Music Industry News: 2020-08-16

Friday, 21 August 2020

What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits

https://spoti.fi/32tllZ9

And they say the quality of the sound no longer makes a difference.

If you had told me in 1972 or 3 that the Doobie Brothers would be one of my favorite rock bands, one of the artists who I listen to the most, I would have laughed in your face. Wasn't this the band with the obvious monster hits on FM radio? I mean I liked "Listen to the Music," but although I also liked "China Grove," I never cottoned to "Long Train Runnin'," which was ubiquitous not only on the radio but late night TV. I saw the Doobie Brothers as meat and potatoes rock. By '73 FM rock radio reached everywhere, they finally had album rock stations in the hinterlands. And it took the advent of corporate rock to make the whole paradigm implode, kicked in the ass by disco and then fading until MTV revived rock, ultimately via the English new wave, which wiped away the bloated detritus of the seventies.

But then...

Music used to be limited. You knew what was on the radio and what you owned, and people didn't own that much, and if they did, it tended to be the same albums. And I had a larger record collection than anybody I knew, but there were still things I hadn't heard, like "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits."

Who knows if there will even be a ski season this coming winter. But in '74, after I'd graduated from college, I immediately broke my leg in a freak accident and therefore missed the first few months of the season in Utah and when Snowbird ultimately closed near the end of April I was not satisfied, I needed more. On a tip I hooked up with the freestylers, the bumpers who dominated the 'Bird, and joined them in a condo for the month of May in Mammoth California. They needed my money.

And this was pre-internet, pre-webcam, pre people really knowing what happened outside their burg. Mammoth in May was a wonderland. No bare spots, the ski area was ultimately open until July 4th that year, sun and ski bums, that was all there was, it was the greatest month of my life.

I was the outsider. But what hooked me up was the music. It was the first weekend and everybody was lamenting the passage of the evening. I said "It's ten o'clock and I want to rock!," which they thought was the funniest thing they'd ever heard, it immediately ingratiated me (as well as being willing to drop into Hangman's and ski Philippe's), little did they know it was just a paraphrase of a lyric from Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)".

Now I had twenty four cassettes. Which I'd recorded before I'd left Connecticut the previous fall. But this was rare, most people still listened to 8-tracks in the car, and Jimmy had an 8-track recorder, as part of his all-in-one record player, and he'd made tapes for Mammoth. Including "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" and "Physical Graffiti." But recording on 8-track...there were essentially four stereo tracks of equal length, and albums could not be broken up this way, so Jimmy recorded songs out of order and filled them with cuts from other albums and...I could not distinguish what was on "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" and "The Captain And Me." And one of my absolute favorite Doobie Brothers songs opens the latter LP, "Natural Thing," what puts it over the top are the contributions of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff who were responsible for the programming on Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book," one of the best LPs ever, but it was not on the 8-track tape, I had to wait until I purchased the LP to learn it. But all of "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" was on there, albeit in a whacked order.

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" was heavily anticipated, after all it was the follow-up to the big smash "The Captain And Me," with the aforementioned FM radio and late night TV albums were selling more copies than ever before. But it did not live up to expectations. The initial single "Another Park, Another Sunday" failed and it wasn't until nine months after release that "Black Water" was a hit, after a renegade radio station began playing it. Then it was everywhere.

I've got these Genelec speakers. They're my computer system. The satellites have got a woofer and a tweeter. They're ten or eleven inches tall, about four inches square, and there's a connected subwoofer. You can replicate this system for about $1500, but today no one spends that much for a stereo, never mind their computer speakers. I got e-mail from a reader saying he wanted to get his kids into vinyl for $300, I said you couldn't, not to bother, you had to spend probably at least that much on a turntable and cartridge, never mind an amp and speakers.

And I've got Amazon Music HD. And I'd be lying if I told you it sounded light years better than anything else. Actually, Apple sounds better than Spotify, Spotify's codec is inferior to its competitors', but Amazon Music HD will play at UltraHD level on my computer, that's 24 bits, with sampling ranging from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz. And for the uninitiated, that's better than CD quality.

So...

I was listening to Led Zeppelin. "Thank You." A hangover from yesterday's "Ramble On" session. But then I was interrupted. My mood changed. And music is all about mood. So I decided to shift to "Physical Graffiti," to "Ten Years Gone," my favorite Zeppelin track, but I still wasn't reached, so I decided to go to the Doobie Brothers.

Yes, can you believe they're my go-to band? I can't either!

So I started off with "Toulouse Street," because it's warm. But then I realized it was the title track which was warm, and it was a bit too low-key for my mood, so I decided to play...

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits."

"Song to See You Through." That's what it was. Mid-tempo. Warm. With that smooth yet slightly rough Tom Johnston vocal and then the horns and suddenly I was on the horse, galloping through the rolling golden hills of Northern California.

And the killer is "Another Park, Another Sunday." It's genius. Maybe too smart for radio back then, maybe it's true that radio felt unjustifiably dissed by the lyrics, but I cannot burn out on it, never have, it's more sophisticated than what came before in an era where radio was getting dumber and dumber.

But I decided to just let the album play...

The version of the album I was listening to was the 2016 remastered version. They do this to hoodwink people to buy again what they already own. It used to be extra tracks, now it's improved sound, but who has the system that can hear the difference, almost nobody.

But I do.

I don't want to get into an argument with the studio rats. All I'll say is Genelec is basically studio audio, not home audio. And listening, with the right sound source is...about as close as you're gonna get to the original sound.

"Sun and the stars are a a travelin' man's companion"

It used to be about the road. Come on, how many rock songs focus on that? But not the modern sound, not hip-hop, because times have changed, if you want to go anywhere you take a plane, hopefully a private jet, and what's between here and there is...irrelevant.

And the truth is once you're out west there's oftentimes not much between here and there, but you're rockin' down the highway, with the tunes cranked and you meld with the scenery, it's a unique experience.

"Now it's up to you
Do you know you're pulling through
Man it's not easy and you know it"

It's not. Easy that is. Used to be you could make it, pay your bills, but if you wanted more than that...you had to decide your destination and commit to it. It was hardest to be a successful musician or athlete, but the rest of us...sure, you could become a doctor or a lawyer, but otherwise there were no guarantees, you could not work at a monolith like Google and make close to six figures with no experience, if you wanted to lift yourself up...it was not easy.

"Children in a happy place
They're always smiling
Showin' all their love with no deception
Treatin' each other like brothers and sisters do, yeah, yeah
Children in a real good place, they're always tryin'
Jumpin' and playin' in the middle of the afternoon
Just havin' a ball don't worry at all, yeah"

We were children. That's who we wanted to be. We wanted to play forever. I'm not talking Peter Pans, but desperados. We weren't forestalling growing up, we knew the score, we could make ends meet, if not much more. and we knew life was about experience long before the millennials realized this.

And I'm only into the second song of "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" and I get the inspiration to write, it's this song "Spirit." It's rocking yet down home with a fiddle and exquisite picking and this is the sound of the west, the sound of freedom, there are no walls you need to break down like on the east coast, the landscape is open, what do you want to make of it, and when space is unlimited you look inside, you huddle up and make this music that looks inward yet is joyous.

And I don't want the mood to change. But "Pursuit on 53rd St." has got that chunky Doobie Brothers guitar sound and a sweet vocal and enough energy to make anyone in tech wish they were in music.

And the album is playing and "Road Angel" does the same thing.

"I was ridin' down that highway..."

The Road Angel is not one of the Housewives, she's not all about makeup, not all about plastic surgery and a look that takes hours to perfect, she's got it naturally, it emanates from the inside, she's cool and she knows it and she makes men's hearts melt.

And I haven't eaten lunch and it's 3:30 in the afternoon and my mind is fried and I've already sent two missives already, but...

I'm in that space. Where it's just me and the music and that's all I need, that's enough.

I'm in the soundstage, there's no scrim, no fuzziness between me and the band, the instruments are defined, it's a positively magical experience. The one we were in search of all that time ago. This is not what the tweaks want, they're searching for perfection, but that was never what we were looking for, the music was never perfect, this was before all the studio trickery, comping vocals, we just wanted to get closer, we wanted to spend enough to get closer. We didn't need a Ferrari, but a Chevy was insufficient. We had to lay down as much as we could for our stereo before we hit the point of little return. And even back in the seventies, that was way over a thousand dollars, but not five.

"I'm sittin' in my room, I'm starin' out my window"

Literally. I'm perched on the hill. It's a smoggy day, but I'm in suspended animation, removed from the world.

"I'm just tryin' to find me"

I was and still am. This life, it's a strange thing. You can buy into the system and work for retirement but that was never my thing. Like I said, I'm a child, I don't want to grow up, I want to eat life up, go everywhere and do everything, look for like-minded people, stay alive.

"Just when you think you got a good thing
It seems to slip away"

That's how I felt. That's how I feel. If I got up to eat, the mood would have evaporated. I just want to sit here all afternoon in this groove. Another park, another Friday.

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Streaming TV

We've been on a bad streak. We've watched a bunch of shows that have not been up to recommendation level, but last night we started one...

If there's one show I want to recommend before that, it's "Srugim," on Amazon. My sister Jill said to check it out, but I was reluctant because its focus is Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem and Felice is not Jewish. But she got hooked and was sad when the show ended as was I. You get involved in these people's lives, you know them, and then the series end and you're wondering where they are now. Actually, with these Israeli shows, with a lot of these foreign shows, you can look the actors up online. Of course it's real life, as opposed to their characters, but still... They're on Facebook, Instagram. It's different from the U.S. They don't consider themselves stars so much as actors. They partcipate online as regular people, as opposed to boasters reinforcing they're better than you are. Maybe it's because the markets are so much smaller. Unless they graduate to American productions, they can only be so well known, can only be so rich. Furthermore, you get used to the people, the same ones appear in multiple shows. Like Caroline Proust in "The Tunnel." Proust is the star of "Spiral," which if you haven't watched I once again will recommend that you do, it's one of the best streaming shows on television. Anyway, in "Spiral" Proust is a beautiful, but down to earth cop, who is psychologically screwed up and therefore can't have a good relationship. In "The Tunnel" Proust is a mousy housewife, you almost don't recognize her. And it's strange that she's got a lesser role even though "Sprial" was already a hit. This does not happen in America, once you've made it, you must be the star.

Anyway, relationships are relationships, which is why "Srugim" resonates. Yes, they are Orthodox Jews, but they are not black hats, and other than praying and wearing kippahs, they're no different from you and me. One is a doctor, one is a graphic designer, another a teacher... But there is a strong sense of community. They get together every Friday night for Shabbat dinner. But if you're thirty and unmarried, whether a girl or guy... And there are unfulfilled crushes and... I really recommend "Srugim," assuming you're into relationship shows. And, one of the stars, Tali Sharon, was in the original "In Treatment." Yes, it was an Israeli show first, as was "Homeland."

As for "The Tunnel"... I recommend it, but probably the original Danish-Swedish production entitled "The Bridge" is better. It's kind of like music, the person who wrote the song usually does the best version, it may not be a hit, but the way they emote...they wrote the words! Anyway, I will not buy a series, what am I going to do with it after I watch it once? It's not like a record, which you can play over and over again. And a show should be on one of the services I already subscribe to, I subscribe to all the major ones. But, "The Tunnel" is good, very good, but not "Srugim," not great.

Oh, did I mention "False Flag"? That's another Israeli show, it's just that like too many crime novels there are twists at the end that explain it all, keeping the series from being absolutely top tier.

And we just finished watching "La Mante." A French series about serial killers. It stars Carole Bouquet, one of the most beautiful women in the world. You might know her as the face of Chanel. Anyway, in "La Mante" she wears no makeup, and she's had no plastic surgery, pretty fascinating. But despite the acting being good, "La Mante" is flawed.

But "Delhi Crime"? WHEW!

We've only watched one episode, but usually it's best to write when I'm hot, when I feel it, when I can't wait to watch the next episode.

Now sometimes "Delhi Crime" is in English, not that you'd fully understand it, but if you've got a problem with subtitles... Once again, all those American remakes of foreign shows are inferior to the originals.

So, "Delhi Crime"... It's based on a real crime. And it's on Netflix. And they spent a ton of money, you can tell by the images. Funny how cinematography has moved to the flat screen. Beautiful images made "Goliath," at least the first season, after that it's junk. But "Delhi Crime"...

Cops. Where there's not enough money and too much crime.

And we believe in the U.S. that everybody with a different skin color in a far away country is exotically different, probably inferior. But you watch "Delhi Crime" and that is not so. These are educated, middle class people.

So, the rich colors, the rickshaws...this is India. If you've been there, you'll recognize it. And if you have, you'll want to go back. Despite the huge economic issues, so many people living in poverty with few chances of moving up the economic ladder, once you do, everybody's got a college degree, everybody can analyze the issues, it's mind-blowing. In the rest of the world, the music business is not an intellectual pursuit, but in India... Well, maybe I'm overstating the case, maybe I should just say the people in India are as sophisticated as those in the rest of the world. And it's a huge country with a different system, everything derives from Bollywood and...

The head cop's daugher wants to go to school in Toronto. If you've been to Toronto, you know it's a hotbed of nationalities, a cab driver told me more than any other city in the world, and he's got to be at least, if not more, trustworthy than those testifying in Congress.

And the head cop knows who is slacking.

And the window to catch the perps is short.

And the infrastructure of the police is so bad. Cops manning a checkpoint who don't, they let everybody through. Cops without wheels. Favors to get anything done.

You can tell watching these shows, what is great and what is not. You can feel it, you're drawn in, it's a whole world that you are now inhabiting. This is the richness of streaming television. It used to be in the movies, but those days are gone, as for foreign films, they're only two hours or so, these series can go on for years!

So, I'm always looking for something that demands my focus, that I enjoy experiencing, with a visceral edge, with a sense of truth. That's "Delhi Crime," at least so far.

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Loughlin/Giannulli

TWO MONTHS??

We had to endure this story for all this time for Lori Loughlin to essentially get a slap on the wrist? Meanwhile, get caught with drugs and you go up the river for years!

As for her husband, Mossimo, he got five months, but it's still de minimis, there was a threat of twenty years, but since these people are rich and famous they may not skate completely but their lives are minimally impacted while the general prison population resides in hothouses of coronavirus, with their lives at stake.

Oh, Lori and Mossimo are not going into the general population, this is not "Oz," they'll go to the country club prison, read, go online, and wait out their time. It'll be little different from vacation other than the food.

Our system is screwed up. We're busy focusing on these rich people gaming the college admissions system when the real story is...THEY'RE GAMING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SYSTEM!

Want to have riots in the street?

Tell private schools that twenty five percent of their students will have to sacrifice their first college choice so the slots can be filled with the underprivileged and disadvantaged. This is why the Democrats lose. They disproportionately make up this privileged class. They're willing to lift those on the bottom up but they can't sacrifice a whit, not whatsoever, it's somebody else's fault.

As for the truly rich, the Republicans, like Jared Kushner's father, the rules never applied to them, they just buy a building and their kid gets in.

And what do you get at an elite institution? It's less about what goes on in the classroom and more about the people you meet and hang out with. Would Mark Zuckerberg have come up with the idea of Facebook if he hadn't run into the Winklevoss twins at Harvard?

As for Lori and Mossimo, they got bad legal advice from the start. Of course they were guilty, it's even come out their kids were complicit, which they denied until they fought the charge and the investigation went deeper.

Then again, the legal fees are a drop in the bucket for these two. Look at their real estate holdings. That's where celebrities make their money in L.A. today...a TV show may come and go, but if you own enough property, you'll be okay.

And if Lori had offered a mea culpa from the beginning, she could have saved her career, on Lifetime, on "Full House." America loves the repentant. I sinned, what was I thinking, give me a few lashes and let me back into the club. And speaking of the club...unless you kill someone or abuse someone sexually you're never kicked out of the celebrity/rich/elite club. So, you got caught. Members are testing the limits constantly, that's how they get ahead. Just think about Hollywood, it's built on fraud. The studios owe money to the profit participants they never pay, no matter how successful the project becomes.

So, you hire a lawyer and obfuscate. Bad strategy in this case, since Lori Loughlin is a public figure to begin with, people are interested in her life, it sells ads. She threw gasoline on the fire. And, she got bad legal advice. Never forget, lawyers are business people too, they have to make money. A reasonable attorney would have assessed the landscape and settled soon. But then the attorney would have gotten paid much less.

As for Loughlin and Giannulli... What made them think they could win, when every other parent was convicted? What made them different? Oh yeah, they didn't go to college, they don't know how to analyze the issues, which is what you learn at the elite institutions they want their kids to go to.

So, this whole fracas has turned into a celebrity story when it should be framed as an income inequality/rigged system question.

As for discouraging shenanigans in the future... If the worst offender only got a handful of months in prison, maybe it's worth the risk! Do you really think the arrests in Singergate are preventing rich parents from trying to game the system? They're just finding a different way. Because an elite education is worth more than any real property, for the rest of your life you can say "I graduated from _________" It opens doors. It gives you the imprimatur of success. It's priceless.

You'd think this was O.J., that people had died, with all this focus on Loughlin and Giannulli. But that's America today, the sideshow becomes the main show so people won't focus on the real issues. You can buy the Kardashian perfume, but you go to a school without supplies, with a low graduation rate.

Furthermore, these two won't even serve their complete sentences. Loughlin will be in for six weeks, maybe only a month, she'll be let out for good behavior or overcrowding or some such nonsense. If you think her attorneys are now off the payroll, you're nuts. It's kind of like curling, the lawyers are gonna continue to sweep the ice in order to change the speed and the direction of the stone.

And then, if they care, somewhere down the line Loughlin and Giannulli will pay someone to get them pardoned. Like Marc Rich or Michael Milken. Or maybe a good friend will do the same for no cash, like Donald Trump with Roger Stone. Loyalty is everything at the elite level, never forget, you circle the wagons and don't let info seep to the outside. For all the TMZs and Housewives shows the truth is the public knows very little what goes on with the rich and famous. And the truly rich are smart enough not to be famous, so attention is not drawn to them.

Just imagine if these two were sentenced to five years. Even two. Whew! Penalties are never stiff enough for white collar crime. If only we'd sent some Wall Streeters up the river for a decade back in 2008, that would have changed things...instead, all the wanker bankers just bitched about their bonuses and went back to wreaking havoc in the financial system. And when things get bad, the government bails them out. Whereas if you're a member of the rank and file you lost your job because of Covid-19, the federal government is sending you no more money and you're on the verge of being evicted.

America, what a country.

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Thursday, 20 August 2020

Rick Beato On Ramble On

https://bit.ly/3aJ26hH

We used to be gearheads.

I'll admit this quarantine lifestyle is getting to me. It's not that I'm not busy, it's just that every damn day is the same. Get up, read the news, answer the e-mail, check up on the news and...

Well, maybe record a podcast, or my radio show, depending on the day. And then at night read and/or watch a streaming series.

But the strangest thing is I'm a late night person. And what I love is to be so burned out, overworked, that one night I stay up until I'm caught up, until I'm relaxed, knowing that the next morning I have nothing scheduled. But now, since every day is the same, I know if I stay up until four that just means I screw up my schedule, wake up later...it doesn't pay to stay up.

Oh yeah, I love the nighttime. Oh, I'm gonna bitch when the light fades, as autumn arrives, but it's only when it's dark that my brain starts to light up, that the creativity sparks, that the pressure of the world fades away and I can be myself.

Now in the old days, let's say twenty years ago, I had less on the schedule. And it's much better being busy, but back then I could surf the web long enough to become relaxed and get inspired. Sometimes that happens again today, during the Covid-19 era.

So, I read the new news, today's news on my phone. Answer all the e-mail. Check all my sites...skiing, music, straight news. And then...what am I gonna do with the rest of my time? I start thinking of these YouTube skiing videos I want to watch and I go to the site and staring me straight in the eye is the new Rick Beato video.

I've got major problems with YouTube. Not the ones musicians have, usage, how much they're getting paid, but primarily the fact that you cannot turn off autoplay. Oh, you can turn it off, but then it slips back on. I've researched online, it's a known problem, which Google doesn't want to fix, they want you to watch more. And then a couple of weeks back, they put a scrim over all the videos, with an ad, making you click more to see what you want. Drives me nuts. They're just trying to drive subscriptions. Oh, that's another thing, you have to constantly click that you don't want to pay for their service, don't want to subscribe. I'm not giving them my money on principle. I like that Google/YouTube hosts all these videos for free, but these bumps in the road are akin to the fees at hotels and on concert tickets...just make your offer, tell me what you need, and let me decide whether to partake or not. Otherwise, you're just pissing me off.

As for the suggestion to watch the Rick Beato video...

I don't believe in the algorithm. I never use Netflix's. Drives me crazy. I wanted to check out the Sam Jay comedy special but since I hadn't watched any standup comedy recently I no longer had a bar for that. To tell you the truth, I research before I watch anything, otherwise it makes no sense. Streaming series are a commitment, I don't want to watch for hours and realize something is junk. Oh yeah, I'm also pissed-off at Netflix because they got rid of their star rating system, now everything gets a high rating, absolute b.s., I'm already paying, can't you help me out?

But Beato has been in the news lately. Most notably the "Wall Street Journal." He gets recognized, he sells t-shirts. And there's something self-satisfied about the guy, but I must admit it's hard to click off his videos.

Most are gimmicks, top twentys. But today's is different, Beato is trying to reproduce the sound of "Ramble On."

Now, of course, we'd prefer to have Jimmy Page tell us. But the truth is it probably wouldn't be as good. He wouldn't nitpick like Rick does. And the fan experience is quite different. It's a treasure hunt. One of the few in this Google world where there are no rare records, where everything is available...how did Jimmy get that sound?

Oh, you know the sound. There's something about "Ramble On."

Sounds. That used to be a big part of making records, getting sounds. These sounds made some of our favorite records so. Like that wailing guitar in the intro to Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right."

Now this video, which only launched yesterday, hasn't broken a million views yet, and there's one, "Top 20 Acoustic Guitar Intros Of All Time" which is bubbling under ten million. And I don't think "Ramble On" will come close to that because it's for a different type of listener, not a casual fan, but someone who needs to get closer, like we did, in the sixties and seventies.

Funny thing about rock and roll, it's passé. Oh, people are making rock music, it's just a caricature of itself. But the classic sound... If you're infected, there is no cure. You can only get Led Zeppelin one place, and there's nothing quite like it, the sounds, the playing, the vocals...the same band which did "Black Dog" did "Ten Years Gone," never mind "Ramble On."

"Led Zeppelin II." I prefer the debut. Not that "II" isn't good, it's just that the initial LP is darker, more straight ahead, less obvious. Now Jimmy and the gang made up for this by going totally left field on "III," but we're talking about "II." I burned out on "Whole Lotta Love" in a week, if I never hear it again that's fine with me. I bought the album the day it came out and within a week I was done with it and never really returned to it until I was in a condo in Mammoth in '75 and it was on the 8-track, and I remembered how great the album was.

In the early days, my favorite cut was "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman." But even back then it was obvious that the acoustic numbers were the heart of the LP. Right after "Whole Lotta Love" came
"What Is And What Should Never Be," which eventually exploded, but this was Zeppelin's trademark, from quiet acoustic to explosive electric and then back again. But even better were "Thank You." And "Ramble On."

"Thank You" was majestic, as if it were being performed in the king's castle. Or out on the plains with no one around. But "Ramble On" was different, it was positively alive, not reflective so much as marching forward, back when being in your twenties wasn't about selling out but finding yourself.

So, Rick Beato is trying to recreate the acoustic guitar intro to "Ramble On." He starts with a photo of Jimmy Page in the studio. The chord he's playing. The guitar, the mic. He's trying to put it together, how did Jimmy get this magic sound?

And he's in the studio.

The studio, that used to be the holy grail, where the music was made. To get inside meant you were a member of the club, or at least a provisional one. Most people could not get inside. To this day I'm mesmerized when I go inside. All that gear! All of Rick's guitars!

And the engineers, all the rest of the help, never treat you right, this is their job, you're an outsider. Who got you in...the player or the producer will be friendly, if it's someone else, you'll soon have to leave. But we are in Rick Beato's studio for the duration.

So, it's a Vox acoustic guitar. With a bolted-on neck. From '69. All of this is important to the sound. Which Rick and his engineer now try to capture.

And they don't get it. Now I'm nitpicking. It's close, but it's not the real thing. And then Rick starts to tweak the sound in Pro Tools. So many options. He's getting close, very close, but still no cigar.

And then Rick goes back into the studio and VOILA! He figures it out, he's got to play the guitar closer to the bridge.

And now he's strumming and I'm smiling, I can't believe it, he's replicated the sound of "Ramble On"!

He didn't write it. And he's not getting paid for this video, Jimmy and his mates are. Rick's cool with that, but he is angry that his videos are taken down when he's making no money and the acts are. He's got a whole extended clip about it, that's how I became aware of his videos, someone insisted I watch it. And I had a bit of sympathy for Rick, but the truth is...the rights owners rule. Then again, if the rights owners, the players themselves as opposed to their hired intermediaries, knew what Rick was really doing with their work they'd okay it, since their efforts are being respected and they're getting paid for their use.

But I'm watching this clip and I feel at home.

It's hard to feel at home in the music business today. There's just too much music and too many special interests and too much blather. Someone sent me that article about the guy who went on vacation and got overwhelmed with new music and went back to the oldies: https://bit.ly/3iXaeOz I get it. It just takes too much effort to check everything out, can't someone lead the way? So far, no one's been able to do this.

I know, I know, a similar paradigm exists today. You try to get the beat. You get a topliner. But it's different. Forget even judging. They're two trains running on two different tracks. And today's music is social, a club, whereas back then the creation involved very few people, the band and the studio hands, to get the sound down that affected us all. The reach of a hit was unbelievable, the tracks were burned into our brains. Come on, you can sing "Ramble On" to yourself right now! And much of the rest of the Zeppelin catalog, whereas most people can't do that with any hit of today, never mind an album track.

What we're talking about in this video is the source of creation. Jimmy had the inspiration, how can we get closer to that?

That. You can't buy it. It's not for sale. Oh, you can purchase the end result, the record...but the journey to it, no way. It's a better plot than most movies. How do we get to genius. How do we recreate something that was probably done spontaneously. And when Rick gets there, your day is made. At least mine was.

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Lawrence Lessig-This Week's Podcast

Lawrence Lessig is one of America's preeminent legal scholars, a law professor at Harvard, he also ran for president in 2016. Listen as we address the legal issues surrounding the presidential election, social media and antitrust. This is up-to-date legal analysis that is a must listen!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lawrence-lessig/id1316200737?i=1000488664969

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TMII3hNOgDfEKcx26sKiK

https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=77090881

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Wednesday, 19 August 2020

The AWAL Numbers

"AWAL says 'hundreds' of its artists now earn $100k+ a year from streaming": https://bit.ly/3aDy3rC

Daniel Ek spoke about the number of artists making bank on Spotify and he was excoriated by seemingly every musician over the age of 50 and the wannabes who probably never will be.

Welcome to 2020, where it's all about groupspeak. God help you if you say anything negative about Biden and Harris, you'll be ostracized by people who say we must defeat Trump and you're a stupid person who must shut up and get on board or leave the community.

A good example is this article in today's "Washington Post":

"The convention shows Democrats don't care about young voters - The way to lure young voters into a Democratic coalition is to include people who genuinely appeal to them": https://wapo.st/3hhG880

Read the comments, they're full of vitriol dismissing the writers' words, stating that the convention is wonderful, despite ratings being down, and we must rally around Biden and stop saying this nonsense. But how can we get to truth if we do not have a discussion? Talk to anybody in tech, anybody in the recording studio, it's oftentimes the most left field ideas that bear fruit, despite most of the left field ideas being justly disregarded. So now it's not only the right that requires full adherence, but the left too. If you need a trigger warning to go to college maybe you shouldn't be there.

So, the fact that some people are making money on streaming and others are not is not sexy. It's kind of like Lake Wobegone, every artist is above average and entitled to a comfortable living. What next, everybody should be able to play in the NBA and earn seven figures?

AWAL also states that "dozens" of its artists make more than a million dollars a year on streaming. Think about that, translate it to the major labels...do these three conglomerates have dozens of artists making seven figures a year in streaming royalties? Actually, that's doubtful. Which shows what a major statement AWAL's is.

Then again, AWAL's model is different. The artist owns his or her rights and gets the lion's share of the income. This is the new paradigm. Kind of like Kobalt and its dashboard that single-handedly brought publishing into the twenty first century. Old entities are opaque, new entities are transparent. If the company you're with won't give you access to the data, maybe you should be with a different company.

So, if you're signed to a major label, you're coughing up at least half of your royalties, and if you have an antique deal, probably much more! But the used-to-bes are the ones who are bitching loudest. But it's their own damn fault, they've got lousy deals, or they were just born at the wrong time. But don't extrapolate the experience of these oldsters to today, it's apples and oranges.

Furthermore, there are different kinds of streaming that pay different amounts. On demand and radio are different. So, a paid-for stream on Spotify is much higher in value than a radio stream on Pandora.

And then there's ownership...

If you wrote a sixteenth of a song, but don't even own the publishing, your slice is probably 1/32nd, and if it's a radio royalty...that's how you end up with all those bogus columns online about low payments.

But, streaming comes down to popularity. Do people really want to listen to your music? If not, you're gonna be broke. Come on, how many records did you buy in the physical era you played once? How many overpriced CDs did you buy to only hear one track? Don't blame the public, people are paying for music, they just might not be paying YOU!

As for the media outlets...if you expect them to understand streaming economics, you also expect the U.S. Congress to understand ticketing. Ticketmaster must be the enemy, otherwise I'd be able to sit in the front row for $50!

But these, once again, are not sexy stories. So, you make music and you made 100k a year from streaming. Who wants to print that? News focuses on the negative, ever notice? You want to believe you're lucky, that some poor other sot got hurt or killed. You want to believe someone else is at fault for your situation. No one wants to accept responsibility.

Once again, I'm not saying you're not entitled to a roof over your head and food on the table, but you are not entitled to a successful career in the arts. You need no degree, you just say you're an artist. Imagine, should I just say I'm a BMW mechanic and am entitled to six figures? Or a doctor entitled to more? Or a computer programmer? You need no skill to be a service worker, and that's why those jobs pay so poorly. Everybody's dreams can't come true!

Read this MusicAlly article, it's like the Antichrist, it's opposite everything you've heard, opposite the popular narrative. AWAL artists are making twice as much on recording as they are on touring. And revenues are going up! More artists are making more dollars from music. HOW COULD THIS BE A BAD THING?

But the system MUST be broken. I'M NOT GETTING RICH!

So, what happens is what always happens. The system breaks, it bifurcates, into insiders and outsiders. Do you expect Daniel Ek to reach out to the creative community again, painting a rosy picture of revenues? OF COURSE NOT! He's now music industry enemy #1, because he had an idea and made a billion. How come Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre had an idea and made the same amount and are lionized? And isn't everything about ideas? When it comes to art, execution is secondary to conception, that's what an artist is, someone who expresses ideas. Which is why you can make money covering the work of these artists, people want to hear their music, but they may not want to hear yours.

Then again, in a world where facts are fungible, most people won't believe the AWAL numbers either. It doesn't feel true to you so it can't be.

And it gets even better!

"'If you have $100k and control your rights, the value of the masters is a million dollars in the saleable value of your rights,' Kobalt chairman Willard Ahdritz told Music Ally, adding that by this calculation, AWAL already has some artists with catalogues worth $100m+."

But since you're left out, the system must be rigged. They do call it MUSICAL CHAIRS, however in this case it's not about luck.

Streaming saved the recorded music business, plain and simple. The numbers demonstrate it. Just like MTV saved the recorded music business back in 1981. But people would rather cry in their beer. They can't adjust to the new system, maybe the new system doesn't have a place for them.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS! READ IT AND REJOICE!

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Tuesday, 18 August 2020

Notre Dame & UNC

"Notre Dame cancels classes for 2 weeks after Covid-19 spike": https://abcn.ws/3g7HXD5

"UNC-Chapel Hill fall semester going online amid COVID-19 outbreaks, one week into classes": https://bit.ly/3hcaV65

This is what happens when you live in fantasyland. When you've got that American optimism, but none of the can-do spirit.

Who'da thunk college kids would get infected? After all, it's an educational environment where kids go to learn, to attend classes and then stay in their dorm and study. WRONG! College is about partying, getting high, having sex. If it weren't, I'd have never made it through. I learned much more outside the classroom and so does everybody else. You live apart from Mommy & Daddy...they may check in every day on your smartphone, but they don't know you stayed up until 4 A.M. and puked over the weekend.

The truth?

The colleges need the money. That's why they're open. Despite being bastions of learning, they've learned nothing.

And we've got this same optimism from our president. If we just ignore it, put our heads down and do what we want, everything will be fine, everything will go away...we're a nation of CHICKEN LITTLES!

And if you say otherwise, if you deflate the balloon, you're a hater. America can't handle the truth, it doesn't want to hear it. About seemingly everything. Upward mobility is higher in Canada and Europe. Life expectancy is down and infant mortality is up. But isn't this the greatest country in the world! What's next, a NASCAR driver who says he's gonna win after his engine blew up?

It's like America failed the marshmallow test. It can't sacrifice, not a whit. It wants what it wants and it wants it NOW! And nobody can suffer. And if you do, it can only be for a brief period of time. Imagine telling that to cancer, I was sick and stayed home for a month, now it's over, forget medication, I'm gonna live my life. Hilarious!

And the big story today is not the Democratic Convention, but the words of our supreme leader, Donald Trump:

"'It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday. 'They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that.'"

"Trump floats idea that fraud could lead to re-do of November election": https://reut.rs/2EbsMeS

WRONG! That's exactly what Trump wants. A tarnished outcome that allows him to continue to rule, despite him doing the tarnishing.

And forget politics, this disavowal of the truth, this disbelief in facts, permeates all sectors and both the left and the right.

SPOTIFY IS THE DEVIL! When the truth is Spotify gives 70% to rights holders and its business model is based on such slim margins that it often loses money.

TICKETMASTER IS THE ANTICHRIST! When the truth is Ticketmaster does nothing the acts don't tell it to do and the primary profit in concerts is in the ticketing, and the fees don't all go to Ticketmaster anyway, but are split with the building, the promoter and sometimes even the act!

It just doesn't feel right!

But science doesn't run on feel.

Trump said he had a feel for the coronavirus. Like you have a feel for the law. You believe you could argue the case better in court, not understanding there are underlying principles, a structure the attorneys and judges are functioning under. WHEN DID AMERICA GET SO DUMB?

So, we could have been planning how to integrate these college students into society at home. Where they'd live, where they'd get jobs, how much they would pay for online schooling. BUT NO! The institutions refused to come out of their bubbles. They flew on a wing and a prayer. And now that classes are cancelled...if I'm not living in the dorm and I'm not eating the food don't I deserve a discount? That's a legitimate question!

And then there are the wankers who believe concerts should start back up. After all, THEY'RE NOT SICK! Thank god the heavyweights in the industry realize this is untenable. But when Marc Geiger said no concerts until 2022 it made national news. As if people could combat the virus by wishing it away.

Now the ski areas are saying they're gonna open. They're gonna do social distancing. But they survive on international business, and if they don't let outsiders in they can't make their numbers. So, what's the plan? New Zealand just had a few cases and shut down the ski fields. The odds of skiing before a vaccine? DE MINIMIS!

Don't plan on doing anything for a long time. Because all indicators say it's going to get worse. With the cold weather and flu season. But you just won't believe it, that's just opinion. Yeah, BY EXPERTS! But expertise has been denigrated.

Can't somebody speak English?

We used to rely on musicians, before they all sold out to the man and bitched about their income. But now their reach and credibility are so low that no one's listening to them anyway. Meanwhile, a bipolar rapper is running for President and everybody watches the reality sideshow with their hands off when the truth is the man is sick and needs medical attention. What happened to our compassion?

It's bad and it's gonna get worse. And so far, the system hasn't saved us. And the chances of it doing so in the future are slim. Trump told hospitals to report Covid cases to his people as opposed to the CDC, now we've got no idea what the real numbers are. And local leaders are afraid of their constituents, so they don't take action either.

Test, trace, vaccine. It's the only way out of this.

As for business reopening...NO ONE WANTS TO GO!

As for Amazon...why is everybody bitching about Bezos, imagine what life would be like without his service! So, his wealth went up, SHOULDN'T IT? I don't know about you, but the delivery person is at my house seemingly every day, obviating my need to go to a retail establishment and put my life at risk. We shouldn't be tearing down Amazon, we should learn from its success and drive MORE E-COMMERCE! Oh, but we've got to save Main Street, the department store, when the truth is the public avoids them as soon as they've got a cheaper alternative. BUT SHOPPING IS THE AMERICAN WAY! Didn't George Bush tell us to do shop after 9/11? But the truth is the younger generation is not into shopping. Yes, you hear all about the retail adventures of the Kardashians, but oftentimes today's kids don't even get their driver's license. If Mommy & Daddy won't take them, there's Uber. As for goods...THEY WANT VIRTUAL GOODS! Hell, that's what the war on TikTok is all about, selling within the app, but you believe it's just about evil Apple. Apple may be evil, but the lesson here is today's youth are into ethereal purchases if they buy anything at all, it's about experiences, not physical items.

Of course there are exceptions. If what you write or say isn't 100% true, if there's even the slightest inaccuracy, YOU GET EXCORIATED! Our country lives on gotcha, it's the new American sport.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner goes on CNN and says the President is doing a great job: https://cnn.it/3aAaTCJ But why are we listening to this nincompoop whose father bought him a seat at Harvard, who made one of the worst real estate deals in New York City history and only got his job through nepotism.

Trump doesn't divest his holdings. Trump has the military stop at his golf resorts. Trump keeps pushing it and pushing it and constantly gets away with it. But the Democrats keep telling us...they're going to beat him with the SYSTEM!

Do you believe in the system? Where there is not enough money for school supplies? Where you've got no job but can't get relief? Where you can't even make ends meet when you have your low-paying service job?

Forget the Trumpers, they're delusional, getting their info from Fox and a Facebook algorithm that keeps them ill-informed. As for Zuckerberg...he fought America's corporations and won, a much bigger victory than Bobby Fuller's. You see Zuckerberg IS the law. And despite the blowback, nothing is changing at Facebook. As for the post office, what about the damage that's already been done?

This is not a time for celebration, this is time for reality. Now is the time for experts with no financial investment to tell us the truth. What next, you go to the doctor and with a tiny chance of survival they tell you you're gonna live? A track not on streaming services becoming a hit?

Sling your arrows all you want. And tell me I'm wrong when one thing is not as I predicted it. Who knows, the coronavirus might not come back with a vengeance this winter, but isn't the Boy Scout motto BE PREPARED? Oh, that was before the organization was controlled by the religious and admitted it was a bastion of predatory behavior. Priests couldn't be at fault. Trump can't be at fault. It was inevitable, it was baked-in...WRONG!

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Unheard Woodstock-This Week On SiriusXM

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Q5Ge6A

Pandora: https://bit.ly/34daC7A

Tune in today, August 18th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

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Monday, 17 August 2020

Umair Haque

Who controls the narrative?

Are you watching the Democratic Convention? I'm certainly not. Once upon a time, in the three network world, the conventions happened and they wiped out TV, they were all that was on the tube. Then came the cable era, and you didn't have to watch if you didn't want to. And now in the flat screen era...the networks are sideshows, cable news is a biased slugfest and we have options not only on streaming TV, but the entire internet, the whole world has been connected, and we can interact with each other. But being heard? That's a whole 'nother animal.

Distribution is king. Never let anybody tell you otherwise. It's very simple...if you create something, however great, and you can't get it into the marketplace, if people can't be made aware of it and be exposed to it...your tree fell in the forest and no one heard it. But in 2020, distribution has been flattened, we all have access, now what?

The key used to be to rig the game. But the public is too experienced now, it's been burned too many times. So, if you try to manipulate consciousness, if you try to manipulate virality, people realize this and bite back, you're worse off than if you never attempted to hoodwink them to begin with.

And then there is the low-level art and commerce that is made only for virality, i.e. TikTok and the Kardashians. Would the Kardashians be having all that plastic surgery, would they be playing to the camera if there were no camera? Of course not! What you've got is caste of hardly educated bodies speaking to those as empty as themselves, don't mistake these people for influencers, they're marketers pure and simple, they can sell products, but they don't affect minds whatsoever, they're not influencing anybody to think, to examine the precepts, to question whether their beliefs are accurate.

Now we've got this sea of madness, and on top of it a construct we're told makes sense, that delivers order, when nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, we've got two political tribes, but the truth is America, the entire world, has been broken into a zillion jigsaw puzzle pieces, and no one is even attempting to put them together, if anything they're denying this fracturing.

So, you can be sitting at home wondering if you're the only one who believes this way. You feel like a party of one. And, if you express your opinions, if you go against groupspeak, you're shouted down, you're messing with the system. Meanwhile, that's the goal of the right, to get us questioning our ideas and our influences to the point we second guess ourselves and give up.

I've been following Umair Haque on Twitter for years. I don't want to follow the big news organizations, I don't want my feed cluttered, if I want to know what they think, I'll just go to their sites. You see on Twitter, I'm looking for ideas, analysis, people who can put it all together, who've been spending their entire lives in the niche and have analyzed it and are now speaking about it. Of course, there's the trope that Twitter is just a slice of the public and it does not matter, but the truth is Twitter is a hotbed of intellectualism. If you're selling, Twitter is the wrong place to be. If you want to connect with the brain dead, go elsewhere. But if you want to argue about the concepts, Twitter is the place, and there you can affect the thoughts of others, and Twitter followers can find out they're not alone. Oh, they may not be alone on Facebook, where oldsters share stories of their children and their lifestyles, but you'll feel inadequate looking at photos on Instagram, believing you're a loser who has been left behind, but on Twitter...money is irrelevant, it's about who you are, what you think, and if you find someone who is saying what you believe, EUREKA!, you're now a party of two.

So I was scrolling through my Twitter feed this evening and Umair Haque was live-tweeting the convention. I didn't even know that was still a thing. But contrary to the media lovefest, Haque was criticizing the bloviators, pointing out how they were missing the point. Haque said we do not need testimony as to the character of Joe Biden, we all know he's decent. But who was speaking to economic conditions, who was evidencing a plan, who was convincing the young 'uns to come out and support this ticket? Oh, Haque had positive words for Bernie Sanders, but the only reason he was allowed to speak was to give the imprimatur of wokeness to Biden, to signal his followers to vote for Joe. But the truth is Bernie's agenda has been thrown overboard, what we now have is consultants playing it up the middle, safe, it's all about beating Trump, is this a good strategy?

So last night Jason Hirschhorn sent me a link. This is not a regular occurrence. Especially on a Sunday night. Obviously, it was important. Do you have sources whose links you'll click? The truth is we all do, and they're very few, most of what is sent/forwarded is ignored, because readers have been burned too many times, and most people are incapable of writing, especially so-called authorities like college professors. And when I clicked through I found this article by Umair Haque entitled:

"Americans Don't Get How to Fight Authoritarianism - And Time's Running Out - Americans Are Out of Their Depth. Trump is Already Stealing the Election and Getting Away With It.": https://bit.ly/2Yd9AEF

What hooked me were these lines:

"The Democrats have - prepare to stifle a giggle, or maybe spit out your coffee...THREATENED TO HOLD HEARINGS.

Oh no, I'm sure the authoritarians are quaking in their boots. Hearings! Wow!"

Wow, indeed. I felt alone all weekend. Pelosi was reconvening Congress for hearings about the USPS? When did that ever result in progress, when did that ever make a difference. Bill Barr just testified, no change. Even Mueller before him. So, everybody will feel good that they did something and...nothing will change.

So, what does Haque propose?

MASS PROTESTS! Like Belarus. In front of the White House. Insisting Trump RESIGN!

Are you paying attention to Belarus? Change is fomenting. But it's better to protest BEFORE the election.

So now I'm hooked. You know how exciting it is to find someone on your own page? YOU WANT MORE!

So I click to last week's article:

"Can Kamala Harris and Joe Biden Defeat Trump? - Some Boring and Annoying Thoughts About Kamala, Joe, and Donald": https://bit.ly/34b45ds

And I'm positively stunned. For a week now, we've been subjected to endless press coronating Kamala Harris, how the choice of her to be V.P. was positively genius. BUT NOT UMAIR HAQUE!

Umair drills down, dispassionately. Does Kamala add to the ticket. WILL KAMALA BRING OUT THE YOUTH VOTE?

Yes, the youth not reading "The New York Times," the youth not watching this convention, the youth who are riding in the back seat if they're in the car at all, the youth aligned with Bernie who didn't bother to vote for him in the primaries! Yes, that's what this election depends on, getting out the vote. Not so much your friends who talk politics, but the downtrodden who believe they're screwed and the government isn't doing anything for them...what are the Democrats promising them, who is speaking to them, can Kamala do this?

I'll let you read the analysis.

But now, like Jason Hirshhorn, I'm forwarding Haque's articles. I'm a personal marketer, I want to expose his ideas to others, I'm texting even though it's two in the morning, if my recipients didn't turn off the ringer, they deserve to be woken up!

And then, before he live tweets the convention, Haque writes again.

If you're a fan, what you're dying for is more content, you eat it up. Creators should play to their hard core, it's the only way to blow up, when you appeal to the faceless masses your message falls flat, but if you seed your fans...they just might spread the word.

So, today's article is entitled:

"Yes, Trump Really is Stealing the Election. And It's Almost Too Late. The Cycle of American Idiocy That's Letting Trump Steal the Election - in Broad Daylight": https://bit.ly/315GTeN

Yes, Haque does employ this tone. He doesn't care who he offends, it's all about the MESSAGE! Everybody's so busy pussyfooting, afraid of stepping on toes, that their watered-down message has no impact.

So, Haque's main point is Americans don't understand authoritarianism, fascism...BECAUSE THEY'VE NEVER EXPERIENCED IT! But, there are untold people on this planet who have, like Haque himself...HOW COME THEY WON'T LISTEN TO THEM!

Haque skewers left wing sacred cows. Like Boy Wonder Chris Hayes. Hayes tells you what you want to hear, makes you feel good, but it makes no difference, because the truth is Hayes is uninformed, he knows nothing about authoritarianism, AND THAT'S WHAT THIS ELECTION IS ALL ABOUT!

This screed is a marketing message. I don't even care if you agree with me or Umair. I'm talking about how you get your message heard, how it spreads in 2020.

It all comes down to content. You've got to create endlessly, improve your chops, to the point where you may touch someone who will do the marketing work for you.

Yet today anybody who wants to rise above starts with marketing, they think that's the key, when the truth is your only option today, the only way you can make it is via your content.

This is scary, people don't want to hear it, they'd rather complain that they're overlooked, broke, not part of the system that would blow them up if they could just get a slot... WRONG!

On the other hand, your message will spread very slowly, no matter how great you are. It's not like Umair Haque started yesterday, or even in this election cycle, he's been doing this for YEARS! But now the time is right, now his voice is needed, now his message resonates, now I'm spreading the word.

Forget those young 'uns... If I get one more song from the child of a reader I'll puke. They're TEN, THEY'VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY! We're so caught up in fame and money that the message has been lost in the process. Maybe you sing well, maybe you can even play...BUT WHAT IS THE MESSAGE!

All day long artists complain they're not getting paid, it's everybody's fault but their own. But the truth is their message is not resonating. Do you expect a brand of potato chips people don't buy to stay on the shelf? If you've got no hard core fans, if the word is not spreading on your work, the problem is YOU! You've got to work harder, hone your message, maybe even pivot. But people don't want to hear that, they'd rather rage at the system...BUT THERE IS NO SYSTEM! That's been completely broken in the last decade. There are tools you can employ to help you create, to distribute, but that's about all you've got.

America is too somnambulant, too caught up in its exceptionalism to realize it can happen here. It's not only Covid-19, the rest of the world is scratching its head, how can we be so ignorant as Trump consolidates power right under our noses and steals the next election.

Oh, I know...Trump will win and you'll cry in your beer. Why not get started now?

The truth is it comes down to message and expression. You can knock on all the doors you want, people won't vote unless your message is convincing. We've got so much useless work in America today...people think if they're busy it makes a difference, when it does not.

Work smart.

But first know what you're working for.

Every individual has power. But they're squandering it, oftentimes in defeat. Concentrate on what's in front of you, not some distant nirvana that doesn't even exist. Theoretically you can reach everybody, but the truth is you're lucky if you can reach anybody. Skill, message, passion...simple concepts, but too often ignored by creators today. But they're necessary to success, there's no easy way to the top anymore.

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Sunday, 16 August 2020

Harry Styles

https://spoti.fi/2E8KSOy

Is he the biggest rock star in the world today?

YES!

Wait a second, how could this happen? Aren't boy bands supposed to be a flash in the pan, purveying mindless drivel for prepubescent girls who promptly abandon their crush when they go through puberty, only to show up decades later for the reunion show?

Welcome to music in 2020. Where we're completely divorced from what came before, the pre-internet era, and there's no cohesive scene, despite the labels and the media telling us there is.

Today it's all about longevity. Not the first week numbers, but whether you can last, whether you can sustain, and the irony is so many of the touted number ones don't. Oh, you'll see it in their bios, on their Wikipedia pages, it's almost as worthless as a Grammy, anybody can debut at number one, but can they stay there?

Harry Styles does not have the best voice, not even in One Direction, but he knows the rule of rock and roll, that conception is more important than execution, that the talent is in the idea, not the raw skills, otherwise music would be dominated by the melisma monsters of "The Voice."

They've even got the 808 in country now. If you were frozen in the seventies and defrosted today, you'd believe that melody was a lost art, that the beat was everything, and that a canned sound from the eighties is the only way to gain success, but Harry Styles proves this is patently untrue. I'm not saying that "Watermelon Sugar" has the lyrical complexity and underlying gravitas of anything on Bob Dylan's "Rough and Rowdy Ways," but it is a hell of a lot more listenable, it puts you in that late summer mood, where you lament the passing of those days in the sun, but you've still got the fumes of the feeling, which you want to maintain.

Harry Styles has been on a musical hejira, trying to find his identity, who he wants to be. Rather than just replicating what is on the chart, he pursued his own cobbled-together vision, a combination of SoCal seventies along with a modern pop sensibility, to the point where he's making the most palatable music on the scene.

This should not be. We should all be listening to Jason Isbell, we should be hanging on every word of Drake and the Weeknd, not that they are not big in their own verticals, but Harry Styles seems to have transcended genre, he's king of all the charts, everything but rock, because the wankers who control that format don't want to admit this good-looking young 'un beat the regulars at their own game.

In a world where you're supposed to emerge fully-formed, Harry Styles has developed. Isn't this the way it used to be, isn't that why Warner Brothers stuck with you for five albums, because they believed you'd grow and find your groove? Styles's solo debut, the eponymous "Harry Styles," got all the publicity, but it's the second LP, "Fine Line" which has burned its way into the public consciousness. And at this point, "Watermelon Sugar" is the fourth hit single from the LP. Anyone can come up with one hit, but to deliver four is nearly unheard of, and in the modern world these four hits have all hit the chart in less than a year, unlike the seventies and eighties when labels took two and a half years to dribble the hits out, if they could make the album last that long.

But it's all image, right? Girls just want to look at and fantasize about Harry?

Wrong.

The official "Watermelon Sugar" video has 87+ million views on YouTube. And, then there's another lyric version that has 52+ million views. Yet, the song has has 565+ million streams on Spotify, never mind competing services. So, all this crap about YouTube ripping off creators...it appears all active listeners are on dedicated music streaming services, and the fact that Harry is a hunk is irrelevant.

Repeatability. That's the essence of a hit. Something you hear once and want to hear again. And the more you listen to it, the more you get into it, you're entranced, that's "Watermelon Sugar," and it's not even the best track on "Fine Line"..."Adore You," which has 520+ million streams on Spotify, holds that title.

"Fine Line" is "Silk Degrees," made by a more likable artist who has already had more sustained success than Boz Scaggs.

"Fine Line" is a Fleetwood Mac album, obviously hanging with Stevie Nicks has rubbed off on Harry.

It took years for people to acknowledge how great Michael Jackson's
"Off the Wall" was. He was supposed to be a mindless boy band singer, but that album ultimately penetrated the culture, from blacks to whites, to the point where when "Thriller" was released, it dominated the culture, albeit helped by videos on MTV.

Every week there are new releases. You don't know what to pay attention to. Maybe the work of old favorites, but after that? Furthermore, it takes so much effort to get into music, but it takes no effort to get into "Fine Line," you get into it immediately.

The boomers, who are nearly irrelevant, who don't count despite them telling us they do ad infinitum, would be positively stunned by "Fine Line." Come on, just play it at a dinner party, everybody will immediately ask..."What is that"

Youngsters know Harry. But his lack of dominance has to do with the culture as opposed to his work. We live in a Tower of Babel society. It's nearly impossible to take the temperature of not only the musical scene, not only the political scene, but any scene. So, something hiding in plain sight can be positively gigantic and you don't know, you can't feel it. But when you listen to "Fine Line" you do.

You may think I'm overstating the case. But the truth is Harry Styles is the little engine that could. Someone who everybody is aware of who has been dismissed out of the box, because the story is not sexy, despite his attractiveness he does not dominate TMZ, it's not about the antics, but the music. No one is shooting him. He's not making it by being featured on others' music, nor importing rappers on his tracks to make them hits.

I'm not saying Harry's team, both in the studio and at the label, don't deserve credit for his success, but you need someone to guide you, to lead the team. It's not like Harry worked with the producer du jour and employed their sound to dominate the chart, he did it his way, albeit with help, but almost no one can do it alone.

So, Harry Styles is this big. He may not be running for president, he may not be in the news every damn day, but he's a part of 2020 culture. And if you don't know, if you didn't get the memo, you have now!

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