Morgan Wallen's "Dangerous" is the biggest album of the year. Statistically, that's what the MRC half-year report says.
But you don't see this trumpeted in the newspaper. Instead we get all this crap about flavor of the moment pop and hip-hop acts that are all flash and no substance. There is a hit music business, but it has never been more out of touch with what is really being consumed than ever before.
So starting a couple of weeks back, people started e-mailing me this Aaron Lewis track "Am I the Only One." It's HEINOUS! This middle class, right wing wanker has recorded a song that should have been played at CPAC, in between speeches by nitwits like Lauren Boebert saying to refuse the "Fauci ouchie." Frank Luntz, FRANK LUNTZ!, the guy who came up with right wing epithets like the "death tax," has thrown his hands in the air:
"'We always ask, what will be the last straw? What will be the moment that we lose the ability to communicate and cooperate and get things done?' said Frank Luntz, a longtime GOP pollster who's been working to encourage vaccinations. 'Well, we've reached it. This is it.'"
wapo.st/3knqEDH
Why does Valory release such crap. Come on Scott Borchetta, David Geffen dropped the Geto Boys over their odious lyrics and now you're marketing this junk? And for those who don't know, all the execs idolize Geffen, and communicate and consort with him too. That's his role today, elder stateman with a hand guiding all the players, young and old, Scooter Braun calls Geffen his rabbi and Jimmy Iovine doesn't make a move without talking to Geffen first. You see Geffen made billions and they all want that money too. Come on Scott, get your head out of your rear end. How much money are you gonna make here anyway, and it is all about the money at this point, right?
But even worse is the music business is so screwed up that they consider this record to be #1 Country, and #14 on the overall Hot 100. Lewis's track "Am I the Only One" sold 58,622 downloads and was streamed 4 million times...IN A COUNTRY OF 320 MILLION! There are scores of TikTok influencers who dwarf those numbers, names you've never heard of, but we've got the lame music industry trumpeting the ascension of this ignorant bloviator when the truth is almost no one has heard the song!
Downloads? Only old people download. And you know those who saw Lewis on Fox News bought instead of streamed. As for streams, streams of a single, 4 million times? Number one on on the Spotify DAILY chart got 7,467,066 streams. And interesting that it's a rock song by an Italian group, Maneskin. #2 is Justin Bieber with 6,674,819. #50 on the U.S. daily Spotify chart had 394,813 streams. And that's an instrumental version of a fading Cardi B track "Up," which if you do the math is 2.7 million streams in a week, but this detestable Aaron Lewis cut is considered to be #1 country, #14 overall? And that's only on Spotify, which is 40% of the market, which means really the projected weekly Cardi B number is 6.7 million. WHO CAN TRUST THESE NUMBERS?
The truth is the music business is opaque. Soundscan added some clarity, but in a truly digital world the manipulated chart based on passé metrics deliver numbers that satiate no one but those who are featured.
But it gets even worse. Spotify told us that the overall market share of hit music is declining. But major labels are signing ever fewer acts in ever fewer genres. What about the rest of the music? This is especially clear when you look at the touring numbers. Not to mention that so many of today's "hit" acts can barely sell a ticket.
I'm not even going to bother printing the "Am I the Only One" lyrics, if you're interested you can find them here: bit.ly/3kkkcxq As for listening to the track, you don't have to, because no one else is. But if you're interested you know how to find it, unless you're part of Fox News' target demo and still use a flip phone.
The recorded music business is driving straight off a cliff while promoting how well it's doing. The music itself is ripe for disruption. The only problem is you can't make enough money in the field so everybody with a brain has gone elsewhere, leaving these inane singing "brands" tying up with anybody who'll give them a dollar, they're influencers, not musicians.
This is hiding in plain sight but getting no ink. It's kinda like the Trump surprise, the victory in 2016. Who knew all these people felt this way? Who knew 74 million people would vote for Trump in the 2020 election?
Lewis is appealing to them, with Borchetta's help. Without it, Lewis's track is dead in the water.
We've seen this time and time again. The movie business only focused on worldwide blockbusters, superheroes, and now the business is failing, superseded by streaming TV which offers more than cartoons to the brain dead.
Morgan Wallen has the #1 album of the year because it is GOOD!
Just give it a listen. It's comprised of SONGS! Did the guy use the "N-word," absolutely, and he's been banished as a result from everywhere but the court of public opinion, where he reigns, on streaming and sales platforms. They even canceled his live gigs. Is his crime really worse than those of all the wankers who say Donald Trump won the 2020 election? As for only right wingers buying "Dangerous" to give the middle finger to the left...I don't believe that. Especially when there was no rallying cry, nowhere to celebrate, with no radio play, no news, they consumed it because THEY LIKED IT!
What should Wallen's penalty be? How long should he be in jail? Let's not even debate that, but let's point out that a country artist singing songs is bigger than any of the supposed stars the music industry keeps telling us are so big, like Aaron Lewis. Lewis's song sold because he was on Fox. Wallen is nowhere, but people keep listening. People like music. But imagine if the industry delivered something palatable like Wallen as opposed to all the junk it purveys?
It will never happen until they're disrupted. But it's going to happen, it's just a matter of when, the field is just too wide open, the industry is just too busy promoting very narrow dreck.
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