My inbox is filling up with people who don't like Three Days Grace's "The Mountain." I DON'T CARE! THAT WAS NOT WHY I WROTE ABOUT IT! I was making a business point, but these writers are too invested in their own opinions to see the forest for the trees, it's why despite believing they know everything they're never gonna triumph in this business, most will be fans dying for backstage access as they boast to their friends with their so-called info no one cares about.
Welcome to the modern era, where those over thirty still think they're living in the old. Hell, they think people really want to listen to vinyl, NO, IT'S A FETISH! Come on, you're listening to albums recorded digitally reproduced analog? What next, an electric car that runs on gas? This is why I deplore the educational system, preparing people for careers, they don't know how to THINK!
Like my piece delineating Zuckerberg's triumphant performance in the Senate. Hell, the stock went up, but you hate him and his company so much you can't put that aside and evaluate his appearance. Better yet, you didn't even watch, you relied on the scuttlebutt, and he or she without information loses in the end. Want to win, pay attention, read. You think you're winning by posting to social media, spreading your inanity, but the truth is one capture of the zeitgeist based on hard work will send you to the top of the chart.
If the chart means anything anymore.
Are you getting this?
Every week "Billboard" publishes a chart that blends sales and streams and the somnambulant press puppets it as if it counted. No, it only matters if someone listens. Did you check the decline of sales? Through the floor my friend. And sales don't necessarily indicate demand. As I write this, Elton John's "Revamp" is #11 on iTunes. Wow, it looks like a success. But then we go to Spotify and find out only two songs have broken a million plays, when there are tracks from albums not even on the iTunes chart that have a huge multiple of this. Hell, the hitmakers of today don't even RELEASE albums! But you're invested in them, despite TV series eclipsing movies. What did Marshall McLuhan say, THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE? So rappers are playing with the form, putting out mixtapes, and the oldsters decrying Spotify are playing by the same old rules, to their detriment. That's right, streaming is where the money is. Do you want to go broke? Are you a Civil War re-enactor too?
My point was we live in a cacophonous society where only the Spotify Top 50 gets traction and everything else is forgotten. That despite triumphing in its own little niche, there's no way to cross over. Which is way different from the seventies when AOR tracks crossed over to Top Forty and the MTV era when if a video got airplay the act was huge and if it didn't it was toast, when Top 40 followed MTV's lead and killed AOR.
So you think you're winning by decrying "The Mountain." You'd rather promote your own little video with only three digits of views, with streams on Spotify less than 1000, where they don't even show them. Don't you get it, THE JOKE IS ON YOU! The game is rigged, you can't triumph even if you're any good, and you're not!
The audience can't find you.
That was my point. How do we make the audience aware of genres other than hip-hop/rap? This is the big question.
But you're caught down in the weeds so busy judging not realizing that pastime is passe. In a limited universe it was cool to put down what others were listening to, but now with an almost unlimited amount of music no one is paying attention to your judgments, they've got no time and are liking what they like and they'd like new stuff, but they just can't find it.
Because the major labels are brain dead. They just want to follow the trends. But it's never been this bad, there's never been only ONE trend!
And they want it all and they want it now. And the fastest way there is via radio, an ancient exposure medium if there ever was one. Radio in an on demand world is like joining a record club and waiting for mail delivery. Oh, that's right, the record clubs CRASHED! Time moves on, the future comes.
And the future won't look like today. Other genres will make inroads. First and foremost if there's innovation, envelope pushing.
But think how big the music business would be if other genres got traction. Forget recording revenue, think about the ticket sales at live shows. We're leaving so much money on the table it's not funny. So many people hate the Spotify Top 50, but they don't know where to go to find something else.
Once again, the industry is punting on this, which means someone external will fill the vacuum, and everybody will hate them in the process. Smart people participate in change. But you'd rather bitch that your personal favorite is not a hit. HOW COULD IT BE?
That's my point here. How do we elevate something else?
But you feel superior, sitting at home believing Bob Lefsetz's taste sucks.
I don't care what you think.
AND NEITHER DOES ANYBODY ELSE!
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