Ajax. That's what made Gmail work so seamlessly.
Greetings from the hot as hell San Fernando Valley wherein on my way to get a haircut in Dixie Canyon I drove by Freakbeat and saw a huge line for Record Store Day!
Gotta give 'em credit. Those record stores have built something out of thin air, via marketing, and tchotchkes. That's what Record Store Day is about, souvenirs. And if you think that scales, you're still clinging to your Blondie picture disc.
So I end up at Poquito Mas, and over a steak tostada I begin reading "Wired," which I got a subscription to for ten bucks, but rarely has anything worth reading. And this is one of those stunt issues, you know mainstream publishing, they love lists and best ofs, pure content is not enough. This an alphabetical reading of the tech highlights of the past twenty years. And I know too much and they're barely scratching the surface and then I get to Gmail.
You didn't want web mail back in 2004. Even if you were on broadband. It just ran too slow. But somehow, Gmail was fluid, it worked fast. Why? I learned today! The aforementioned Ajax, "a JavaScript hack that lets web pages update without reloading."
1. "Hack," like "P2P," has become a bad word. Funny how everything on the bleeding edge is castigated, but it's there that innovation happens.
2. This proves my point about reading. I've talked about Gmail for nearly a decade, no one has ever revealed why it works so well. I just got my money's worth from my "Wired" subscription, even better, I feel satiated, inspired, the same way I used to when my heroes revealed their truth in "Rolling Stone," before entertainment became purely about the sell.
That's the difference. Mainstream music is marketing. Tech is viral.
Tech is built upon a long foundation. Music is developed out of thin air.
The reason people cared about Gmail was because of Google. The search engine. Which magically did what no one had been able to manage before, deliver the results you wanted. It was just that simple. You had to tell your friends about it. Just like you told your friends about that band. Now the bands speak to the media and bombard the public with multiple impressions, hoping to hit you once, not realizing you're hit multiple times and end up hating what's being sold. It's all top down, as opposed to ground up.
But the reason ground up doesn't work in music is because the underlying source is just not good enough. That's the key to virality, quality. And the goal of virality is to go from the personal to the universal.
That's the tech game. How can I go from one to many? How can I produce something so good, it sells itself?
That used to be the music paradigm, but it hasn't been in a long while. Instead we've just got thousands of wankers complaining that you won't take the time to listen to their album and they can't make any money. If you're not laughing at this, you don't have an inbox.
You start with a hit.
The iPod. The modern Apple is built upon it.
The aforementioned Google. And you can never rest on your laurels, you don't tour the world for years cleaning up the dough from your hit, you go back to the drawing board and try to have another, you're constantly innovating, you're constantly expanding your base, or you die.
Companies die all the time, why can't bands?
If you're not trying to create something that catches fire all by its lonesome, whose greatness is spread by listeners, then you're truly a niche player. And niches can be fun, but that's not where the money, the fame and the glory are.
How many Googles are there?
One.
How many Apples?
One.
So why do you think the public has time for thousands of bands?
Oh, they've got time for a few, but that's it.
P.S. The problem with Record Day is despite all the hype, most people don't want physical music artifacts. There is a business selling these, but it's niche. Same as vinyl. If you love your records, fantastic. But if you expect everybody else to love LPs, you're delusional. As for the insane PR campaign that goes on ad infinitum, saying how vinyl's making a comeback, there's your mainstream marketing irrelevancy right there, check the statistics, vinyl hovers in the neighborhood of one percent of the market.
P.P.S. Think big. Think how you can get everybody interested and involved. If you're not playing for everybody, you're gonna be close to broke, or working for a living as opposed to relaxing.
P.P.P.S. The music business used to be the ultimate in scale. You made something for a minimum of money and then you could replicate it and sell it for years at a decreasing cost. The labels survived on catalog, which required no new investment. But catalog only sold if it was deemed worthy by the public. Otherwise, tracks were just recycled for pennies on compilations sold at gas stations.
P.P.P.P.S. Blame Clive Davis, blame Tommy Mottola. They realized marketing was more important than music. But that was in the last century, when we had so few options. Now, more than ever before, your success depends upon your music.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Unless playing live IS your act, go back and record instead of being on the road. Recordings keep your career alive. If you become really big, you can rake in dough by playing the summer festival circuit. In other words, if you're the Grateful Dead or Phish, recordings are close to irrelevant. But unless your stage show is different every night, an experience that changes people's lives, focus on the music, not the show.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Just because Internet blowhards said for years that the new paradigm is to give away your music and make it up on live performances and merchandise, don't believe them. Hell, unless you're a superstar, there's more money in a successful YouTube video. Just because recording revenue tanked, that does not mean new opportunities have not arisen. The money's on the bleeding edge. As for recordings, the sun is setting on the pirate era, streaming is just too easy, and on streaming services everything is available, so how do you rise above, via marketing, no, through music!
To read about the origins of Gmail, go to this page and click on the Gmail link: http://www.wired.com/magazine/wired-20th-anniversary/
Line outside Freakbeat Records: pic.twitter.com/oBTXgFNXy8
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Saturday, 20 April 2013
Friday, 19 April 2013
Get Lucky
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a single track trumps an entire rock festival? One in which Daft Punk releases its new single on the second weekend of Coachella.
Not that the two are not intertwined.
But that's the power of music, that's the power of one recorded track.
The buzz has been building, it's at a fever pitch. And if upon first listen you believe "Get Lucky" lives up to the hype, you're lying. But something curious happens as you continue to listen, you get hooked.
At first you don't know whether it's an outtake from "Saturday Night Fever," a highly-skilled SNL skit or... The verse vocal sounds like something from Peter Lemongello, and then you hear the swelling vocals in the chorus and you say THAT'S TODAY'S DANCE MUSIC!
And to think we all claimed disco sucked back in '79! Wiped it from the face of the earth to make us feel self-satisfied, denying the magic of Prince's "Dirty Mind," which was basically distilled disco. In other words, that which you hate today you're gonna love tomorrow.
And you're gonna love "Get Lucky."
And the person who's gonna hook you is Nile Rodgers.
Huh? The has-been disco star who went on to produce rock records and then disappear, who was last seen on a creepy cancer victory lap, selling a book, the last stop of those who've exhausted all other options?
Maybe because dance music is faceless. You can be old, young, fat or thin, it doesn't matter. Hell, doesn't the music set you free anyway? Throw off your inhibitions?
"Get Lucky" is the song of the summer, and it's still SPRING!
Repeatability. Something you want to hear again. That's a hit. Whether radio plays it or not, whether the press writes about it or not, "Get Lucky" is gonna be unavoidable in the clubs, at the beach, because not only is it infectious, it makes you feel GOOD!
I know, I know, you hate dance music and everything it stands for. But the problem with Brooklyn music is it's too cerebral, you've got to think about it to like it.
And Top Forty music is too calculated, the artist is just a two-dimensional face atop the calculated work of old people who need the money to feed their lifestyle, to make their car payments and private school tuition.
And I'd like to tell you "Get Lucky" is revolutionary, but it's just a distillation of what came before, but without the kitchen sink, it's pretty simple.
And the magic comes in at 2:20. When you hear Nile's influence.
And speaking of has-beens, has there been a delay in the transatlantic cable? Pharrell?
Then again, the last time Daft Punk put out a new record we all didn't have smartphones.
So what have we learned?
1. Daft Punk earned it. They say you've got to be young, you've got to be fresh, you've got to be new. But none of that applies if you want to last.
2. Don't equate mainstream press with ubiquity, never mind success. Most acts are on the front page for a day, and then they're gone, like my favorite whipping boy, David Bowie. Read ANYTHING about his new record in weeks? Bowie made a mistake, the marketing campaign was better than the music, and at the end of the day it's what goes into your ears, not your eyes. Daft Punk never peaked, but they've been on the lips of not only hipsters for years.
3. Less is more. Sure, there was the SNL teaser, the Coachella video, but these strategic strikes eclipsed Justin Timberlake's scorched earth publicity campaign. We don't want to be beat upon the head, we want to meet you halfway.
4. The publicity campaign did not work without the history. Contrary to the Davis/Mottola paradigm, you don't front-load any longer. If you want to last, if you want to get rich, you grow slowly, you percolate, which seems antithetical in this here today and gone tomorrow era, but that's just the point! You don't want to be flavor of the moment, if you peak, you want it to be deep into your career.
5. The game is about listenability and repeatability. It's not whether someone says your track is good or bad, but whether they say PLAY THAT AGAIN! That's the reaction you want.
6. None of the above is an adequate explanation. There's just a way "Get Lucky" affects you, that's its magic. It's a drug with no aftertaste, no hangover. Other than euphoria!
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2ePFIvZKMe8zefATp9ofFA
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Not that the two are not intertwined.
But that's the power of music, that's the power of one recorded track.
The buzz has been building, it's at a fever pitch. And if upon first listen you believe "Get Lucky" lives up to the hype, you're lying. But something curious happens as you continue to listen, you get hooked.
At first you don't know whether it's an outtake from "Saturday Night Fever," a highly-skilled SNL skit or... The verse vocal sounds like something from Peter Lemongello, and then you hear the swelling vocals in the chorus and you say THAT'S TODAY'S DANCE MUSIC!
And to think we all claimed disco sucked back in '79! Wiped it from the face of the earth to make us feel self-satisfied, denying the magic of Prince's "Dirty Mind," which was basically distilled disco. In other words, that which you hate today you're gonna love tomorrow.
And you're gonna love "Get Lucky."
And the person who's gonna hook you is Nile Rodgers.
Huh? The has-been disco star who went on to produce rock records and then disappear, who was last seen on a creepy cancer victory lap, selling a book, the last stop of those who've exhausted all other options?
Maybe because dance music is faceless. You can be old, young, fat or thin, it doesn't matter. Hell, doesn't the music set you free anyway? Throw off your inhibitions?
"Get Lucky" is the song of the summer, and it's still SPRING!
Repeatability. Something you want to hear again. That's a hit. Whether radio plays it or not, whether the press writes about it or not, "Get Lucky" is gonna be unavoidable in the clubs, at the beach, because not only is it infectious, it makes you feel GOOD!
I know, I know, you hate dance music and everything it stands for. But the problem with Brooklyn music is it's too cerebral, you've got to think about it to like it.
And Top Forty music is too calculated, the artist is just a two-dimensional face atop the calculated work of old people who need the money to feed their lifestyle, to make their car payments and private school tuition.
And I'd like to tell you "Get Lucky" is revolutionary, but it's just a distillation of what came before, but without the kitchen sink, it's pretty simple.
And the magic comes in at 2:20. When you hear Nile's influence.
And speaking of has-beens, has there been a delay in the transatlantic cable? Pharrell?
Then again, the last time Daft Punk put out a new record we all didn't have smartphones.
So what have we learned?
1. Daft Punk earned it. They say you've got to be young, you've got to be fresh, you've got to be new. But none of that applies if you want to last.
2. Don't equate mainstream press with ubiquity, never mind success. Most acts are on the front page for a day, and then they're gone, like my favorite whipping boy, David Bowie. Read ANYTHING about his new record in weeks? Bowie made a mistake, the marketing campaign was better than the music, and at the end of the day it's what goes into your ears, not your eyes. Daft Punk never peaked, but they've been on the lips of not only hipsters for years.
3. Less is more. Sure, there was the SNL teaser, the Coachella video, but these strategic strikes eclipsed Justin Timberlake's scorched earth publicity campaign. We don't want to be beat upon the head, we want to meet you halfway.
4. The publicity campaign did not work without the history. Contrary to the Davis/Mottola paradigm, you don't front-load any longer. If you want to last, if you want to get rich, you grow slowly, you percolate, which seems antithetical in this here today and gone tomorrow era, but that's just the point! You don't want to be flavor of the moment, if you peak, you want it to be deep into your career.
5. The game is about listenability and repeatability. It's not whether someone says your track is good or bad, but whether they say PLAY THAT AGAIN! That's the reaction you want.
6. None of the above is an adequate explanation. There's just a way "Get Lucky" affects you, that's its magic. It's a drug with no aftertaste, no hangover. Other than euphoria!
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2ePFIvZKMe8zefATp9ofFA
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Rhinofy-Said I Loved You…But I Lied
Don't call it a guilty pleasure. Just admit it's great music.
Kind of like the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More." I hated the Carpenters on principle, they were MOR in an era that was positively rock. And then I drove around all summer doing my job for the City Directory and listening to the AM-only radio in my '63 Chevy and I got hooked on this cut (although I burned out pretty quickly on Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles"...and did I ever tell you that Felice wrote a Carpenters song? She sent a poem to her father and he set it to music and voila, "Sometimes"!)
And I felt the same way about Michael Bolton, until I heard "Said I Loved You...But I Lied."
Where did I first encounter Robert John "Mutt" Lange's moniker? Had to be a Graham Parker album. Then suddenly his name was ubiquitous and it appeared on the greatest hard rock record ever recorded, AC/DC's "Back In Black," and he entered the pantheon, reinforcing his reputation as the world's best record producer by putting Def Leppard over the top, and then Shania Twain.
It's the SOUND! That's the magic of "Back In Black." Who would have thought to make a metal track sound like the Beach Boys? Yup, come on, "You Shook Me All Night Long" is positively SoCal. You think these records are local, but Mutt heard Brian Wilson's genius in South Africa, he digested it. As he did with the work of the rest of the hitmakers, that was his gig at the tip of the continent, making soundalike records, before the genuine item hit the country. All those hours replicating, getting it right, gave Mutt his foundation, which he could then expand upon to explode into the stratosphere. That's what's rarely acknowledged in this ever younger music business...roots, experience, education, they're extremely important, especially if you want to last, which almost no one does now anyway.
As for Michael Bolotin... How can you hate a Jew from New Haven if you're a member of the tribe from Fairfield?
He dropped out of high school, had a glimmer of success as a songwriter, and then morphed into the housewives' dream. And I'm sure he was thrilled with the traction, but didn't anticipate it getting out of control, all the hate that descended upon him. Unlike Barry Manilow, Bolton had roots. How to demonstrate them? By working with the best rock producer available, Mutt Lange.
Come on, take a listen... Mutt's doing David Foster, but even better. It's Foster with credibility!
It opens like a movie score. With sounds not normally on a pop record. And then settles into a hypnotic groove, it sounds like "Body Heat." And then there's Bolton's "Ooo-ooh," which sounds more like Don Henley than middle of the road.
"You are the candle, love's the flame
A fire that burns through wind and rain
Shine your light on this heart of mine
Till the end of time"
I know, I know... But have you listened to Leppard lyrics? Sure, the words are generic, but the way they're delivered! As if Bolton's in the bedroom with you.
And then he amps it up...
"You came to me like the dawn through the night
Just shinin' like the sun
Out of my dreams and into my life
You are the one, you are the one"
He's almost pleading. That's what we want in our lovers, DESIRE! We want to be needed, and instead of playing to the grandstand, the fictional audience, Bolton seems to be singing to a specific individual, you get the feeling you're getting a glimpse into his personal life.
And then the magical chorus, with the hook.
Yes, "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" is captivating throughout, but it's the chorus, with its twisted meaning, that truly endears you.
"Said I loved you, but I lied
'Cause this is more than love I feel inside
Said I loved you, but I was wrong
'Cause love could never ever feel so strong
Said I loved you, but I lied"
That's how much he feels it, IT'S MORE THAN LOVE!
In real life we often speak sarcastically, we twist our story for maximum impact, this almost overproduced record is winking at the audience, showing it's just like them.
The break is the predecessor of Mutt's work with Bryan Adams on "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman," it's positively cinematic.
And then the guitar keeps playing through the next verse, the number is building.
And then there are the backup vocals, which are understated, you'd expect the girls to be singing at the top of their lungs, reaching for a climax.
But that's what's so great about "Said I Loved You...But I Lied." It's ultimately controlled. At the end you feel the bedroom door is closing, and Michael and his beloved are behind the door ready to...
Now you get it, why the women loved him.
They can be romantic, whereas men have to be macho. They love it slow, they love the build. How did Mutt come up with such a production, which leads you to the cliff, but refuses to jump off it?
That's the mark of a master.
One who took his job so seriously he had a nervous collapse, when you're that close to the music, it's got very little to do with the money, when you're just trying to get it right, to get the sound in your head down on wax, money often comes, but the exercise is enough.
Ah, that's b.s. We love to see our legends ride the edge, see if they can do it once again.
And no one's done it at such a high level as Mutt.
But let's not underestimate Michael Bolton. He cowrote the song. He sang it.
And if you hate him for it, you're no friend of mine.
P.S. Our politicians can't learn, too often our entertainers can't either. But after reacting to the haters, Bolton embraced them, he developed a sense of humor about himself. Let his evolution be a beacon for the rest of those who gain success.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Kind of like the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More." I hated the Carpenters on principle, they were MOR in an era that was positively rock. And then I drove around all summer doing my job for the City Directory and listening to the AM-only radio in my '63 Chevy and I got hooked on this cut (although I burned out pretty quickly on Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles"...and did I ever tell you that Felice wrote a Carpenters song? She sent a poem to her father and he set it to music and voila, "Sometimes"!)
And I felt the same way about Michael Bolton, until I heard "Said I Loved You...But I Lied."
Where did I first encounter Robert John "Mutt" Lange's moniker? Had to be a Graham Parker album. Then suddenly his name was ubiquitous and it appeared on the greatest hard rock record ever recorded, AC/DC's "Back In Black," and he entered the pantheon, reinforcing his reputation as the world's best record producer by putting Def Leppard over the top, and then Shania Twain.
It's the SOUND! That's the magic of "Back In Black." Who would have thought to make a metal track sound like the Beach Boys? Yup, come on, "You Shook Me All Night Long" is positively SoCal. You think these records are local, but Mutt heard Brian Wilson's genius in South Africa, he digested it. As he did with the work of the rest of the hitmakers, that was his gig at the tip of the continent, making soundalike records, before the genuine item hit the country. All those hours replicating, getting it right, gave Mutt his foundation, which he could then expand upon to explode into the stratosphere. That's what's rarely acknowledged in this ever younger music business...roots, experience, education, they're extremely important, especially if you want to last, which almost no one does now anyway.
As for Michael Bolotin... How can you hate a Jew from New Haven if you're a member of the tribe from Fairfield?
He dropped out of high school, had a glimmer of success as a songwriter, and then morphed into the housewives' dream. And I'm sure he was thrilled with the traction, but didn't anticipate it getting out of control, all the hate that descended upon him. Unlike Barry Manilow, Bolton had roots. How to demonstrate them? By working with the best rock producer available, Mutt Lange.
Come on, take a listen... Mutt's doing David Foster, but even better. It's Foster with credibility!
It opens like a movie score. With sounds not normally on a pop record. And then settles into a hypnotic groove, it sounds like "Body Heat." And then there's Bolton's "Ooo-ooh," which sounds more like Don Henley than middle of the road.
"You are the candle, love's the flame
A fire that burns through wind and rain
Shine your light on this heart of mine
Till the end of time"
I know, I know... But have you listened to Leppard lyrics? Sure, the words are generic, but the way they're delivered! As if Bolton's in the bedroom with you.
And then he amps it up...
"You came to me like the dawn through the night
Just shinin' like the sun
Out of my dreams and into my life
You are the one, you are the one"
He's almost pleading. That's what we want in our lovers, DESIRE! We want to be needed, and instead of playing to the grandstand, the fictional audience, Bolton seems to be singing to a specific individual, you get the feeling you're getting a glimpse into his personal life.
And then the magical chorus, with the hook.
Yes, "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" is captivating throughout, but it's the chorus, with its twisted meaning, that truly endears you.
"Said I loved you, but I lied
'Cause this is more than love I feel inside
Said I loved you, but I was wrong
'Cause love could never ever feel so strong
Said I loved you, but I lied"
That's how much he feels it, IT'S MORE THAN LOVE!
In real life we often speak sarcastically, we twist our story for maximum impact, this almost overproduced record is winking at the audience, showing it's just like them.
The break is the predecessor of Mutt's work with Bryan Adams on "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman," it's positively cinematic.
And then the guitar keeps playing through the next verse, the number is building.
And then there are the backup vocals, which are understated, you'd expect the girls to be singing at the top of their lungs, reaching for a climax.
But that's what's so great about "Said I Loved You...But I Lied." It's ultimately controlled. At the end you feel the bedroom door is closing, and Michael and his beloved are behind the door ready to...
Now you get it, why the women loved him.
They can be romantic, whereas men have to be macho. They love it slow, they love the build. How did Mutt come up with such a production, which leads you to the cliff, but refuses to jump off it?
That's the mark of a master.
One who took his job so seriously he had a nervous collapse, when you're that close to the music, it's got very little to do with the money, when you're just trying to get it right, to get the sound in your head down on wax, money often comes, but the exercise is enough.
Ah, that's b.s. We love to see our legends ride the edge, see if they can do it once again.
And no one's done it at such a high level as Mutt.
But let's not underestimate Michael Bolton. He cowrote the song. He sang it.
And if you hate him for it, you're no friend of mine.
P.S. Our politicians can't learn, too often our entertainers can't either. But after reacting to the haters, Bolton embraced them, he developed a sense of humor about himself. Let his evolution be a beacon for the rest of those who gain success.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Thursday, 18 April 2013
Mailbag
From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Christine McVie
Bob,
Thanks for writing about this album and reminding people about Christine.
We recorded it in Montreux, Switzerland at Mountain Studios. Charlie Chaplin's son was our assistant.
Flew to England to record Winwood at his house in Lower dean...(Eric played on The Challenge...we called him while we were in London and he came down) then flew back to finish. Foreshadowing?
First album I mixed in NYC at A&R. Moved to Redding Connecticut from Santa Monica during the making of.
If she had only written Songbird she would be in the pantheon of the best songwriters ever and she had the most soulful voice.
Unbelievable about Phil R
Best rt
___________________________________________
From: Andy Fraser
Subject: The Stealer
Bob -
Saw your comments, and have to say Andy Johns was one of my favorite people. Only a year older than me, we worked in the studio on a lot of FREE recordings both as teenagers. I loved his energy, always up, keen, ready to go, full of enthusiasm. As you know, he was the engineer the night we wrote, recorded and mixed 'The Stealer' in one session. Then ran up to the top floor where Chris Blackwell of Island Records had an apartment, woke him up, and said 'you gotta get down and hear this', which he did, and proclaimed it the next single. AJ called me only a few weeks ago, and now he's gone. Life is so fragile. Heartbreaking. He will be missed. Not sure if he ever learnt to drive. He would either take a cab, or I would drop him off at his place in St. Johns Wood, London after a session. Known a few like that. Frankie Miller, Robert Palmer - it's like "Me drive?, with my habits - I don't think so" - http://bit.ly/145kwUQ
___________________________________________
From: Tycobrahe Sound Co
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Christine McVie
Thanks Bob.
Christine Perfect (her maiden name) brought more to Fleetwood Mac than her songwriting, vocal and instrumental talents. She was responsible for the change from Peter Green's blues band that we heard in '68 and '69, to the perfect blend of rhythm and tunes.
I saw "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" (as they were billed in '69), at The Olympic Auditorium in SF in December, and again in The Shrine Auditorium in LA in January, 1970.
In '71 I was contracted to provide a PA system for the band's West Coast tour, from San Diego Northward. In the meantime Christine had joined the band and married John McVie. She was Peter Green's replacement. No, she didn't play guitar, but she was the creative spirit that had been Peter.
In '72 the band failed to report when it was time to start an American tour. Mick was off in Africa studying native drums. None of the band had met to rehearse. Christine and John were not speaking.
Mick phoned from Africa, said he would be there, and asked his managers to get a band together without Christine and John, and he would play drums as usual. So musicians were hired, rehearsed the songs, and waited for Mick, who never showed up.
It was too late to cancel the first three dates. Money had been collected, ads had run and tickets had been sold. A substitute drummer was hired, and the band went on. It was not a successful deception. Probably wouldn't have worked even if Mick had shown up. After the second or third try, the remainder of the tour was cancelled, and the band sent home.
A lighting technician who worked on "the fake Fleetwood-Mac tour" told me that at both shows, someone in the audience shouted, "Where's the girl?"
Thanks, Christine, for coming back, again and again.
Note: The courts in England found the band had failed to honor their contractual obligations, and they were forced to pay for the costs of the aborted tour.
--Tycobrahe Tom
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From: Alexander Mair
Subject: RE: Advice
Amen, Bob. I was accepted at Harvard Business School when I was 48, having been a successful entrepreneur up to that time. I learned so much at Harvard that led me to increased independence, particularly financial.
I wanted both my children to go to private schools, but they wanted to be with their friends. Last year, my 36 year old daughter said to me, "I wish I had taken your advice and gone to the school we wanted her to attend." Fortunately, she's got a successful career in public relations in the documentary film business, but we both wish she had taken my advice.
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From: Saeed Jabbar
Subject: Re: Advice
Agreed! I'm a 20 year old college drop out in the tech/start up scene and no where is this ivy league network more prominent especially when it comes to raising venture capital.
Ever since the movie social network, many youths think they can just drop out and become the next zucks over night but that's far from reality. Even though i'm a college drop out i still recommend my friends stay in college or those going to college attend one where they can network their asses off.
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From: Heather Rafter
Subject: RE: Advice
Bob: loved this.
Mark Zuckerberg went to Exeter as well.
So did my two oldest kids. And me.
I believe I'm one of the few in the music industry with an Ivy League degree. I keep it a secret mostly since I thought it was uncool. But then again I am a lawyer which is even more unhip.
And the backlash on sending my boys to Exeter from California: "wait, don't you love your kids? Why are you sending them away?"
Response: "It's because I love them so much that I am. Ultimate act of unselfishness." But few agree.
Btw, I also agree TOTALLY that the Ivy League connection is insane. Kids out of Harvard with no particular merit other than that getting Wall Street job over $300K starting. Definitely a society of the haves getting more access to more money solely because of pedigree (pedegree?!). For good or bad, I have encouraged my Exeter grad sons, even Alex (the one now at Princeton), to give back to the world and not make money from money. There goes my retirement funding!!
Heather
Heather D. Rafter
Phillips Exeter '78
Princeton '82
Columbia '86 (J.D.)
(former General Counsel of Digidesign, now have my own law firm)
P.S. My daughter is heading to public high school next year!! Gasp! Her choice.
___________________________________________
From: Evan Bright
Subject: Re: Advice
Oy, not to write you a novel but, I certainly applied myself.
While in college in a southern city at a major music-related university, I interned with a major promoter for a year. I worked shows with arena/shed level artists. Pretty amazing for an 18 year old. I then interned with a major agency for over a year. I got a taste of how that side of things worked, which was great for someone who was hungry.
I followed that by interning with _______________ and his management company, _______________. Again, pretty amazing for a 21 year old-- learned a lot about management... and I got to go to Letterman with _______________!!
I also had internships at club venues around my college town at the same time. I did an internship with a music branding agency in NYC for a summer, and took classes in Clive Davis and Tisch while I was at it! I even picked up an internship at a South American label while I did a semester down there.
I guess my point is, it can be done for those who have the passion. I was (I think) kind of smart about it in that, I went about things in such a way as to "stick my foot in" as many "doors" as possible, simply because I knew I wanted to be in music, but just didn't know which part I wanted to be in, nor what I would be good at, not yet anyway.
As you stated, it is simply not a feasible ideal to be a Geffen or an Azoff(to gain monstrous success without a degree) nor a Zuckerberg(hit the entrepreneurial jackpot). Those are few and far between, and take equally as much work as the other option. It takes hard work to gain success in this industry though, no matter one's background. And I recognized that for my generation, internships are a means to an end. My vast internship experience, allowed me to have the experiences I NEEDED to have, to be able to qualify for the jobs I would want after graduation. This idea slips by my generation all too often, and that is the point of my message-- I think my generation has an issue with knowing what a hard day's work is. Everything's already been handed to them, including the BMW, the college degree, the iPhone, and the Coachella tickets!
I went to _______________. But that little tidbit was near the bottom of my resume that I sent out to people when looking for jobs! Because that's not what was important. You have to go to school. Sure, you might be able to squeeze by without it, but most companies won't even let you intern these days unless you are receiving college credit... thanks for that one, Barack(just kidding). Their only other option is to pay you... and we all know they aren't doing that!
Hope this all makes some kind of sense. I don't think you'd publish this or anything but if you do - I bolded everything(below included) I would prefer you to take out should you decide to do so. I have learned that reputation and relationships are everything, and I would never dare tarnish that in a missive to you.
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Subject: Re: Advice
Dear Bob,
As someone who came to America with my family so that my brother, my sister, and I could attend one of the nation's top prep schools, and as someone who was left unemployed due to one of last year's big buyouts in the music industry, I must say that your 'Advice' essay resonated with me.
I didn't fall into the world of the Rockefellers, etc. by happenstance - I was airdropped into it, like a freshly-drafted soldier, at my parent's guidance and instruction, not knowing what it would really be like until I hit the ground.
While I did spend virtually all of my boarding school experience in a state of culture shock, today I look back at those years as extremely valuable, because it was there where I became 'clued-in'. Many of the world's most fortunate kids work and live as if nothing was done for them, so why on earth would I?
So I agree completely with your point on the schism between the clued-in versus the clueless millennials. I'm 25, so you are practically talking about my friends, who fill both the entitled and the "enlightened" sides of the aisle.
The 'leg up' argument is also valid - last month my unemployed self was sitting in the office of one of the industry's most prominent independent label heads, strictly on the strength of my prep school network. So there I have to agree as well.
I do, however, draw a distinction between beating the system and becoming the system. For a long time, the preps and Ivys have been about continuing a tradition of CEOs and financiers begetting future CEOs and financiers, and guess what - they mostly still are. I take little issue with this. Our world needs this, to an extent.
It only becomes unfortunate when the 'clued-in' play it too safe. I have seen many of my extremely bright, talented, and adventurous peers ditch theater for JP Morgan, sustainable development for Deutsche, and photojournalism for PWC. Yes, there will always be the well-off renegades, the slackers, the nonconformists, but they're different, because they always knew that at the end of the day, they don't have to be clued-in if they can be bailed out.
I'm talking about the ones who want to be successful financially: they should have this desire, but they shouldn't define success only by financial gain. Zuckerberg's prep & Ivy come-up was essential in building his empire, I agree, but if he was only about the money, he would basically act, live, and look like a US Kim Dotcom.
I say get that top school advantage if you can, absolutely, but once you get there, once you learn, think! I believe that the pendulum has been swinging a bit too far in the opposite direction at these schools when it comes to the money-stacking vs. dream-chasing divide. True, Geffen was from a completely different era, but no amount of schooling could get you to think as he does.
Reading can teach you most of what I learned, anyway.
- Anonymous
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Subject: Re: Sennheiser Momentum
When I see Dan Patrick on ESPN wearing Beats, I think he's getting paid.
When I see somebody on the subway wearing Beats, I think he/she's a poser.
When I see someone in a recording studio wearing Beats...oh, wait. I
never do. Not ever.
Mike Errico
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From: Alon Goldsmith
Subject: Re: Electronic Music
I was just at Coachella with my 17 year old daughter. I managed to get my hands on some VIP passes from a sponsor I met at the box office. I gave two of them to my daughter and her friend. They didn't even use them. Now if that's not a sign of a paradigm shift, I don't know what is.
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From: Darwyn Metzger
Subject: Re: Coachella
Bob,
Coachella... What.. a.. weekend... My girlfriend and I both got roofied, I still have dirt coming out of my eyes from Sandmageddon on Sunday & yet my biggest complaint: The Rock acts... Too old & too irrelevant. Do you know which show had more people saying "WOW" than anything else? --- DOGBLOOD, the new EDM collaboration between Skrillex & Boys Noize. The Sahara tent has become the only stage that matters at Coachella. Substantive melodic performances are one of Coachella's most overrated faucets. It is all about where the party is. If anyone said that their favorite performance was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they are lying. Just like the people last year who said that is was Radiohead (because it was actually Calvin Harris).
-Darwyn
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From: Michael Ross
Subject: Re: Coachella
Hello Bob, spot on article and agree with most of what you said. That was my 8th Coachella and I am hooked. I look forward to the bands when they are announced, but am in regardless. As a dude in my forties, I am glad they get a lot of bands from my era. I got to see New Order for the first time and loved it. The Sahara tent is a must see, amazing. As far the writer at the LA Times who has a hard on against RHCP, I say FU! I have seen them 10+ times and they always bring it. They knew why they were there and played 20 great tunes. No bs, just making sure the 60k watching were having a good time. As far as 2011, the answer is my Canadian brothers Arcade Fire.....peace
___________________________________________
From: Sandra Jimenez
Subject: Re: Coachella
My first time going to Coachella was in 2005. I was 14 years old, and I went with two other girlfriends. My mom dropped us off at the entrance and said "have a good time girls! call me when you want me to pick you up!". We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But I think that's where my love for music really started. That, and my awareness of drugs, over dose, and music junkies. When we went back to school we told everyone where we had gone, and they said "huh? what in gods name is coachella?" Those same kids are exactly the same suckers who are helping Coachella sell out. After 05, I went every year for the next 6 years. I stopped when I realized it just wasn't the same, and it was never going to be the way it was. Suddenly it was about playing the part. Hippie flower child. Everyone goes out to buy clothes to wear to a music festival so they can look as hip as possible. Music, what music? And companies are loving it, marketing festival style to all the rich kids who will cough up anything to look hipper than everyone else. It kind of sucks. But at least we still have Bonnaroo, where only true dedicated music fans will endure nasty weather, mud, not showering for 4 days, and disgusting port o potties. There are still people out there who make music part of their life, they go to shows on a daily basis, go out of their ways to go to amazing music festivals in the USA or abroad, not just some 3 day corporate sell out in the middle of the desert. If Coachella is all kids my age have to look forward to all year, then that really sucks.
___________________________________________
From: Casey Smith
Subject: Re: Coachella
Bob, here's the thing man - it IS about the music. Sure, a lot of kids go for the scene, but I would say there's a large portion of people like myself, who have been attending this festival annually since sometime in the mid 2000's that aren't there for EDM music. These people go for the underground rock, the experimental electronic, the unconventional Hip Hop.
Let me just say, with out Coachella Music & Arts Festival I would not be on the path that I am on in the music industry. It was this festival that opened my eyes and ears to a whole new world of music that was originally completely foreign to me and illustrated to me that you don't just have to book Macklamore to draw a crowd.
Sure most of the festival was at Bassnectar Friday night losing their minds, but the couple thousand of us that were at How To Destroy Angels saw a show so intimate, so special, that our Coachella was completely shaped by it. Sure Bass draws the crowd, but the reception toward Angels was the best of the festival. You felt the love. You felt the appreciation for the craft and the art - something I know didn't happen inside that airplane hanger during most of those EDM shows.
I see you have a lot of admiration for the festival - but asking to sell it self out even harder to make all the kiddies happy by just giving them candy is insane to me. You got to give them fruit and veggies too - you got to have a balanced diet so you can grow up strong one day.
Coachella is in a unique position right now - they have POWER. People are going to go no matter what because it's an amazing environment to be at a festival and the music is A+. Right now, they can either push out factory produced pop music, or they help cultivate the arts and music and create something that is truly monumental in our culture. I vote for the latter.
Help support Coachella's underground.
--
Casey H. Smith
PARADIGM
404 West Franklin Street
Monterey, CA 93940
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From: Andrew Delaney - Live Nation
Subject: RE: Coachella
It really is all about the hang.
Note the year: July 25, 1969 - TIME Magazine
"Instead, the festivals seem to have become an experience akin to the spring vacation at Fort Lauderdale, where swarms of beery or pot-high youngsters congregate for a bash to remember. Says Ray Riepen, president of the Boston underground radio station WBCN: 'A rock festival is like a football game now. It doesn't have anything to do with music any more. It's just a scene.'"
Source, hidden behind a pay wall: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901132,00.html
___________________________________________
From: Eric
Subject: Re: Benji From PledgeMusic
Thanks for the reality check Bob....is this why MusicXray is raking in my dough with zero results, except to tell me to keep submitting?
___________________________________________
From: Nakia
Subject: Re: Benji From PledgeMusic
Hi Bob,
I definitely have to sing the praises of the PledgeMusic folks. I had a very successful campaign with them and actually just released the EP just before SXSW. I never dealt with Benji personally, but the folks I did work with - Matt Lydon primarily - were stellar. They were able to help me gauge what was realistic and then set about showing me the best way to make it happen. Anytime there was a question or an issue, it was immediately addressed and resolved. The truth is that their backend system is very well done. I'm a bit of a techie and so I dug in and really tried my best to utilize all the tools available. I think one of the best things they help artists do is the way that you are actually marketing the release long before it comes out, is pretty brilliant. The fans get to watch as the songs grow from lyric or melody ideas into demos that become actual songs recorded and released. Overall, we ended up with a little more than what PledgeMusic guessed we'd end up with but what I felt like I ended up gaining that was more important than the money, was the fans who not only were invested in me financially, but who really understood what I was trying to do musically. These 500+ people are the folks that WILL come to a show and WILL buy a t-shirt and WILL tell their friends.
Could I have raised more money if I had launched a campaign in the heat of my 5 minutes of TV fame? Most definitely. The Voice was a big hit and everyone was talking about it at the moment, but cashing in isn't what I what I wanted. I want a career. I want to sing my songs. Just before The Voice tour began, I met Ron Stone who not only agreed to manage me, but came in the door knowing it was going to take time. He brought in Peter Wark to co-manage me and I got into the studio to work with songwriters and producers instead of rushing to get into the market. Ron kept reminding me that it was going to be a slow grind and the songs were everything. It was Peter who brought PledgeMusic to our attention after we kept running into walls with labels who wanted a more polished/pop/younger/thinner version of me instead of the Soul/Blues music I wanted to sing. Once I had a handful of songs that I wrote with guys in LA and ground up live with my band back in Austin, we went back to PledgeMusic to get started. Again - totally easy and simple. I posted my tongue-in-cheek video asking for money to make a record and followed up by posting scans of original lyric sheets, photos and videos from the studio, and made sure to be quick to reply to fan comments on the site and on social media. By the time it was done, we had even attracted enough attention to get distribution for the record when it was done.
SXSW happened just a week after the EP was out and we ended up signing with The Agency Group after one of my shows and now we are going to get in a van and get on the road with my new CD in hand and maybe a shirt or two to sell. That part of it hasn't changed and honestly I don't ever want it to. This is the part that I have been the most excited about - getting out in front of these folks who supported me and introducing them to my real live show with the amazing band that I have put together. With the data we got from PledgeMusic, I can have David Strunk route us through an area that has a few pledgers. I don't have any big illusions about selling out venues just yet, but I do have big dreams and I believe that the people who supported me during my first campaign will come along for the ride and be a part of those dreams with me. For me it truly is about the fans and the music. When I meet these people face to face who love the CD I know they're in it for the long haul because of the songs and the work I am doing, not because CeeLo and Blake Shelton turned their big red chairs around for me. Don't get me wrong - that experience is one that I am very proud of and I will cherish it and the relationships I have with CeeLo, my fellow singers, and the crew of the show for the rest of my life. I just don't want it to define who I am as an artist. PledgeMusic helped me put out a record with my fans that truly helped connect us in a new way and now it's up to me make it last. It's a slow grind and it's all about the songs.
Best,
Nakia
Listen to my new EP, Drown In The Crimson Tide.
http://nakia.me/drowninthecrimsontide
NAKIA.NET
YOUTUBE.COM/NAKIA
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From: Dan Navarro
Subject: Re: Crowdfunding and The CD
Re: Crowdfunding
Eric Lowen and I did it in 2003, way before it was mechanized, motivated
and organized by a friend with finance experience (he called it the
"Angels" program), to fund two albums (All The Time In The World in 2004
and Hogging The Covers in 2006) which covered the incumbent production,
personnel, pressing, advertising (including an ill-considered stab at
direct-market cable TV advertising), traditional publicity and Triple A
radio promotion.
We were kept at arms length from the gory details -- it seemed awkward and
impolite to know that Meredith had donated $100 while Donald had donated
$5,000 -- and we raised $166,000 from maybe 50 donors, $120,000 of it from
two donors (it was impossible to be at arm's length from those donations).
Some of the donations were pre-sells of signed and numbered CDs while some
were flat out donations in varying amounts. Their names were all listed on
the CD art. The first $40,000 came in six days.
I'm considering options for my own new album, coming in the summer, and
have been hesitant to go to the well once again, even though it has been
10 years and some folks are begging me to do it. Ellis Paul is a dear,
dear friend, so I've been watching his progress, and I am also affiliated
with Nimbit, so I am watching further. Frankly, I'm gonna have to get my
head around something, because it is just unaffordable for me to fund it
alone. Film at 11.
But I wanted to comment on the "Who Buys CDs anymore."
Who buys CDs anymore? Audiences at shows. My audience on 80-90 gigs a year
are not all older Luddites (shock!), but most don't want download cards or
thumb drives, even though most of them will still rip the CD when they get
home.
They are looking for a memento of the evening that includes the music, a
picture and has an autographing surface. And I will hang out and sign CDs
until the last fan is gone or the bar runs out of Guinness. I have seen
people buy CDs I know they already have to get a souvenir of the evening.
In fact, when L&N was going (until 2009) we recorded the shows, burned CDs
on the spot (organized by our road manager) and sold them to people
standing in line to get them signed. We did 250 units to a crowd of 800 in
Chicago in 2006, and on a fateful evening in October 2006, broke the house
record for merch in a single night, at the Birchmere in Alexandria VA,
probably the finest club in the country. We did $7200 to an audience of
500, because we had a new album, a new DVD and the live-on-site CDs (we
did 165 that night). Waaaaay past our heyday. But I digress.
If the old model is gone and we need to hit the highway and play live to a
devoted following, however small, in order to matter
(halle-f***ing-lluiah!) then CDs are a must.
I have done my best not to be like the six blind men describing an
elephant, limiting themselves to the world they experience (or dream of),
unaware of the rest of the landscape. Most of us who read you live on the
cutting bleeding edge of our communities, sometimes way more aware of the
horizon than the ground under our feet. And while it is vital to see where
we are going, the world is bigger and broader than that, and I dare not
ignore what is here and now.
My uncle Mike Navarro (Dave's dad), a very successful advertising man
since the 1960s, told me something once "Just when you are sick to f***ing
death of an idea, slogan, visual, trademark, whatever, that you can no
longer stomach it for another second, the rest of the world is
just-barely-catching-on." I try not to forget that.
All the new delivery options are just that -- options, alternatives,
parallel roads that can get us to where we are going. There is no reason
to travel only one road at a time. So I say bring it all on.
xx
dn
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From: Jon Ricci
Subject: Re: Using YouTube
RE: RADIO
Don't forget Satellite. Sirius XM gave Lansdowne a career, however niche it is.
The amazing people over at Octane (Kayla Riley, Lou Brutus, Grant Random especially) took a chance on unsigned rock and we grossed over $100k last year after spending years scraping change together just to afford our shitty tours. Not Justin Bieber numbers, but our hair isn't as good as his anyways. It's enough to keep developing and we are very grateful for the incredible rock fans listening on Octane.
Jon
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Subject: Re: Bedford Shoe & Luggage Repair
Here's one that brings the "unforgettable old joke" and the "timelessness of honest repair" full circle, kind of like M.C. Escher drawing his own hand. (I'm almost ashamed to say I remember this joke from my youth. I believe I first heard the version below from either Chico or Groucho.)
An ancient Greek goes to a tailor with a pair of torn pants.
The tailor says, "Euripides?"
The Greek replies, "Eumenides."
Too soon? Too late!
When I was growing up, one of my Dad's friends from India often talked about his adult son, who, beginning at the age of 10 (in early '40s Philadelphia), would repair the neighbors' radios. The kid was so good at it that word soon spread, resulting in a nice after-school business. However, fearing that no one would entrust his radio to a 10-year-old, the dad led the neighbors to believe that he was doing the repair work himself. ("Come back in a couple days. I'll have it fixed!" Which wasn't un-true. He just didn't say who'd be doing the fixing.) My Dad's friend was Noni Bose. His boy genius son, Amar, went on to found the Bose Corporation. Moral of the story: Not only is the art of repair lucrative, it can also be evolutionary. Repairing luggage may not make you a billionaire like Bose. But that ethic, instilled and passed on, can just as well be applied to succesively higher callings.
Raj Bahadur, NYC
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From: Jay Sweet
Subject: Re: End Of Night
Just on a side note: Newport Folk has very few corporate partners of any kind. Mostly because we try and live by the criteria, "if you aren't enhancing the experience, you're interrupting the experience; and if you are interrupting the experience you don't get it." When Sennheiser first came to Newport Folk they had a pretty clear idea of what THEY wanted to do. It was a small activation with a small budget and it went "ok" but not gangbusters. In the off season, instead simply looking at their bottom line ROI from the activation, they did something that a lot of corporate sponsors don't do, they went back to the drawing board using their previous year's experience, LISTENED to what our team experienced with their activation, and between both parties came up with a solution to a need. In other words it transformed from a Sponsorship to a Partnership.
If you don't think there's a difference you either aren't in the game or you are simply setting yourself to fail.
The end result being Sennheiser's activation the last two years has become an integral part of the overall festival experience. You get to hear intimate LIVE pop-up performances through wireless headphones in the middle of the festival.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/09/live-from-newport-folk-dawes-and-ben-sollee-1.html Dawes & Ben Sollee
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/08/live-from-newport-blind-pilot---always-1.html Blind Pilot
Anyway, I wouldn't espouse a partnership if I didn't honestly think it was worth mentioning them as a template of how it's supposed to be done.
Even the New York Times noted it: Paragraph #17 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/arts/music/newport-folk-festival-with-arlo-guthrie-and-jackson-browne.html?pagewanted=all
But one thing that made the claim feel almost reasonable to me was the ingenuity of the site programming, which had artists playing not only on the three main outdoor stages but also in a chapel-like museum room, along the grounds and in an alcove within the fort's stone walls. The alcove, sponsored by Sennheiser, involved a signal broadcast through noise-canceling headphones, so you could hear a whisper-quiet set clearly even as another band thundered across the quad. At one point I forsook Iron & Wine for an intimate session with Deer Tick.......
-Have a good day
Jay
Newport Folk Producer
___________________________________________
From: Stephen Marcussen
Subject: Then/Now
THEN-TV advertised movies
NOW-Movies advertise TV
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Subject: Christine McVie
Bob,
Thanks for writing about this album and reminding people about Christine.
We recorded it in Montreux, Switzerland at Mountain Studios. Charlie Chaplin's son was our assistant.
Flew to England to record Winwood at his house in Lower dean...(Eric played on The Challenge...we called him while we were in London and he came down) then flew back to finish. Foreshadowing?
First album I mixed in NYC at A&R. Moved to Redding Connecticut from Santa Monica during the making of.
If she had only written Songbird she would be in the pantheon of the best songwriters ever and she had the most soulful voice.
Unbelievable about Phil R
Best rt
___________________________________________
From: Andy Fraser
Subject: The Stealer
Bob -
Saw your comments, and have to say Andy Johns was one of my favorite people. Only a year older than me, we worked in the studio on a lot of FREE recordings both as teenagers. I loved his energy, always up, keen, ready to go, full of enthusiasm. As you know, he was the engineer the night we wrote, recorded and mixed 'The Stealer' in one session. Then ran up to the top floor where Chris Blackwell of Island Records had an apartment, woke him up, and said 'you gotta get down and hear this', which he did, and proclaimed it the next single. AJ called me only a few weeks ago, and now he's gone. Life is so fragile. Heartbreaking. He will be missed. Not sure if he ever learnt to drive. He would either take a cab, or I would drop him off at his place in St. Johns Wood, London after a session. Known a few like that. Frankie Miller, Robert Palmer - it's like "Me drive?, with my habits - I don't think so" - http://bit.ly/145kwUQ
___________________________________________
From: Tycobrahe Sound Co
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Christine McVie
Thanks Bob.
Christine Perfect (her maiden name) brought more to Fleetwood Mac than her songwriting, vocal and instrumental talents. She was responsible for the change from Peter Green's blues band that we heard in '68 and '69, to the perfect blend of rhythm and tunes.
I saw "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" (as they were billed in '69), at The Olympic Auditorium in SF in December, and again in The Shrine Auditorium in LA in January, 1970.
In '71 I was contracted to provide a PA system for the band's West Coast tour, from San Diego Northward. In the meantime Christine had joined the band and married John McVie. She was Peter Green's replacement. No, she didn't play guitar, but she was the creative spirit that had been Peter.
In '72 the band failed to report when it was time to start an American tour. Mick was off in Africa studying native drums. None of the band had met to rehearse. Christine and John were not speaking.
Mick phoned from Africa, said he would be there, and asked his managers to get a band together without Christine and John, and he would play drums as usual. So musicians were hired, rehearsed the songs, and waited for Mick, who never showed up.
It was too late to cancel the first three dates. Money had been collected, ads had run and tickets had been sold. A substitute drummer was hired, and the band went on. It was not a successful deception. Probably wouldn't have worked even if Mick had shown up. After the second or third try, the remainder of the tour was cancelled, and the band sent home.
A lighting technician who worked on "the fake Fleetwood-Mac tour" told me that at both shows, someone in the audience shouted, "Where's the girl?"
Thanks, Christine, for coming back, again and again.
Note: The courts in England found the band had failed to honor their contractual obligations, and they were forced to pay for the costs of the aborted tour.
--Tycobrahe Tom
___________________________________________
From: Alexander Mair
Subject: RE: Advice
Amen, Bob. I was accepted at Harvard Business School when I was 48, having been a successful entrepreneur up to that time. I learned so much at Harvard that led me to increased independence, particularly financial.
I wanted both my children to go to private schools, but they wanted to be with their friends. Last year, my 36 year old daughter said to me, "I wish I had taken your advice and gone to the school we wanted her to attend." Fortunately, she's got a successful career in public relations in the documentary film business, but we both wish she had taken my advice.
___________________________________________
From: Saeed Jabbar
Subject: Re: Advice
Agreed! I'm a 20 year old college drop out in the tech/start up scene and no where is this ivy league network more prominent especially when it comes to raising venture capital.
Ever since the movie social network, many youths think they can just drop out and become the next zucks over night but that's far from reality. Even though i'm a college drop out i still recommend my friends stay in college or those going to college attend one where they can network their asses off.
___________________________________________
From: Heather Rafter
Subject: RE: Advice
Bob: loved this.
Mark Zuckerberg went to Exeter as well.
So did my two oldest kids. And me.
I believe I'm one of the few in the music industry with an Ivy League degree. I keep it a secret mostly since I thought it was uncool. But then again I am a lawyer which is even more unhip.
And the backlash on sending my boys to Exeter from California: "wait, don't you love your kids? Why are you sending them away?"
Response: "It's because I love them so much that I am. Ultimate act of unselfishness." But few agree.
Btw, I also agree TOTALLY that the Ivy League connection is insane. Kids out of Harvard with no particular merit other than that getting Wall Street job over $300K starting. Definitely a society of the haves getting more access to more money solely because of pedigree (pedegree?!). For good or bad, I have encouraged my Exeter grad sons, even Alex (the one now at Princeton), to give back to the world and not make money from money. There goes my retirement funding!!
Heather
Heather D. Rafter
Phillips Exeter '78
Princeton '82
Columbia '86 (J.D.)
(former General Counsel of Digidesign, now have my own law firm)
P.S. My daughter is heading to public high school next year!! Gasp! Her choice.
___________________________________________
From: Evan Bright
Subject: Re: Advice
Oy, not to write you a novel but, I certainly applied myself.
While in college in a southern city at a major music-related university, I interned with a major promoter for a year. I worked shows with arena/shed level artists. Pretty amazing for an 18 year old. I then interned with a major agency for over a year. I got a taste of how that side of things worked, which was great for someone who was hungry.
I followed that by interning with _______________ and his management company, _______________. Again, pretty amazing for a 21 year old-- learned a lot about management... and I got to go to Letterman with _______________!!
I also had internships at club venues around my college town at the same time. I did an internship with a music branding agency in NYC for a summer, and took classes in Clive Davis and Tisch while I was at it! I even picked up an internship at a South American label while I did a semester down there.
I guess my point is, it can be done for those who have the passion. I was (I think) kind of smart about it in that, I went about things in such a way as to "stick my foot in" as many "doors" as possible, simply because I knew I wanted to be in music, but just didn't know which part I wanted to be in, nor what I would be good at, not yet anyway.
As you stated, it is simply not a feasible ideal to be a Geffen or an Azoff(to gain monstrous success without a degree) nor a Zuckerberg(hit the entrepreneurial jackpot). Those are few and far between, and take equally as much work as the other option. It takes hard work to gain success in this industry though, no matter one's background. And I recognized that for my generation, internships are a means to an end. My vast internship experience, allowed me to have the experiences I NEEDED to have, to be able to qualify for the jobs I would want after graduation. This idea slips by my generation all too often, and that is the point of my message-- I think my generation has an issue with knowing what a hard day's work is. Everything's already been handed to them, including the BMW, the college degree, the iPhone, and the Coachella tickets!
I went to _______________. But that little tidbit was near the bottom of my resume that I sent out to people when looking for jobs! Because that's not what was important. You have to go to school. Sure, you might be able to squeeze by without it, but most companies won't even let you intern these days unless you are receiving college credit... thanks for that one, Barack(just kidding). Their only other option is to pay you... and we all know they aren't doing that!
Hope this all makes some kind of sense. I don't think you'd publish this or anything but if you do - I bolded everything(below included) I would prefer you to take out should you decide to do so. I have learned that reputation and relationships are everything, and I would never dare tarnish that in a missive to you.
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Advice
Dear Bob,
As someone who came to America with my family so that my brother, my sister, and I could attend one of the nation's top prep schools, and as someone who was left unemployed due to one of last year's big buyouts in the music industry, I must say that your 'Advice' essay resonated with me.
I didn't fall into the world of the Rockefellers, etc. by happenstance - I was airdropped into it, like a freshly-drafted soldier, at my parent's guidance and instruction, not knowing what it would really be like until I hit the ground.
While I did spend virtually all of my boarding school experience in a state of culture shock, today I look back at those years as extremely valuable, because it was there where I became 'clued-in'. Many of the world's most fortunate kids work and live as if nothing was done for them, so why on earth would I?
So I agree completely with your point on the schism between the clued-in versus the clueless millennials. I'm 25, so you are practically talking about my friends, who fill both the entitled and the "enlightened" sides of the aisle.
The 'leg up' argument is also valid - last month my unemployed self was sitting in the office of one of the industry's most prominent independent label heads, strictly on the strength of my prep school network. So there I have to agree as well.
I do, however, draw a distinction between beating the system and becoming the system. For a long time, the preps and Ivys have been about continuing a tradition of CEOs and financiers begetting future CEOs and financiers, and guess what - they mostly still are. I take little issue with this. Our world needs this, to an extent.
It only becomes unfortunate when the 'clued-in' play it too safe. I have seen many of my extremely bright, talented, and adventurous peers ditch theater for JP Morgan, sustainable development for Deutsche, and photojournalism for PWC. Yes, there will always be the well-off renegades, the slackers, the nonconformists, but they're different, because they always knew that at the end of the day, they don't have to be clued-in if they can be bailed out.
I'm talking about the ones who want to be successful financially: they should have this desire, but they shouldn't define success only by financial gain. Zuckerberg's prep & Ivy come-up was essential in building his empire, I agree, but if he was only about the money, he would basically act, live, and look like a US Kim Dotcom.
I say get that top school advantage if you can, absolutely, but once you get there, once you learn, think! I believe that the pendulum has been swinging a bit too far in the opposite direction at these schools when it comes to the money-stacking vs. dream-chasing divide. True, Geffen was from a completely different era, but no amount of schooling could get you to think as he does.
Reading can teach you most of what I learned, anyway.
- Anonymous
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Sennheiser Momentum
When I see Dan Patrick on ESPN wearing Beats, I think he's getting paid.
When I see somebody on the subway wearing Beats, I think he/she's a poser.
When I see someone in a recording studio wearing Beats...oh, wait. I
never do. Not ever.
Mike Errico
___________________________________________
From: Alon Goldsmith
Subject: Re: Electronic Music
I was just at Coachella with my 17 year old daughter. I managed to get my hands on some VIP passes from a sponsor I met at the box office. I gave two of them to my daughter and her friend. They didn't even use them. Now if that's not a sign of a paradigm shift, I don't know what is.
___________________________________________
From: Darwyn Metzger
Subject: Re: Coachella
Bob,
Coachella... What.. a.. weekend... My girlfriend and I both got roofied, I still have dirt coming out of my eyes from Sandmageddon on Sunday & yet my biggest complaint: The Rock acts... Too old & too irrelevant. Do you know which show had more people saying "WOW" than anything else? --- DOGBLOOD, the new EDM collaboration between Skrillex & Boys Noize. The Sahara tent has become the only stage that matters at Coachella. Substantive melodic performances are one of Coachella's most overrated faucets. It is all about where the party is. If anyone said that their favorite performance was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they are lying. Just like the people last year who said that is was Radiohead (because it was actually Calvin Harris).
-Darwyn
___________________________________________
From: Michael Ross
Subject: Re: Coachella
Hello Bob, spot on article and agree with most of what you said. That was my 8th Coachella and I am hooked. I look forward to the bands when they are announced, but am in regardless. As a dude in my forties, I am glad they get a lot of bands from my era. I got to see New Order for the first time and loved it. The Sahara tent is a must see, amazing. As far the writer at the LA Times who has a hard on against RHCP, I say FU! I have seen them 10+ times and they always bring it. They knew why they were there and played 20 great tunes. No bs, just making sure the 60k watching were having a good time. As far as 2011, the answer is my Canadian brothers Arcade Fire.....peace
___________________________________________
From: Sandra Jimenez
Subject: Re: Coachella
My first time going to Coachella was in 2005. I was 14 years old, and I went with two other girlfriends. My mom dropped us off at the entrance and said "have a good time girls! call me when you want me to pick you up!". We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But I think that's where my love for music really started. That, and my awareness of drugs, over dose, and music junkies. When we went back to school we told everyone where we had gone, and they said "huh? what in gods name is coachella?" Those same kids are exactly the same suckers who are helping Coachella sell out. After 05, I went every year for the next 6 years. I stopped when I realized it just wasn't the same, and it was never going to be the way it was. Suddenly it was about playing the part. Hippie flower child. Everyone goes out to buy clothes to wear to a music festival so they can look as hip as possible. Music, what music? And companies are loving it, marketing festival style to all the rich kids who will cough up anything to look hipper than everyone else. It kind of sucks. But at least we still have Bonnaroo, where only true dedicated music fans will endure nasty weather, mud, not showering for 4 days, and disgusting port o potties. There are still people out there who make music part of their life, they go to shows on a daily basis, go out of their ways to go to amazing music festivals in the USA or abroad, not just some 3 day corporate sell out in the middle of the desert. If Coachella is all kids my age have to look forward to all year, then that really sucks.
___________________________________________
From: Casey Smith
Subject: Re: Coachella
Bob, here's the thing man - it IS about the music. Sure, a lot of kids go for the scene, but I would say there's a large portion of people like myself, who have been attending this festival annually since sometime in the mid 2000's that aren't there for EDM music. These people go for the underground rock, the experimental electronic, the unconventional Hip Hop.
Let me just say, with out Coachella Music & Arts Festival I would not be on the path that I am on in the music industry. It was this festival that opened my eyes and ears to a whole new world of music that was originally completely foreign to me and illustrated to me that you don't just have to book Macklamore to draw a crowd.
Sure most of the festival was at Bassnectar Friday night losing their minds, but the couple thousand of us that were at How To Destroy Angels saw a show so intimate, so special, that our Coachella was completely shaped by it. Sure Bass draws the crowd, but the reception toward Angels was the best of the festival. You felt the love. You felt the appreciation for the craft and the art - something I know didn't happen inside that airplane hanger during most of those EDM shows.
I see you have a lot of admiration for the festival - but asking to sell it self out even harder to make all the kiddies happy by just giving them candy is insane to me. You got to give them fruit and veggies too - you got to have a balanced diet so you can grow up strong one day.
Coachella is in a unique position right now - they have POWER. People are going to go no matter what because it's an amazing environment to be at a festival and the music is A+. Right now, they can either push out factory produced pop music, or they help cultivate the arts and music and create something that is truly monumental in our culture. I vote for the latter.
Help support Coachella's underground.
--
Casey H. Smith
PARADIGM
404 West Franklin Street
Monterey, CA 93940
___________________________________________
From: Andrew Delaney - Live Nation
Subject: RE: Coachella
It really is all about the hang.
Note the year: July 25, 1969 - TIME Magazine
"Instead, the festivals seem to have become an experience akin to the spring vacation at Fort Lauderdale, where swarms of beery or pot-high youngsters congregate for a bash to remember. Says Ray Riepen, president of the Boston underground radio station WBCN: 'A rock festival is like a football game now. It doesn't have anything to do with music any more. It's just a scene.'"
Source, hidden behind a pay wall: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901132,00.html
___________________________________________
From: Eric
Subject: Re: Benji From PledgeMusic
Thanks for the reality check Bob....is this why MusicXray is raking in my dough with zero results, except to tell me to keep submitting?
___________________________________________
From: Nakia
Subject: Re: Benji From PledgeMusic
Hi Bob,
I definitely have to sing the praises of the PledgeMusic folks. I had a very successful campaign with them and actually just released the EP just before SXSW. I never dealt with Benji personally, but the folks I did work with - Matt Lydon primarily - were stellar. They were able to help me gauge what was realistic and then set about showing me the best way to make it happen. Anytime there was a question or an issue, it was immediately addressed and resolved. The truth is that their backend system is very well done. I'm a bit of a techie and so I dug in and really tried my best to utilize all the tools available. I think one of the best things they help artists do is the way that you are actually marketing the release long before it comes out, is pretty brilliant. The fans get to watch as the songs grow from lyric or melody ideas into demos that become actual songs recorded and released. Overall, we ended up with a little more than what PledgeMusic guessed we'd end up with but what I felt like I ended up gaining that was more important than the money, was the fans who not only were invested in me financially, but who really understood what I was trying to do musically. These 500+ people are the folks that WILL come to a show and WILL buy a t-shirt and WILL tell their friends.
Could I have raised more money if I had launched a campaign in the heat of my 5 minutes of TV fame? Most definitely. The Voice was a big hit and everyone was talking about it at the moment, but cashing in isn't what I what I wanted. I want a career. I want to sing my songs. Just before The Voice tour began, I met Ron Stone who not only agreed to manage me, but came in the door knowing it was going to take time. He brought in Peter Wark to co-manage me and I got into the studio to work with songwriters and producers instead of rushing to get into the market. Ron kept reminding me that it was going to be a slow grind and the songs were everything. It was Peter who brought PledgeMusic to our attention after we kept running into walls with labels who wanted a more polished/pop/younger/thinner version of me instead of the Soul/Blues music I wanted to sing. Once I had a handful of songs that I wrote with guys in LA and ground up live with my band back in Austin, we went back to PledgeMusic to get started. Again - totally easy and simple. I posted my tongue-in-cheek video asking for money to make a record and followed up by posting scans of original lyric sheets, photos and videos from the studio, and made sure to be quick to reply to fan comments on the site and on social media. By the time it was done, we had even attracted enough attention to get distribution for the record when it was done.
SXSW happened just a week after the EP was out and we ended up signing with The Agency Group after one of my shows and now we are going to get in a van and get on the road with my new CD in hand and maybe a shirt or two to sell. That part of it hasn't changed and honestly I don't ever want it to. This is the part that I have been the most excited about - getting out in front of these folks who supported me and introducing them to my real live show with the amazing band that I have put together. With the data we got from PledgeMusic, I can have David Strunk route us through an area that has a few pledgers. I don't have any big illusions about selling out venues just yet, but I do have big dreams and I believe that the people who supported me during my first campaign will come along for the ride and be a part of those dreams with me. For me it truly is about the fans and the music. When I meet these people face to face who love the CD I know they're in it for the long haul because of the songs and the work I am doing, not because CeeLo and Blake Shelton turned their big red chairs around for me. Don't get me wrong - that experience is one that I am very proud of and I will cherish it and the relationships I have with CeeLo, my fellow singers, and the crew of the show for the rest of my life. I just don't want it to define who I am as an artist. PledgeMusic helped me put out a record with my fans that truly helped connect us in a new way and now it's up to me make it last. It's a slow grind and it's all about the songs.
Best,
Nakia
Listen to my new EP, Drown In The Crimson Tide.
http://nakia.me/drowninthecrimsontide
NAKIA.NET
YOUTUBE.COM/NAKIA
___________________________________________
From: Dan Navarro
Subject: Re: Crowdfunding and The CD
Re: Crowdfunding
Eric Lowen and I did it in 2003, way before it was mechanized, motivated
and organized by a friend with finance experience (he called it the
"Angels" program), to fund two albums (All The Time In The World in 2004
and Hogging The Covers in 2006) which covered the incumbent production,
personnel, pressing, advertising (including an ill-considered stab at
direct-market cable TV advertising), traditional publicity and Triple A
radio promotion.
We were kept at arms length from the gory details -- it seemed awkward and
impolite to know that Meredith had donated $100 while Donald had donated
$5,000 -- and we raised $166,000 from maybe 50 donors, $120,000 of it from
two donors (it was impossible to be at arm's length from those donations).
Some of the donations were pre-sells of signed and numbered CDs while some
were flat out donations in varying amounts. Their names were all listed on
the CD art. The first $40,000 came in six days.
I'm considering options for my own new album, coming in the summer, and
have been hesitant to go to the well once again, even though it has been
10 years and some folks are begging me to do it. Ellis Paul is a dear,
dear friend, so I've been watching his progress, and I am also affiliated
with Nimbit, so I am watching further. Frankly, I'm gonna have to get my
head around something, because it is just unaffordable for me to fund it
alone. Film at 11.
But I wanted to comment on the "Who Buys CDs anymore."
Who buys CDs anymore? Audiences at shows. My audience on 80-90 gigs a year
are not all older Luddites (shock!), but most don't want download cards or
thumb drives, even though most of them will still rip the CD when they get
home.
They are looking for a memento of the evening that includes the music, a
picture and has an autographing surface. And I will hang out and sign CDs
until the last fan is gone or the bar runs out of Guinness. I have seen
people buy CDs I know they already have to get a souvenir of the evening.
In fact, when L&N was going (until 2009) we recorded the shows, burned CDs
on the spot (organized by our road manager) and sold them to people
standing in line to get them signed. We did 250 units to a crowd of 800 in
Chicago in 2006, and on a fateful evening in October 2006, broke the house
record for merch in a single night, at the Birchmere in Alexandria VA,
probably the finest club in the country. We did $7200 to an audience of
500, because we had a new album, a new DVD and the live-on-site CDs (we
did 165 that night). Waaaaay past our heyday. But I digress.
If the old model is gone and we need to hit the highway and play live to a
devoted following, however small, in order to matter
(halle-f***ing-lluiah!) then CDs are a must.
I have done my best not to be like the six blind men describing an
elephant, limiting themselves to the world they experience (or dream of),
unaware of the rest of the landscape. Most of us who read you live on the
cutting bleeding edge of our communities, sometimes way more aware of the
horizon than the ground under our feet. And while it is vital to see where
we are going, the world is bigger and broader than that, and I dare not
ignore what is here and now.
My uncle Mike Navarro (Dave's dad), a very successful advertising man
since the 1960s, told me something once "Just when you are sick to f***ing
death of an idea, slogan, visual, trademark, whatever, that you can no
longer stomach it for another second, the rest of the world is
just-barely-catching-on." I try not to forget that.
All the new delivery options are just that -- options, alternatives,
parallel roads that can get us to where we are going. There is no reason
to travel only one road at a time. So I say bring it all on.
xx
dn
___________________________________________
From: Jon Ricci
Subject: Re: Using YouTube
RE: RADIO
Don't forget Satellite. Sirius XM gave Lansdowne a career, however niche it is.
The amazing people over at Octane (Kayla Riley, Lou Brutus, Grant Random especially) took a chance on unsigned rock and we grossed over $100k last year after spending years scraping change together just to afford our shitty tours. Not Justin Bieber numbers, but our hair isn't as good as his anyways. It's enough to keep developing and we are very grateful for the incredible rock fans listening on Octane.
Jon
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Bedford Shoe & Luggage Repair
Here's one that brings the "unforgettable old joke" and the "timelessness of honest repair" full circle, kind of like M.C. Escher drawing his own hand. (I'm almost ashamed to say I remember this joke from my youth. I believe I first heard the version below from either Chico or Groucho.)
An ancient Greek goes to a tailor with a pair of torn pants.
The tailor says, "Euripides?"
The Greek replies, "Eumenides."
Too soon? Too late!
When I was growing up, one of my Dad's friends from India often talked about his adult son, who, beginning at the age of 10 (in early '40s Philadelphia), would repair the neighbors' radios. The kid was so good at it that word soon spread, resulting in a nice after-school business. However, fearing that no one would entrust his radio to a 10-year-old, the dad led the neighbors to believe that he was doing the repair work himself. ("Come back in a couple days. I'll have it fixed!" Which wasn't un-true. He just didn't say who'd be doing the fixing.) My Dad's friend was Noni Bose. His boy genius son, Amar, went on to found the Bose Corporation. Moral of the story: Not only is the art of repair lucrative, it can also be evolutionary. Repairing luggage may not make you a billionaire like Bose. But that ethic, instilled and passed on, can just as well be applied to succesively higher callings.
Raj Bahadur, NYC
___________________________________________
From: Jay Sweet
Subject: Re: End Of Night
Just on a side note: Newport Folk has very few corporate partners of any kind. Mostly because we try and live by the criteria, "if you aren't enhancing the experience, you're interrupting the experience; and if you are interrupting the experience you don't get it." When Sennheiser first came to Newport Folk they had a pretty clear idea of what THEY wanted to do. It was a small activation with a small budget and it went "ok" but not gangbusters. In the off season, instead simply looking at their bottom line ROI from the activation, they did something that a lot of corporate sponsors don't do, they went back to the drawing board using their previous year's experience, LISTENED to what our team experienced with their activation, and between both parties came up with a solution to a need. In other words it transformed from a Sponsorship to a Partnership.
If you don't think there's a difference you either aren't in the game or you are simply setting yourself to fail.
The end result being Sennheiser's activation the last two years has become an integral part of the overall festival experience. You get to hear intimate LIVE pop-up performances through wireless headphones in the middle of the festival.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/09/live-from-newport-folk-dawes-and-ben-sollee-1.html Dawes & Ben Sollee
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/08/live-from-newport-blind-pilot---always-1.html Blind Pilot
Anyway, I wouldn't espouse a partnership if I didn't honestly think it was worth mentioning them as a template of how it's supposed to be done.
Even the New York Times noted it: Paragraph #17 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/arts/music/newport-folk-festival-with-arlo-guthrie-and-jackson-browne.html?pagewanted=all
But one thing that made the claim feel almost reasonable to me was the ingenuity of the site programming, which had artists playing not only on the three main outdoor stages but also in a chapel-like museum room, along the grounds and in an alcove within the fort's stone walls. The alcove, sponsored by Sennheiser, involved a signal broadcast through noise-canceling headphones, so you could hear a whisper-quiet set clearly even as another band thundered across the quad. At one point I forsook Iron & Wine for an intimate session with Deer Tick.......
-Have a good day
Jay
Newport Folk Producer
___________________________________________
From: Stephen Marcussen
Subject: Then/Now
THEN-TV advertised movies
NOW-Movies advertise TV
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Twitter Music
I'm sick and tired of techies with VC money believing they can solve the music industry's problems via algorithms and data. It's a people business. The day human beings are no longer necessary to create memorable tunes is the day I'll believe these wankers have come up with a reasonable solution to music recommendation.
That's a problem, what to listen to.
But even more, it's that there's SO MUCH MUSIC!
In the dark ages, and that refers to any time in the last century, when you had to buy music to hear it, most people had very little of it. Some, casual users, had essentially none at all. They just listened to the radio. Now everybody with an Internet connection has the history of recorded music at his fingertips and many are so overloaded that they've abandoned new music entirely. It's kind of like being at an endless 24/7 buffet, with both McDonald's and every three star Michelin restaurant. It's hard to distinguish between the good and the bad and you get so stuffed tasting and testing that your main goal is to escape, ergo the boffo touring numbers for everybody who made it in the last century, i.e. the classic rock acts, who didn't even have MTV to blow them up, but had to slog it out city by city, station by station.
I'll give you an example. Yesterday I downloaded four of the most hyped, most prestigious recent albums. It's interesting that they're all British, where it's less about flash than substance, but if you check the UK charts, they're peopled with the same drivel insiders decry in the U.S. You see we rally around what's popular, and the chart hits mean less than ever before, but they're discussion points, water cooler fodder, and we all want to belong. That's the yin and yang of today's culture. The hits and the obscurities and the vast wasteland in between. You want to know what everybody else does, but you're also deep into your own niche, and you wonder why the two never cross paths...why the popular isn't better and the obscure isn't more popular, but the fluidity in music is akin to the fluidity of wealth in America. Everybody believes it's easy to go from poor to rich, but statistics tell us otherwise. Furthermore, with the rich taxed at such low rates, they remain rich, like the classic rock artists.
Anyway, first I started listening to Jake Bugg. Because he's getting all the press. I liked it, was just shy of love. So I decided to go deeper. And doing web research, I see he lost the Mercury Prize to Ben Howard, who I decided to give a good chance. And while listening to Mr. Howard, I wondered if either of these gentlemen appeared at Coachella. Doing web research, I was reminded that James Blake appeared at Coachella (as did Mr. Howard), so I downloaded his latest album. And then a synapse fired and I decided to download Emeli Sande, because she's the recipient deafening buzz.
I'd started on Jake Bugg, now I was stuck on James Blake. I liked where Blake was coming from. But I wondered, could I recommend him to anybody else?
And then I went back to Ben Howard and the track "These Waters" stuck out.
But by this point, I was so overwhelmed with new music, I went back to the old stuff. My brain was fried.
Now I know immediate. I know Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Unfortunately, none of these acts were. All were good mind you, but they're all essentially niche. Maybe one could blow up, but you see my problem is not recommendations, it's bigger than that, I don't have enough time!
Used to be you bought an album and played it to death until you knew it by heart, it was all you could afford. And then you went to see the act live and sang along. You lived for this experience.
But now it's hard to listen to that which doesn't immediately grab you, because you want to check out something else, or go back to that which you know so well. So, what we end up with is the old hits, the new hits and the obscurities. Who can solve this problem?
Not Twitter.
Think of television. There are five hundred channels or so. But that's a limited universe. There's no limit in music. And TV is challenged too, did you see that "New York Times Magazine" article about Jenna Marbles, the big YouTube star? Loved the words, didn't love the clips. She's just not that...good.
So where does this leave us?
If you're undeniable, if you are Gnarls Barkley with "Crazy," we're all over you. We're gonna tell everybody we know and we're all gonna react and you'll be a smash. That's the essence of "Call Me Maybe" and PSY's "Gangnam Style" video.
But if you're not that hooky...
Wow, you're in trouble.
I get it, I get it, your music is good, in the seventies people would give you time.
But it's not the seventies anymore. If you're lucky you'll grow a niche, and then probably hit a wall. Kind of like Phish. Did you read that article bouncing around the web? I love the story, but most people don't love Phish. That's okay, as long as they're happy. But the old world wherein something is anointed and banged to death on radio and TV and made a ubiquitous hit is history.
What we need are trusted human filters. The deejays of yore.
But there's no money in that. Technology scales, human beings do not.
And these deejays must realize the music they promote can have no tune-outs. Imagine that! That's what today's music recommenders don't get. Just because you like it, that does not mean I will!
I know, I know, this plethora of information is not limited to music.
Hell, it's fascinating to see the mainstream press be last on everything but disasters. We've all got our niche news sites focusing on what interests us and when we see the same story a day or a week later in the newspaper, we laugh.
And we're not going back to the old days. Music is never going to be scarce again. But any solution to our problems has to take into account the new realities:
1. There's tons of music.
2. It's all free at everyone's fingertips.
3. People like to feel like they belong. Even if something is great, if it gains no traction, they want to move on to something that has steam.
4. With everything equally available, people only want the best.
5. Time. They're not making more of it. To expect people to waste it on substandard stuff is delusional. Videos only go viral if they hook you the very first time through, it's no different in music.
"The Woman With 1 Billion Clicks: Jenna Marbles": http://nyti.ms/112lpHT
Jenna Marbles's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles
"How to trick people into thinking you're good looking" (this is Jenna Marbles's first video, just watch it, it's a hit, it made her career, if the follow-ups were as good, you'd know her name, but they're not and she's a niche item, albeit a profitable niche item): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk
"The Business Of Phish": http://bit.ly/15g9iMm
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That's a problem, what to listen to.
But even more, it's that there's SO MUCH MUSIC!
In the dark ages, and that refers to any time in the last century, when you had to buy music to hear it, most people had very little of it. Some, casual users, had essentially none at all. They just listened to the radio. Now everybody with an Internet connection has the history of recorded music at his fingertips and many are so overloaded that they've abandoned new music entirely. It's kind of like being at an endless 24/7 buffet, with both McDonald's and every three star Michelin restaurant. It's hard to distinguish between the good and the bad and you get so stuffed tasting and testing that your main goal is to escape, ergo the boffo touring numbers for everybody who made it in the last century, i.e. the classic rock acts, who didn't even have MTV to blow them up, but had to slog it out city by city, station by station.
I'll give you an example. Yesterday I downloaded four of the most hyped, most prestigious recent albums. It's interesting that they're all British, where it's less about flash than substance, but if you check the UK charts, they're peopled with the same drivel insiders decry in the U.S. You see we rally around what's popular, and the chart hits mean less than ever before, but they're discussion points, water cooler fodder, and we all want to belong. That's the yin and yang of today's culture. The hits and the obscurities and the vast wasteland in between. You want to know what everybody else does, but you're also deep into your own niche, and you wonder why the two never cross paths...why the popular isn't better and the obscure isn't more popular, but the fluidity in music is akin to the fluidity of wealth in America. Everybody believes it's easy to go from poor to rich, but statistics tell us otherwise. Furthermore, with the rich taxed at such low rates, they remain rich, like the classic rock artists.
Anyway, first I started listening to Jake Bugg. Because he's getting all the press. I liked it, was just shy of love. So I decided to go deeper. And doing web research, I see he lost the Mercury Prize to Ben Howard, who I decided to give a good chance. And while listening to Mr. Howard, I wondered if either of these gentlemen appeared at Coachella. Doing web research, I was reminded that James Blake appeared at Coachella (as did Mr. Howard), so I downloaded his latest album. And then a synapse fired and I decided to download Emeli Sande, because she's the recipient deafening buzz.
I'd started on Jake Bugg, now I was stuck on James Blake. I liked where Blake was coming from. But I wondered, could I recommend him to anybody else?
And then I went back to Ben Howard and the track "These Waters" stuck out.
But by this point, I was so overwhelmed with new music, I went back to the old stuff. My brain was fried.
Now I know immediate. I know Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Unfortunately, none of these acts were. All were good mind you, but they're all essentially niche. Maybe one could blow up, but you see my problem is not recommendations, it's bigger than that, I don't have enough time!
Used to be you bought an album and played it to death until you knew it by heart, it was all you could afford. And then you went to see the act live and sang along. You lived for this experience.
But now it's hard to listen to that which doesn't immediately grab you, because you want to check out something else, or go back to that which you know so well. So, what we end up with is the old hits, the new hits and the obscurities. Who can solve this problem?
Not Twitter.
Think of television. There are five hundred channels or so. But that's a limited universe. There's no limit in music. And TV is challenged too, did you see that "New York Times Magazine" article about Jenna Marbles, the big YouTube star? Loved the words, didn't love the clips. She's just not that...good.
So where does this leave us?
If you're undeniable, if you are Gnarls Barkley with "Crazy," we're all over you. We're gonna tell everybody we know and we're all gonna react and you'll be a smash. That's the essence of "Call Me Maybe" and PSY's "Gangnam Style" video.
But if you're not that hooky...
Wow, you're in trouble.
I get it, I get it, your music is good, in the seventies people would give you time.
But it's not the seventies anymore. If you're lucky you'll grow a niche, and then probably hit a wall. Kind of like Phish. Did you read that article bouncing around the web? I love the story, but most people don't love Phish. That's okay, as long as they're happy. But the old world wherein something is anointed and banged to death on radio and TV and made a ubiquitous hit is history.
What we need are trusted human filters. The deejays of yore.
But there's no money in that. Technology scales, human beings do not.
And these deejays must realize the music they promote can have no tune-outs. Imagine that! That's what today's music recommenders don't get. Just because you like it, that does not mean I will!
I know, I know, this plethora of information is not limited to music.
Hell, it's fascinating to see the mainstream press be last on everything but disasters. We've all got our niche news sites focusing on what interests us and when we see the same story a day or a week later in the newspaper, we laugh.
And we're not going back to the old days. Music is never going to be scarce again. But any solution to our problems has to take into account the new realities:
1. There's tons of music.
2. It's all free at everyone's fingertips.
3. People like to feel like they belong. Even if something is great, if it gains no traction, they want to move on to something that has steam.
4. With everything equally available, people only want the best.
5. Time. They're not making more of it. To expect people to waste it on substandard stuff is delusional. Videos only go viral if they hook you the very first time through, it's no different in music.
"The Woman With 1 Billion Clicks: Jenna Marbles": http://nyti.ms/112lpHT
Jenna Marbles's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles
"How to trick people into thinking you're good looking" (this is Jenna Marbles's first video, just watch it, it's a hit, it made her career, if the follow-ups were as good, you'd know her name, but they're not and she's a niche item, albeit a profitable niche item): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk
"The Business Of Phish": http://bit.ly/15g9iMm
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Quote Of The Day
"When a page turns, it turns fast."
Jerry Weintraub on Paul Anka in the May issue of "Vanity Fair."
I love Jerry. Because he's entertaining and loyal.
Having said that, I wouldn't want to be on his bad side.
That's what they don't tell you about the titans, how engaging they are! Some might say cunning, but one thing Jerry has is a heart. If you need something, call Jerry. He's a fixer. All the great ones are.
Jerry's writing about his friend Paul Anka. Let me give you the complete paragraph for context:
"For Paul, the biggest test, the thing that could have killed his career before it really got started, came in the early 60s, when the Beatles made their first tour of the United States. My God, nothing was the same after that. It was as if the old cavalcade of stars was folded up and shoved in the back of a closet. The biggest stars of the 50s, the heartthrobs, they couldn't get on the radio or sell 10 tickets to a show. WHEN A PAGE TURNS, IT TURNS FAST. You might run across some old rock idol and suddenly he is not 19, he's 27 and pushing a broom around Grand Central, or working as an agent."
That's what bugs me about my people, the baby boomers. They think they own the world, that they're gonna rule until they die. Since they rebelled against their conservative parents, that they're hip forever more.
But they're not.
They just can't understand this computer revolution. They tried to deny it. Some still do. They still employ BlackBerries instead of iPhones and Androids. Who needs an app, I need pressable keys to type! But if you ain't got apps, you're clueless.
I always wondered what it was like for my mom, the switch from radio to television, what did that feel like? (I didn't wonder about this with my dad, he NEVER watched TV.) Now I know, I experienced the Internet revolution. Which hit the mainstream back in '95, when everybody who pooh-poohed computers suddenly got one in order to play on AOL. It happened almost overnight. If you're too young to have experienced it, you have no idea what it was like. Even faster than the acceptance of cell phones, suddenly EVERYONE was online.
And then there was the universality of information and products, low prices for everybody in America, not only those in metropolitan areas.
And then there came Napster. Label heads and acts are still lamenting its arrival. Ask these same blokes if they'd turn down chemotherapy and other medical miracles to treat their cancer and they'd say OF COURSE NOT! Used to be the Big C was a death sentence, now when you hear someone has cancer you ask them about their treatment, you expect them to survive, even though not all do.
Sometimes a tsunami comes along and wipes out everything that came before.
We saw this in music. Rap killed Geffen Records. It was supposed to be a passing phase, something for the inner city kids. Who knew it was going to be propped up by middle class white suburbanites.
And now we've got this EDM thing. Which clearly is unlike anything that came before. Where are the melodies? Where are the lyrics? Don't they vary the beat?
But suddenly EDM is what all the kids want.
Kind of like video. We had passe idiots, even youngsters like Justin Timberlake, lamenting the fact that MTV no longer played music videos. Little did they know that progress, the Internet, broadband and YouTube, would blow up music video to a point it never reached before. Now, you can make a ton of money with your video, it's not only a marketing exercise. Furthermore, the opportunity is available to everyone!
And Jerry goes on:
"When a door closes, don't stand there like a dummy - find another door!"
This is what Steve Jobs specialized in, finding another door. It's what Steve Ballmer is bad at, it's what almost everybody who's not an entrepreneur spending his own money is bad at. If you've survived by your wits, if you've built your edifice, you know it could disappear overnight, you sleep with one eye open. At least the best ones do.
And Jerry's one of the best.
Because he knows it's all about insight. The great ones see things the average person does not.
And he knows it's about loyalty.
The world is a people business. If you're bad with human beings, you're gonna have a very rough ride.
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Jerry Weintraub on Paul Anka in the May issue of "Vanity Fair."
I love Jerry. Because he's entertaining and loyal.
Having said that, I wouldn't want to be on his bad side.
That's what they don't tell you about the titans, how engaging they are! Some might say cunning, but one thing Jerry has is a heart. If you need something, call Jerry. He's a fixer. All the great ones are.
Jerry's writing about his friend Paul Anka. Let me give you the complete paragraph for context:
"For Paul, the biggest test, the thing that could have killed his career before it really got started, came in the early 60s, when the Beatles made their first tour of the United States. My God, nothing was the same after that. It was as if the old cavalcade of stars was folded up and shoved in the back of a closet. The biggest stars of the 50s, the heartthrobs, they couldn't get on the radio or sell 10 tickets to a show. WHEN A PAGE TURNS, IT TURNS FAST. You might run across some old rock idol and suddenly he is not 19, he's 27 and pushing a broom around Grand Central, or working as an agent."
That's what bugs me about my people, the baby boomers. They think they own the world, that they're gonna rule until they die. Since they rebelled against their conservative parents, that they're hip forever more.
But they're not.
They just can't understand this computer revolution. They tried to deny it. Some still do. They still employ BlackBerries instead of iPhones and Androids. Who needs an app, I need pressable keys to type! But if you ain't got apps, you're clueless.
I always wondered what it was like for my mom, the switch from radio to television, what did that feel like? (I didn't wonder about this with my dad, he NEVER watched TV.) Now I know, I experienced the Internet revolution. Which hit the mainstream back in '95, when everybody who pooh-poohed computers suddenly got one in order to play on AOL. It happened almost overnight. If you're too young to have experienced it, you have no idea what it was like. Even faster than the acceptance of cell phones, suddenly EVERYONE was online.
And then there was the universality of information and products, low prices for everybody in America, not only those in metropolitan areas.
And then there came Napster. Label heads and acts are still lamenting its arrival. Ask these same blokes if they'd turn down chemotherapy and other medical miracles to treat their cancer and they'd say OF COURSE NOT! Used to be the Big C was a death sentence, now when you hear someone has cancer you ask them about their treatment, you expect them to survive, even though not all do.
Sometimes a tsunami comes along and wipes out everything that came before.
We saw this in music. Rap killed Geffen Records. It was supposed to be a passing phase, something for the inner city kids. Who knew it was going to be propped up by middle class white suburbanites.
And now we've got this EDM thing. Which clearly is unlike anything that came before. Where are the melodies? Where are the lyrics? Don't they vary the beat?
But suddenly EDM is what all the kids want.
Kind of like video. We had passe idiots, even youngsters like Justin Timberlake, lamenting the fact that MTV no longer played music videos. Little did they know that progress, the Internet, broadband and YouTube, would blow up music video to a point it never reached before. Now, you can make a ton of money with your video, it's not only a marketing exercise. Furthermore, the opportunity is available to everyone!
And Jerry goes on:
"When a door closes, don't stand there like a dummy - find another door!"
This is what Steve Jobs specialized in, finding another door. It's what Steve Ballmer is bad at, it's what almost everybody who's not an entrepreneur spending his own money is bad at. If you've survived by your wits, if you've built your edifice, you know it could disappear overnight, you sleep with one eye open. At least the best ones do.
And Jerry's one of the best.
Because he knows it's all about insight. The great ones see things the average person does not.
And he knows it's about loyalty.
The world is a people business. If you're bad with human beings, you're gonna have a very rough ride.
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Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Coachella
It's not about the music, it's about the hang.
Name one band that's broken from Coachella, I DARE YOU!
Want to take lessons from Coachella?
Here they are:
1. Be on the cutting edge. The reason Coachella is the granddaddy of U.S. festivals is because it was first. Its promoters took a risk. Want to succeed in today's world? Take chances! Only one problem, if you take the road less travelled, you're gonna hit roadblocks. Even the audience may not be up to speed. Yes, it took years for Coachella's audience to catch up with it. And now it's running on that good will, especially this year, with lame headliners that wouldn't draw this crowd anywhere else. Also, unlike Bonnaroo, Coachella didn't try to recreate Woodstock. Very few people like to camp in the mud. Provide that option, but don't emphasize it. You want to stay in a hotel or condo, very few like to rough it. And Coachella/Palm Springs has a built-in lodging infrastructure. Give ultimate credit to the refashioned Lollapalooza, which realized that you could bring the mountain to Mohammed, instead of forcing everybody to jet to the middle of nowhere, you could get them to come to you. Lollapalooza also succeeded by plunking itself in an underserved market. People love the coasts and ignore the heartland, where the people are just as hip as they are by the ocean, as a result of the Internet and cable TV.
2. Image is more important than reality. Sound bleed at Coachella is horrific. The art and amusement park rides are a secondary sideshow, minimal at best. If you keep saying you've got the best site, others repeat and believe it. Yes, Coachella is surrounded by mountains, you've got clean air, but if you think this is the perfect concert site and installation, you've never been anywhere else.
3. It's a Gen-Y world. Booking the Stone Roses as a headliner is like taking your grandma to see Swedish House Mafia. Huh? The band broke twenty plus years ago and never really made it in America. Curation? Give the people what they want, which is dance music. The nods to rock and other musical genres other than EDM at Coachella are completely superfluous. The attendees don't care. And who are those attendees? College age and just graduating hipsters. And if you think they go for the music, then you don't realize the event can sell out without any talent being announced. The same rule always applies, brand names mean something. Unfortunately, the Coachella impresarios don't realize that it's been in excess of a decade since the festival began and the generations have changed. You can get away with classic rock and classic hip-hop, stuff everybody knows, but whatever was big on MTV, whatever was hip in the U.K. but never made it here, is completely irrelevant. I know, I know, it's scary. To think that thirty years of musical history has been wiped off the map. That almost everything between 1975 and 2005 is irrelevant. But that's the truth. to think otherwise is to live in a pre-computer, pre-smartphone era. Things change, you've got to own them. This is a generation that loves to network, that has been taught that music is secondary, not primary. That their little lives are all that matter. Hell, want to have big success at your festival? Hold a karaoke contest! Don't forget, this is the generation that grew up on Guitar Hero!
4. V.I.P. is for oldsters. This is the genius of Coachella's pricing. Oldsters want to believe they're better than everybody else, it's the boomer ethos. Put them behind a velvet rope and you've made their day. Grandpa and grandma don't want to hang with the great unwashed, but tell the kids on the field that they can go to spring break in Cancun and they say WHERE DO I SIGN UP! The girls will lift their tops and the boys will smoke their blunts and if you didn't come of age during the sexting era, you'll be both titillated and horrified. We had to go to the movies to experience nudity, today's kids not only have the web, they have friends with benefits who are willing to play doctor way past the age of puberty. If you don't think you've been left behind, if you don't lament your age, then you're asexual.
5. Don't believe anything you read about Coachella. A movie could possibly capture it. But no one writing for a newspaper or magazine gets it. It's not about the music! It's not about who was good and bad, it's about the AUDIENCE! The girl who was too high and kept falling down while dancing... It's about the stories, not the tunes, months later telling all your buds what you saw. If you think it's about saying how good x or y band was, unless it was a deejay, you grew up in the Fillmore and don't understand today's culture whatsoever. Coachella is where you drive your own car (hell, did Daddy buy you your own automobile in the sixties, OF COURSE NOT!), to a pre-approved place where your parents have no idea what's going on. It's like summer camp without counselors. Where you spread your wings and fly for the very first time. Come on, who other than youngsters wants to walk around in ninety plus degree heat with no shade other than in tents where you're so close to other people you can smell their b.o?
6. It's business. Appear if you get paid a lot and you want the publicity. Of if they're making you a headliner before your time. Your performance is gonna do nothing for your career.
7. Exclusives don't matter. Coachella is so busy protecting the brand, but they're clueless as to what the brand is! It's not the right to see exclusive performers, it's the right to hang at an exclusive event that happens just twice a year!
8. Institutions. Think about it, MTV is history. Even record labels are irrelevant. As for regular concerts, other than the classic acts, they depend upon who's hot today, and they're oftentimes gone tomorrow. Coachella IS the new institution, but it's more than what once was. It's the promoter, the label and the tour guide all at once. And the fact that it grew slowly only strengthens its imprimatur and adds to its longevity, as does the out of the way location. That Jay-Z festival in Philadelphia? Huh? Where's the exclusivity, where's the gravitas? That Rothbury festival had it right, the only problem was the promoters didn't continue to stick it out. If you're not willing to lose money, don't get into the festival business.
9. You never want to rely on the acts. Coachella's strength is its checkbook. It can buy the biggest talent year after year. This is a huge change from the past, wherein the promoter was a second class citizen. He with the biggest bank book wins. And since you're only buying talent for two weekends, you don't have to kiss butt to fill holes in your schedule. And for every agent who wants to say no, at home he realizes he can horse trade and get his other acts on the bill by agreeing to provide the headliner. It's pure commerce, music has got nothing to do with it!
10. You only have to go once. Well, every three or four years or so you have to check in, to follow the trends. Who headlined two years ago? I dare you to answer! But what we've seen is the dance tent has slowly gained traction and is now burgeoning. Coachella is the father of big time EDM in the U.S., I don't know why they don't embrace it. I think the idea of two weekends of the same acts is ridiculous, it only makes sense on a monetary level. Everyone knows the first weekend is the one that counts. Want to blow people's minds? Make the second weekend all EDM! Tickets will sell even faster, that will prove where the power is. As for worrying about sacrificing the farm, abandoning the old acts and ending up a loser, this is exactly what hobbled the labels. If you've got one foot in the past, you're not gonna last in the future. If EDM peaks and dies, you book what happens next.
11. Keep slots open for what's happening right now. Yup, solidifying your bill eons in advance leaves you looking out of the loop. Now, more than ever, acts come and go and are then done. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis needed to be at Coachella. The promoters have to get off their high horse. They think they're a museum, but what they don't realize is they're offering a smorgasbord, a veritable buffet of what's current. That's why the old acts don't matter. I should be able to leave Coachella and say I saw everything that's happening right now, along with some boobies...
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Name one band that's broken from Coachella, I DARE YOU!
Want to take lessons from Coachella?
Here they are:
1. Be on the cutting edge. The reason Coachella is the granddaddy of U.S. festivals is because it was first. Its promoters took a risk. Want to succeed in today's world? Take chances! Only one problem, if you take the road less travelled, you're gonna hit roadblocks. Even the audience may not be up to speed. Yes, it took years for Coachella's audience to catch up with it. And now it's running on that good will, especially this year, with lame headliners that wouldn't draw this crowd anywhere else. Also, unlike Bonnaroo, Coachella didn't try to recreate Woodstock. Very few people like to camp in the mud. Provide that option, but don't emphasize it. You want to stay in a hotel or condo, very few like to rough it. And Coachella/Palm Springs has a built-in lodging infrastructure. Give ultimate credit to the refashioned Lollapalooza, which realized that you could bring the mountain to Mohammed, instead of forcing everybody to jet to the middle of nowhere, you could get them to come to you. Lollapalooza also succeeded by plunking itself in an underserved market. People love the coasts and ignore the heartland, where the people are just as hip as they are by the ocean, as a result of the Internet and cable TV.
2. Image is more important than reality. Sound bleed at Coachella is horrific. The art and amusement park rides are a secondary sideshow, minimal at best. If you keep saying you've got the best site, others repeat and believe it. Yes, Coachella is surrounded by mountains, you've got clean air, but if you think this is the perfect concert site and installation, you've never been anywhere else.
3. It's a Gen-Y world. Booking the Stone Roses as a headliner is like taking your grandma to see Swedish House Mafia. Huh? The band broke twenty plus years ago and never really made it in America. Curation? Give the people what they want, which is dance music. The nods to rock and other musical genres other than EDM at Coachella are completely superfluous. The attendees don't care. And who are those attendees? College age and just graduating hipsters. And if you think they go for the music, then you don't realize the event can sell out without any talent being announced. The same rule always applies, brand names mean something. Unfortunately, the Coachella impresarios don't realize that it's been in excess of a decade since the festival began and the generations have changed. You can get away with classic rock and classic hip-hop, stuff everybody knows, but whatever was big on MTV, whatever was hip in the U.K. but never made it here, is completely irrelevant. I know, I know, it's scary. To think that thirty years of musical history has been wiped off the map. That almost everything between 1975 and 2005 is irrelevant. But that's the truth. to think otherwise is to live in a pre-computer, pre-smartphone era. Things change, you've got to own them. This is a generation that loves to network, that has been taught that music is secondary, not primary. That their little lives are all that matter. Hell, want to have big success at your festival? Hold a karaoke contest! Don't forget, this is the generation that grew up on Guitar Hero!
4. V.I.P. is for oldsters. This is the genius of Coachella's pricing. Oldsters want to believe they're better than everybody else, it's the boomer ethos. Put them behind a velvet rope and you've made their day. Grandpa and grandma don't want to hang with the great unwashed, but tell the kids on the field that they can go to spring break in Cancun and they say WHERE DO I SIGN UP! The girls will lift their tops and the boys will smoke their blunts and if you didn't come of age during the sexting era, you'll be both titillated and horrified. We had to go to the movies to experience nudity, today's kids not only have the web, they have friends with benefits who are willing to play doctor way past the age of puberty. If you don't think you've been left behind, if you don't lament your age, then you're asexual.
5. Don't believe anything you read about Coachella. A movie could possibly capture it. But no one writing for a newspaper or magazine gets it. It's not about the music! It's not about who was good and bad, it's about the AUDIENCE! The girl who was too high and kept falling down while dancing... It's about the stories, not the tunes, months later telling all your buds what you saw. If you think it's about saying how good x or y band was, unless it was a deejay, you grew up in the Fillmore and don't understand today's culture whatsoever. Coachella is where you drive your own car (hell, did Daddy buy you your own automobile in the sixties, OF COURSE NOT!), to a pre-approved place where your parents have no idea what's going on. It's like summer camp without counselors. Where you spread your wings and fly for the very first time. Come on, who other than youngsters wants to walk around in ninety plus degree heat with no shade other than in tents where you're so close to other people you can smell their b.o?
6. It's business. Appear if you get paid a lot and you want the publicity. Of if they're making you a headliner before your time. Your performance is gonna do nothing for your career.
7. Exclusives don't matter. Coachella is so busy protecting the brand, but they're clueless as to what the brand is! It's not the right to see exclusive performers, it's the right to hang at an exclusive event that happens just twice a year!
8. Institutions. Think about it, MTV is history. Even record labels are irrelevant. As for regular concerts, other than the classic acts, they depend upon who's hot today, and they're oftentimes gone tomorrow. Coachella IS the new institution, but it's more than what once was. It's the promoter, the label and the tour guide all at once. And the fact that it grew slowly only strengthens its imprimatur and adds to its longevity, as does the out of the way location. That Jay-Z festival in Philadelphia? Huh? Where's the exclusivity, where's the gravitas? That Rothbury festival had it right, the only problem was the promoters didn't continue to stick it out. If you're not willing to lose money, don't get into the festival business.
9. You never want to rely on the acts. Coachella's strength is its checkbook. It can buy the biggest talent year after year. This is a huge change from the past, wherein the promoter was a second class citizen. He with the biggest bank book wins. And since you're only buying talent for two weekends, you don't have to kiss butt to fill holes in your schedule. And for every agent who wants to say no, at home he realizes he can horse trade and get his other acts on the bill by agreeing to provide the headliner. It's pure commerce, music has got nothing to do with it!
10. You only have to go once. Well, every three or four years or so you have to check in, to follow the trends. Who headlined two years ago? I dare you to answer! But what we've seen is the dance tent has slowly gained traction and is now burgeoning. Coachella is the father of big time EDM in the U.S., I don't know why they don't embrace it. I think the idea of two weekends of the same acts is ridiculous, it only makes sense on a monetary level. Everyone knows the first weekend is the one that counts. Want to blow people's minds? Make the second weekend all EDM! Tickets will sell even faster, that will prove where the power is. As for worrying about sacrificing the farm, abandoning the old acts and ending up a loser, this is exactly what hobbled the labels. If you've got one foot in the past, you're not gonna last in the future. If EDM peaks and dies, you book what happens next.
11. Keep slots open for what's happening right now. Yup, solidifying your bill eons in advance leaves you looking out of the loop. Now, more than ever, acts come and go and are then done. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis needed to be at Coachella. The promoters have to get off their high horse. They think they're a museum, but what they don't realize is they're offering a smorgasbord, a veritable buffet of what's current. That's why the old acts don't matter. I should be able to leave Coachella and say I saw everything that's happening right now, along with some boobies...
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Advice
Stay in school.
I know, I know, David Geffen dropped out, as did Irving Azoff. Some of the biggest legends of the entertainment business never finished college, some didn't even complete high school. But that was then, and this is now.
The sixties were different. We lived in an homogeneous society. Social mobility was rampant. You could go from middle class to upper class quite easily. Rich was within your grasp.
But no longer.
Which is what the best and the brightest of today's society knows. Which is why all the Ivy Leaguers go into finance and the great unwashed star in reality television programs. Where is Pauly D today? Snooki? Famous for a few years, they've already slid back into obscurity, the trade on their fame has lost most of its zeros. We know their names, but they're footnotes, trivia questions, if you think they're rich, you don't know what rich is.
On Monday, the "New York Times" featured a story wherein female students at Andover were upset there was little place for them in the official student hierarchy, i.e. they could not be elected president.
Do you know what Phillips Academy in Andover is?
Do you know Exeter?
Lawrenceville?
Groton?
I didn't until I went to college. Where in freshman English, a student pronounced "Celtic" like it began with a "K," so it sounded like "kick" and not "sell." What an ignoramus! Hadn't he heard of the great Boston basketball team?
No, I was the ignoramus. I didn't go to prep school like this bloke. For he was much better read, all the prep school students were, he knew more than me, I'd gone to public school in the melting pot suburbs, I was clueless.
But I learned.
I fell into this exposure. Via hard work in high school and good SAT scores. At Middlebury I came into contact with the scions of the truly rich and famous, Eileen Rockefeller, Dodd Cosgrove, whose dad ran Jolly Green Giant. I learned how to interact with these people. To never boast of my experiences, because there was always someone whose exploits trumped mine. My parents had been to Europe? They'd gone to Paris for the weekend! I learned that I'd been playing in the minor leagues and didn't even know it.
I fell into this world by accident. I went to Middlebury College because it had great academics and its own ski area. If I had to do it all over again, if I couldn't ski, I would go to an Ivy. Because that's where the networking takes place.
Sure, you learn a lot at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. But even more, you're inducted into the brotherhood/sisterhood. You're a member of a club that looks out for each other, gives each other advantages, that pays dividends for your entire life. It's the best way to get a leg up other than to be born rich to begin with.
The movies feature juvenile delinquents. Happy slackers. But living on the underside is worse than ever, you can't make it here anymore. You need a leg up.
I'm telling you, because no one other than hopefully your parents is.
You're gonna make it on your raw smarts. But why not help yourself out?
I abhorred the concept of prep school way back when, you wanted to live with your parents during high school. But if I had children today, I'd send them away. Not to get them out of my hair, but because I'd want them to get a good start.
Many people know this.
But not enough.
We've got a schism in society. The clued-in and the clueless. And you don't want to be one of the latter. For all the hogwash about the entitled millennials, you'll find there's a huge subset who know the score, that it's every man for himself, and you've got to get yourself every advantage in order to get ahead. If you're skipping school and not bothering to apply yourself, the joke is on you.
Once upon a time, music was a viable career for the best and the brightest. But no longer. Because the best and the brightest don't only realize the odds of success are low, but that all the money goes to the business people, and no matter how successful you are, you're not in the league of the bankers, of the truly rich. Art has power, but in an era where everybody thinks it's a badge of honor to sell out, money has power. Think about that. By looking to the Fortune 500, by making yourself subservient to the corporation, you're sacrificing all your power. If you truly want to be an artist, you must go it alone, follow your own muse, put money in a secondary position, play for all the marbles. Instead, we've got a bunch of uneducated whiners wondering where to line up for the handouts. But the U.S. government doesn't subsidize recording artists, that's Canada, move there if you want free money.
I know, I know, I sound like my parents.
Then again, they had immigrant mothers and fathers, whose biggest challenge was speaking the language. All they knew was they wanted their children to have a better life than their own.
I'm not sure that's happened. My dad worked 'round the clock. In an era where such effort could make you upper middle class without winning the lottery or playing the market, which my father refused to do.
But my dad put three kids through college and graduate school. Because he knew first and foremost it was about a good foundation.
If you think Bieber is forever, than you probably think, like he does, the Pope prays in the Sixteenth Chapel. I grew up wanting to be Jay North, Jerry Mathers, to be on TV was my goal. Thank god I never went that route. Most of those people are famous for a minute and then go on to do drugs and rob 7-11's, they're prepared for nothing.
And I'm not saying you can't beat the system doing none of the above.
I'm just saying the odds are damn low.
Some people are Steve Jobs, some people are geniuses.
But Larry and Sergey went to Stanford.
And although Mark Zuckerberg dropped out, the institution he was attending was Harvard.
And most of the stories about people you see in the mainstream press were placed there by publicity agents. They have no underpinnings.
It's your goal to gain underpinnings and worldliness. To both practice hard and leave your comfortable environment. You'd be stunned to find out how ignorant you truly are.
And one final tip. Reading is the key to success. If you don't know how to read, you're never going to make it in today's world. Just like baby boomers who don't know how to type are behind the curve.
It's all about fundamentals I tell you.
And fundamentals, like the multiplication table, are rarely fun.
But there's always time for fun.
Life is long. If you're not prepared for delayed gratification, you're going to have a very rough ride.
Help yourself out.
Stop being sour grapes, stop complaining and APPLY YOURSELF!
"David Letterman - Justin Bieber's New Tattoo": http://bit.ly/NplwZd
"School Vote Stirs Debate on Girls as Leaders": http://nyti.ms/16QFIeQ
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I know, I know, David Geffen dropped out, as did Irving Azoff. Some of the biggest legends of the entertainment business never finished college, some didn't even complete high school. But that was then, and this is now.
The sixties were different. We lived in an homogeneous society. Social mobility was rampant. You could go from middle class to upper class quite easily. Rich was within your grasp.
But no longer.
Which is what the best and the brightest of today's society knows. Which is why all the Ivy Leaguers go into finance and the great unwashed star in reality television programs. Where is Pauly D today? Snooki? Famous for a few years, they've already slid back into obscurity, the trade on their fame has lost most of its zeros. We know their names, but they're footnotes, trivia questions, if you think they're rich, you don't know what rich is.
On Monday, the "New York Times" featured a story wherein female students at Andover were upset there was little place for them in the official student hierarchy, i.e. they could not be elected president.
Do you know what Phillips Academy in Andover is?
Do you know Exeter?
Lawrenceville?
Groton?
I didn't until I went to college. Where in freshman English, a student pronounced "Celtic" like it began with a "K," so it sounded like "kick" and not "sell." What an ignoramus! Hadn't he heard of the great Boston basketball team?
No, I was the ignoramus. I didn't go to prep school like this bloke. For he was much better read, all the prep school students were, he knew more than me, I'd gone to public school in the melting pot suburbs, I was clueless.
But I learned.
I fell into this exposure. Via hard work in high school and good SAT scores. At Middlebury I came into contact with the scions of the truly rich and famous, Eileen Rockefeller, Dodd Cosgrove, whose dad ran Jolly Green Giant. I learned how to interact with these people. To never boast of my experiences, because there was always someone whose exploits trumped mine. My parents had been to Europe? They'd gone to Paris for the weekend! I learned that I'd been playing in the minor leagues and didn't even know it.
I fell into this world by accident. I went to Middlebury College because it had great academics and its own ski area. If I had to do it all over again, if I couldn't ski, I would go to an Ivy. Because that's where the networking takes place.
Sure, you learn a lot at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. But even more, you're inducted into the brotherhood/sisterhood. You're a member of a club that looks out for each other, gives each other advantages, that pays dividends for your entire life. It's the best way to get a leg up other than to be born rich to begin with.
The movies feature juvenile delinquents. Happy slackers. But living on the underside is worse than ever, you can't make it here anymore. You need a leg up.
I'm telling you, because no one other than hopefully your parents is.
You're gonna make it on your raw smarts. But why not help yourself out?
I abhorred the concept of prep school way back when, you wanted to live with your parents during high school. But if I had children today, I'd send them away. Not to get them out of my hair, but because I'd want them to get a good start.
Many people know this.
But not enough.
We've got a schism in society. The clued-in and the clueless. And you don't want to be one of the latter. For all the hogwash about the entitled millennials, you'll find there's a huge subset who know the score, that it's every man for himself, and you've got to get yourself every advantage in order to get ahead. If you're skipping school and not bothering to apply yourself, the joke is on you.
Once upon a time, music was a viable career for the best and the brightest. But no longer. Because the best and the brightest don't only realize the odds of success are low, but that all the money goes to the business people, and no matter how successful you are, you're not in the league of the bankers, of the truly rich. Art has power, but in an era where everybody thinks it's a badge of honor to sell out, money has power. Think about that. By looking to the Fortune 500, by making yourself subservient to the corporation, you're sacrificing all your power. If you truly want to be an artist, you must go it alone, follow your own muse, put money in a secondary position, play for all the marbles. Instead, we've got a bunch of uneducated whiners wondering where to line up for the handouts. But the U.S. government doesn't subsidize recording artists, that's Canada, move there if you want free money.
I know, I know, I sound like my parents.
Then again, they had immigrant mothers and fathers, whose biggest challenge was speaking the language. All they knew was they wanted their children to have a better life than their own.
I'm not sure that's happened. My dad worked 'round the clock. In an era where such effort could make you upper middle class without winning the lottery or playing the market, which my father refused to do.
But my dad put three kids through college and graduate school. Because he knew first and foremost it was about a good foundation.
If you think Bieber is forever, than you probably think, like he does, the Pope prays in the Sixteenth Chapel. I grew up wanting to be Jay North, Jerry Mathers, to be on TV was my goal. Thank god I never went that route. Most of those people are famous for a minute and then go on to do drugs and rob 7-11's, they're prepared for nothing.
And I'm not saying you can't beat the system doing none of the above.
I'm just saying the odds are damn low.
Some people are Steve Jobs, some people are geniuses.
But Larry and Sergey went to Stanford.
And although Mark Zuckerberg dropped out, the institution he was attending was Harvard.
And most of the stories about people you see in the mainstream press were placed there by publicity agents. They have no underpinnings.
It's your goal to gain underpinnings and worldliness. To both practice hard and leave your comfortable environment. You'd be stunned to find out how ignorant you truly are.
And one final tip. Reading is the key to success. If you don't know how to read, you're never going to make it in today's world. Just like baby boomers who don't know how to type are behind the curve.
It's all about fundamentals I tell you.
And fundamentals, like the multiplication table, are rarely fun.
But there's always time for fun.
Life is long. If you're not prepared for delayed gratification, you're going to have a very rough ride.
Help yourself out.
Stop being sour grapes, stop complaining and APPLY YOURSELF!
"David Letterman - Justin Bieber's New Tattoo": http://bit.ly/NplwZd
"School Vote Stirs Debate on Girls as Leaders": http://nyti.ms/16QFIeQ
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Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Sennheiser Momentum
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/around-ear-headphone-momentum-stereo
These are too good for MP3s.
Credit Jimmy Iovine. He's gonna bring back hi-fi. By marketing the hell out of the mediocre Beats brand, he's waking the rest of the headphone industry up to the opportunities.
Who knew kids would pay $350 for a pair of headphones?
It's an aspirational culture. Everybody wants the status items with the logos, from Louis Vuitton to Burberry to Rolex to... Jimmy was smart enough to realize there was a cadre of imitators who wanted to be just like Dre just like they wanted to be like Mike the generation before, that just as they'd paid hundreds of dollars for sneakers, they'd now pay hundreds of dollars for headphones...
To find out the music they were listening to sounded like crap.
The future of hi-fi is not vinyl, it's headphones. Oh, STFU, I've still got all my LPs, vinyl sounds great, but it's the equivalent of Civil War reenactment, a tiny laughable scene for those locked in the past who hate on the future.
Digital is portable. Get the res high enough and it blows vinyl away. Hell, so many of the LPs you're buying today weren't cut analog, but via Pro Tools.
But back in the seventies, when the vinyl record was king, kids ran around washing cars and working minimum wage jobs so they could purchase stereo systems that could blow up the neighborhood, they wanted to get closer to the music, they wanted to get inside it.
And then we got the lo-fi boom box, the less than stellar CD, and ultimately with the MP3, we hit rock bottom.
But then, Jimmy came along with Beats.
Be sure to read the Monster/Beats story below, it's utterly fascinating.
But irrelevant of the genesis of the product, Jimmy applied music marketing, Beats took off.
And now kids are running around with playback equipment superseding the quality of the music they're listening to. Yes, we're on the verge of a hi-res revolution. All you engineers and studio rats crying in your beer, lamenting the fact that your efforts are reduced to lo-res files, that no one will pay you for your efforts, your time is gonna come again. It won't look like it once did, people will still do most of their recording at home, but people will once again be interested in hearing how a record SOUNDS!
Yes, they're ready.
But the industry is not.
Blame the cable companies, blame the government, bless Google. Yup, Google is scaring the bejesus out of the providers, because after wiring KC, it's now gonna wire Austin. Ultra-high speed Internet, something that would rival what exists in South Korea and so many developing nations, is gonna come to the good old USA, and just like broadband begat YouTube, this speedy pipe is gonna bring back high quality music. That's all that's missing, the pipe, the delivery system, playback is now sky high, with Beats and its imitators. I'm sitting on a whole host of high quality headphones sent to me, and I'm gonna go through them one by one, but today's model is Sennheiser's Momentum, a direct shot at Beats, even down to the red cable.
Actually, there are two cables. Both removable. One with audio controls and one without. Hell, you can even use these headphones to speak. Not that I can understand why you'd want to do that, then again, I didn't expect people to wear the heavy Beats headphones around in public.
The Momentum is much lighter and more comfortable than Beats. At first, the around the ear cups will seem uncomfortable, but really they're not. Still, I don't understand why the playback controls are so high on the cable, as if we all had arms as short as that Kristen Wiig character on SNL, but oh, THE SOUND!
You'll positively flip when you connect them to your iPhone. BECAUSE YOU'LL WANT MORE!
You see there's just not enough power in that slim device to get much out of the Momentum. The tunes will sound better than they ever have before, but you'll experience tinniness, you'll start wondering if you've got the same music on CD.
But then you'll plug the headphones into your Mac Pro and the music will come alive! You'll hear all that stuff you discovered on vinyl back in the seventies, you'll be stunned how close to the music you've become...
But you still won't be close enough.
That's the dirty little secret of audio equipment. You want to listen to everything in your collection all over again, to discover what you've missed. But if all you've got is MP3s and streaming services, you're gonna be disappointed, you're gonna be left out in the cold. You're gonna have blue balls. The finest auditory equipment and the lamest source material.
Think about that. For once, the music is behind the curve. We've got a ready, demanding audience, and we're not satiating it.
Now I'm not saying people are gonna buy CDs to satisfy their listening desires, but I will say the demand is gonna have to be filled. People want high quality sound reproduction, the fact that you can't find it in the tech and money obsessed press doesn't mean it's not real.
Yes, the Momentum is so damn good, you'll be disappointed.
And you're probably not about to cough up $349.95 to buy them.
But the young 'uns will.
Kids are impulsive. They want it now, and they don't want to settle.
Then again, they're buying Beats.
But now Beats is not the only alternative.
We're at the dawn of a golden age, you just don't know it yet.
P.S. I wish someone would send me a headphone amp. This is a burgeoning field, they're starting to get press. But it's hard to decipher what's good and what's bad, how much money you need to spend. But those of us of a certain age know it's all about headroom, that you need all those watts to ensure you get no distortion, that all that power is what generates pure sound.
P.P.S. Yes, I know the controls are high on the cable because they contain the mic for phone calls, but really, these headphones are for music and the height renders the controls close to useless.
"Beat By Dre: The Exclusive Inside Story of How Monster Lost the World": http://bit.ly/11scXWS
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These are too good for MP3s.
Credit Jimmy Iovine. He's gonna bring back hi-fi. By marketing the hell out of the mediocre Beats brand, he's waking the rest of the headphone industry up to the opportunities.
Who knew kids would pay $350 for a pair of headphones?
It's an aspirational culture. Everybody wants the status items with the logos, from Louis Vuitton to Burberry to Rolex to... Jimmy was smart enough to realize there was a cadre of imitators who wanted to be just like Dre just like they wanted to be like Mike the generation before, that just as they'd paid hundreds of dollars for sneakers, they'd now pay hundreds of dollars for headphones...
To find out the music they were listening to sounded like crap.
The future of hi-fi is not vinyl, it's headphones. Oh, STFU, I've still got all my LPs, vinyl sounds great, but it's the equivalent of Civil War reenactment, a tiny laughable scene for those locked in the past who hate on the future.
Digital is portable. Get the res high enough and it blows vinyl away. Hell, so many of the LPs you're buying today weren't cut analog, but via Pro Tools.
But back in the seventies, when the vinyl record was king, kids ran around washing cars and working minimum wage jobs so they could purchase stereo systems that could blow up the neighborhood, they wanted to get closer to the music, they wanted to get inside it.
And then we got the lo-fi boom box, the less than stellar CD, and ultimately with the MP3, we hit rock bottom.
But then, Jimmy came along with Beats.
Be sure to read the Monster/Beats story below, it's utterly fascinating.
But irrelevant of the genesis of the product, Jimmy applied music marketing, Beats took off.
And now kids are running around with playback equipment superseding the quality of the music they're listening to. Yes, we're on the verge of a hi-res revolution. All you engineers and studio rats crying in your beer, lamenting the fact that your efforts are reduced to lo-res files, that no one will pay you for your efforts, your time is gonna come again. It won't look like it once did, people will still do most of their recording at home, but people will once again be interested in hearing how a record SOUNDS!
Yes, they're ready.
But the industry is not.
Blame the cable companies, blame the government, bless Google. Yup, Google is scaring the bejesus out of the providers, because after wiring KC, it's now gonna wire Austin. Ultra-high speed Internet, something that would rival what exists in South Korea and so many developing nations, is gonna come to the good old USA, and just like broadband begat YouTube, this speedy pipe is gonna bring back high quality music. That's all that's missing, the pipe, the delivery system, playback is now sky high, with Beats and its imitators. I'm sitting on a whole host of high quality headphones sent to me, and I'm gonna go through them one by one, but today's model is Sennheiser's Momentum, a direct shot at Beats, even down to the red cable.
Actually, there are two cables. Both removable. One with audio controls and one without. Hell, you can even use these headphones to speak. Not that I can understand why you'd want to do that, then again, I didn't expect people to wear the heavy Beats headphones around in public.
The Momentum is much lighter and more comfortable than Beats. At first, the around the ear cups will seem uncomfortable, but really they're not. Still, I don't understand why the playback controls are so high on the cable, as if we all had arms as short as that Kristen Wiig character on SNL, but oh, THE SOUND!
You'll positively flip when you connect them to your iPhone. BECAUSE YOU'LL WANT MORE!
You see there's just not enough power in that slim device to get much out of the Momentum. The tunes will sound better than they ever have before, but you'll experience tinniness, you'll start wondering if you've got the same music on CD.
But then you'll plug the headphones into your Mac Pro and the music will come alive! You'll hear all that stuff you discovered on vinyl back in the seventies, you'll be stunned how close to the music you've become...
But you still won't be close enough.
That's the dirty little secret of audio equipment. You want to listen to everything in your collection all over again, to discover what you've missed. But if all you've got is MP3s and streaming services, you're gonna be disappointed, you're gonna be left out in the cold. You're gonna have blue balls. The finest auditory equipment and the lamest source material.
Think about that. For once, the music is behind the curve. We've got a ready, demanding audience, and we're not satiating it.
Now I'm not saying people are gonna buy CDs to satisfy their listening desires, but I will say the demand is gonna have to be filled. People want high quality sound reproduction, the fact that you can't find it in the tech and money obsessed press doesn't mean it's not real.
Yes, the Momentum is so damn good, you'll be disappointed.
And you're probably not about to cough up $349.95 to buy them.
But the young 'uns will.
Kids are impulsive. They want it now, and they don't want to settle.
Then again, they're buying Beats.
But now Beats is not the only alternative.
We're at the dawn of a golden age, you just don't know it yet.
P.S. I wish someone would send me a headphone amp. This is a burgeoning field, they're starting to get press. But it's hard to decipher what's good and what's bad, how much money you need to spend. But those of us of a certain age know it's all about headroom, that you need all those watts to ensure you get no distortion, that all that power is what generates pure sound.
P.P.S. Yes, I know the controls are high on the cable because they contain the mic for phone calls, but really, these headphones are for music and the height renders the controls close to useless.
"Beat By Dre: The Exclusive Inside Story of How Monster Lost the World": http://bit.ly/11scXWS
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Electronic Music
It's about the experience.
Which is why the rockers and the rappers just can't understand it. Never mind the labels and the traditional concert promoters, who seem to have finally woken up.
Think about this. If you grew up playing soccer, not baseball or football, despite those sports getting all the mainstream press, and you got a trophy just for participating, would you really be desirous of going to the mainstream show and sitting in the audience, separated from the act by barriers and security guards, never mind being unable to score a good seat without sacrificing a few months of your college loan payment, which your parents have been making since you moved back in after graduating?
Don't think music, think culture.
That's what rock got right, before it became about the dollar signs, which is where it's still at.
And rap was always about money, but if you don't think hip-hop grew a surrounding culture, you haven't walked out the front door in decades.
But the problem is these two genres keep repeating the formula, expecting the same result. Which is kind of like hiring the '56 Yankees and expecting them to win the World Series. Sure, today's athletes take drugs, but unlike their predecessors, they work out incessantly, they're incredible physical specimens, that's what you've got to do to compete.
And there are rules in baseball.
But there are no rules in entertainment.
Other than you make an album, ensure there's a radio hit on it, and then sell the result on a slab of plastic for almost twenty dollars list. And when the public soured on this, the only discussion was how to bring them back to the well! As if the labels were selling something necessary, like water, when all they were doing was overhyping the remnants of a dead culture.
And sure, electronic music seems to have burgeoned overnight, but really it's been percolating for decades. Take that all you teen phenom wannabes. Turns out that to grow into a lasting master, you've got to practice your craft in obscurity, be thankful your tiny cult appreciates you, and be shocked, positively shocked I tell you, when your enterprise goes mainstream.
It's kind of like the days of yore. When a band broke on the third or fifth album. There was a hard core who'd been there from the beginning, pissed that everybody was now sipping the elixir. But who could deny the greatness?
And you wonder why festivals are today's live entertainment kingpins.
Because it's not about the talent so much as being there.
Today's kids know everybody. The era of going to the show and standing in the corner alone, knowing only the band, are done. Via social networks, every kid in your town knows every other one. And these festivals are giant networking parties, where they get to mingle and have a good time. And it's all about the good time. Sure, the music is an element of the mix, but if you could go to the show with only ten of your best bros, you wouldn't. Nobody wants a legendary DJ to play for ten people like the oldsters hire Elton and the classic rockers for privates, that's a dead scene. They want to be party with thousands, they want to feel the energy, electronic music is not about being exclusive, but inclusive!
Think about that. It's the opposite of the rock star ethos wherein I make it and I leave you behind, I fly private and I pay you lip service but I want nothing to do with you. The deejays are all regular people. It's stunning how normal they are, other than the wear and tear of the travel. And they like the money, who wouldn't, but spinning doesn't seem to be a stepping stone. Everybody in straight music wants to be something else, a TV star, a clothing magnate. Deejays want the endorsements, but mostly they want to entertain, they want to motivate the crowd.
And this does not mean this electronic scene is forever. Oh, the music will last forever, like the blues, only bigger. But in a world where Carly Rae Jepsen can have the song of the summer and be an obscure footnote not even twelve months later, anyone predicting any fad will last is out of his mind.
Yes, electronic music is a fad. Then again, rap is a fad that lasted decades!
But what's important is the scene. The inclusivity referenced above. Now performer and audience are in it together. That's why you Facebook and tweet and Instagram, that's where your people are. And if you don't see yourself as one of them, you're going to be in big trouble. If you think the old star system is the new one, you've never been to an extreme sports competition, where the losers are hugged and embraced as much as the winners.
So if you want to succeed in the new world of entertainment, you'd better let your audience inside. You'd better make it easy for them instead of difficult. You'd better not put on restraints, alienate them, accuse them of undermining you, like the RIAA did by suing file-traders. The RIAA is a lobbying organization, it's about protecting corporate interests. Whereas entertainment is about going with the flow.
Forget record deals. Forget hits. Forget the time you put in playing your instrument. Today it's like the old days. It's about creativity. It's about testing limits. It's about the unexpected more than the status quo. It's punk!
But the punks still think it's about tattoos and piercings. About being anti.
Anti is history. You may not have gotten the memo, but we're all in it together. Politics may be divisive, but entertainment culture is all in.
And yes, all these festivals have VIP experiences. There is a caste hierarchy.
But you don't need to be rich and famous to have a good time.
Being in the back with your buds dancing is just as fine as being inside the velvet rope, oftentimes it's better. That's where your friends are, that's where the opportunities are. You're not looking for anything connected with money, rather you're looking for raw connection. The music is just the grease.
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Which is why the rockers and the rappers just can't understand it. Never mind the labels and the traditional concert promoters, who seem to have finally woken up.
Think about this. If you grew up playing soccer, not baseball or football, despite those sports getting all the mainstream press, and you got a trophy just for participating, would you really be desirous of going to the mainstream show and sitting in the audience, separated from the act by barriers and security guards, never mind being unable to score a good seat without sacrificing a few months of your college loan payment, which your parents have been making since you moved back in after graduating?
Don't think music, think culture.
That's what rock got right, before it became about the dollar signs, which is where it's still at.
And rap was always about money, but if you don't think hip-hop grew a surrounding culture, you haven't walked out the front door in decades.
But the problem is these two genres keep repeating the formula, expecting the same result. Which is kind of like hiring the '56 Yankees and expecting them to win the World Series. Sure, today's athletes take drugs, but unlike their predecessors, they work out incessantly, they're incredible physical specimens, that's what you've got to do to compete.
And there are rules in baseball.
But there are no rules in entertainment.
Other than you make an album, ensure there's a radio hit on it, and then sell the result on a slab of plastic for almost twenty dollars list. And when the public soured on this, the only discussion was how to bring them back to the well! As if the labels were selling something necessary, like water, when all they were doing was overhyping the remnants of a dead culture.
And sure, electronic music seems to have burgeoned overnight, but really it's been percolating for decades. Take that all you teen phenom wannabes. Turns out that to grow into a lasting master, you've got to practice your craft in obscurity, be thankful your tiny cult appreciates you, and be shocked, positively shocked I tell you, when your enterprise goes mainstream.
It's kind of like the days of yore. When a band broke on the third or fifth album. There was a hard core who'd been there from the beginning, pissed that everybody was now sipping the elixir. But who could deny the greatness?
And you wonder why festivals are today's live entertainment kingpins.
Because it's not about the talent so much as being there.
Today's kids know everybody. The era of going to the show and standing in the corner alone, knowing only the band, are done. Via social networks, every kid in your town knows every other one. And these festivals are giant networking parties, where they get to mingle and have a good time. And it's all about the good time. Sure, the music is an element of the mix, but if you could go to the show with only ten of your best bros, you wouldn't. Nobody wants a legendary DJ to play for ten people like the oldsters hire Elton and the classic rockers for privates, that's a dead scene. They want to be party with thousands, they want to feel the energy, electronic music is not about being exclusive, but inclusive!
Think about that. It's the opposite of the rock star ethos wherein I make it and I leave you behind, I fly private and I pay you lip service but I want nothing to do with you. The deejays are all regular people. It's stunning how normal they are, other than the wear and tear of the travel. And they like the money, who wouldn't, but spinning doesn't seem to be a stepping stone. Everybody in straight music wants to be something else, a TV star, a clothing magnate. Deejays want the endorsements, but mostly they want to entertain, they want to motivate the crowd.
And this does not mean this electronic scene is forever. Oh, the music will last forever, like the blues, only bigger. But in a world where Carly Rae Jepsen can have the song of the summer and be an obscure footnote not even twelve months later, anyone predicting any fad will last is out of his mind.
Yes, electronic music is a fad. Then again, rap is a fad that lasted decades!
But what's important is the scene. The inclusivity referenced above. Now performer and audience are in it together. That's why you Facebook and tweet and Instagram, that's where your people are. And if you don't see yourself as one of them, you're going to be in big trouble. If you think the old star system is the new one, you've never been to an extreme sports competition, where the losers are hugged and embraced as much as the winners.
So if you want to succeed in the new world of entertainment, you'd better let your audience inside. You'd better make it easy for them instead of difficult. You'd better not put on restraints, alienate them, accuse them of undermining you, like the RIAA did by suing file-traders. The RIAA is a lobbying organization, it's about protecting corporate interests. Whereas entertainment is about going with the flow.
Forget record deals. Forget hits. Forget the time you put in playing your instrument. Today it's like the old days. It's about creativity. It's about testing limits. It's about the unexpected more than the status quo. It's punk!
But the punks still think it's about tattoos and piercings. About being anti.
Anti is history. You may not have gotten the memo, but we're all in it together. Politics may be divisive, but entertainment culture is all in.
And yes, all these festivals have VIP experiences. There is a caste hierarchy.
But you don't need to be rich and famous to have a good time.
Being in the back with your buds dancing is just as fine as being inside the velvet rope, oftentimes it's better. That's where your friends are, that's where the opportunities are. You're not looking for anything connected with money, rather you're looking for raw connection. The music is just the grease.
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