The first thing you've got to know is the U.S. and U.K. releases were different.
The second thing you need to know is I didn't buy it upon release. It had no hit singles.
Albums were a value proposition. "Rubber Soul" was the LP that broke the paradigm. But we didn't know that yet. At the time it was a curio, something for the faithful that got no radio airplay, a left turn after the summer's triumph with "Help" and its attendant album, once again completely different from the U.K. release.
The irony, of course, was the Beatles were soon to dominate the singles chart, with their huge double-sided hit, "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper," the former going to number one and the latter to number five. It wasn't like we weren't getting enough Beatles, it's just that "Rubber Soul" did not square with reality, it's akin to Adele and Coldplay not putting their albums on Spotify, it was all about greed, Capitol wanted more money, and the audience and the culture suffered. It wasn't until eighteen months later, when "Sgt. Pepper" was released with no singles and it was quite clearly a concept album that we got it, that we were revolutionized, and in that same summer underground FM launched and things were never the same.
Until today, when we're living in the dark ages once again. When Top Forty rules and everything else is insignificant. When the hits are written by a committee of old men and the front people...are just that. The Beatles wrote their own material, oh how far we've gotten from the garden.
The definitive version of "Drive My Car" was performed live by Paul McCartney at Amoeba Records on June 27, 2007. Beatlemania reigned in the twenty first century. After waiting long past the anointed starting time, after noticing Ringo and Barbara Bach in attendance, after fingering the LPs in front of us, the cute Beatle took the stage with his crack band and immediately laid into this opening number from "Rubber Soul" and blew our collective minds, our heads were exploding, we could do nothing but scream and pinch ourselves, that everything we remembered still existed. That's the power of music. That's the power of a band. No production and no hard drives are needed if you've got it, and needless to say Paul does. Listen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leKTztG7-Pc
But, of course, the U.S. iteration of "Rubber Soul" did not contain "Drive My Car." I only heard it at Marc Goloff's house, he had the U.K. version, on vinyl, there were no tapes, the cover was flimsy, but the sound was enrapturing.
The U.S. album began with "I've Just Seen A Face." Which was on the U.K. "Help." But we didn't know it, there was no internet, no music magazines, we were living in darkness. But when we dropped the needle on "I've Just Seen A Face" the sun started to shine. The Stones were all about bowling you over with the opening track...after that, it was up and down. But the Beatles not only killed you with the opener, they sustained the momentum. And we could sing along with Paul, he was happy, singing to us, but we didn't matter, it was as if he cut this song in his house and recorded it for himself and we were privileged to hear it and...it still sounds magical today.
But "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" was the second cut on both albums. And at age twelve I'd be lying if I told you I knew exactly what John Lennon was singing about. Hell, at first I thought he was singing about a literal bird, little did I know that was English slang for girl/woman/chick...the Beatles were just a couple of years and a couple of changes ahead of us, experienced from those nights in Hamburg, we grew up and ultimately understood, we took guidance and sustenance from their words. Meanwhile, this bird had flown, so different from today's tracks, wherein the singer's always a winner, in control, manipulating others, John was the victim here. And we knew this track, because this was the one that received all the press, seen as racy, the adults got it, but the little boys and girls didn't understand.
And "You Won't See Me" was the third cut on both LPs too. But it's something that sunk into the public consciousness years later, because I was not the only one who didn't buy "Rubber Soul" upon release, most people didn't buy records at all, if anything they purchased singles, so it was only as time wore on that people went back and filled out their collections and got it.
Now the English iteration has "Nowhere Man" in the fourth position.
But the U.S. version has "Think For Yourself" in that slot.
Written and sung by George Harrison, "Think For Yourself" was just a bit different from the rest of the cuts, a bit more serious, a bit more penetrating, a little darker, with a message that means more as time has gone by. A twisting, turning adventure, "Think For Yourself" extended the sound and vision of our favorite group. Well, not all of us, some preferred the aforementioned Stones, others wearing oil in their hair and pegged pants and pointed shoes thought the pre-Beatles sound was going to come back, but it never did.
As for "Nowhere Man"...that was a gigantic hit in the new year, it didn't come out in the U.S. until the end of February '66. But it shot right up the chart, it was not like today, songs didn't build over time, they exploded on to the radio and within six weeks or so were replaced by something new, oftentimes by the same act, this was certainly the case with the Beatles.
Next came "The Word" on both LPs.
"In the beginning I misunderstood
But now I've got it, the word is good"
Sung by John Lennon, this is the most memorable part of the track, and the later occurrences, with different lyrics but the same sound. John had a way of emoting where you heard all the pain, all the experience, all the vigor and depression in the tonality of his voice. It's the antithesis of the "Idol" paradigm, the oversinging of the melisma mamas. We wanted to reach inside the record and soothe him, know him, understand him...but he was unreachable, even in real life, because he had an emotional tank that could never be filled.
And "Michelle" was not a single in the U.S. Probably Paul McCartney's second most memorable track after "Yesterday," somehow we all knew it, but it was not a 45, it was not on the chart. We'd heard French from the Singing Nun, "Dominique" was a huge hit, but we didn't expect the Beatles to sing in a foreign language. Do this today in our xenophobic culture and you're seen as a traitor, but the Beatles were all about bringing us together, they were a beacon, which we followed.
"What Goes On" started the U.K. side two. Another Ringo Starr vocal in the vein of "Act Naturally," it leavened the seriousness, added flavor, the Beatles were not locked into a groove, their sound was broad, they took risks.
"It's Only Love" opened the American side two. I learned it from the "Golden Beatles," the songbook with all the Beatles' compositions to date. I didn't know the recording, I figured it out from the chord changes, that's right, I took guitar lessons, everybody did, we all played. And sang. "It's Only Love" was on the English "Help."
"Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay"
As if we were quietly sitting in front of the fireplace in the moist English countryside, the sound is so rich, the vocal so impassioned, "Girl" almost creeps you out. Now you know why John Lennon is a legend. "Girl" was the second song on side two of both iterations of "Rubber Soul."
No, I can't leave it there. There are so many evocative lines in "Girl." Most painfully:
"She's the kind of girl who puts you down
When friends are there, you feel a fool"
Such vulnerability! I'd like to tell you I've grown out of this, that I'm comfortable in my skin and fully confident, but the truth is I'm still anxious and unsure, worried I won't fit in, that I'll be put down. This is why we take our wisdom from records, they UNDERSTAND US!
It's that guitar part, and the jaunty vocal... "I'm Looking Through You" embodied the sixties ethos, wherein we questioned and were unafraid of going negative, this was long before poptimism, when you had to like what was popular and those who were rich, the biggest crime was to be a phony, being honest and forthright was everything. "I'm Looking Through You" was in third position on side two of both albums.
"There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed"
"In My Life" was not famous back then, not part of the cultural canon, sometimes it takes time for songs to penetrate the collective consciousness. How were our rock stars so wise at such a young age? Famously sung in the "Happy New Year" episode of "thirtysomething," the Beatles rarely license their tunes, but we know them anyway, because they just get it right.
"Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all"
John Lennon's been gone thirty five years, but the great thing about recordings is they live on, he sounds positively alive in this track, wisdom intact, we miss him.
Just like "In My Life" is on both albums, so is "Wait."
When people talk about album tracks know that their rep was built upon cuts like "Wait," which were never singles, were never singled out, but were just as resonant as the hits.
"If I Needed Someone" didn't come out in the U.S. until late June of '66, when it was part of the Capitol mish-mash known as "Yesterday And Today," known primarily for its discarded butcher cover. I didn't buy that one either. I had the 45 of "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper," I had to, they were irresistible, and I didn't need to own "Yesterday" and...I posit many people never even heard George's gem until '87, when the original Beatles albums were released on CD.
And then both albums ended with "Run For Your Life," laden with attitude, I don't know if you could sing this today, the PC police would crack down upon you. But this was the one you could play on the guitar, sing with your buddies easily, we thought of the words as more of a western than being about personal relationships. I'd had two girlfriends at this point, that's the point of summer camp, but that was more like puppy love.
And that's it. That was the end of 1965. Fifty years ago today. A completely different era. When we were all addicted to the radio and knew every track on the hit parade. Number one was Herb Alpert's "Taste Of Honey." The Supremes owned number two with "I Hear A Symphony," the Byrds sat at number three with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Fourth was the indelible "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass. The Four Seasons owned number five with their nearly last hurrah, "Let's Hang On!" and Len Barry's bombastic, almost operatic "1-2-3" sat at number six, talk about a record that just felt right... The Beatles were nowhere on the WABC All American Survey, although "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper" were hot prospects, as was Gary Lewis's "She's Just My Style."
"Rubber Soul" was in the bins, alone, separate, a harbinger of what was to come, a complete blowing up of what we'd known before, not only were our musical horizons about to be broadened, there was about to be a lot more money in music, the album price point was so much higher.
That's what happened in our lives. We baby boomers were around for it.
And at this point, everybody owns the Beatles, but it was like seeing Jordan win his championships, Nixon resigning, Kennedy being shot...you knew where you were, these indelible moments not only make up our lives, they make us who we are.
It doesn't seem like fifty years.
I've loved them all. All the friends and lovers, all we've really got are our memories. But what keeps us going is the thrill of the new. But it's the music of the past that grounds us, that helps us make sense of it all.
Like "Rubber Soul."
What did that mean again?
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Friday, 4 December 2015
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Coldplay Plays The Super Bowl
The nip slip was the best thing to ever happen to the Super Bowl.
After Prince's triumphant performance that is.
Quick, name who won that nip slip game! Or even last year's game?
The Super Bowl is a national holiday wherein we all come together to eat too much, get drunk and have fun. A gathering of the tribes nearly eclipsed by the MTV Video Music Awards in its heyday. Which is why the NFL hired MTV to produce the nip slip triumph (never call it a fiasco, that's a misnomer.) The footballers wanted some of that controversy for themselves.
And they got it.
Now nudity is so prevalent online that "Playboy" has deleted it from its magazine and the Pirelli calendar shows no boobs. That's what you do when confronted with a changing landscape, you deliver the unexpected, you get one step ahead.
Who lost in the nip slip?
Certainly not Justin Timberlake. And Janet Jackson is still doing boffo at the b.o. As for CBS, the hosting channel? Les Moonves oversees a juggernaut.
So why play it safe now?
We know what's in it for Coldplay. In a world where you can't gain everybody's attention why not go to where the most eyeballs are and then put your tickets on sale the next day. Coldplay holding back its album from Spotify is like putting the efforts of a has-been behind a paywall. Coldplay's over the hump, it's history, it was buoyed by MTV and VH1 when they still played music, and the world's least dangerous band has lost its hold on the public mind. (Unless you're a housewife, but you already spent most of your capital on Adele, who doesn't need this circus to sell tickets, even though she'd be the logical choice.)
The NFL has used up all the has-beens, classic rockers are too geriatric to excite the assembled multitude, and the best have already made an appearance. Why not feature the music that truly runs the NFL, hip-hop?
Jay Z is the host, of course. But Hova is surrounded by Kendrick and Drake and even Killer Mike. Lil Wayne runs out for a cameo and then Dr. Dre is lowered from the heavens as Snoop Dogg goes into "Gin and Juice."
Half of America would be thrilled.
And half of America would be vomiting!
Can you imagine the aftermath, the explication of rap's history, the meaning of the lyrics, the offense taken by those who believe they know better, even though they don't, not knowing Drake is a bigger star on Spotify than Adele. Yes, "Hotline Bling" is bigger than "Hello." Because music lives on streaming services, not in CD racks or at the iTunes Store.
The NFL is in the entertainment business, so why not give the public what it wants, ENTERTAINMENT!
Forget the vocal minority imploring you to play it safe. Why would a public enraptured of Snapchat and Instagram be interested in a band that made its bones before Facebook hit the scene?
But Beyonce and Bruno Mars are thrown in for spice.
But wait a minute, didn't we just see them?
Or is this counterprogramming, since the players are constantly testing limits and the coaches are looking for an edge maybe the NFL wants to whitewash the entire enterprise.
And speaking of white, could Coldplay be any more Caucasian? They don't look like the NFL, no way.
So this is where we're at. Music is all about marketing. Testing limits and saying no are history.
And sports are all about protecting the past, taking no risks, when our entire society is living on the cutting edge, knowing what happens today probably won't be remembered tomorrow, never mind tonight.
The Super Bowl only comes around once a year. And you don't want to blow the opportunity. You don't want to give people what they think they want, you want to blow their minds!
Stay one step ahead of the populace or you lose your hold on popular culture. That's what happened to MTV.
Coldplay has one number one hit. Drake has five. It'd be like playing your retired QB instead of Andrew Luck, huh?
Don't make the same mistake. Don't blow your opportunities. No one's too big to fail, that's the message of "The Innovator's Dilemma." If you think the NFL is forever, you've probably had a concussion. And ask boxing how it feels about mixed martial arts. Meanwhile, would you rather own the Boston Patriots or Manchester United? If you say the former you're a myopic fan who doesn't realize we live in a worldwide economy.
America's greatest export is its entertainment.
And we punt the ball and give our greatest promotional opportunity to this wimpy group from England?
No, you bring out the heavy hitters, the hip-hoppers.
So now we've got nothing to talk about but the game. Which admittedly has been good in recent years, but there's no guarantee, usually it's a snooze-fest. But to see America's greatest collection of rappers on stage at one time?
Sign me up for that!
P.S. Read this "New York Times" article wherein it is stated that hip-hop and R&B represent 17% of album sales, but 26% of streams. Listens, not purchases. That's where the action is, baby.
"Hip-Hop and R&B Fans Embrace Streaming Music Services": http://nyti.ms/1YLMJIW
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After Prince's triumphant performance that is.
Quick, name who won that nip slip game! Or even last year's game?
The Super Bowl is a national holiday wherein we all come together to eat too much, get drunk and have fun. A gathering of the tribes nearly eclipsed by the MTV Video Music Awards in its heyday. Which is why the NFL hired MTV to produce the nip slip triumph (never call it a fiasco, that's a misnomer.) The footballers wanted some of that controversy for themselves.
And they got it.
Now nudity is so prevalent online that "Playboy" has deleted it from its magazine and the Pirelli calendar shows no boobs. That's what you do when confronted with a changing landscape, you deliver the unexpected, you get one step ahead.
Who lost in the nip slip?
Certainly not Justin Timberlake. And Janet Jackson is still doing boffo at the b.o. As for CBS, the hosting channel? Les Moonves oversees a juggernaut.
So why play it safe now?
We know what's in it for Coldplay. In a world where you can't gain everybody's attention why not go to where the most eyeballs are and then put your tickets on sale the next day. Coldplay holding back its album from Spotify is like putting the efforts of a has-been behind a paywall. Coldplay's over the hump, it's history, it was buoyed by MTV and VH1 when they still played music, and the world's least dangerous band has lost its hold on the public mind. (Unless you're a housewife, but you already spent most of your capital on Adele, who doesn't need this circus to sell tickets, even though she'd be the logical choice.)
The NFL has used up all the has-beens, classic rockers are too geriatric to excite the assembled multitude, and the best have already made an appearance. Why not feature the music that truly runs the NFL, hip-hop?
Jay Z is the host, of course. But Hova is surrounded by Kendrick and Drake and even Killer Mike. Lil Wayne runs out for a cameo and then Dr. Dre is lowered from the heavens as Snoop Dogg goes into "Gin and Juice."
Half of America would be thrilled.
And half of America would be vomiting!
Can you imagine the aftermath, the explication of rap's history, the meaning of the lyrics, the offense taken by those who believe they know better, even though they don't, not knowing Drake is a bigger star on Spotify than Adele. Yes, "Hotline Bling" is bigger than "Hello." Because music lives on streaming services, not in CD racks or at the iTunes Store.
The NFL is in the entertainment business, so why not give the public what it wants, ENTERTAINMENT!
Forget the vocal minority imploring you to play it safe. Why would a public enraptured of Snapchat and Instagram be interested in a band that made its bones before Facebook hit the scene?
But Beyonce and Bruno Mars are thrown in for spice.
But wait a minute, didn't we just see them?
Or is this counterprogramming, since the players are constantly testing limits and the coaches are looking for an edge maybe the NFL wants to whitewash the entire enterprise.
And speaking of white, could Coldplay be any more Caucasian? They don't look like the NFL, no way.
So this is where we're at. Music is all about marketing. Testing limits and saying no are history.
And sports are all about protecting the past, taking no risks, when our entire society is living on the cutting edge, knowing what happens today probably won't be remembered tomorrow, never mind tonight.
The Super Bowl only comes around once a year. And you don't want to blow the opportunity. You don't want to give people what they think they want, you want to blow their minds!
Stay one step ahead of the populace or you lose your hold on popular culture. That's what happened to MTV.
Coldplay has one number one hit. Drake has five. It'd be like playing your retired QB instead of Andrew Luck, huh?
Don't make the same mistake. Don't blow your opportunities. No one's too big to fail, that's the message of "The Innovator's Dilemma." If you think the NFL is forever, you've probably had a concussion. And ask boxing how it feels about mixed martial arts. Meanwhile, would you rather own the Boston Patriots or Manchester United? If you say the former you're a myopic fan who doesn't realize we live in a worldwide economy.
America's greatest export is its entertainment.
And we punt the ball and give our greatest promotional opportunity to this wimpy group from England?
No, you bring out the heavy hitters, the hip-hoppers.
So now we've got nothing to talk about but the game. Which admittedly has been good in recent years, but there's no guarantee, usually it's a snooze-fest. But to see America's greatest collection of rappers on stage at one time?
Sign me up for that!
P.S. Read this "New York Times" article wherein it is stated that hip-hop and R&B represent 17% of album sales, but 26% of streams. Listens, not purchases. That's where the action is, baby.
"Hip-Hop and R&B Fans Embrace Streaming Music Services": http://nyti.ms/1YLMJIW
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Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Adele Beats The Touts
Not that you'd know that. The news story is how Songkick flubbed the sale by revealing buyers' info. Songkick says nothing of consequence was revealed. But the public flips out over data breaches. Rightfully so. All of which means it's hard to do big things on a big scale. And despite so many flaws in Ticketmaster's system, with legacy spaghetti code impairing the introduction of both remedies and new features, ultimately it works. And that's important.
Ticketmaster, the company you love to hate. Even at this late date. Not knowing that the enterprise is a front for the greed of the acts, that it's paid to take the heat. But it's like finally finding out your favorite baseball player uses steroids, or that Lance Armstrong was on dope, you don't want to believe it.
Not that I don't give credit to Songkick. It deserves praise for not only breaking the hegemony, but making sure Adele tickets did not get into the hands of brokers. As MusicAlly put it:
"Last night, Music Ally visited three of the most prominent secondary ticketing sites - Seatwave, GetMeIn and StubHub – to count how many tickets were available for the three artists' UK tours (a fourth, Viagogo, does not show total ticket numbers for gigs, so we didn't include it). Coldplay's six UK dates had 17,631 tickets available across the three secondary sites; Rihanna's six UK gigs had 9,290 tickets available; and Adele's 12-concert run had 649 tickets for secondary sale. Or to put it another way, the average number of secondary tickets per Coldplay gig was 2,939, compared to 1,548 for Rihanna and just 54 for Adele.
Even with caveats - Adele is playing arenas while Coldplay and Rihanna are playing stadiums, and StubHub surprisingly had no Adele tickets available at all - those figures are startling."
Needless to say, there are tickets available on resale sites now. But not many. So Adele succeeded in her mission, but don't forget she employed paperless the last time around.
But before we move on to the interests and culpability of the acts, let's get back to Songkick, the site that lists concerts and is trying to move into ticketing. The problem is in most cases they can't get significant inventory. Because the only profit in most gigs is in the ticketing. As far as the revenue for sales, everything before the fees? That all goes to the act.
Welcome to the 2015 concert business. Which is why so many promoters are moving into festivals, it's a much better way to make money, with much better margins. In both cases you take risks, the downsides are horrifying, but the upside in festivals is so much greater.
So if the only profit is in the tickets themselves, in the fees, why should the promoter share them? Why should they forgo the fees?
And there you have the major battle. That's why the big ticketing companies are entrenched. Live Nation looks like a concert company, but really it's a ticketing company.
How did we get here?
Well, there are two sides. The ticketing companies paid the buildings for exclusive contracts. And then the acts, worried about promoters ripping them off, insisted on large guarantees. And the fees are outside the acts' percentage deals, there is no "commission." However, none of this is written in stone, everything's negotiable. So you have superstars getting kicked back ticketing fees and...
The fees. They all don't go to Ticketmaster. Sure, Ticketmaster takes some. But there's a cut for the building, and then the promoter...this is often the promoter's only profit, as stated above.
Meanwhile, you can't get a good ticket.
How can this be?
Well, we have the insanity of pre-sales. Wherein the act gets paid for sales windows. AmEx, Citi, fan clubs... By time the ad runs in the paper there may be fewer than a thousand arena seats left. So, good luck getting a decent seat if you don't have the right credit card or know somebody. The fiction about sitting in your underwear on Saturday morning clicking to buy... That means you're just completely out of the loop.
Then you have the issue of the price of the ticket itself. Generally speaking, they're way underpriced for superstars, who don't want to appear greedy. So these stars get pissed and sell tickets to brokers directly, as do promoters, to get a taste of the upside.
But enough history, enough shenanigans. How do we fix this? How do we get the seats to the customers at the listed price?
YOU'VE GOT TO WANT TO!
Despite all the lip service, acts are wary. Because they remember the Miley Cyrus paperless fiasco. She goes on tour and moms can't get tickets for their kids and attorneys general start rattling their sabers and the next time Miley goes out she sells paperless tickets and finds out demand's just not that strong. That's right, the brokers help create the frenzy. While they're asking stratospheric prices for tickets often you can still buy primary seats at face value. Miley didn't sell out, her image and career took a hit, and ever since...people have been afraid of paperless.
But not Adele, BECAUSE SHE KNOWS SHE'S GONNA SELL OUT!
How many acts can guarantee this? Certainly Taylor Swift. But you'd be surprised how few guaranteed sellouts there are. And there's more than one way to skin a cat, more than one way to recapture the income going to brokers.
You can use platinum, I Love All Access. Sell the best seats for what they're worth. Directly to those who want to buy them. This has worked extremely well, usually there's a bonus or two attached, a laminate, a backstage tour, a meeting with the band, but that's all just window dressing, these tickets are being sold for what they're truly worth.
The Stones employ flex-pricing. Instead of charging low prices and having the brokers scoop up all the tickets, they start high and lower the price depending upon customer adoption. The longer you wait, the better price you might get. Assuming a plethora of people don't want to pay a high price and eradicate all the inventory long before the gig plays.
And then there's selective paperless. Paperless for just some of the house, the best seats.
Meanwhile, the building holds back seats for season ticket holders and...
I don't want to educate you on all the ins and outs of ticketing, of the concert business. But the truth is it's sophisticated, and with such thin margins, you're either winning or you're out. Everybody inside knows everything. Everybody outside knows nothing. This is not a technology issue, this is an INFRASTRUCTURE issue, as in how business has continually been done.
The acts don't trust the promoters and the acts have short shelf lives but it's the act's name on the ticket...and now you're aware of some of the competing interests involved, the thoughts that go through the artist's head. Price tickets too high and not only do you not sell out, but you're seen as greedy. Charge a low price and your fans complain they can't get good seats, if at all, and you're pissed that all that revenue goes to the brokers/resellers.
And that's a business. Don't buy extra tickets with the idea you're going to sell them yourself. That's just displaying your ignorance. Many shows aren't really sold out, extra dates are added. A broker can sell only half of his inventory at an inflated price and doesn't care if the rest of his tickets go unused.
And there you have it.
The best way to move forward is to charge what the tickets are worth. That's what the Stones do, if you want to pay, you can get in.
Or in the alternative employ paperless or the Adele/Songkick paradigm. But then you run the risk that demand is not as strong as you believe it is.
But the truth is fewer and fewer members of the public are pissed off about all this. They're not worried about on sale dates, the fact that shows go up a year in advance, they just wait until they're ready to buy and...purchase their tickets from a broker, whether it be an individual agent or a corporation like StubHub. Hell, the resellers' tickets are listed on Ticketmaster right beside the primary inventory.
People want the illusion of freedom. The ability to buy what they want at a low price and resell it with no loss. But try buying a hot tech product on launch day. And try selling it for full price a year later, even months later. The concert business is no different, it's just that the inventory is evanescent. Once the date plays, pfft...there's no asset left.
So I applaud Adele for her efforts here. Good work.
But it's not gonna change the business, no way. Not now. It's a good first step. But if most acts were truly concerned about their customers they'd follow Kid Rock's example and charge ten bucks a ticket. But despite Rock going out at this price twice, despite a ton of publicity, no one has.
Change can happen.
But people have to want it.
And it turns out most acts don't want it that bad.
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Ticketmaster, the company you love to hate. Even at this late date. Not knowing that the enterprise is a front for the greed of the acts, that it's paid to take the heat. But it's like finally finding out your favorite baseball player uses steroids, or that Lance Armstrong was on dope, you don't want to believe it.
Not that I don't give credit to Songkick. It deserves praise for not only breaking the hegemony, but making sure Adele tickets did not get into the hands of brokers. As MusicAlly put it:
"Last night, Music Ally visited three of the most prominent secondary ticketing sites - Seatwave, GetMeIn and StubHub – to count how many tickets were available for the three artists' UK tours (a fourth, Viagogo, does not show total ticket numbers for gigs, so we didn't include it). Coldplay's six UK dates had 17,631 tickets available across the three secondary sites; Rihanna's six UK gigs had 9,290 tickets available; and Adele's 12-concert run had 649 tickets for secondary sale. Or to put it another way, the average number of secondary tickets per Coldplay gig was 2,939, compared to 1,548 for Rihanna and just 54 for Adele.
Even with caveats - Adele is playing arenas while Coldplay and Rihanna are playing stadiums, and StubHub surprisingly had no Adele tickets available at all - those figures are startling."
Needless to say, there are tickets available on resale sites now. But not many. So Adele succeeded in her mission, but don't forget she employed paperless the last time around.
But before we move on to the interests and culpability of the acts, let's get back to Songkick, the site that lists concerts and is trying to move into ticketing. The problem is in most cases they can't get significant inventory. Because the only profit in most gigs is in the ticketing. As far as the revenue for sales, everything before the fees? That all goes to the act.
Welcome to the 2015 concert business. Which is why so many promoters are moving into festivals, it's a much better way to make money, with much better margins. In both cases you take risks, the downsides are horrifying, but the upside in festivals is so much greater.
So if the only profit is in the tickets themselves, in the fees, why should the promoter share them? Why should they forgo the fees?
And there you have the major battle. That's why the big ticketing companies are entrenched. Live Nation looks like a concert company, but really it's a ticketing company.
How did we get here?
Well, there are two sides. The ticketing companies paid the buildings for exclusive contracts. And then the acts, worried about promoters ripping them off, insisted on large guarantees. And the fees are outside the acts' percentage deals, there is no "commission." However, none of this is written in stone, everything's negotiable. So you have superstars getting kicked back ticketing fees and...
The fees. They all don't go to Ticketmaster. Sure, Ticketmaster takes some. But there's a cut for the building, and then the promoter...this is often the promoter's only profit, as stated above.
Meanwhile, you can't get a good ticket.
How can this be?
Well, we have the insanity of pre-sales. Wherein the act gets paid for sales windows. AmEx, Citi, fan clubs... By time the ad runs in the paper there may be fewer than a thousand arena seats left. So, good luck getting a decent seat if you don't have the right credit card or know somebody. The fiction about sitting in your underwear on Saturday morning clicking to buy... That means you're just completely out of the loop.
Then you have the issue of the price of the ticket itself. Generally speaking, they're way underpriced for superstars, who don't want to appear greedy. So these stars get pissed and sell tickets to brokers directly, as do promoters, to get a taste of the upside.
But enough history, enough shenanigans. How do we fix this? How do we get the seats to the customers at the listed price?
YOU'VE GOT TO WANT TO!
Despite all the lip service, acts are wary. Because they remember the Miley Cyrus paperless fiasco. She goes on tour and moms can't get tickets for their kids and attorneys general start rattling their sabers and the next time Miley goes out she sells paperless tickets and finds out demand's just not that strong. That's right, the brokers help create the frenzy. While they're asking stratospheric prices for tickets often you can still buy primary seats at face value. Miley didn't sell out, her image and career took a hit, and ever since...people have been afraid of paperless.
But not Adele, BECAUSE SHE KNOWS SHE'S GONNA SELL OUT!
How many acts can guarantee this? Certainly Taylor Swift. But you'd be surprised how few guaranteed sellouts there are. And there's more than one way to skin a cat, more than one way to recapture the income going to brokers.
You can use platinum, I Love All Access. Sell the best seats for what they're worth. Directly to those who want to buy them. This has worked extremely well, usually there's a bonus or two attached, a laminate, a backstage tour, a meeting with the band, but that's all just window dressing, these tickets are being sold for what they're truly worth.
The Stones employ flex-pricing. Instead of charging low prices and having the brokers scoop up all the tickets, they start high and lower the price depending upon customer adoption. The longer you wait, the better price you might get. Assuming a plethora of people don't want to pay a high price and eradicate all the inventory long before the gig plays.
And then there's selective paperless. Paperless for just some of the house, the best seats.
Meanwhile, the building holds back seats for season ticket holders and...
I don't want to educate you on all the ins and outs of ticketing, of the concert business. But the truth is it's sophisticated, and with such thin margins, you're either winning or you're out. Everybody inside knows everything. Everybody outside knows nothing. This is not a technology issue, this is an INFRASTRUCTURE issue, as in how business has continually been done.
The acts don't trust the promoters and the acts have short shelf lives but it's the act's name on the ticket...and now you're aware of some of the competing interests involved, the thoughts that go through the artist's head. Price tickets too high and not only do you not sell out, but you're seen as greedy. Charge a low price and your fans complain they can't get good seats, if at all, and you're pissed that all that revenue goes to the brokers/resellers.
And that's a business. Don't buy extra tickets with the idea you're going to sell them yourself. That's just displaying your ignorance. Many shows aren't really sold out, extra dates are added. A broker can sell only half of his inventory at an inflated price and doesn't care if the rest of his tickets go unused.
And there you have it.
The best way to move forward is to charge what the tickets are worth. That's what the Stones do, if you want to pay, you can get in.
Or in the alternative employ paperless or the Adele/Songkick paradigm. But then you run the risk that demand is not as strong as you believe it is.
But the truth is fewer and fewer members of the public are pissed off about all this. They're not worried about on sale dates, the fact that shows go up a year in advance, they just wait until they're ready to buy and...purchase their tickets from a broker, whether it be an individual agent or a corporation like StubHub. Hell, the resellers' tickets are listed on Ticketmaster right beside the primary inventory.
People want the illusion of freedom. The ability to buy what they want at a low price and resell it with no loss. But try buying a hot tech product on launch day. And try selling it for full price a year later, even months later. The concert business is no different, it's just that the inventory is evanescent. Once the date plays, pfft...there's no asset left.
So I applaud Adele for her efforts here. Good work.
But it's not gonna change the business, no way. Not now. It's a good first step. But if most acts were truly concerned about their customers they'd follow Kid Rock's example and charge ten bucks a ticket. But despite Rock going out at this price twice, despite a ton of publicity, no one has.
Change can happen.
But people have to want it.
And it turns out most acts don't want it that bad.
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Today's World
YOU'RE NEVER BORED
There's always stimulation at your fingertips, whether it be Netflix streaming on demand or books delivered wirelessly to your tablet. We always wondered what it was like living in the pre-TV era, never mind the 1800s, when there were vast stretches of emptiness in your day. Now we marvel at the last half of the twentieth century, when we thought we were so up to date and so busy, not knowing what the internet would bring.
SCARCITY IS HISTORY
Music was the leader. Now it's information. Used to be if you were into a subject you just couldn't get enough, whether it was a mainstream topic or something purely niche. Now you can go deep into your niche for hours every day. Instead of wanting more, you're not sure when to stop, when you're sacrificing your life for your passion. Do you need to know everything? Can you know everything? And then you go to a party and realize you know nothing.
WE HEAR FROM MORE PEOPLE AND WE HEAR FROM THEM CONSTANTLY
Remember when the internet was going to eradicate personal contact? When we were all going to be lonely automatons sitting in front of a screen? Well, we hear from seemingly everybody we ever knew in our lives on a regular basis. Whether it be text/iMessage or e-mail or FaceTime/Skype or Facebook... We were lonely too long, and now we're not.
EVERYBODY IS A STAR, AT LEAST IN THEIR OWN MIND
Used to be you needed to be anointed by a gatekeeper, a record label, radio station or TV outlet. Now you just need to decide you're someone worth knowing about and begin posting all over the internet. The messages keep getting shorter. We went from blogs to Instagram, but people have a desire to be known, accepted and admired. The ceiling is incredibly low, the odds of breaking through your friend circle are tiny, but people keep trying.
A ZILLION CHANNELS AND THERE'S TOO MUCH ON
Remember when Bruce Springsteen claimed there were 57 channels and nothing on? Now there are unlimited channels, I keep hearing about cable outlets I didn't even know existed, like ION, and we've got whole networks that live online, like Crackle. If you can't find something to watch, you don't have eyes.
FAMOUS AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE
With minimal communication avenues, very few people made it through the sieve, and when they did everybody knew their name, and usually their work. Now even youngsters don't know who the people are in "People."
FAME IS A GAME
Played best by the Kardashians. Who realize it's not about content, but persistence. If you need to be famous, ply your trade each and every day. He who deigns to participate occasionally is destined for obscurity. Make music constantly. Communicate constantly. If you only do one thing, however great or important or outrageous, it will be forgotten by the next day, or soon thereafter.
THE GREAT MIGRATION
We're loyal to each other, not the platform. We go where everybody goes. So we can leave not only AOL behind, but MySpace. Twitter's already in the rearview mirror. Gaining an audience and keeping it is nearly impossible for a platform, unless it keeps evolving. Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp. Yahoo floundered and just added content to the same old paradigm and failed. This is not the old days, when you got a radio or TV license and you could just print money, seemingly eternally. Now, despite so many internet plays losing money in the advent, the key is to make money quickly, because odds are your time will soon be done, it's the way of the web/world.
ARTISTIC CHANCES ARE OUT THE WINDOW
With so much online, with the difficulty of breaking through the clutter, those in charge of the purse strings don't want to take risks, they want it safe. Which is why movies are high concept drivel made to play to young people around the world and why music is the same too. But what we know is all art is a fad, to be replaced with something new. But distribution is forever. So, unless there is a new distribution platform, the goal of the outsider is to get the ear of he or she who controls distribution to get them to take a chance when the tables turn.
ACCESS, NOT OWNERSHIP
Read yesterday's "Wall Street Journal" about the future of automobiles: http://on.wsj.com/1Xvh01j You're gonna rent 'em, on demand. A pickup for a move and a Mercedes for a date. And they're gonna show up without drivers, today's Uber is just a way station. There is a need for keepsakes, people want to own souvenirs, but that's what assets have become. This will cause a great leavening of society, when the rich realize their possessions are meaningless, everybody else can get the same experience on a whim. Assuming you can afford it. Income inequality is the issue of our day. And the more the rich keep flaunting their lifestyles, the more people see them online, the sharper the dividing line becomes. Either we fix this problem or America fades. Don't take my word for it, look at history, the greater the inequality the worse the economy, because it's the average person who buys the products and keeps the company alive. If you don't feel inadequate and frustrated seeing how others
live online, you're not surfing. If the rich were smart they'd hide their lifestyles, but they're looking for adulation and acceptance, its the human condition.
MORE INFORMATION, GREATER IGNORANCE
Most people don't know late round investors get protected against losses when the company goes public and they don't know you have a better chance of upward mobility in Europe. The irony is the more information we have, the more ignorant people become. And they're susceptible to scams and misinformation, because they don't want to believe things are as bad as they seem...they want to believe there's an out.
THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET POORER
With everything available, we gravitate to very few. And you may disagree with the picks, but you're swimming against the tide. The twenty first century is about dominance. You own your sphere online, a superstar ballplayer makes eight figures a year. If you're not reaching for the brass ring, you're being left behind. We only have room for a few good men and women. Scratch that, a few GREAT men and women.
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There's always stimulation at your fingertips, whether it be Netflix streaming on demand or books delivered wirelessly to your tablet. We always wondered what it was like living in the pre-TV era, never mind the 1800s, when there were vast stretches of emptiness in your day. Now we marvel at the last half of the twentieth century, when we thought we were so up to date and so busy, not knowing what the internet would bring.
SCARCITY IS HISTORY
Music was the leader. Now it's information. Used to be if you were into a subject you just couldn't get enough, whether it was a mainstream topic or something purely niche. Now you can go deep into your niche for hours every day. Instead of wanting more, you're not sure when to stop, when you're sacrificing your life for your passion. Do you need to know everything? Can you know everything? And then you go to a party and realize you know nothing.
WE HEAR FROM MORE PEOPLE AND WE HEAR FROM THEM CONSTANTLY
Remember when the internet was going to eradicate personal contact? When we were all going to be lonely automatons sitting in front of a screen? Well, we hear from seemingly everybody we ever knew in our lives on a regular basis. Whether it be text/iMessage or e-mail or FaceTime/Skype or Facebook... We were lonely too long, and now we're not.
EVERYBODY IS A STAR, AT LEAST IN THEIR OWN MIND
Used to be you needed to be anointed by a gatekeeper, a record label, radio station or TV outlet. Now you just need to decide you're someone worth knowing about and begin posting all over the internet. The messages keep getting shorter. We went from blogs to Instagram, but people have a desire to be known, accepted and admired. The ceiling is incredibly low, the odds of breaking through your friend circle are tiny, but people keep trying.
A ZILLION CHANNELS AND THERE'S TOO MUCH ON
Remember when Bruce Springsteen claimed there were 57 channels and nothing on? Now there are unlimited channels, I keep hearing about cable outlets I didn't even know existed, like ION, and we've got whole networks that live online, like Crackle. If you can't find something to watch, you don't have eyes.
FAMOUS AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE
With minimal communication avenues, very few people made it through the sieve, and when they did everybody knew their name, and usually their work. Now even youngsters don't know who the people are in "People."
FAME IS A GAME
Played best by the Kardashians. Who realize it's not about content, but persistence. If you need to be famous, ply your trade each and every day. He who deigns to participate occasionally is destined for obscurity. Make music constantly. Communicate constantly. If you only do one thing, however great or important or outrageous, it will be forgotten by the next day, or soon thereafter.
THE GREAT MIGRATION
We're loyal to each other, not the platform. We go where everybody goes. So we can leave not only AOL behind, but MySpace. Twitter's already in the rearview mirror. Gaining an audience and keeping it is nearly impossible for a platform, unless it keeps evolving. Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp. Yahoo floundered and just added content to the same old paradigm and failed. This is not the old days, when you got a radio or TV license and you could just print money, seemingly eternally. Now, despite so many internet plays losing money in the advent, the key is to make money quickly, because odds are your time will soon be done, it's the way of the web/world.
ARTISTIC CHANCES ARE OUT THE WINDOW
With so much online, with the difficulty of breaking through the clutter, those in charge of the purse strings don't want to take risks, they want it safe. Which is why movies are high concept drivel made to play to young people around the world and why music is the same too. But what we know is all art is a fad, to be replaced with something new. But distribution is forever. So, unless there is a new distribution platform, the goal of the outsider is to get the ear of he or she who controls distribution to get them to take a chance when the tables turn.
ACCESS, NOT OWNERSHIP
Read yesterday's "Wall Street Journal" about the future of automobiles: http://on.wsj.com/1Xvh01j You're gonna rent 'em, on demand. A pickup for a move and a Mercedes for a date. And they're gonna show up without drivers, today's Uber is just a way station. There is a need for keepsakes, people want to own souvenirs, but that's what assets have become. This will cause a great leavening of society, when the rich realize their possessions are meaningless, everybody else can get the same experience on a whim. Assuming you can afford it. Income inequality is the issue of our day. And the more the rich keep flaunting their lifestyles, the more people see them online, the sharper the dividing line becomes. Either we fix this problem or America fades. Don't take my word for it, look at history, the greater the inequality the worse the economy, because it's the average person who buys the products and keeps the company alive. If you don't feel inadequate and frustrated seeing how others
live online, you're not surfing. If the rich were smart they'd hide their lifestyles, but they're looking for adulation and acceptance, its the human condition.
MORE INFORMATION, GREATER IGNORANCE
Most people don't know late round investors get protected against losses when the company goes public and they don't know you have a better chance of upward mobility in Europe. The irony is the more information we have, the more ignorant people become. And they're susceptible to scams and misinformation, because they don't want to believe things are as bad as they seem...they want to believe there's an out.
THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET POORER
With everything available, we gravitate to very few. And you may disagree with the picks, but you're swimming against the tide. The twenty first century is about dominance. You own your sphere online, a superstar ballplayer makes eight figures a year. If you're not reaching for the brass ring, you're being left behind. We only have room for a few good men and women. Scratch that, a few GREAT men and women.
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Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Cynthia Robinson
Music is turning into baseball. There's no sense of history.
For all the fealty paid to classic rock, the truth is the past gets very little ink, even though it can dominate listening. And if you're not the Beatles or Pink Floyd you may get neither, no attention and no streams.
And that's just plain sad.
Last week Cynthia Robinson died and the only place it got notice was in the newspaper. You'd think the music press would be singing hosannas, paying tribute to a female rock star who paved the way, not a singer but an instrumentalist, even though she can be heard yelling ALL THE SQUARES GO HOME in the midst of "Dance To The Music," a call to action in three minutes featuring this exclamation by Ms. Robinson that contained the essence of the us versus them sixties. You were either hip or you weren't. You were either clued in or you weren't. You either grew your hair long or you didn't.
And for all the deserved attention paid to Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, they'd be the first to point to their roots, the bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta. And African-Americans did not disappear from the music scene, and one of their greatest exponents was one Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone, who married rock and blues and soul into a delectable concoction under the moniker Sly & the Family Stone that was undeniable.
It started with "Dance To The Music."
And then Sly had a run of hit singles far outpacing that of Bieber and the wannabes, everybody knew the group's tracks, black and white, we were all in it together, led by this guy who started off as a deejay and then produced the whitest of groups, the haunting Beau Brummels.
It might have started with "Dance To The Music," but the apotheosis was "Stand!," the spring '69 LP that is never mentioned as one of the best albums ever but contains four classics that make up for the thirteen minute "Sex Machine," assuming you need justification of Sly working it out at length. Hell, I'll wager more sex was had to that funky number than the music of all the British Invasion bands combined. Well, maybe not. But unlike so much of the sixties stuff from the Limeys, "Sex Machine" still sounds fresh today.
And I'd be lying if I said I got it, even though it was hiding in plain sight.
Oh, I got the singles. Come on, how many times do you have to hear "Dance To The Music," once? Tell that to all the wankers with bad voices and no changes who tell you to play their hour plus LPs over and over to get it. Sly grabbed you by the throat and didn't let go, "Dance To The Music" exploded out of the car speaker.
And then came "Everyday People," which was all about bringing us together as opposed to pushing us apart. It was the opposite of the blowhard lyrics about partying, rims and ho's in today's tracks.
"I am no better and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do"
Ain't that the truth. And "My own beliefs are in my song." Maybe because Sly wrote it, and it was an era where what you said/sang was much more important than who you dated or how much money you made.
And on the flip side of "Everyday People" was the positively explosive "Sing A Simple Song," with exhortations by Cynthia.
And then, in the middle of the summer of '69, came the delectable treat known as "Hot Fun In The Summertime," a song that put a smile on your face every time you heard it. Song of the summer? Make me puke, today's construct is a joke, it's purely about popularity. But Sly and his troupe encapsulated June to September in two and a half minutes, to the point where it still rings true today. Will we say the same about "Call Me Maybe" forty years from now? Two?
And speaking of funky, the next big hit was "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Which went all the way to number one, even though it sounded nothing like the poppy stuff dominating the airwaves at that time. From back when musicians were revolutionaries, making an individual statement as opposed to just following trends.
And when it looked like Sly was done, when he was becoming known for drugs more than music, he dropped a track so soulful it cut you to the bone. "Family Affair" is chilling, despite in some ways being so warm.
And then there was the last hurrah, 1973's "If You Want Me To Stay." And the drums might have been played by Andy Newmark and the bass by Rustee Allen but Cynthia Robinson persevered on trumpet, along with Jerry Martini and newbie Pat Rizzo on saxophones. Cynthia was a lifer, she counted, she was an integral part of the group.
But right smack dab in the middle of the band's career was the aforementioned "Stand!"
I knew the title track, it got airplay, it was the kind of thing you leaned in closer to hear, back when every track of all time was not at your fingertips, when you waited for your favorites to emanate from the radio. We all need support and inspiration, and that's what "Stand!" provides.
But I did not know the rest of the album.
But I did know this girl, who was alive with a twinkle in her eye, we talked in the library, occasionally on the phone, and in one of our conversations she revealed her favorite group was Sly & the Family Stone. Take that Jimmy Iovine, who thinks women need to be led to music, hell, they can lead us boys to it just fine.
And being the religious reader of the Sunday "New York Times" Arts & Leisure section that I was I noticed the band was coming to Madison Square Garden, I called her, did she want to go?
I think she wanted to see the band more than she wanted to see me, but in any event she said yes, and we ended up with tickets on the floor, back before all the ducats disappeared in pre-sales, when Regular Joes still had a fighting chance.
And this was back before Sly fell off the deep end, before he appeared late, if he deigned to appear at all. This was February 1970, before he got married on stage at the same venue. This was before the "Woodstock" movie...
The festival is still mentioned, but the impact of the flick is rarely talked about. Despite being the biggest rock festival of all time, few were actually there. But the movie played everywhere. And one of the highlights was when Sly and his band of merry-makers played I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER!
You've got no idea what it was like. Back when production was absent, with no backdrop nor lasers, when the music was enough and it wasn't on hard drive, but played by the assembled multitude.
"Boom laka-laka-laka, boom laka-laka-laka"
We were standing on the seats, back when they still had those, and we were thrusting our arms in the air, being taken higher, it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.
But despite all the hits, few knew, I was suddenly a member of a secret society, I was instantly converted, inducted into the church, the religion had been waiting for my conversion, but I was unaware.
But soon everybody knew. That's the power of the moving image, when it captures lightning in a bottle. Coolness and talent and...
Black women always worked. They had to put food on the table. They were not like white women staying at home playing mom while their hubbies went out to bring home the bacon. But when you've got nothing you've got nothing to lose. Which is why the biggest breakthroughs always come from the underclass, the underappreciated, who take chances and show us. Where are all the sisters testifying to the trailblazing of Cynthia Robinson? I don't hear any. They're myopically focused on white women from New York City, they're really more about themselves than others, they just want to be stars, they want all the spoils, they don't know how to be a cog in the machine, a brick in the edifice, an integral element of the production without which the whole thing collapses.
Sly Stone may be dazed and confused, burned out, but his legacy lives on. You only have to hear any of the foregoing tracks once and you get them.
That's the power of music.
That's the power of talent.
And Cynthia Robinson was THERE!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1lWxuyt
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For all the fealty paid to classic rock, the truth is the past gets very little ink, even though it can dominate listening. And if you're not the Beatles or Pink Floyd you may get neither, no attention and no streams.
And that's just plain sad.
Last week Cynthia Robinson died and the only place it got notice was in the newspaper. You'd think the music press would be singing hosannas, paying tribute to a female rock star who paved the way, not a singer but an instrumentalist, even though she can be heard yelling ALL THE SQUARES GO HOME in the midst of "Dance To The Music," a call to action in three minutes featuring this exclamation by Ms. Robinson that contained the essence of the us versus them sixties. You were either hip or you weren't. You were either clued in or you weren't. You either grew your hair long or you didn't.
And for all the deserved attention paid to Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, they'd be the first to point to their roots, the bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta. And African-Americans did not disappear from the music scene, and one of their greatest exponents was one Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone, who married rock and blues and soul into a delectable concoction under the moniker Sly & the Family Stone that was undeniable.
It started with "Dance To The Music."
And then Sly had a run of hit singles far outpacing that of Bieber and the wannabes, everybody knew the group's tracks, black and white, we were all in it together, led by this guy who started off as a deejay and then produced the whitest of groups, the haunting Beau Brummels.
It might have started with "Dance To The Music," but the apotheosis was "Stand!," the spring '69 LP that is never mentioned as one of the best albums ever but contains four classics that make up for the thirteen minute "Sex Machine," assuming you need justification of Sly working it out at length. Hell, I'll wager more sex was had to that funky number than the music of all the British Invasion bands combined. Well, maybe not. But unlike so much of the sixties stuff from the Limeys, "Sex Machine" still sounds fresh today.
And I'd be lying if I said I got it, even though it was hiding in plain sight.
Oh, I got the singles. Come on, how many times do you have to hear "Dance To The Music," once? Tell that to all the wankers with bad voices and no changes who tell you to play their hour plus LPs over and over to get it. Sly grabbed you by the throat and didn't let go, "Dance To The Music" exploded out of the car speaker.
And then came "Everyday People," which was all about bringing us together as opposed to pushing us apart. It was the opposite of the blowhard lyrics about partying, rims and ho's in today's tracks.
"I am no better and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do"
Ain't that the truth. And "My own beliefs are in my song." Maybe because Sly wrote it, and it was an era where what you said/sang was much more important than who you dated or how much money you made.
And on the flip side of "Everyday People" was the positively explosive "Sing A Simple Song," with exhortations by Cynthia.
And then, in the middle of the summer of '69, came the delectable treat known as "Hot Fun In The Summertime," a song that put a smile on your face every time you heard it. Song of the summer? Make me puke, today's construct is a joke, it's purely about popularity. But Sly and his troupe encapsulated June to September in two and a half minutes, to the point where it still rings true today. Will we say the same about "Call Me Maybe" forty years from now? Two?
And speaking of funky, the next big hit was "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Which went all the way to number one, even though it sounded nothing like the poppy stuff dominating the airwaves at that time. From back when musicians were revolutionaries, making an individual statement as opposed to just following trends.
And when it looked like Sly was done, when he was becoming known for drugs more than music, he dropped a track so soulful it cut you to the bone. "Family Affair" is chilling, despite in some ways being so warm.
And then there was the last hurrah, 1973's "If You Want Me To Stay." And the drums might have been played by Andy Newmark and the bass by Rustee Allen but Cynthia Robinson persevered on trumpet, along with Jerry Martini and newbie Pat Rizzo on saxophones. Cynthia was a lifer, she counted, she was an integral part of the group.
But right smack dab in the middle of the band's career was the aforementioned "Stand!"
I knew the title track, it got airplay, it was the kind of thing you leaned in closer to hear, back when every track of all time was not at your fingertips, when you waited for your favorites to emanate from the radio. We all need support and inspiration, and that's what "Stand!" provides.
But I did not know the rest of the album.
But I did know this girl, who was alive with a twinkle in her eye, we talked in the library, occasionally on the phone, and in one of our conversations she revealed her favorite group was Sly & the Family Stone. Take that Jimmy Iovine, who thinks women need to be led to music, hell, they can lead us boys to it just fine.
And being the religious reader of the Sunday "New York Times" Arts & Leisure section that I was I noticed the band was coming to Madison Square Garden, I called her, did she want to go?
I think she wanted to see the band more than she wanted to see me, but in any event she said yes, and we ended up with tickets on the floor, back before all the ducats disappeared in pre-sales, when Regular Joes still had a fighting chance.
And this was back before Sly fell off the deep end, before he appeared late, if he deigned to appear at all. This was February 1970, before he got married on stage at the same venue. This was before the "Woodstock" movie...
The festival is still mentioned, but the impact of the flick is rarely talked about. Despite being the biggest rock festival of all time, few were actually there. But the movie played everywhere. And one of the highlights was when Sly and his band of merry-makers played I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER!
You've got no idea what it was like. Back when production was absent, with no backdrop nor lasers, when the music was enough and it wasn't on hard drive, but played by the assembled multitude.
"Boom laka-laka-laka, boom laka-laka-laka"
We were standing on the seats, back when they still had those, and we were thrusting our arms in the air, being taken higher, it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.
But despite all the hits, few knew, I was suddenly a member of a secret society, I was instantly converted, inducted into the church, the religion had been waiting for my conversion, but I was unaware.
But soon everybody knew. That's the power of the moving image, when it captures lightning in a bottle. Coolness and talent and...
Black women always worked. They had to put food on the table. They were not like white women staying at home playing mom while their hubbies went out to bring home the bacon. But when you've got nothing you've got nothing to lose. Which is why the biggest breakthroughs always come from the underclass, the underappreciated, who take chances and show us. Where are all the sisters testifying to the trailblazing of Cynthia Robinson? I don't hear any. They're myopically focused on white women from New York City, they're really more about themselves than others, they just want to be stars, they want all the spoils, they don't know how to be a cog in the machine, a brick in the edifice, an integral element of the production without which the whole thing collapses.
Sly Stone may be dazed and confused, burned out, but his legacy lives on. You only have to hear any of the foregoing tracks once and you get them.
That's the power of music.
That's the power of talent.
And Cynthia Robinson was THERE!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1lWxuyt
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The Data
Nate Silver told me Donald Trump can't win.
You remember Brother Nate, who called the last election which Mitt Romney thought he was gonna win and Karl Rove couldn't believe he lost. Silver got it exactly right in the "New York Times," which unlike a winning sports team didn't give him what he wanted, so Silver decamped to ESPN, where he's been marginalized.
But he's still right.
It's weird to see the old guard bumping up against the new, the baby boomers and aged Gen-X'ers being flummoxed by the digitally-savvy youngsters. MP3s were not embraced by oldsters until the iTunes Store. Hell, Adele just sold a boatload of CDs to the aged, and you've got an oldster-controlled media which believes what they say matters, when the truth is the data doesn't lie,
Oh yes it does, you say! Numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them too, you can't trust polls!
Which is why Silver aggregates them, and we can argue with interpretation, but raw data counts. And what the data says is Donald Trump has high unfavorables. He might have 20+% of the electorate today, but when the losers drop out are their followers going to decamp to Trump? Not according to the data. Which also tells us this far out the polls are nearly meaningless.
So you can ignore the Trump show. It's gonna get canceled.
But you've got the aged media reporting on what he says like it counts, which it doesn't. Why does the sideshow always become the main show in America?
Not that Mr. Silver always comes down on the side of the Democrats, data is neutral, Silver said the Republicans were gonna clean up in 2014 and they did.
If anything, Silver's predictive abilities are scary. The deflate us. They illustrate what we thought was exciting is not, that what we thought was up for grabs is not. And people like Silver can actually eviscerate hope and make it so people don't vote.
But you shouldn't argue with the data.
That's the war in the music business right now. The youngsters cannot understand why they cannot get an honest accounting. Since everything's sold and streamed online, shouldn't the numbers be easily discernible, quickly, shouldn't royalty splits be locked in stone? Of course not, because the record company model is based on theft, from the artist. There you have it.
But this won't be forever. Because systems are getting too good. And young people won't stand for it!
Remember when records were number one for eons?
That was back before SoundScan, when the charts were manipulated, when Tommy Noonan was the most powerful person in the record business. You've never heard of him, but no one seems to know the people who truly count.
Like Nate Silver.
His predictions should be on the front page of every newspaper.
But then what would the bloviators on 24 hour news channels have to say?
But the truth is that's a dying paradigm. TV news ratings are already anemic. News is an on demand item. The only question is where are you going to get it?
Right now we've got chaos, with too many sources, but what we're gonna see is consolidation. Just like there were six major labels and now there are three. Lucian Grainge is way more powerful than Walter Yetnikoff or Mo Ostin ever were, never mind Clive Davis. Clive Davis did a good job of creating his myth, but the data said he wasn't making much money, which is why he was blown out at Arista.
It always comes down to the numbers.
But now there are more of them. And we've got better interpreters.
You see these are teachable skills. Statistics is known as one of the hardest subjects in college, to be avoided at all costs, but those who take it and build upon it end up ruling the universe. That's what Facebook is based upon, data. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg cares where you went on vacation, what you ate for dinner? No, he just wants to be able to slice and dice this data ever so finely so he can sell it to advertisers. Zuckerberg is selling efficiency. Targeting consumers directly. And the more outlets he owns, the more Facebook and Instagram, et al, can't be ignored.
Meanwhile, the hoi polloi are fixated on nitwit entertainers, whether they be Justin Bieber or Donald Trump. Bieber's got power but he's not exercising it for good, because he's a know-nothing, and Trump is smarter but is pretty powerless himself. It's artists who touch hearts and change minds. He or she who wrote that song that saved you from committing suicide...they're the ones you're gonna listen to. But today they're not saying anything.
Which is why the techies are the new heroes. Because when emotion is fake, you fall back upon facts. And if you don't believe in facts, if you can't recognize the power of data, you're doomed to be whipsawed by a culture wherein self-evident truths are more important than spin.
Nate Silver made a bad career move. He gave up his pulpit and sold his entire enterprise to ESPN. He thought he was gaining freedom, but really he was building his own prison. In a world where it's nearly impossible to reach everybody, where most people can't sing two Taylor Swift songs, why would you abdicate your perch overseeing the land? Why would you marginalize yourself?
And why would the "New York Times" let him go? It was the established players who wouldn't let him write about sports, his passion, they pushed him out the door, to the detriment of both Silver and the paper. Nobody won.
And personalities count. The "Times" has new data reporters but they're faceless and untrustworthy. It takes years to win people over.
And Silver has faceless writers on 538 who've earned no trust either.
But he's free to do what he wants in obscurity.
But you're free to inform yourself, you're free to look at the world dispassionately and navigate it to your advantage.
Pay attention to the numbers. Interpreted by people who know the game and can make sense of them.
I used to be very afraid of Donald Trump.
Then I read Nate Silver.
Who hasn't been wrong yet.
Are you gonna bet against Pixar?
Then don't discount Nate Silver.
The world is run by a small coterie of people who truly know and understand the game.
Be one of them.
"Donald Trump Is The Nickelback Of GOP Candidates": http://53eig.ht/1gmbhHC
"Dear Media, Stop Freaking Out About Donald Trump's Polls": http://53eig.ht/1I6udGG
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You remember Brother Nate, who called the last election which Mitt Romney thought he was gonna win and Karl Rove couldn't believe he lost. Silver got it exactly right in the "New York Times," which unlike a winning sports team didn't give him what he wanted, so Silver decamped to ESPN, where he's been marginalized.
But he's still right.
It's weird to see the old guard bumping up against the new, the baby boomers and aged Gen-X'ers being flummoxed by the digitally-savvy youngsters. MP3s were not embraced by oldsters until the iTunes Store. Hell, Adele just sold a boatload of CDs to the aged, and you've got an oldster-controlled media which believes what they say matters, when the truth is the data doesn't lie,
Oh yes it does, you say! Numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them too, you can't trust polls!
Which is why Silver aggregates them, and we can argue with interpretation, but raw data counts. And what the data says is Donald Trump has high unfavorables. He might have 20+% of the electorate today, but when the losers drop out are their followers going to decamp to Trump? Not according to the data. Which also tells us this far out the polls are nearly meaningless.
So you can ignore the Trump show. It's gonna get canceled.
But you've got the aged media reporting on what he says like it counts, which it doesn't. Why does the sideshow always become the main show in America?
Not that Mr. Silver always comes down on the side of the Democrats, data is neutral, Silver said the Republicans were gonna clean up in 2014 and they did.
If anything, Silver's predictive abilities are scary. The deflate us. They illustrate what we thought was exciting is not, that what we thought was up for grabs is not. And people like Silver can actually eviscerate hope and make it so people don't vote.
But you shouldn't argue with the data.
That's the war in the music business right now. The youngsters cannot understand why they cannot get an honest accounting. Since everything's sold and streamed online, shouldn't the numbers be easily discernible, quickly, shouldn't royalty splits be locked in stone? Of course not, because the record company model is based on theft, from the artist. There you have it.
But this won't be forever. Because systems are getting too good. And young people won't stand for it!
Remember when records were number one for eons?
That was back before SoundScan, when the charts were manipulated, when Tommy Noonan was the most powerful person in the record business. You've never heard of him, but no one seems to know the people who truly count.
Like Nate Silver.
His predictions should be on the front page of every newspaper.
But then what would the bloviators on 24 hour news channels have to say?
But the truth is that's a dying paradigm. TV news ratings are already anemic. News is an on demand item. The only question is where are you going to get it?
Right now we've got chaos, with too many sources, but what we're gonna see is consolidation. Just like there were six major labels and now there are three. Lucian Grainge is way more powerful than Walter Yetnikoff or Mo Ostin ever were, never mind Clive Davis. Clive Davis did a good job of creating his myth, but the data said he wasn't making much money, which is why he was blown out at Arista.
It always comes down to the numbers.
But now there are more of them. And we've got better interpreters.
You see these are teachable skills. Statistics is known as one of the hardest subjects in college, to be avoided at all costs, but those who take it and build upon it end up ruling the universe. That's what Facebook is based upon, data. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg cares where you went on vacation, what you ate for dinner? No, he just wants to be able to slice and dice this data ever so finely so he can sell it to advertisers. Zuckerberg is selling efficiency. Targeting consumers directly. And the more outlets he owns, the more Facebook and Instagram, et al, can't be ignored.
Meanwhile, the hoi polloi are fixated on nitwit entertainers, whether they be Justin Bieber or Donald Trump. Bieber's got power but he's not exercising it for good, because he's a know-nothing, and Trump is smarter but is pretty powerless himself. It's artists who touch hearts and change minds. He or she who wrote that song that saved you from committing suicide...they're the ones you're gonna listen to. But today they're not saying anything.
Which is why the techies are the new heroes. Because when emotion is fake, you fall back upon facts. And if you don't believe in facts, if you can't recognize the power of data, you're doomed to be whipsawed by a culture wherein self-evident truths are more important than spin.
Nate Silver made a bad career move. He gave up his pulpit and sold his entire enterprise to ESPN. He thought he was gaining freedom, but really he was building his own prison. In a world where it's nearly impossible to reach everybody, where most people can't sing two Taylor Swift songs, why would you abdicate your perch overseeing the land? Why would you marginalize yourself?
And why would the "New York Times" let him go? It was the established players who wouldn't let him write about sports, his passion, they pushed him out the door, to the detriment of both Silver and the paper. Nobody won.
And personalities count. The "Times" has new data reporters but they're faceless and untrustworthy. It takes years to win people over.
And Silver has faceless writers on 538 who've earned no trust either.
But he's free to do what he wants in obscurity.
But you're free to inform yourself, you're free to look at the world dispassionately and navigate it to your advantage.
Pay attention to the numbers. Interpreted by people who know the game and can make sense of them.
I used to be very afraid of Donald Trump.
Then I read Nate Silver.
Who hasn't been wrong yet.
Are you gonna bet against Pixar?
Then don't discount Nate Silver.
The world is run by a small coterie of people who truly know and understand the game.
Be one of them.
"Donald Trump Is The Nickelback Of GOP Candidates": http://53eig.ht/1gmbhHC
"Dear Media, Stop Freaking Out About Donald Trump's Polls": http://53eig.ht/1I6udGG
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Muslims Cheering
Now everything is entertainment, everything is just grist for the mill.
That gig the paper says was sold out?
Probably wasn't.
Those sales figures that indie act is touting?
You'd be best to cut them by 90%.
The entertainment business has always been built upon smoke and mirrors. The truth hurts and the populace did not want to know movie stars were gay and rock stars were loners who'd rather rest in hotel rooms, never mind throw TVs out the window.
Every day people e-mail me inaccurate information. About vinyl making more money than streaming, about Spotify taking all the money. And you wonder why you can't get ahead.
Used to be we believed in the press. That reporters would get 'em. Before those in play attacked the correspondents and Dan Rather lost his job and Bill O'Reilly kept his. Because CBS thought they reported to a higher power but Roger Ailes knows he is the higher power, and it makes no difference what the rabble-rousers say.
My favorite story on this involves one Jerry Heller, you know, the guy who's suing the "Straight Outta Compton" movie. He told me when a writer asked him how many albums Ruthless sold, he uttered SEVENTY MILLION! And then he turned to me and said..."My company, my number."
Apple won't even tell you how many Watches it's sold. And Twitter profiles are fake and Facebook likes are bought.
But they're all touted as fact, and most people believe them. Because they're either too dumb or they need to believe.
Because believing in yourself is just too much.
Do you really believe a blowhard businessman who was born on third base can run the country?
Do you really believe the populace wants said blowhard to run the country?
Well, Jesse Ventura did get elected governor. Look how that turned out. And he hasn't stopped spouting conspiracy theories since.
Jesse's an entertainer. Which people want because they just can't handle the cold hard truth. That your job is not safe and there's little upward mobility and it's got to be somebody's fault other than your own.
But it's not the immigrants' or the rest of the bogeymen, it's the system. One wherein the rich run things and they want to keep it that way. And anybody who could blow the whistle is enthralled by the players and wants to become one too. Can you say "Judith Miller"?
Want to pull someone to your side?
Give 'em a ride in a private jet. Buy 'em a four hundred dollar bottle of wine. Woo-hoo, look at me live! Not realizing that those are business expenses that pay dividends, that you're just a pawn in their game.
Politics is a profession. And sure, we want fresh faces, but we don't want inexperienced people. It'd be like anointing the losers on "Idol" as stars. What would that look like, people who couldn't carry a tune who believed they were entitled, would you listen to their music?
Of course not. Then why are you accepting what Donald Trump says as truth?
Sure, some of you are not, you're Democrats. But you believe manufacturing can come back to America. Why don't you pay $2500 for a flat screen while you're at it.
And Black Friday is fading...
Wait, the press got that one right. Maybe because there weren't personalities involved. Reporters have a hard time standing up to people. In journalism school they teach you to be fair and balanced, to give credence to both sides. But what if one side is pure idiocy, not truth, but a way to move the ball forward in the game?
And although everything is entertainment now, the true metaphor is football. Everybody's just trying to carry their product downfield. And if Bill Belichick and his Patriots cheat, why shouldn't I? But you say they didn't, because you live in Boston and you need something to believe in.
We all need something to believe in. But it's best to start with yourself. You're the arbiter of truth. If it feels bad, it must be. But who the enemy is...
If the political reporters can't ferret out the truth, what are the odds the entertainment reporters can? When most of what the media prints is not news, and frequently is just a press release. With media budgets slashed so owners can make their margins there's no time for questioning, and you can't piss off the advertisers. Maybe the "Times" has a Chinese wall, but Buzzfeed and the rest of the advertorial giants?
Give me a break.
Blame it on the internet, blame it on the lack of a fairness rule, but really know it's a reflection of society at large. You can't get a job without a college degree, and college doesn't teach you how to think, but just gives you business skills, so you're no match for the truly educated. The elite institutions teach you how to hold two opposing thoughts in your brain at one time. Like we can have low temperatures and severe storms even if there's global warming. But you think climate change is a hoax, not knowing the energy companies spread that story and how come you're so worried about the national debt impacting your children but not rising temperatures?
Used to be we were told what to believe by a few outlets, whose feet were held to the fire. Sure, fallacies got through, like people thought FDR could walk, but news was a higher calling and with few places to get it truth was the goal.
Not everywhere, but in many places.
But now that everybody has a voice, it's a free-for-all.
But not for long. We're going to see consolidation. The rich will get richer. Just like in music. Which is what will happen in podcasting. Everybody doesn't have a blog and everybody won't have a podcast, and you'll have to retreat to your lonely little life where you'll realize...
The people don't have the power, the corporations do. And those with the most power are the news outlets. You think it's about money, but power is much more satisfying. You control public opinion. You mold people's minds. That's Fox News's brilliance. That's Rupert Murdoch's brilliance. His fortunes may fade, but he's a titan, he controls what you think.
Because you've refused to think for yourself. You believe a licensor, someone who's full of vitriol and bombast, can run a country.
Well, if that's true, why don't you elect Gene Simmons.
Hey, wait a minute... Gene, why don't you run?
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That gig the paper says was sold out?
Probably wasn't.
Those sales figures that indie act is touting?
You'd be best to cut them by 90%.
The entertainment business has always been built upon smoke and mirrors. The truth hurts and the populace did not want to know movie stars were gay and rock stars were loners who'd rather rest in hotel rooms, never mind throw TVs out the window.
Every day people e-mail me inaccurate information. About vinyl making more money than streaming, about Spotify taking all the money. And you wonder why you can't get ahead.
Used to be we believed in the press. That reporters would get 'em. Before those in play attacked the correspondents and Dan Rather lost his job and Bill O'Reilly kept his. Because CBS thought they reported to a higher power but Roger Ailes knows he is the higher power, and it makes no difference what the rabble-rousers say.
My favorite story on this involves one Jerry Heller, you know, the guy who's suing the "Straight Outta Compton" movie. He told me when a writer asked him how many albums Ruthless sold, he uttered SEVENTY MILLION! And then he turned to me and said..."My company, my number."
Apple won't even tell you how many Watches it's sold. And Twitter profiles are fake and Facebook likes are bought.
But they're all touted as fact, and most people believe them. Because they're either too dumb or they need to believe.
Because believing in yourself is just too much.
Do you really believe a blowhard businessman who was born on third base can run the country?
Do you really believe the populace wants said blowhard to run the country?
Well, Jesse Ventura did get elected governor. Look how that turned out. And he hasn't stopped spouting conspiracy theories since.
Jesse's an entertainer. Which people want because they just can't handle the cold hard truth. That your job is not safe and there's little upward mobility and it's got to be somebody's fault other than your own.
But it's not the immigrants' or the rest of the bogeymen, it's the system. One wherein the rich run things and they want to keep it that way. And anybody who could blow the whistle is enthralled by the players and wants to become one too. Can you say "Judith Miller"?
Want to pull someone to your side?
Give 'em a ride in a private jet. Buy 'em a four hundred dollar bottle of wine. Woo-hoo, look at me live! Not realizing that those are business expenses that pay dividends, that you're just a pawn in their game.
Politics is a profession. And sure, we want fresh faces, but we don't want inexperienced people. It'd be like anointing the losers on "Idol" as stars. What would that look like, people who couldn't carry a tune who believed they were entitled, would you listen to their music?
Of course not. Then why are you accepting what Donald Trump says as truth?
Sure, some of you are not, you're Democrats. But you believe manufacturing can come back to America. Why don't you pay $2500 for a flat screen while you're at it.
And Black Friday is fading...
Wait, the press got that one right. Maybe because there weren't personalities involved. Reporters have a hard time standing up to people. In journalism school they teach you to be fair and balanced, to give credence to both sides. But what if one side is pure idiocy, not truth, but a way to move the ball forward in the game?
And although everything is entertainment now, the true metaphor is football. Everybody's just trying to carry their product downfield. And if Bill Belichick and his Patriots cheat, why shouldn't I? But you say they didn't, because you live in Boston and you need something to believe in.
We all need something to believe in. But it's best to start with yourself. You're the arbiter of truth. If it feels bad, it must be. But who the enemy is...
If the political reporters can't ferret out the truth, what are the odds the entertainment reporters can? When most of what the media prints is not news, and frequently is just a press release. With media budgets slashed so owners can make their margins there's no time for questioning, and you can't piss off the advertisers. Maybe the "Times" has a Chinese wall, but Buzzfeed and the rest of the advertorial giants?
Give me a break.
Blame it on the internet, blame it on the lack of a fairness rule, but really know it's a reflection of society at large. You can't get a job without a college degree, and college doesn't teach you how to think, but just gives you business skills, so you're no match for the truly educated. The elite institutions teach you how to hold two opposing thoughts in your brain at one time. Like we can have low temperatures and severe storms even if there's global warming. But you think climate change is a hoax, not knowing the energy companies spread that story and how come you're so worried about the national debt impacting your children but not rising temperatures?
Used to be we were told what to believe by a few outlets, whose feet were held to the fire. Sure, fallacies got through, like people thought FDR could walk, but news was a higher calling and with few places to get it truth was the goal.
Not everywhere, but in many places.
But now that everybody has a voice, it's a free-for-all.
But not for long. We're going to see consolidation. The rich will get richer. Just like in music. Which is what will happen in podcasting. Everybody doesn't have a blog and everybody won't have a podcast, and you'll have to retreat to your lonely little life where you'll realize...
The people don't have the power, the corporations do. And those with the most power are the news outlets. You think it's about money, but power is much more satisfying. You control public opinion. You mold people's minds. That's Fox News's brilliance. That's Rupert Murdoch's brilliance. His fortunes may fade, but he's a titan, he controls what you think.
Because you've refused to think for yourself. You believe a licensor, someone who's full of vitriol and bombast, can run a country.
Well, if that's true, why don't you elect Gene Simmons.
Hey, wait a minute... Gene, why don't you run?
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Monday, 30 November 2015
Adele Lessons
1. MUSIC, NOT TRENDS
There's been a huge focus on what's hot as opposed to what's good. John Seabrook delineated the "track and hook" singles that dominate today's Top Forty, but could it be that old-fashioned melody, with memorable changes and a good vocal, is what most people really want to hear? Could it be that trendiness is what is putting the music business in the dumper?
2. SOCIAL MEDIA IS OVERRATED
You've got to get the message out. And Adele had a complicit press, which was intrigued by her pursuit of a sales record. But with it being so hard to break through and dominate, many have focused on the penumbra, when it's always been about the music. Yes, you can connect with your fans who will support you, Amanda Palmer is the greatest exponent of this, but most people have never heard her music and when they do they don't want to listen further. You can build it for the hard core, but if you want everybody else to care, you've got to go back to the songs and the performance, the melody and the talent.
3. TALENT COUNTS
Yes, auto-tune can make it so anybody can sing, but it can't make it so anybody will care. Turns out people are looking for the genuine article. What music used to be. Someone who needs no support system to shine.
4. TODAY IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS TOMORROW
We don't know if anybody will be listening to "25" tomorrow, and we have no way to measure said listens. We've always known the money in music is in the long game. That's why publishing counts, that's why some oldsters can clean up on the road, selling out arenas, and others play clubs, if at all. Longevity is an amalgam of credibility, talent and underlying catalog. The more hits you have, the longer you last. Sell out and your career is shortened. That's right, despite percentage-takers saying the public does not care, the truth is people believe in musical artists in a way they don't believe in actors. Adele's image is burnished by not doing endorsements, by not taking the money, she lives on a higher plane. But in our short term economy everybody says to take it now, for it might not be there tomorrow. But your career might not be there tomorrow... And "25" might not be there tomorrow. History is littered with albums that ran up the chart and fell off nearly as quickly. Now that
the music is out, we'll see if it's embraced by the public. I'm not saying it won't be, but no amount of hype, especially about sales figures, is going to make people listen to a record. There's been too much focus on short term money, the big money is in the long term, never forget it.
5. RULES DON'T APPLY TO SUPERSTARS
Adele can keep her music from streaming services, but can you?
Probably not.
Superstars are in short supply. Therefore their value has skyrocketed. We all want a piece of the big kahuna, we all want to belong. There's only one Adele. Focus on your uniqueness, me-too disappears easily. And know that the spoils go to the rich, and the rich define the game. Adele can tour stadiums or clubs, paperless or at stratospheric prices. We tend to extrude from stars paths the unwashed can follow. But the truth is stars are different, and if you want that power you have to become a star too. And the greatest stars are sui generis.
6. THE PRESS LOVES A HORSE RACE
That's what got everybody excited, the race to break 'N Sync's record, it dominated the discussion, the music took a back seat, if it was mentioned at all. Proving that media is dumb, they want it bite-sized and related to math. And then they'll write all about it and the public will get caught up in it and... This is not good for music, because we want people talking about the tunes, not the sales.
7. DON'T IGNORE OLDSTERS
Be sure to read the "Wall Street Journal"'s expose on who bought "25." Turns out it's soccer moms, aged 25-44: http://on.wsj.com/1Q9JJml Our business is youth-oriented to its detriment. Sure, kids are impulsive and easy to reach, but oldsters have money and care too.
8. RADIO COMES LAST
Slow-moving and over-researched, radio cannot react quickly. And sure, radio went on "Hello," but the truth is the track lived online, on streaming services, on YouTube. Play to the people, not the middlemen. Furthermore, people don't want to be spoon-fed, they want it all and they want it now. Which is why Justin Bieber's new album dominates Spotify, as did the Weeknd's before it. Radio is an old game that doesn't square with today, the more you stretch hits out over time the more you lose touch with your audience. If radio was smart, if it wanted to survive, it would play all the new hits right away and throw over what's successful for new stuff quickly, like Top Forty did in the sixties. That way radio will become relevant and help build careers. But by putting money first and refusing to take chances, radio is sounding its own death knell.
9. QUALITY COUNTS
There was an inane story in yesterday's "New York Times" stating that Bieber and Selena Gomez resuscitated their careers via social media: http://nyti.ms/1NZ9GRf No they didn't, they did it via YouTube and Spotify. If it's good, we want it, we can't find enough good stuff. And sure, Adele kept her album off streaming services, but it's only a matter of time before she caves, after the sales fade and she wants continued listening. If she's smart, she'll make the leap soon, while she can still set records, because that's what her team seems to be into.
10. IMAGE IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS MUSIC
This is a huge sea change in the post video world. Thin and beautiful never hurt, but they're no longer a requirement. Just ask Meghan Trainor and PSY. A catchy tune breaks through all barriers.
11. THIS SONG IS OVER
Taylor Swift did a good job of keeping herself atop the news cycle, but she too is a party of one. The media will now move on to another story, and "25" will succeed or fail based on its quality and whether it is embraced by the public. Music is not movies, it can't make all its money in a weekend, and when done right it lasts forever. Adele employed the media to get the story out, to carpet bomb the world into awareness, but now she's on her own. So start with the music, the story comes second. And a story might gain you attention, but it does not ensure longevity. We're looking for a few good songs, that everybody knows and can sing along to. It ain't hard to do, assuming you have the chops and inspiration. And the chops require a huge input of time, never forget Adele spent years in music school, and inspiration...that comes from living your life. Which is why the youngsters rarely have anything to say. We want you to channel the human condition, we want you to make us feel like
we belong, that you understand us and will never betray us. That's what Adele did with "21," and that history gave her a good start with "25." The success of "25" still hangs in the balance, despite the sales records, despite the media coverage. Will the public hold the songs near and dear to their heart, will they need to see her in prodigious numbers years from now? We're going to find out!
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There's been a huge focus on what's hot as opposed to what's good. John Seabrook delineated the "track and hook" singles that dominate today's Top Forty, but could it be that old-fashioned melody, with memorable changes and a good vocal, is what most people really want to hear? Could it be that trendiness is what is putting the music business in the dumper?
2. SOCIAL MEDIA IS OVERRATED
You've got to get the message out. And Adele had a complicit press, which was intrigued by her pursuit of a sales record. But with it being so hard to break through and dominate, many have focused on the penumbra, when it's always been about the music. Yes, you can connect with your fans who will support you, Amanda Palmer is the greatest exponent of this, but most people have never heard her music and when they do they don't want to listen further. You can build it for the hard core, but if you want everybody else to care, you've got to go back to the songs and the performance, the melody and the talent.
3. TALENT COUNTS
Yes, auto-tune can make it so anybody can sing, but it can't make it so anybody will care. Turns out people are looking for the genuine article. What music used to be. Someone who needs no support system to shine.
4. TODAY IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS TOMORROW
We don't know if anybody will be listening to "25" tomorrow, and we have no way to measure said listens. We've always known the money in music is in the long game. That's why publishing counts, that's why some oldsters can clean up on the road, selling out arenas, and others play clubs, if at all. Longevity is an amalgam of credibility, talent and underlying catalog. The more hits you have, the longer you last. Sell out and your career is shortened. That's right, despite percentage-takers saying the public does not care, the truth is people believe in musical artists in a way they don't believe in actors. Adele's image is burnished by not doing endorsements, by not taking the money, she lives on a higher plane. But in our short term economy everybody says to take it now, for it might not be there tomorrow. But your career might not be there tomorrow... And "25" might not be there tomorrow. History is littered with albums that ran up the chart and fell off nearly as quickly. Now that
the music is out, we'll see if it's embraced by the public. I'm not saying it won't be, but no amount of hype, especially about sales figures, is going to make people listen to a record. There's been too much focus on short term money, the big money is in the long term, never forget it.
5. RULES DON'T APPLY TO SUPERSTARS
Adele can keep her music from streaming services, but can you?
Probably not.
Superstars are in short supply. Therefore their value has skyrocketed. We all want a piece of the big kahuna, we all want to belong. There's only one Adele. Focus on your uniqueness, me-too disappears easily. And know that the spoils go to the rich, and the rich define the game. Adele can tour stadiums or clubs, paperless or at stratospheric prices. We tend to extrude from stars paths the unwashed can follow. But the truth is stars are different, and if you want that power you have to become a star too. And the greatest stars are sui generis.
6. THE PRESS LOVES A HORSE RACE
That's what got everybody excited, the race to break 'N Sync's record, it dominated the discussion, the music took a back seat, if it was mentioned at all. Proving that media is dumb, they want it bite-sized and related to math. And then they'll write all about it and the public will get caught up in it and... This is not good for music, because we want people talking about the tunes, not the sales.
7. DON'T IGNORE OLDSTERS
Be sure to read the "Wall Street Journal"'s expose on who bought "25." Turns out it's soccer moms, aged 25-44: http://on.wsj.com/1Q9JJml Our business is youth-oriented to its detriment. Sure, kids are impulsive and easy to reach, but oldsters have money and care too.
8. RADIO COMES LAST
Slow-moving and over-researched, radio cannot react quickly. And sure, radio went on "Hello," but the truth is the track lived online, on streaming services, on YouTube. Play to the people, not the middlemen. Furthermore, people don't want to be spoon-fed, they want it all and they want it now. Which is why Justin Bieber's new album dominates Spotify, as did the Weeknd's before it. Radio is an old game that doesn't square with today, the more you stretch hits out over time the more you lose touch with your audience. If radio was smart, if it wanted to survive, it would play all the new hits right away and throw over what's successful for new stuff quickly, like Top Forty did in the sixties. That way radio will become relevant and help build careers. But by putting money first and refusing to take chances, radio is sounding its own death knell.
9. QUALITY COUNTS
There was an inane story in yesterday's "New York Times" stating that Bieber and Selena Gomez resuscitated their careers via social media: http://nyti.ms/1NZ9GRf No they didn't, they did it via YouTube and Spotify. If it's good, we want it, we can't find enough good stuff. And sure, Adele kept her album off streaming services, but it's only a matter of time before she caves, after the sales fade and she wants continued listening. If she's smart, she'll make the leap soon, while she can still set records, because that's what her team seems to be into.
10. IMAGE IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS MUSIC
This is a huge sea change in the post video world. Thin and beautiful never hurt, but they're no longer a requirement. Just ask Meghan Trainor and PSY. A catchy tune breaks through all barriers.
11. THIS SONG IS OVER
Taylor Swift did a good job of keeping herself atop the news cycle, but she too is a party of one. The media will now move on to another story, and "25" will succeed or fail based on its quality and whether it is embraced by the public. Music is not movies, it can't make all its money in a weekend, and when done right it lasts forever. Adele employed the media to get the story out, to carpet bomb the world into awareness, but now she's on her own. So start with the music, the story comes second. And a story might gain you attention, but it does not ensure longevity. We're looking for a few good songs, that everybody knows and can sing along to. It ain't hard to do, assuming you have the chops and inspiration. And the chops require a huge input of time, never forget Adele spent years in music school, and inspiration...that comes from living your life. Which is why the youngsters rarely have anything to say. We want you to channel the human condition, we want you to make us feel like
we belong, that you understand us and will never betray us. That's what Adele did with "21," and that history gave her a good start with "25." The success of "25" still hangs in the balance, despite the sales records, despite the media coverage. Will the public hold the songs near and dear to their heart, will they need to see her in prodigious numbers years from now? We're going to find out!
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