

In other words, if someone is telling you the obscure music they're listening to is better than the big hit you are, ignore them, everyone else is.

And especially ignore the wannabe musician with no traction who tells you what he does is better than what is a hit. Because today everybody gets a chance, everybody can play, and if what you're doing is great, you'll blow up.

Yup, it's true, if you're great, people will be lining up to give you money, not only labels, but promoters, they need acts to fill out the festival bills.

So if you're great you'll get mainstream promotion and then you'll hit and the hipsters will hate you, because you're not obscure anymore.

And then there are the hipster favorites, who sort of break through, like the Alabama Shakes, who've got a good sound but no hits. Do we blame the radio formats? Why don't the Shakes hunker down and release a smash... BECAUSE IT'S NOT IN THEM!

Maybe it is, we'll see, but it's been so long since they've released new music.

But they got ink in magazines that have to feature something, hell, every week they're trumpeting something new that's forgotten almost instantly, which is the bane of the major recording artist - they put it out, everybody shrugs their shoulders and moves on.

Except occasionally.

We've all got so much input, we've all got so many choices, what makes you think yours demands time from me?

That's what I hate about Pandora, that's what I hate about Songza, do you really want me to sit through mediocre, unappealing stuff?

The halls are narrowing, what makes it through is less in quantity, and as a result we've got a whole bunch of people left out who are bitching.

Do you hear the concert promoters bitching? They only book what can sell tickets. They're equating great with demand. They're today's kings, if you have a fan base, people should show up and buy tickets. But the truth is, most of what's hip sells very few tickets if it can sell any at all.

It's the data culture we live in. Music is soft, subjective. And as a result, those passionate about it like to exclude the objective, the data that illustrates some are winners and some are losers.

And the biggest losers of all are those who keep telling us hits are crap, what they listen to is better, and that they're much hipper than we are.

Hip, WHO CARES?


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