Tune in tomorrow, Saturday December 17th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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Friday 16 December 2022
Dino Danelli
He was the first star drummer.
Except, of course, for Ringo Starr, but he was a Beatle. The Beatles were gods, everybody else was a musician.
And musicians the Young Rascals were, except of course for frontman Eddie Brigatti, with that space between his teeth. We knew everything about the bands, all we had were the album covers, and we stared at them, can close our eyes and still picture them.
I'd like to say I'm shocked that Dino Danelli died. And on one level I am, but on another, like Christine McVie, he did not die young, before his time, he was 78. Back in the Young Rascals' heyday that was considered old, now everybody expects to live into their nineties, but if that were the case why would the U.S. average life expectancy be 76.1 years? Dino just beat the average, but one thing's for sure, he and his band never were, average that is.
But it was a different era.
Kids had no idea who ran GM or IBM, there were no billionaires and the entire nation was music crazy. Credit the aforementioned Beatles. They broke in '64, a slew of British bands invaded right thereafter and seemingly everybody in America bought an electric guitar, because like Roger (then Jim) McGuinn sang, they wanted to be a rock and roll star.
And to be a rock and roll star you had to be your material. You had to write it, play it and sing it. The Monkees were derided for not living up to this standard, today no one would care.
And the first Rascals hits were covers. The delicious "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" and the exercise in excitement, "Good Lovin'." The Grateful Dead might have made the latter a staple of their live show, but anybody but a Deadhead would tell you the Rascals' version is definitive.
In retrospect, the first Young Rascals album was just an introduction. It was what came thereafter that really cemented their reputation. The second LP, "Collections," had the stellar Felix Cavaliere original "(I've Been) Lonely Too Long," and the Cavaliere/Brigatti compositions "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" and "What Is the Reason." Have you heard these recently? They maintain their energy, they stand up, exceed what is on the hit parade today. As for the third album, "Groovin'," there was the title track, "A Girl Like You," "How Can I Be Sure" and "You Better Run," all on the same album!
The Young Rascals were a juggernaut. And I went to see them headline a five act bill in the gym at Fairfield University.
People always ask me what was my first concert. Honestly, I can't remember. We were taken to cultural events from the onset of my earliest memories. Young people's concerts, plays, to go to a show was de rigueur. And using today's terminology, we were free range kids. Taking the train into New York City alone... And going to the show alone. We didn't need an escort, a chaperone... We were dropped off and waited in line after the show to use the pay phone to call for a pickup. By time our parents arrived the venue was usually empty, security, or what stood in for it back then, would be telling us to leave, they didn't care about our safety, they just wanted us out.
Now on October 15, 1967 when this concert took place, no one left early. No one cared about beating the traffic and you couldn't miss the opening act.
Anticipation built and the Young Rascals delivered. This was long before the day of tapes, never mind hard drives. You either had it or you did not. There was no click track. There were only four men on stage, running through their hits.
And even though he was in the back, Dino was as big a star as Eddie out front. There's the way he twirled his sticks... That was his trademark, we'd seen it on TV, it seemed impossible, he never dropped a stick and never missed a beat. You can see Dino in action at 4:48 in this clip: https://bit.ly/3W3qFNp
When the show was over my friend and I rushed the stage, got right up on the platform, and we took Dino's sticks.
They were thick. And they had slices in the parts where your hands would normally be. Yes, Dino played both ends. After he twirled them he couldn't be concerned with which end he was playing.
I kept those sticks until 1975, when my mother turned my bedroom into an office. She threw out my all my stuff, all my mementos, my World's Fair hat...and Dino Danelli's drumsticks.
She also threw out my baseball cards and my American Flyer slot cars. If I had both of those today, I could retire. But in truth, it's all about the memories, and I can still see Dino Danelli twirling those drumsticks on the Fairfield University stage. As for the records...they're embedded in wax, we change but they never do, and when we listen to them we remember who we were and what we were doing and it matters not a whit to anybody else, but it's everything to us.
Rock and roll is a hard mistress. What seems like forever is really just a few years long. When you're young you think these bands will last forever. But few do. Except for the superstars, the rest go on to straight jobs, or die prematurely. It's weird, without education or experience so many end up doing manual labor. They were your heroes, and now...
Of course there are oldies shows. And the Rascals even reunited and Dino spun his sticks once again, but now it's too late. Just like a Monkees reunion is too late. Life bit 'em in the ass, and eventually it's going to bite us too.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. What you've got to understand is in the sixties kids ruled. Oldsters didn't want to be us, they resented us. Kids tested limits, kids drove the culture, and nowhere was this as prominent as it was in music. I'd detail the growth, from cottage industry to public company, but if you were not there... Let's just say before the Beatles no one expected rock acts to be forever, for the members to be rich, to live the lives of royalty. This was a new thing. And ever since everybody wants to imitate them, become rich and famous. But it's not the same. Acts got ripped-off, but they got laid. The adventures were incredible, but now...
Elvis's sales are going down, his audience is dying off. SiriusXM's 60s on 6 is no longer on 6. That low channel number is valuable real estate. First it was the forties that switched to a high number, then the fifties and soon it will be the seventies. Our history is disappearing right in front of our eyes, and most don't seem to care. They're into the new. When sometimes the old is much better.
But in the era of constant school shootings, how much news value does the death of an old rocker have?
After Dino came Ginger Baker, the drum solo. But Ginger's dead too. So many of them are already gone, with more on the way. If you didn't see them, you never will.
All that's left is the pictures in your mind. You can talk about them, but unless you were there you have no idea of the visceral impact of Dino Danelli and the Rascals and so many more. I remember tingling when I saw Gene Cornish in Sam Ash on one of those non-supervised trips to New York, we had to cruise 48th Street, go to Manny's and the rest of the music stores that are no longer there. You had to go to the city to get a discount, now you just go on Amazon.
So if you were there you know how I feel. You want to remember Dino in that schoolboy outfit twirling his sticks and pounding the skins positively alive. You don't want to think about the decades thereafter. Because Dino was a star, someone you looked up to, someone who was cool, someone who gave you reason to be alive.
But he's dead now.
And soon you will be too.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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Except, of course, for Ringo Starr, but he was a Beatle. The Beatles were gods, everybody else was a musician.
And musicians the Young Rascals were, except of course for frontman Eddie Brigatti, with that space between his teeth. We knew everything about the bands, all we had were the album covers, and we stared at them, can close our eyes and still picture them.
I'd like to say I'm shocked that Dino Danelli died. And on one level I am, but on another, like Christine McVie, he did not die young, before his time, he was 78. Back in the Young Rascals' heyday that was considered old, now everybody expects to live into their nineties, but if that were the case why would the U.S. average life expectancy be 76.1 years? Dino just beat the average, but one thing's for sure, he and his band never were, average that is.
But it was a different era.
Kids had no idea who ran GM or IBM, there were no billionaires and the entire nation was music crazy. Credit the aforementioned Beatles. They broke in '64, a slew of British bands invaded right thereafter and seemingly everybody in America bought an electric guitar, because like Roger (then Jim) McGuinn sang, they wanted to be a rock and roll star.
And to be a rock and roll star you had to be your material. You had to write it, play it and sing it. The Monkees were derided for not living up to this standard, today no one would care.
And the first Rascals hits were covers. The delicious "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" and the exercise in excitement, "Good Lovin'." The Grateful Dead might have made the latter a staple of their live show, but anybody but a Deadhead would tell you the Rascals' version is definitive.
In retrospect, the first Young Rascals album was just an introduction. It was what came thereafter that really cemented their reputation. The second LP, "Collections," had the stellar Felix Cavaliere original "(I've Been) Lonely Too Long," and the Cavaliere/Brigatti compositions "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" and "What Is the Reason." Have you heard these recently? They maintain their energy, they stand up, exceed what is on the hit parade today. As for the third album, "Groovin'," there was the title track, "A Girl Like You," "How Can I Be Sure" and "You Better Run," all on the same album!
The Young Rascals were a juggernaut. And I went to see them headline a five act bill in the gym at Fairfield University.
People always ask me what was my first concert. Honestly, I can't remember. We were taken to cultural events from the onset of my earliest memories. Young people's concerts, plays, to go to a show was de rigueur. And using today's terminology, we were free range kids. Taking the train into New York City alone... And going to the show alone. We didn't need an escort, a chaperone... We were dropped off and waited in line after the show to use the pay phone to call for a pickup. By time our parents arrived the venue was usually empty, security, or what stood in for it back then, would be telling us to leave, they didn't care about our safety, they just wanted us out.
Now on October 15, 1967 when this concert took place, no one left early. No one cared about beating the traffic and you couldn't miss the opening act.
Anticipation built and the Young Rascals delivered. This was long before the day of tapes, never mind hard drives. You either had it or you did not. There was no click track. There were only four men on stage, running through their hits.
And even though he was in the back, Dino was as big a star as Eddie out front. There's the way he twirled his sticks... That was his trademark, we'd seen it on TV, it seemed impossible, he never dropped a stick and never missed a beat. You can see Dino in action at 4:48 in this clip: https://bit.ly/3W3qFNp
When the show was over my friend and I rushed the stage, got right up on the platform, and we took Dino's sticks.
They were thick. And they had slices in the parts where your hands would normally be. Yes, Dino played both ends. After he twirled them he couldn't be concerned with which end he was playing.
I kept those sticks until 1975, when my mother turned my bedroom into an office. She threw out my all my stuff, all my mementos, my World's Fair hat...and Dino Danelli's drumsticks.
She also threw out my baseball cards and my American Flyer slot cars. If I had both of those today, I could retire. But in truth, it's all about the memories, and I can still see Dino Danelli twirling those drumsticks on the Fairfield University stage. As for the records...they're embedded in wax, we change but they never do, and when we listen to them we remember who we were and what we were doing and it matters not a whit to anybody else, but it's everything to us.
Rock and roll is a hard mistress. What seems like forever is really just a few years long. When you're young you think these bands will last forever. But few do. Except for the superstars, the rest go on to straight jobs, or die prematurely. It's weird, without education or experience so many end up doing manual labor. They were your heroes, and now...
Of course there are oldies shows. And the Rascals even reunited and Dino spun his sticks once again, but now it's too late. Just like a Monkees reunion is too late. Life bit 'em in the ass, and eventually it's going to bite us too.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. What you've got to understand is in the sixties kids ruled. Oldsters didn't want to be us, they resented us. Kids tested limits, kids drove the culture, and nowhere was this as prominent as it was in music. I'd detail the growth, from cottage industry to public company, but if you were not there... Let's just say before the Beatles no one expected rock acts to be forever, for the members to be rich, to live the lives of royalty. This was a new thing. And ever since everybody wants to imitate them, become rich and famous. But it's not the same. Acts got ripped-off, but they got laid. The adventures were incredible, but now...
Elvis's sales are going down, his audience is dying off. SiriusXM's 60s on 6 is no longer on 6. That low channel number is valuable real estate. First it was the forties that switched to a high number, then the fifties and soon it will be the seventies. Our history is disappearing right in front of our eyes, and most don't seem to care. They're into the new. When sometimes the old is much better.
But in the era of constant school shootings, how much news value does the death of an old rocker have?
After Dino came Ginger Baker, the drum solo. But Ginger's dead too. So many of them are already gone, with more on the way. If you didn't see them, you never will.
All that's left is the pictures in your mind. You can talk about them, but unless you were there you have no idea of the visceral impact of Dino Danelli and the Rascals and so many more. I remember tingling when I saw Gene Cornish in Sam Ash on one of those non-supervised trips to New York, we had to cruise 48th Street, go to Manny's and the rest of the music stores that are no longer there. You had to go to the city to get a discount, now you just go on Amazon.
So if you were there you know how I feel. You want to remember Dino in that schoolboy outfit twirling his sticks and pounding the skins positively alive. You don't want to think about the decades thereafter. Because Dino was a star, someone you looked up to, someone who was cool, someone who gave you reason to be alive.
But he's dead now.
And soon you will be too.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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
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The Twitter Bans
This isn't about social media, this is about authoritarianism. This is what happens when one person has too much power and exercises it willy-nilly. Not only can no one stop him (or her!), a good percentage of the population supports them.
That's right, Elon Musk is now a hero to the right. Which is kind of a headscratcher since his reputation was being a hero to the left, i.e. Tesla. Yes, the right, from the "Wall Street Journal" opinion page to legislators to the rank and file, is anti-electric automobiles. There are bogus scientific explanations, there's the defense of the oil industry, there's a refusal to accept change and at the root it's got to do with freedom. Yes, the freedom to drive gas-guzzlers.
And freedom of speech. That's the right's complaint about Twitter, that it's biased towards the left, even though statistics tell us otherwise. As for Hunter Biden's laptop... I won't wade into this quagmire, but assuming everything they say is true, what has it got to do with Joe Biden? Somehow Donald Trump is immune to the activities of his children and his real estate empire but Joe Biden, a civil servant with a fraction of the cash, is responsible for everything every relative ever did?
It doesn't make sense. Don't try to analyze it.
But that's the rank and file. Here we're talking about Elon Musk.
He's a billionaire. Can we stop talking about his fall from #1 to #2? Isn't that like saying Scarlett Johansson or some other legendary beauty has a zit? I mean what difference does it make, they're still extremely attractive. And Elon Musk is still extremely rich. And in this country we venerate money and looks. Hell, that's another thing Elon Musk does, criticize people's attractiveness, their weight, even though he was shown in a bathing suit to be less than a perfect specimen.
But it's not only the physical Musk addresses, he also called a cave-rescuer a pedophile. Even worse, he believes the SEC does not apply to him.
It's not only Donald Trump who has skated legally. Musk still hasn't been prosecuted for failing to publicly announce he exceeded 5% ownership in Twitter. And he's lobbying for previous SEC restrictions to be lifted.
In other words, in America if you're rich and powerful enough, the rules don't apply. This has been the situation for eons, but we never had people this rich and powerful. Furthermore, a good proportion of the rank and file root for the rich, believing they too will be rich sometime. And they vote for policies for the rich for the same reason, like lower taxes. Never mind the power of the rich to sway public sentiment. The rich are a shadow government. Hiding in plain sight. They're the rock stars of modern life. As for the theoretical musician rock stars? They'll do anything for the money, music is just a jumping off point to become rich. The goal is to become a brand. There's just not enough money making music. Can you say Rihanna? Meanwhile, these dodos, oftentimes uneducated, after all, what other vertical requires no schooling to enter, don't realize the essence of music is the ability to speak truth to power. Rupert Murdoch is not in it for the money, he's in it to sway the course of not only public opinion, but the country itself. That's the power of owning the ink.
Anyway, Musk is so rich, that he could buy Twitter outright. We've never seen this in America before, where one person could own what appeared to be a public institution, responsible to no one. That's right, there are no guardrails at Twitter. And Musk keeps saying one thing and doing another. Just hours after saying he wouldn't ban reporters, he did.
Part of his rationalization is protecting his family. Well, this is evidence of the lack of privacy we all experience. And as of this writing there's no evidence to the case, i.e. that his family was at risk, that there was a specific event. But in any event, Musk is shoring up power, he cannot be at risk. Just like an authoritarian despot like Putin. Or Orban, the hero of the right. And other totalitarian rulers. It's their world, and we just live in it.
And Twitter is so big and so powerful that as of now, it can't be supplanted. That's the online history, no platform has ever been decimated by protest or cancellation of accounts. Theoretically there could be a competitor, but look at Truth Social, a backwater most are unaware of.
Meanwhile, the press keeps reporting Musk's antics and nothing changes.
In truth, Musk is going to run up against new EU rules... But in America we've been told we live in the greatest country in the world and most of the population has never been anywhere else and the EU is looked down upon. It's Brexit on steroids here in the good ole' USA.
Even worse, Musk has the right to do all this! Yes, he owns Twitter, it's a private company, he can ban whomever he wants to. Another headscratcher, the right is too dumb to know that freedom of speech does not apply to private companies just like concertgoers are too dumb to understand that all the ticket fees don't go to Ticketmaster. Today the facts don't matter, emotion does. And amazingly, the emotion on the right is that Musk is standing up to the big bad government. The same government that swooped in and aided Florida after the hurricane, even though DeSantis is a Republican.
The government is no match for Musk. He's unafraid of it. And there can be no penalty because there is gridlock in D.C., half the elected officials' singular goal is to make sure the other makes no progress. And if you clamp down on Musk there will be public outcry.
And in truth most people don't care about Twitter, but the social network is where journalists themselves hang out, where news is initially made and distributed. That's why the Twitter story never leaves the newspaper. This is the henhouse where reporters live. And they are used to speaking truth to power, that's why you become a reporter, and now you can't speak at all!
This is just a dry run for what can become. This is what it would look like if Trump got re-elected, became president again. One person acting on their whims, responsible to no one, even if the supposed rules say otherwise.
This is scary. We expect this nonsense from Kanye, but he doesn't own Spotify.
This is happening in plain sight. And many Americans have their heads in the ground, like they did with the Holocaust and the Ukraine war...they think it doesn't affect them. But eventually they come after you.
He or she who controls the news controls the country. And right now, Elon Musk controls the news. On a supposedly open platform.
I could tell everybody to cancel their account, but like I said above, this won't happen and there will be no change.
No, our only hope is the government, which is paralyzed.
As for billionaires... This is the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Low taxes. Trickle down? Is Elon Musk giving you any of his money? The rich give proportionately less to charity than the poor.
No one should be that rich. Absolutely no one. That wealth distorts not only the economy, but public life.
And now I've alienated a good portion of my readers. They support Musk no matter what he does, it's a religion.
And I'll speak the truth but many will not. They're afraid, of it affecting their pocketbook. Oldsters like David Crosby will state their truth and not care about the effects, but the younger generations? They don't want to be political, they don't want to take a risk, which is why they end up with little power. Unless you're willing to stand up for your beliefs, you don't count.
There will be more news. Who knows, Musk could even reinstate the accounts of these reporters. But just you wait, further shenanigans will ensue. Musk has huge blind spots. We think if someone is rich they know everything, have skills in other verticals, but this is patently untrue.
And don't talk to me about the last election and the defeat of the red wave. Rust never sleeps, and authoritarianism is gaining ground around the world. People want someone who will make the trains run on time, who grants them the illusion that there is control. And once that person gains control, they never ever give it up.
Be forewarned. I'd say this is just the beginning, but it's been going on for decades. The freedom that many want is really control. They want to make sure you don't have a voice, and eventually have no power. And then...
That's right, Elon Musk is now a hero to the right. Which is kind of a headscratcher since his reputation was being a hero to the left, i.e. Tesla. Yes, the right, from the "Wall Street Journal" opinion page to legislators to the rank and file, is anti-electric automobiles. There are bogus scientific explanations, there's the defense of the oil industry, there's a refusal to accept change and at the root it's got to do with freedom. Yes, the freedom to drive gas-guzzlers.
And freedom of speech. That's the right's complaint about Twitter, that it's biased towards the left, even though statistics tell us otherwise. As for Hunter Biden's laptop... I won't wade into this quagmire, but assuming everything they say is true, what has it got to do with Joe Biden? Somehow Donald Trump is immune to the activities of his children and his real estate empire but Joe Biden, a civil servant with a fraction of the cash, is responsible for everything every relative ever did?
It doesn't make sense. Don't try to analyze it.
But that's the rank and file. Here we're talking about Elon Musk.
He's a billionaire. Can we stop talking about his fall from #1 to #2? Isn't that like saying Scarlett Johansson or some other legendary beauty has a zit? I mean what difference does it make, they're still extremely attractive. And Elon Musk is still extremely rich. And in this country we venerate money and looks. Hell, that's another thing Elon Musk does, criticize people's attractiveness, their weight, even though he was shown in a bathing suit to be less than a perfect specimen.
But it's not only the physical Musk addresses, he also called a cave-rescuer a pedophile. Even worse, he believes the SEC does not apply to him.
It's not only Donald Trump who has skated legally. Musk still hasn't been prosecuted for failing to publicly announce he exceeded 5% ownership in Twitter. And he's lobbying for previous SEC restrictions to be lifted.
In other words, in America if you're rich and powerful enough, the rules don't apply. This has been the situation for eons, but we never had people this rich and powerful. Furthermore, a good proportion of the rank and file root for the rich, believing they too will be rich sometime. And they vote for policies for the rich for the same reason, like lower taxes. Never mind the power of the rich to sway public sentiment. The rich are a shadow government. Hiding in plain sight. They're the rock stars of modern life. As for the theoretical musician rock stars? They'll do anything for the money, music is just a jumping off point to become rich. The goal is to become a brand. There's just not enough money making music. Can you say Rihanna? Meanwhile, these dodos, oftentimes uneducated, after all, what other vertical requires no schooling to enter, don't realize the essence of music is the ability to speak truth to power. Rupert Murdoch is not in it for the money, he's in it to sway the course of not only public opinion, but the country itself. That's the power of owning the ink.
Anyway, Musk is so rich, that he could buy Twitter outright. We've never seen this in America before, where one person could own what appeared to be a public institution, responsible to no one. That's right, there are no guardrails at Twitter. And Musk keeps saying one thing and doing another. Just hours after saying he wouldn't ban reporters, he did.
Part of his rationalization is protecting his family. Well, this is evidence of the lack of privacy we all experience. And as of this writing there's no evidence to the case, i.e. that his family was at risk, that there was a specific event. But in any event, Musk is shoring up power, he cannot be at risk. Just like an authoritarian despot like Putin. Or Orban, the hero of the right. And other totalitarian rulers. It's their world, and we just live in it.
And Twitter is so big and so powerful that as of now, it can't be supplanted. That's the online history, no platform has ever been decimated by protest or cancellation of accounts. Theoretically there could be a competitor, but look at Truth Social, a backwater most are unaware of.
Meanwhile, the press keeps reporting Musk's antics and nothing changes.
In truth, Musk is going to run up against new EU rules... But in America we've been told we live in the greatest country in the world and most of the population has never been anywhere else and the EU is looked down upon. It's Brexit on steroids here in the good ole' USA.
Even worse, Musk has the right to do all this! Yes, he owns Twitter, it's a private company, he can ban whomever he wants to. Another headscratcher, the right is too dumb to know that freedom of speech does not apply to private companies just like concertgoers are too dumb to understand that all the ticket fees don't go to Ticketmaster. Today the facts don't matter, emotion does. And amazingly, the emotion on the right is that Musk is standing up to the big bad government. The same government that swooped in and aided Florida after the hurricane, even though DeSantis is a Republican.
The government is no match for Musk. He's unafraid of it. And there can be no penalty because there is gridlock in D.C., half the elected officials' singular goal is to make sure the other makes no progress. And if you clamp down on Musk there will be public outcry.
And in truth most people don't care about Twitter, but the social network is where journalists themselves hang out, where news is initially made and distributed. That's why the Twitter story never leaves the newspaper. This is the henhouse where reporters live. And they are used to speaking truth to power, that's why you become a reporter, and now you can't speak at all!
This is just a dry run for what can become. This is what it would look like if Trump got re-elected, became president again. One person acting on their whims, responsible to no one, even if the supposed rules say otherwise.
This is scary. We expect this nonsense from Kanye, but he doesn't own Spotify.
This is happening in plain sight. And many Americans have their heads in the ground, like they did with the Holocaust and the Ukraine war...they think it doesn't affect them. But eventually they come after you.
He or she who controls the news controls the country. And right now, Elon Musk controls the news. On a supposedly open platform.
I could tell everybody to cancel their account, but like I said above, this won't happen and there will be no change.
No, our only hope is the government, which is paralyzed.
As for billionaires... This is the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Low taxes. Trickle down? Is Elon Musk giving you any of his money? The rich give proportionately less to charity than the poor.
No one should be that rich. Absolutely no one. That wealth distorts not only the economy, but public life.
And now I've alienated a good portion of my readers. They support Musk no matter what he does, it's a religion.
And I'll speak the truth but many will not. They're afraid, of it affecting their pocketbook. Oldsters like David Crosby will state their truth and not care about the effects, but the younger generations? They don't want to be political, they don't want to take a risk, which is why they end up with little power. Unless you're willing to stand up for your beliefs, you don't count.
There will be more news. Who knows, Musk could even reinstate the accounts of these reporters. But just you wait, further shenanigans will ensue. Musk has huge blind spots. We think if someone is rich they know everything, have skills in other verticals, but this is patently untrue.
And don't talk to me about the last election and the defeat of the red wave. Rust never sleeps, and authoritarianism is gaining ground around the world. People want someone who will make the trains run on time, who grants them the illusion that there is control. And once that person gains control, they never ever give it up.
Be forewarned. I'd say this is just the beginning, but it's been going on for decades. The freedom that many want is really control. They want to make sure you don't have a voice, and eventually have no power. And then...
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Thursday 15 December 2022
Taylor Lorenz-This Week's Podcast
"Washington Post" tech correspondent Taylor Lorenz is the number one reporter on social media. We go through all the platforms, their history and where they are going. Taylor is deep into it, she's not only a scribe, but a player in the sphere. She's the one you need to listen to!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/taylor-lorenz-106019912/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/taylor-lorenz/id1316200737?i=1000590266784
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WPQvkOfzIjXvArJrWkR7Z?si=J54_NEDWSXW4as8ByhSzkQ
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/a5bcc66a-8375-4362-b9f8-b7d56fb16c98/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-taylor-lorenz
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/taylor-lorenz-209855193
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/taylor-lorenz-106019912/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/taylor-lorenz/id1316200737?i=1000590266784
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WPQvkOfzIjXvArJrWkR7Z?si=J54_NEDWSXW4as8ByhSzkQ
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/a5bcc66a-8375-4362-b9f8-b7d56fb16c98/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-taylor-lorenz
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/taylor-lorenz-209855193
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Turbocharged Stars
You can't avoid Elon Musk.
There are only three superstars in America today, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Kanye West. You can't avoid them, everybody knows who they are and everybody has an opinion on them. Used to be records were ubiquitous, now it's people. This is what the internet has wrought.
For a minute there we thought we had the equivalent in Adele, but she could not follow up her breakthrough record, "21," at the same artistic level. That was the magic of the Beatles, they never disappointed us, and they were always moving forwards. This is something that has been lost from music today. Today, everybody coasts. They find their niche and stay in it. It's so hard to gain an audience that they don't want to risk losing any of theirs. Experimentation is anathema.
Most people didn't used to follow the news. Kids didn't read the newspaper nor were they addicted to television news, of which there was a limited amount. News was not 24/7, music was. You couldn't escape a hit record. That was the power of radio. Hits were ubiquitous. No longer.
The internet allows you to reach everybody in the world. Literally everybody. Go to the most remote hamlet, and they've got smartphones. But what spreads...
First you must have a personality, an identity. This is where music is lacking. We've got cartoons, but other than Kanye, no one who is 3-D to all citizens. You don't have to be in the news 24/7 if you create a good enough record. But no one creates a record that good anymore.
As for artistry, the only media that can reach most people and affect them are movies and streaming television. But let me be clear with movies, the only ones with ubiquity are superhero movies, and contrary to what purveyors and fans believe, there's a wall around them. A good number of people want to see them, but even more don't.
And theatre-going is the antithesis of the modern paradigm, wherein everything is available 24/7 and is relatively cheap. Movies have turned into events, which has minimized their impact. Whereas streaming TV subscriptions are cheap, and everybody has them, like Spotify. As for ad-supported tiers, the usual suspects are clueless. In the modern world ads look like content and you only see them on TikTok and Instagram. Madison Avenue needs a makeover. Sure, there was a breakthrough decades ago when commercials featured rock music, a graduation from the Greatest Generation's crooner classics, but since then there has been stasis. Ads today must be doing the viewer a favor, they cannot be interruptions, they must be interesting. Yes, the ads on Instagram are tailored to the viewer, and if you don't want a bunch of the products hawked, you're like the Unabomber, living off the grid. As for TikTok, many people can't even tell the difference between ads and user-generated content. As for influencers...they are whores. Influencers are like boy bands, appealing to the lowest common denominator youngsters, like New Kids on the Block. There is no Max Martin in the influencer game, so we've got no Backstreet Boys or NSYNC, unfortunately.
In other words, if the ad-supported tiers were a thing, the companies would release the numbers. Spotify does...a bunch of listeners generating de minimis money. As for Netflix... This is what happens with today's breakthrough companies. They're ahead of the game, and then they become mature and have no second act. Good examples being Meta and Netflix. They wowed, and now they no longer can. Whereas the above trio, Elon, Donald and Kanye, seem to realize that he not busy being born is busy dying.
Elon is the Beatles, if the lead singer was Charles Manson, or maybe Tiny Tim. Someone who knows how to gain attention through constant innovation. Once again, musical acts don't realize this. The reason Musk is interesting is because he's got a number of hits and keeps moving into new, unrelated territory. What does PayPal have to do with Tesla? Or Tesla with SpaceX? Or any of these three with Twitter? And unlike the musicians, Musk isn't busy being a brand. He's all-in. Unlike the musician brands, he lays down his own money. He's not about ripping people off but delivering new and better experiences, oftentimes unforeseen. And you can criticize him, saying he wasn't the innovator at Tesla, but if you were alive back in the sixties you're aware that the Beatles were not universally loved, were not warm and fuzzy. The Greatest Generation never warmed up to them, except maybe for covers of "Yesterday" and "Michelle."
As for the Donald... He realizes that audience is king, size is everything, and truth is irrelevant. The internet amplifies outrage. And Trump delivers that every day.
As for Kanye... We're only paying attention because of his greatest hits. The music and the clothing. Got to say, like the Beatles, we were always interested in his next move. Speaking of moving, to Wyoming, a notoriously white, conservative, rural state? Yes, Kanye was breaking racial barriers. And the success of his clothing lines. But for Kanye it wasn't enough. He's still saying he's going to be president someday. He stopped speaking through his art. Then he got so addicted to attention that he tested the limits to stay in the limelight and pushed away not only Fortune 500 companies, but the public. Yes, some things are still over the line.
As for streaming TV... Sure, it was the beginning of lockdown, but we'd never seen anything like "The Tiger King." And what resonates most is always humanity. We cared less about the animals than Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, Jeff Lowe and the rest of the royalty in a world we didn't even know existed.
And "Squid Game" made us confront our own life and death. Were we at risk, what would we do to survive.
Great streaming TV is always about the concept and the humanity. The essence of the classic rock of the sixties. When it became about gaming the formula, with corporate rock, it died. That's what keeps us paying attention to the trio above, they never blink, never concede, they're all in.
In an era where politicians are wishy-washy.
What do we keep hearing? You've got to appeal to the center. When all of the above tells us that is death. This is why AOC is such a star. She weighs in on everything and never compromises in her youthful viewpoint. She's an icon for disillusioned young adults. Oh, you hate her? Well, in order to have a profile in the modern world you must have haters, if you have no edge, no one cares about you.
I'm not saying I want to hear from and be exposed to Musk, Trump and West every day, but they've figured out the system when everybody else is afraid or doesn't understand it or...
Yes, the millennials were all about fitting in. And if you alienate someone, they can't be your friend. You need to be a member of the group, whereas with boomers it was all about singular excellence. And losers hated winners, unlike the kumbaya youngsters.
So, in order to become a superstar in today's world you must start with an essence. Elon and Kanye had track records. As for Trump...we thought he was a billionaire, and he was the beneficiary of "The Apprentice" in the same way Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band were beneficiaries of VH1. Both of these paradigms died, but these three squeaked through and have coasted on this past exposure.
So, if you want to succeed today, you must have not only an essence, but you must have a track record. Complaining is useless. You've got to earn the right to complain, like Trump and West. Complaints without underpinnings are worthless. We only care when superstars complain, not nobodies.
So first focus on your identity. That's what TikTok is all about and what today's educational system is trying to constrict, trying to make everybody a rote zombie.
Then you have to focus on accomplishments. If you've got none, we are not going to take you seriously. You must have a base, and I'm not talking about fans, but works.
And then you must create something special, or be pushing the envelope to the point where we can't take our eyes off of you.
This is beyond twentieth century tropes, like rap wars. Most people don't want to die, and they can't understand the constant use of gun violence.
You must be singular, not worrying about the backlash or wanting everyone to love you. You must stand your ground. You must be so interesting that we can't take our eyes off of you.
Now Musk, Trump and Kanye have turned into clowns, to some degree pariahs. Why don't we have reasonable superstars?
Well, we did for a moment there, with Bernie Sanders. Age didn't matter, his beliefs did. He was the Democratic party's worst nightmare, but the people's hope. And you've got to give people hope.
But leaders who aren't crazy, that's what we're looking for.
And it's not about data, statistics, it's about state of mind. You've got to enter our consciousness organically. Data is old school. Data can't tell you where you're going, and the data got it wrong on Trump in 2016.
I'm sick and tired of hearing about the above trio. But that's the world we live in. Where three men have risen above the fray and are known by everybody. And those who used to be well-known have become niche. Complaining musicians who care first and foremost about money.
We want icons to rally around, to have an opinion about, but those addicted to twentieth century models won't deliver them. Three men had to forge their own paths with little support. You make your own career, others don't do that for you, the established companies are lost in the past, they've got money and nothing else. They want to mold you, restrict you, smooth over and compromise your work when it's the unexpected edges that hook us.
The internet allows you to reach everyone, but it's very hard to do, and they're all originals.
As for the rest of the so-called "stars"... They might as well be in distant galaxies, their light is dim and who really cares about ancient galaxies anyway, a few but not many.
We live in an era of individuals. Have an identity if you want to climb. Be confident in doing it your way. And if you don't have traction it's your fault.
Then again, there's room for fewer superstars than ever before.
But we still need 'em. We need people we all know and can talk about.
That's human nature.
There are only three superstars in America today, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Kanye West. You can't avoid them, everybody knows who they are and everybody has an opinion on them. Used to be records were ubiquitous, now it's people. This is what the internet has wrought.
For a minute there we thought we had the equivalent in Adele, but she could not follow up her breakthrough record, "21," at the same artistic level. That was the magic of the Beatles, they never disappointed us, and they were always moving forwards. This is something that has been lost from music today. Today, everybody coasts. They find their niche and stay in it. It's so hard to gain an audience that they don't want to risk losing any of theirs. Experimentation is anathema.
Most people didn't used to follow the news. Kids didn't read the newspaper nor were they addicted to television news, of which there was a limited amount. News was not 24/7, music was. You couldn't escape a hit record. That was the power of radio. Hits were ubiquitous. No longer.
The internet allows you to reach everybody in the world. Literally everybody. Go to the most remote hamlet, and they've got smartphones. But what spreads...
First you must have a personality, an identity. This is where music is lacking. We've got cartoons, but other than Kanye, no one who is 3-D to all citizens. You don't have to be in the news 24/7 if you create a good enough record. But no one creates a record that good anymore.
As for artistry, the only media that can reach most people and affect them are movies and streaming television. But let me be clear with movies, the only ones with ubiquity are superhero movies, and contrary to what purveyors and fans believe, there's a wall around them. A good number of people want to see them, but even more don't.
And theatre-going is the antithesis of the modern paradigm, wherein everything is available 24/7 and is relatively cheap. Movies have turned into events, which has minimized their impact. Whereas streaming TV subscriptions are cheap, and everybody has them, like Spotify. As for ad-supported tiers, the usual suspects are clueless. In the modern world ads look like content and you only see them on TikTok and Instagram. Madison Avenue needs a makeover. Sure, there was a breakthrough decades ago when commercials featured rock music, a graduation from the Greatest Generation's crooner classics, but since then there has been stasis. Ads today must be doing the viewer a favor, they cannot be interruptions, they must be interesting. Yes, the ads on Instagram are tailored to the viewer, and if you don't want a bunch of the products hawked, you're like the Unabomber, living off the grid. As for TikTok, many people can't even tell the difference between ads and user-generated content. As for influencers...they are whores. Influencers are like boy bands, appealing to the lowest common denominator youngsters, like New Kids on the Block. There is no Max Martin in the influencer game, so we've got no Backstreet Boys or NSYNC, unfortunately.
In other words, if the ad-supported tiers were a thing, the companies would release the numbers. Spotify does...a bunch of listeners generating de minimis money. As for Netflix... This is what happens with today's breakthrough companies. They're ahead of the game, and then they become mature and have no second act. Good examples being Meta and Netflix. They wowed, and now they no longer can. Whereas the above trio, Elon, Donald and Kanye, seem to realize that he not busy being born is busy dying.
Elon is the Beatles, if the lead singer was Charles Manson, or maybe Tiny Tim. Someone who knows how to gain attention through constant innovation. Once again, musical acts don't realize this. The reason Musk is interesting is because he's got a number of hits and keeps moving into new, unrelated territory. What does PayPal have to do with Tesla? Or Tesla with SpaceX? Or any of these three with Twitter? And unlike the musicians, Musk isn't busy being a brand. He's all-in. Unlike the musician brands, he lays down his own money. He's not about ripping people off but delivering new and better experiences, oftentimes unforeseen. And you can criticize him, saying he wasn't the innovator at Tesla, but if you were alive back in the sixties you're aware that the Beatles were not universally loved, were not warm and fuzzy. The Greatest Generation never warmed up to them, except maybe for covers of "Yesterday" and "Michelle."
As for the Donald... He realizes that audience is king, size is everything, and truth is irrelevant. The internet amplifies outrage. And Trump delivers that every day.
As for Kanye... We're only paying attention because of his greatest hits. The music and the clothing. Got to say, like the Beatles, we were always interested in his next move. Speaking of moving, to Wyoming, a notoriously white, conservative, rural state? Yes, Kanye was breaking racial barriers. And the success of his clothing lines. But for Kanye it wasn't enough. He's still saying he's going to be president someday. He stopped speaking through his art. Then he got so addicted to attention that he tested the limits to stay in the limelight and pushed away not only Fortune 500 companies, but the public. Yes, some things are still over the line.
As for streaming TV... Sure, it was the beginning of lockdown, but we'd never seen anything like "The Tiger King." And what resonates most is always humanity. We cared less about the animals than Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, Jeff Lowe and the rest of the royalty in a world we didn't even know existed.
And "Squid Game" made us confront our own life and death. Were we at risk, what would we do to survive.
Great streaming TV is always about the concept and the humanity. The essence of the classic rock of the sixties. When it became about gaming the formula, with corporate rock, it died. That's what keeps us paying attention to the trio above, they never blink, never concede, they're all in.
In an era where politicians are wishy-washy.
What do we keep hearing? You've got to appeal to the center. When all of the above tells us that is death. This is why AOC is such a star. She weighs in on everything and never compromises in her youthful viewpoint. She's an icon for disillusioned young adults. Oh, you hate her? Well, in order to have a profile in the modern world you must have haters, if you have no edge, no one cares about you.
I'm not saying I want to hear from and be exposed to Musk, Trump and West every day, but they've figured out the system when everybody else is afraid or doesn't understand it or...
Yes, the millennials were all about fitting in. And if you alienate someone, they can't be your friend. You need to be a member of the group, whereas with boomers it was all about singular excellence. And losers hated winners, unlike the kumbaya youngsters.
So, in order to become a superstar in today's world you must start with an essence. Elon and Kanye had track records. As for Trump...we thought he was a billionaire, and he was the beneficiary of "The Apprentice" in the same way Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band were beneficiaries of VH1. Both of these paradigms died, but these three squeaked through and have coasted on this past exposure.
So, if you want to succeed today, you must have not only an essence, but you must have a track record. Complaining is useless. You've got to earn the right to complain, like Trump and West. Complaints without underpinnings are worthless. We only care when superstars complain, not nobodies.
So first focus on your identity. That's what TikTok is all about and what today's educational system is trying to constrict, trying to make everybody a rote zombie.
Then you have to focus on accomplishments. If you've got none, we are not going to take you seriously. You must have a base, and I'm not talking about fans, but works.
And then you must create something special, or be pushing the envelope to the point where we can't take our eyes off of you.
This is beyond twentieth century tropes, like rap wars. Most people don't want to die, and they can't understand the constant use of gun violence.
You must be singular, not worrying about the backlash or wanting everyone to love you. You must stand your ground. You must be so interesting that we can't take our eyes off of you.
Now Musk, Trump and Kanye have turned into clowns, to some degree pariahs. Why don't we have reasonable superstars?
Well, we did for a moment there, with Bernie Sanders. Age didn't matter, his beliefs did. He was the Democratic party's worst nightmare, but the people's hope. And you've got to give people hope.
But leaders who aren't crazy, that's what we're looking for.
And it's not about data, statistics, it's about state of mind. You've got to enter our consciousness organically. Data is old school. Data can't tell you where you're going, and the data got it wrong on Trump in 2016.
I'm sick and tired of hearing about the above trio. But that's the world we live in. Where three men have risen above the fray and are known by everybody. And those who used to be well-known have become niche. Complaining musicians who care first and foremost about money.
We want icons to rally around, to have an opinion about, but those addicted to twentieth century models won't deliver them. Three men had to forge their own paths with little support. You make your own career, others don't do that for you, the established companies are lost in the past, they've got money and nothing else. They want to mold you, restrict you, smooth over and compromise your work when it's the unexpected edges that hook us.
The internet allows you to reach everyone, but it's very hard to do, and they're all originals.
As for the rest of the so-called "stars"... They might as well be in distant galaxies, their light is dim and who really cares about ancient galaxies anyway, a few but not many.
We live in an era of individuals. Have an identity if you want to climb. Be confident in doing it your way. And if you don't have traction it's your fault.
Then again, there's room for fewer superstars than ever before.
But we still need 'em. We need people we all know and can talk about.
That's human nature.
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Monday 12 December 2022
Ignore The Rules
Rules are for businesses. The great thing about art is it has no rules.
We live in the era of data. Everybody wants to break it down to numbers. But that's just what they are, numbers, they don't reference feelings or soul and never forget this about research and numbers, they can tell you where you've been, but they absolutely cannot tell you where you're going. It's the new and different that drives the music industry. And the fact that me-too has supplanted bleeding edge has resulted in music becoming a second class cultural citizen, whereas it used to always be the bleeding edge.
But that's because most performers, most music-makers today, are not artists.
This is how it has gone throughout history. Something works and everybody copies it. So we had hair metal and grunge and... There's a breakthrough, everybody copies it, and then the assembled multitude, the listeners, wake up one day and move on. And no one can predict when this will happen. Something is in the air and change occurs, and it always comes from the bottom up. It's the people who embrace change, not corporations, and not most musicians.
The most legendary musicians are those who kept exploring, keeping it interesting for themselves, the two prime examples being Neil Young and David Bowie. They did not always hit the mark, but we were (and in the case of Mr. Young, still are) interested in where they're going. A new album by either is an event, a new album by a classic rocker or MTV era act is not, which is why most have stopped making new music.
In truth, most musical acts have a relatively brief window of success. And then they're supplanted by something new.
But the strange thing is in the internet era this has not happened. We've got hip-hop and pop. And they sustain. Forget those who made it in the last dying days of the old system, like Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band, VH1 and radio banged them, but these outlets don't exist in the same way anymore. Now everybody is starting from scratch, and to make it easy, they just follow the trends instead of bucking them. That's how you get started, by being featured on someone else's song.
One can say Billie Eilish was embraced so strongly because her music sounded like nothing else. And K-Pop is a similar. It's different from the trends, which is why it's so strongly embraced. And the funny thing is it happens seemingly overnight, when in truth it's a long process before the public embraces you, if this ever happens.
The difference was in the past, the record companies supported these seekers, today they do not. The labels are run by data. If you don't have the socials or the touring numbers they're not interested. It's considered too heavy a lift. They're moving towards homogenization, whereas music was famous for blowing itself up on a regular basis.
TV networks are similar. There were supposed content rules. And then they were supplanted by the grittier and more real HBO shows. And now HBO has been supplanted by Netflix and other streaming-only enterprises. Disruption happens, the past dies, and if you don't adjust...
Also, because the major labels only sign a small amount of product, there's a morass of hobbyists cluttering the channel, who say they're artists and usually are not. Not everybody can make a living making music, just like everybody can't play in the NBA.
Artists are all-in, there's no safety net, they don't complain about their situation, they'll starve to continue. And that's a very small slice of the population, indeed.
And artistry is a viewpoint, which is rarely taught in today's teach to the book world. Some people want to cut down sources of inspiration, ban books, they don't want kids to think. But in truth it is the thinkers who change the world. And it's the liberal arts colleges that teach you to think. If you're majoring in business, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And insight and inspiration are the key to artistry. Which is why the greatest stuff is done by those who both write and play. The songwriters have gotten the short end of the stick with streaming, but I must say, writing songs for others... There are some artists there, but very few. People go to camps, they're just trying to compose something an existing star will cover, they won't even give it to a newbie act.
To be an artist you must have input. You've got to read, travel, experience life to write about it. That's what the hip-hop breakthrough was all about, turned out the rappers complaining about the police in Southern California were right, Rodney King told us that, but that was thirty years ago. And Woodstock over fifty. Repeating the old saws is not artistry.
But people want someone to tell them what to do. Free-thinking is anathema in today's society. Education is so rote in Japan and China that innovation is low, whereas in America... And the reason so many of the innovators dropped out of college, if they went at all, is because college was constricting them instead of inspiring them, they were more aware than the teachers. Really, how many of the big disrupters have MBAs? An MBA teaches you how to fit into the organization. Getting a degree is all about networking, so you can rely on these relationships... Don't confuse this with artistry.
And music schools like Berklee can't teach artistry. No one can teach artistry. Artistry is about freedom, and higher education wants to achieve the opposite.
Being an artist means going your own way.
I've got to tell you, artists didn't complain like this in the pre-internet era. There are enemies today, Spotify, Live Nation...as if everything were business and everybody was entitled to a clear and level playing field.
That's not how it works. When you're a newbie you get the short end of the stick, and if you are successful enough and last long enough you gain the leverage. If you're not willing to give to get, you will never be able to make progress.
As for data... The labels sign TikTok stars on it, and most of these signings are here today and gone tomorrow if they have any traction at all. Because data is not about artistry. And really, TikTok is not about music, even though there are some musicians on it.
Stop being a brand, stop complaining, those are avenues to stasis and irrelevance.
Concentrate on your music and the people who get it. And ignore those who don't. You've got the tools to record and distribute cheaply, see if what you do resonates. And if it does... People are dying to spread the word, it thrills them to turn others on to new work. It's just that there's little artistry around. People keep searching for it, and when they find it...
I know it makes it easier if you get direction, pay attention to the data, but then you're a slave to the rules and numbers. You make all your judgments based on the data. Step out of your set paradigm and you lose fans, and almost no one is willing to do this, so they just repeat what they've done ad infinitum, driving themselves towards calcification.
Great art usually pisses people off. Most people don't even get it at first. And in today's world, all the corporations play it safe, do it the old way. But you can do it yourself. But you must be an artist. The rules never apply to artists, they make their own. Set yourself free.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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We live in the era of data. Everybody wants to break it down to numbers. But that's just what they are, numbers, they don't reference feelings or soul and never forget this about research and numbers, they can tell you where you've been, but they absolutely cannot tell you where you're going. It's the new and different that drives the music industry. And the fact that me-too has supplanted bleeding edge has resulted in music becoming a second class cultural citizen, whereas it used to always be the bleeding edge.
But that's because most performers, most music-makers today, are not artists.
This is how it has gone throughout history. Something works and everybody copies it. So we had hair metal and grunge and... There's a breakthrough, everybody copies it, and then the assembled multitude, the listeners, wake up one day and move on. And no one can predict when this will happen. Something is in the air and change occurs, and it always comes from the bottom up. It's the people who embrace change, not corporations, and not most musicians.
The most legendary musicians are those who kept exploring, keeping it interesting for themselves, the two prime examples being Neil Young and David Bowie. They did not always hit the mark, but we were (and in the case of Mr. Young, still are) interested in where they're going. A new album by either is an event, a new album by a classic rocker or MTV era act is not, which is why most have stopped making new music.
In truth, most musical acts have a relatively brief window of success. And then they're supplanted by something new.
But the strange thing is in the internet era this has not happened. We've got hip-hop and pop. And they sustain. Forget those who made it in the last dying days of the old system, like Coldplay and Dave Matthews Band, VH1 and radio banged them, but these outlets don't exist in the same way anymore. Now everybody is starting from scratch, and to make it easy, they just follow the trends instead of bucking them. That's how you get started, by being featured on someone else's song.
One can say Billie Eilish was embraced so strongly because her music sounded like nothing else. And K-Pop is a similar. It's different from the trends, which is why it's so strongly embraced. And the funny thing is it happens seemingly overnight, when in truth it's a long process before the public embraces you, if this ever happens.
The difference was in the past, the record companies supported these seekers, today they do not. The labels are run by data. If you don't have the socials or the touring numbers they're not interested. It's considered too heavy a lift. They're moving towards homogenization, whereas music was famous for blowing itself up on a regular basis.
TV networks are similar. There were supposed content rules. And then they were supplanted by the grittier and more real HBO shows. And now HBO has been supplanted by Netflix and other streaming-only enterprises. Disruption happens, the past dies, and if you don't adjust...
Also, because the major labels only sign a small amount of product, there's a morass of hobbyists cluttering the channel, who say they're artists and usually are not. Not everybody can make a living making music, just like everybody can't play in the NBA.
Artists are all-in, there's no safety net, they don't complain about their situation, they'll starve to continue. And that's a very small slice of the population, indeed.
And artistry is a viewpoint, which is rarely taught in today's teach to the book world. Some people want to cut down sources of inspiration, ban books, they don't want kids to think. But in truth it is the thinkers who change the world. And it's the liberal arts colleges that teach you to think. If you're majoring in business, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And insight and inspiration are the key to artistry. Which is why the greatest stuff is done by those who both write and play. The songwriters have gotten the short end of the stick with streaming, but I must say, writing songs for others... There are some artists there, but very few. People go to camps, they're just trying to compose something an existing star will cover, they won't even give it to a newbie act.
To be an artist you must have input. You've got to read, travel, experience life to write about it. That's what the hip-hop breakthrough was all about, turned out the rappers complaining about the police in Southern California were right, Rodney King told us that, but that was thirty years ago. And Woodstock over fifty. Repeating the old saws is not artistry.
But people want someone to tell them what to do. Free-thinking is anathema in today's society. Education is so rote in Japan and China that innovation is low, whereas in America... And the reason so many of the innovators dropped out of college, if they went at all, is because college was constricting them instead of inspiring them, they were more aware than the teachers. Really, how many of the big disrupters have MBAs? An MBA teaches you how to fit into the organization. Getting a degree is all about networking, so you can rely on these relationships... Don't confuse this with artistry.
And music schools like Berklee can't teach artistry. No one can teach artistry. Artistry is about freedom, and higher education wants to achieve the opposite.
Being an artist means going your own way.
I've got to tell you, artists didn't complain like this in the pre-internet era. There are enemies today, Spotify, Live Nation...as if everything were business and everybody was entitled to a clear and level playing field.
That's not how it works. When you're a newbie you get the short end of the stick, and if you are successful enough and last long enough you gain the leverage. If you're not willing to give to get, you will never be able to make progress.
As for data... The labels sign TikTok stars on it, and most of these signings are here today and gone tomorrow if they have any traction at all. Because data is not about artistry. And really, TikTok is not about music, even though there are some musicians on it.
Stop being a brand, stop complaining, those are avenues to stasis and irrelevance.
Concentrate on your music and the people who get it. And ignore those who don't. You've got the tools to record and distribute cheaply, see if what you do resonates. And if it does... People are dying to spread the word, it thrills them to turn others on to new work. It's just that there's little artistry around. People keep searching for it, and when they find it...
I know it makes it easier if you get direction, pay attention to the data, but then you're a slave to the rules and numbers. You make all your judgments based on the data. Step out of your set paradigm and you lose fans, and almost no one is willing to do this, so they just repeat what they've done ad infinitum, driving themselves towards calcification.
Great art usually pisses people off. Most people don't even get it at first. And in today's world, all the corporations play it safe, do it the old way. But you can do it yourself. But you must be an artist. The rules never apply to artists, they make their own. Set yourself free.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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
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Red vs. Blue
It's not politics, it's cultural identity.
I'd say this is why you should never believe someone when they say they're independent, but this is a cultural signifier too... They don't want to be aligned with either side, they want to be seen as independent thinkers, even though they almost always vote for one side or another.
Have you been combing the Best of 2022 lists? It's overwhelming, because of so much you do not know. And there's so much you do not know that you don't even bother to check out that which you're unaware of. And the more product there is, the worse it is. Since TV is so expensive to make, there's less of it, it's easier to get a handle on it. And you know if you watch a popular show, you'll bump into others who've seen it. But music? There's so much of it you don't know where to start. And the dirty little secret is music is no longer cohesive, it's all a bunch of verticals, and oftentimes the verticals are very narrow. And the big verticals punch above their weight, just like in politics, people are vocal about their passions, they belong to the tribe, whether it be the BTS Army or the Swifties... You marvel that you don't know anyone who is a passionate member, and if you cross those who are passionate, you get extreme blowback, just like with politics.
Once again, it doesn't have much to do with the underlying product, it's all about belonging.
This is what the internet has wrought. There are so many niches that we feel isolated. People tell us to disconnect from the internet, but that's even worse, then we're positively alone. Don't tell me about everyday conversation, because it's all about what's going on on the internet. Like this past week it's been about ChatGPT. It was mentioned by an advertiser in Aspen and then I got e-mail about it and when I got back to the news after four days at Lewi's conference, there it was. And if you're isolated...
Is ChatGPT a big deal? Actually, it is. We've been hearing about AI intensely for half a decade. But it never really arrived, at least not in a way it was embraced by the public. It's akin to digital photography. It was coming, it was coming, and then it was here! ChatGPT is a big deal, and if you want to be part of the discussion, you've got to check it out. It's a cultural unicorn. That's what's truly important today, not finances, but whether there's a huge cultural footprint, that's what makes a difference.
And what used to provide cohesiveness no longer does. Like sports. Aaron Judge was just re-signed by the Yankees and unless you follow sports, you're unaware and don't care, even though the same media hyping BTS and Swift tells us it's a big deal. But the media has lost touch with the public. Network news programs keep declining in viewership and so are cable outlets. As for Fox and MSNBC, they're not about news, they're about rallying the tribe. They're where you go when you want to check in with your buds, to get fired up, to find out about the perceived enemy. That's part of cultural identity, you need somebody or something to hate. Which is why if you aren't on the Swift train, or god forbid you say something negative about her, you're derided, vociferously.
And when it comes to hard news, it's all about the "New York Times." You may think it's irrelevant, but it's got the most boots on the ground, so if something really happens it's delineated, and then word spreads and... It's all about reacting to what is said. But when it comes to anything but hard news, the "Times" is irrelevant. Its arts coverage... You may feel good that your soft news story is in the paper, but it will have little effect, like an appearance/mention in gossip TV or online gossip or the gossip rags. Those appeal to the vertical. And since there's so little to hang on to in today's world, people are addicted to the gossip. Which means you're constantly exposed to stories of people you're unaware of. Of course you don't know them, only the gossip-mongers do, it's a full time job just to know who the players are!
And then there are the corporate verticals. You either love Apple or hate it. No one shrugs their shoulders, because you have to have an iPhone or Android to survive.
And the billionaire verticals. Most people don't really care about Twitter, but they're interested in Elon Musk. That's a movie they can follow, because most people don't see the ones in theatres, and those that do play are all about superheroes anyway. And everybody marvels that unless it's a superhero or sequel flick it fails, especially adult fodder. But they don't get it, there's no vertical for new movies, it's too hard to start. Used to be going to highbrow movies was a thing, you could go to parties and discuss them or feel superior that you saw them. But then your peers dropped out, got addicted to streaming television, and now if you go to foreign films you're a party of one. Read the "New York Times," which famously reviews each and every film that opens. You've never heard of them and never will. It's almost like they don't even exist. Like those records in the Top Ten lists. Yes, the reviewers are deep into the culture, but is anybody else? They're scanning the landscape, partaking of the smorgasbord, but no one else does this, because it's literally a full time job. It's no longer a badge of honor to know the music landscape, it's much more granular than that. You're aware of this or that, but not everything else. Even in tours. You know when your favorite is coming to town, assuming you're passionate... This is what the cognoscenti and media don't understand, we're only passionate about a very few verticals, the rest we ignore. The news junkies may know the truth, but most people just know what their tribe tells them, true or false, and it doesn't matter if you correct them, they can't admit they're wrong, because then they wouldn't be true blue members of the tribe.
And oldsters and establishment players keep lamenting the change and say we're going back to the old days. Never ever gonna happen. Steven Spielberg said he thinks theatrical movies are coming back. But even his well-reviewed "Fabelmans" stiffed. The world changed, streaming won.
And Zaslav thinks making less product is the way out. That's death. Everybody has different tastes, is into something different, and if you don't provide it they'll go somewhere else. In other words, people either believe in HBO Max or they don't, the name is bigger than the product. But you've got to have a plethora of product to believe. Zaslav still thinks we live in the cable era. Right now HBO Max doesn't mean that much and he's going to change the name? Don't change the name today, most people don't care and will never get the message.
As for dripping out product week by week...
You do not try and control the public, that's anathema. Give it all to them and pray that it lights a fire and the conflagration continues. All you read in the press is about "White Lotus." I might watch it now that's it over, but I'm already behind the conversation. And the conversation is everything, you want to belong. Which is why you give everybody the same starting point. You see the narrow vertical, the believers, they'll watch week by week, but you can only survive if you grow that mass.
The record labels understand it's about hit product, so they reduced their offerings, akin to the movie studios. And what happened to the studios? Theatrical is dying. And the share of major label product is dying. The hits mean less and indie keeps growing its share and if you're not providing for everybody, your enterprise is inherently niche and will have trouble growing.
It's kind of like SUVs. Do most people need them? Are they practical? No, but everybody else has one and you want to be a member of the tribe. The grossest example being the G-Wagon, an off-road masterpiece that is most seen in the city. It's signaling, because that's one place you still can do this, even though younger people don't care as much about cars as oldsters. Otherwise, we have the same phones, the same smartwatches, standing out is nearly impossible.
But standing out today is all about lording it over others, which causes a reaction. Being fiercely independent in your cultural choices leaves you alone. Do what you want, but nobody will notice.
So either cling to the hive or disconnect. You're passionate about a few things, no matter what you say. They establish your identity. Nerds used to be ostracized, now they congregate online. Everybody's got their group, even incels. People didn't use to be proud of having no sex, but today...
And you don't have to know the big verticals in detail, you just have to be aware of them, so you can have an opinion on them. And if you'll never impact us personally, we don't follow you and we don't care. Which is why politics transcends everything these days. Because it might ultimately affect us. Will a hit record affect most of us? No. Because the records, like the movies, are all about embellishing the brand, keeping it strong, and if you don't care...
There used to be music fans who saw all the bands in clubs, before they were big. And that's still a vertical, but ever smaller. Most people wait until the act can fill arenas before they even pay attention.
So life is chaos with a few defining elements but everybody keeps acting like nothing has changed, that we still live in the pre-internet twentieth century. Everything has changed. People are clinging on to verticals in order to make sense of their lives. And there are just a few mass verticals. Primarily politics and online life. No movie, no record, no book reaches anywhere near this mass. Trump, Musk, Zuckerberg, TikTok...we understand and pay attention to them, if for no other reason than everyone else does, it makes us feel like we belong to the culture, are a member of society. But we care less about individual influencers on TikTok, we no longer even go to Facebook, are abandoning Instagram... Like with Elon Musk and Twitter, we're interested where the platform is going, but what's actually going on on the platform? None of it is mass, there are a few verticals, but we only have so much time, we can only pay attention to so many verticals, and we want to spend time with those that are mass, so like I just said, we can feel like we belong, are a member of society.
So there are major, overwhelming subjects, and then just narrow verticals. No record, film or book reaches everybody, not a single one. They keep telling us otherwise, but they're wrong. This is the worst element, traditional institutions are breaking under the weight of the new paradigm. Congress can't address internet issues because it can't understand them. You see raising money and getting elected takes so much time that these people have no idea what is going on in most of the world.
As for news... If it doesn't happen here, if it doesn't directly affect you, it's like it's not happening. There's a war in Ukraine but it's like it's not even going on. Your life hasn't been affected. It's cognitive dissonance, isn't war terrible and should be stopped? Maybe not. Meanwhile, you're so busy trying to catch up in your own life you've got no bandwidth for anything else. Which means there can be a school shooting and a week later it's no longer top of mind. To stay top of mind you have to continuously be in the news. Kanye, Elon and Trump have figured this out, but they've been revealed to be critically flawed. Meanwhile, the reasonable pooh-pooh the internet and fighting for attention which is the only way you can succeed, get your message across. Either you're part of the maelstrom each and every day or your audience is experiencing attrition. You are inherently niche. You've got to play to have an effect. And to move mountains you've got to have something to say. When has music last provided this? As for online influencers... They're selling humanity, they know they're niche, they've figured it out. They know identity is more important than production values. In today's world we like the visceral not the shine.
But the boomers and those running institutions won't admit all this. Because if they do, they've got no idea where to go! First you must assess the landscape, then you can adjust. Putting your head in the sand...no one even knows you're doing it. Protesting against change is fruitless, all you can do is dive in. Then again, there's a tribe of Luddites. You see there's a group for everyone. And one thing is for sure, most people have no idea and if they do don't care about your tribe. Protest all you want, but no one is listening, you're basically irrelevant. And that is the conundrum, no one wants to feel irrelevant, so they hang on to their verticals, to the few mass items, to make life worth living. Because we are social animals, and left alone we want to die. Find out where you belong, that's where the strength is. As for those telling you to pay attention to what they're doing... You've got to convince people it's beneficial for them, which is nearly impossible to do. The hardest thing is to start from zero. Don't get depressed, find out where you fit in and strengthen the bonds. As for those complaining about it, ignore them.
I'd say this is why you should never believe someone when they say they're independent, but this is a cultural signifier too... They don't want to be aligned with either side, they want to be seen as independent thinkers, even though they almost always vote for one side or another.
Have you been combing the Best of 2022 lists? It's overwhelming, because of so much you do not know. And there's so much you do not know that you don't even bother to check out that which you're unaware of. And the more product there is, the worse it is. Since TV is so expensive to make, there's less of it, it's easier to get a handle on it. And you know if you watch a popular show, you'll bump into others who've seen it. But music? There's so much of it you don't know where to start. And the dirty little secret is music is no longer cohesive, it's all a bunch of verticals, and oftentimes the verticals are very narrow. And the big verticals punch above their weight, just like in politics, people are vocal about their passions, they belong to the tribe, whether it be the BTS Army or the Swifties... You marvel that you don't know anyone who is a passionate member, and if you cross those who are passionate, you get extreme blowback, just like with politics.
Once again, it doesn't have much to do with the underlying product, it's all about belonging.
This is what the internet has wrought. There are so many niches that we feel isolated. People tell us to disconnect from the internet, but that's even worse, then we're positively alone. Don't tell me about everyday conversation, because it's all about what's going on on the internet. Like this past week it's been about ChatGPT. It was mentioned by an advertiser in Aspen and then I got e-mail about it and when I got back to the news after four days at Lewi's conference, there it was. And if you're isolated...
Is ChatGPT a big deal? Actually, it is. We've been hearing about AI intensely for half a decade. But it never really arrived, at least not in a way it was embraced by the public. It's akin to digital photography. It was coming, it was coming, and then it was here! ChatGPT is a big deal, and if you want to be part of the discussion, you've got to check it out. It's a cultural unicorn. That's what's truly important today, not finances, but whether there's a huge cultural footprint, that's what makes a difference.
And what used to provide cohesiveness no longer does. Like sports. Aaron Judge was just re-signed by the Yankees and unless you follow sports, you're unaware and don't care, even though the same media hyping BTS and Swift tells us it's a big deal. But the media has lost touch with the public. Network news programs keep declining in viewership and so are cable outlets. As for Fox and MSNBC, they're not about news, they're about rallying the tribe. They're where you go when you want to check in with your buds, to get fired up, to find out about the perceived enemy. That's part of cultural identity, you need somebody or something to hate. Which is why if you aren't on the Swift train, or god forbid you say something negative about her, you're derided, vociferously.
And when it comes to hard news, it's all about the "New York Times." You may think it's irrelevant, but it's got the most boots on the ground, so if something really happens it's delineated, and then word spreads and... It's all about reacting to what is said. But when it comes to anything but hard news, the "Times" is irrelevant. Its arts coverage... You may feel good that your soft news story is in the paper, but it will have little effect, like an appearance/mention in gossip TV or online gossip or the gossip rags. Those appeal to the vertical. And since there's so little to hang on to in today's world, people are addicted to the gossip. Which means you're constantly exposed to stories of people you're unaware of. Of course you don't know them, only the gossip-mongers do, it's a full time job just to know who the players are!
And then there are the corporate verticals. You either love Apple or hate it. No one shrugs their shoulders, because you have to have an iPhone or Android to survive.
And the billionaire verticals. Most people don't really care about Twitter, but they're interested in Elon Musk. That's a movie they can follow, because most people don't see the ones in theatres, and those that do play are all about superheroes anyway. And everybody marvels that unless it's a superhero or sequel flick it fails, especially adult fodder. But they don't get it, there's no vertical for new movies, it's too hard to start. Used to be going to highbrow movies was a thing, you could go to parties and discuss them or feel superior that you saw them. But then your peers dropped out, got addicted to streaming television, and now if you go to foreign films you're a party of one. Read the "New York Times," which famously reviews each and every film that opens. You've never heard of them and never will. It's almost like they don't even exist. Like those records in the Top Ten lists. Yes, the reviewers are deep into the culture, but is anybody else? They're scanning the landscape, partaking of the smorgasbord, but no one else does this, because it's literally a full time job. It's no longer a badge of honor to know the music landscape, it's much more granular than that. You're aware of this or that, but not everything else. Even in tours. You know when your favorite is coming to town, assuming you're passionate... This is what the cognoscenti and media don't understand, we're only passionate about a very few verticals, the rest we ignore. The news junkies may know the truth, but most people just know what their tribe tells them, true or false, and it doesn't matter if you correct them, they can't admit they're wrong, because then they wouldn't be true blue members of the tribe.
And oldsters and establishment players keep lamenting the change and say we're going back to the old days. Never ever gonna happen. Steven Spielberg said he thinks theatrical movies are coming back. But even his well-reviewed "Fabelmans" stiffed. The world changed, streaming won.
And Zaslav thinks making less product is the way out. That's death. Everybody has different tastes, is into something different, and if you don't provide it they'll go somewhere else. In other words, people either believe in HBO Max or they don't, the name is bigger than the product. But you've got to have a plethora of product to believe. Zaslav still thinks we live in the cable era. Right now HBO Max doesn't mean that much and he's going to change the name? Don't change the name today, most people don't care and will never get the message.
As for dripping out product week by week...
You do not try and control the public, that's anathema. Give it all to them and pray that it lights a fire and the conflagration continues. All you read in the press is about "White Lotus." I might watch it now that's it over, but I'm already behind the conversation. And the conversation is everything, you want to belong. Which is why you give everybody the same starting point. You see the narrow vertical, the believers, they'll watch week by week, but you can only survive if you grow that mass.
The record labels understand it's about hit product, so they reduced their offerings, akin to the movie studios. And what happened to the studios? Theatrical is dying. And the share of major label product is dying. The hits mean less and indie keeps growing its share and if you're not providing for everybody, your enterprise is inherently niche and will have trouble growing.
It's kind of like SUVs. Do most people need them? Are they practical? No, but everybody else has one and you want to be a member of the tribe. The grossest example being the G-Wagon, an off-road masterpiece that is most seen in the city. It's signaling, because that's one place you still can do this, even though younger people don't care as much about cars as oldsters. Otherwise, we have the same phones, the same smartwatches, standing out is nearly impossible.
But standing out today is all about lording it over others, which causes a reaction. Being fiercely independent in your cultural choices leaves you alone. Do what you want, but nobody will notice.
So either cling to the hive or disconnect. You're passionate about a few things, no matter what you say. They establish your identity. Nerds used to be ostracized, now they congregate online. Everybody's got their group, even incels. People didn't use to be proud of having no sex, but today...
And you don't have to know the big verticals in detail, you just have to be aware of them, so you can have an opinion on them. And if you'll never impact us personally, we don't follow you and we don't care. Which is why politics transcends everything these days. Because it might ultimately affect us. Will a hit record affect most of us? No. Because the records, like the movies, are all about embellishing the brand, keeping it strong, and if you don't care...
There used to be music fans who saw all the bands in clubs, before they were big. And that's still a vertical, but ever smaller. Most people wait until the act can fill arenas before they even pay attention.
So life is chaos with a few defining elements but everybody keeps acting like nothing has changed, that we still live in the pre-internet twentieth century. Everything has changed. People are clinging on to verticals in order to make sense of their lives. And there are just a few mass verticals. Primarily politics and online life. No movie, no record, no book reaches anywhere near this mass. Trump, Musk, Zuckerberg, TikTok...we understand and pay attention to them, if for no other reason than everyone else does, it makes us feel like we belong to the culture, are a member of society. But we care less about individual influencers on TikTok, we no longer even go to Facebook, are abandoning Instagram... Like with Elon Musk and Twitter, we're interested where the platform is going, but what's actually going on on the platform? None of it is mass, there are a few verticals, but we only have so much time, we can only pay attention to so many verticals, and we want to spend time with those that are mass, so like I just said, we can feel like we belong, are a member of society.
So there are major, overwhelming subjects, and then just narrow verticals. No record, film or book reaches everybody, not a single one. They keep telling us otherwise, but they're wrong. This is the worst element, traditional institutions are breaking under the weight of the new paradigm. Congress can't address internet issues because it can't understand them. You see raising money and getting elected takes so much time that these people have no idea what is going on in most of the world.
As for news... If it doesn't happen here, if it doesn't directly affect you, it's like it's not happening. There's a war in Ukraine but it's like it's not even going on. Your life hasn't been affected. It's cognitive dissonance, isn't war terrible and should be stopped? Maybe not. Meanwhile, you're so busy trying to catch up in your own life you've got no bandwidth for anything else. Which means there can be a school shooting and a week later it's no longer top of mind. To stay top of mind you have to continuously be in the news. Kanye, Elon and Trump have figured this out, but they've been revealed to be critically flawed. Meanwhile, the reasonable pooh-pooh the internet and fighting for attention which is the only way you can succeed, get your message across. Either you're part of the maelstrom each and every day or your audience is experiencing attrition. You are inherently niche. You've got to play to have an effect. And to move mountains you've got to have something to say. When has music last provided this? As for online influencers... They're selling humanity, they know they're niche, they've figured it out. They know identity is more important than production values. In today's world we like the visceral not the shine.
But the boomers and those running institutions won't admit all this. Because if they do, they've got no idea where to go! First you must assess the landscape, then you can adjust. Putting your head in the sand...no one even knows you're doing it. Protesting against change is fruitless, all you can do is dive in. Then again, there's a tribe of Luddites. You see there's a group for everyone. And one thing is for sure, most people have no idea and if they do don't care about your tribe. Protest all you want, but no one is listening, you're basically irrelevant. And that is the conundrum, no one wants to feel irrelevant, so they hang on to their verticals, to the few mass items, to make life worth living. Because we are social animals, and left alone we want to die. Find out where you belong, that's where the strength is. As for those telling you to pay attention to what they're doing... You've got to convince people it's beneficial for them, which is nearly impossible to do. The hardest thing is to start from zero. Don't get depressed, find out where you fit in and strengthen the bonds. As for those complaining about it, ignore them.
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