Vicious Society

You've got what I want and if I can't have it too, I'm going to tear you down to the level I'm at. I'm entitled. You're no better than me.

Or maybe you are. I see you on Instagram. God, I wasn't born that beautiful. Forget what's behind the facade, it's amazing what makeup and Photoshop can do. I'm angry and depressed I lost the genetic lottery and someone has to pay for that.

As for your fabulous lifestyle... I'm at home on Saturday night with my fingers in my pants streaming "Friends." No one invites me to a party where everybody wears white in the Hamptons. I live in America, where's my opportunity?

Down the drain. Income inequality keeps growing and the myth keeps spreading that we can have it all, when in truth nobody can have it all. Hell, even Elon Musk complains.

But we didn't used to be exposed to it all. Now we can see it, at our fingertips, it's just a click away. How do we get there?

Oh, there are a ton of gurus online peddling advice. That's their business, giving you false hope. And when you end up even deeper in the hole, poorer than before, you're beyond frustrated, you're angry. You keep being told to lift yourself up by your bootstraps and you're trying but in truth that's very hard to do.

Just respect the corporation and the rich, the job providers.

But how come I have to work a split shift at the fast food restaurant?

Shut up, you're lucky you've got a job. And you've got an iPhone and a flat screen TV and I walked thirty miles in the snow to school so stop complaining, you've got it good, even though you have trouble making ends meet.

Meanwhile, Wall Street bought up all the homes in your neighborhood, jacked the rents and now you can't afford a home of your own!

Not that you used to feel entitled to a house. But Bush II essentially said it was an American right. And how did that doofus end up being President anyway. I wish my father was rich and famous, never mind President.

I see all these winners all around me, why am I a loser?

Money for nothing and your chicks for free. Yeah, that's the ticket.

So if you go to Harvard you make buddies that will grease the way for you to make billions. I didn't go to Harvard, does that mean I'm SOL?

And these online influencers are making beaucoup bucks. Forget that it's a 24/7 gig with rampant burnout, they're getting notice, they're getting rich and I keep posting and nothing is happening for me!

I mean it's one thing if you're uber-smart and talented. But so many of these people are truly no better than me. How come they can make it and I can't?

Now it used to be different. There used to be a clear division between the winners and the losers, the haves and the have-nots. But the internet blew that paradigm to hell. What the internet provided was a road, a vision, a way to the top that was never visible before. It was possible to become rich and famous all by your lonesome, without the approval of institutional gatekeepers. And now that I can see the destination and a path, if I dedicate myself I should be able to make it, right? I mean if I have to look at another wanker on social media with undeserved riches...

I can play the guitar, I can sing. I keep reading about these online phenoms, how come I'm not one of them?

Oh, and I believe everything I read and see in the phony news edifice that is all about clicks. If it bleeds it leads? That was local TV news, online if it titillates it's the headline. You click through and oftentimes find nothing. A story you already know or no story at all. Sometimes written by AI!

And I keep going backwards. It's harder to pay my bills. Those damn immigrants are at fault, coming to the U.S. to work dirty, minimum wage jobs. They're taking away work from true blue Americans I tell you. And one thing is for sure, I don't want to pay for them. The government already wastes my tax money.

As far as anybody in power listening...

Well, Joe Biden is old and out of touch. Sure, he's compassionate, but I don't think he understands me and my problems. Is that the job of the President? I'm not sure, but someone's got to stand up for me.

And while I'm losing I've got the Trump show to watch. It's very entertaining, but even I know it's ultimately b.s., that this guy is a phony grifter.

So who is truly looking out for me?

I can't find someone, other than myself. So I've got to fight my own battles.

Now my expectations used to be lower. Go to school, get a job, get married and settle down. But that's not enough anymore. If the person down the block is going on vacation, I should be able to too. Seems like everybody is winning but me. And I can't buy that, and I'm pissed!

Meanwhile, those in power want to take away the means of communication. They talk on the phone, they don't even text. They don't know that social media is informative and entertaining. I'm interested first and foremost in people, the world runs on gossip, what am I supposed to do, stare at the wall?

And if you don't like what I do I'm going to come down on you. You're not a fan of BTS? Then you're a worthless piece of crap. You didn't like "Barbie"? What's wrong with you, everybody else did, groupthink rules. You know better than to have a contrary opinion.

Just vote and everything will work out.

Yeah, I keep voting and and nothing happens. Even worse, I lose the right to abortion. I can't even get it up anymore for fear the condom will break.

Oh, it's the same as it ever was. You're just a complainer.

But it isn't the same as it ever was. You keep getting richer and lording it over me. You've got a multi-hundred foot yacht and all the celebrities I thought I believed in are partying on it. No one invited me. Meanwhile, I can't make money selling on Amazon because the terms keep getting more onerous. But I should have respect for Jeff Bezos, who stole his good friend's wife!

Man, I'm living by the rules and losing and the winners think the rules don't apply to them. Why should I keep doing the right thing?

No, I'm going to go on attack. And with the internet, I cannot only tell my friends, but everybody in the world. Why isn't anybody paying attention to me? Meanwhile, the winners are hurt I'm dissing them. Tough noogies, it goes with the territory.

Truth? In a world where Biden won and Trump and his cronies keep saying the election was stolen... The truth doesn't matter. And if you got a vaccine I don't want one, because I hate you. And I can point to stories online that prove I'm right.

The system must be rigged, I tell you.

And in truth, the system is rigged in many ways. But even if you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you've got to work hard and take risks to win, that has never changed, you don't sit at home and get lucky.

But I don't want to put in the effort. It's more satisfying just trying to take down the winners, I love to see them squirm, those compromised a-holes.

I mean if I can't win, someone's got to lose. And I'll put all my effort into taking you down, I'm watching you, don't think you can get away with it. And what's wrong with you that you have to parade your success in front of me 24/7 anyway. And how come you need no portfolio to become a success. I mean if the Kardashians can make it, I'm entitled to at least a little piece of the pie, right?

This sucks. Everybody's living a better life than me. Screw whether that's true, that's the way it feels. And since no one is sticking up for me, I'm on a personal crusade to right the wrongs, to make the winners suffer. Beware.

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The New Music Business

You're not a star and you're never going to be one.

Now that felt good, didn't it?

The twentieth century was all about technology putting a few artists in front of everybody. First and foremost, only a few could make and distribute recordings, never mind get on the radio. But deep pocketed labels scoured for talent and the main job was to get the record on the radio. What the act looked like, their backstory, were considerations, but very minor, everything came down to the record itself. And since recording was expensive and primitive, it was necessary to play the song all at once and get it right. In other words, talented people had to be involved, which is why studio cats were hired, you couldn't risk letting the band itself record.

In the late sixties and seventies, suddenly music drove the culture, technology allowed multiple tracks and effects for recording and consumers purchased high end stereos to get closer to the music.

And in the eighties, MTV came along to make those who were anointed with airplay bigger and richer than ever before. You could reach everybody in the world, and everybody knew who you were.

And the nineties was just the eighties on fumes. Expensive videos with good-looking people.

And then the internet came along and blew it all apart.

First and foremost, mystery was history. Everybody was available all the time. Your heroes turned out to be just like you, but oftentimes uneducated and inexperienced. And going to a show became about the audience as much as the performer. Hanging with your buddies, shooting selfies, posting on social media. And with expensive tickets, acts were forced to present spectacle and perfection. Today's big concerts oftentimes resemble the circus more than the Fillmore East.

But everybody has the same expectations.

Which are false.

The game has reset. It's about the music. And this confounds not only the labels, but the creators.

Since the Beatles, songs came straight from the heart, they were personal testimony. But then opportunity cost became so high that the songwriter for hire came back into the picture. The labels try to polish, ensure success. No different from a movie studio making a superhero sequel. How often do the studios risk producing product outside their traditional wheelhouse? Almost never, comedies don't play around the world and the spreadsheet comes before the creativity.

So now we have all these musicians who want in on a system that no longer exists.

Believe me, the independent artists complaining about streaming payments think they're one step away from world domination. Something must be holding them back. The game must be rigged. Because they're so damn good if they just got a decent chance they'd be ubiquitous, and rich.

But this paradigm is fading. Spotify statistics tell us that the percentage of revenue going to superstars keeps declining. If the superstars are reaching fewer people, what are the odds that you can reach many? Very low.

I'm not saying you can't make a living making music, just that you have to adjust your perspective, how much money you need, not want, and you've got to work around the clock. That's what it takes to get noticed.

Ironically, you should spend less time in the studio and more time promoting yourself. The exact opposite of what technology enabled in the seventies and eighties. If you got it right musically, the system would make you a star. Today you can get it right musically and only your parents are aware of your music.

No one seems to be able to adjust to this new game. The majors keep putting out less product while they slim the ranks of employees. How long til a crash? Well, this is what Boeing did. Rather than design a new plane to compete with Airbus, Boeing cheaped out and remade the 737, a decades old airframe that was never intended for this use. I mean at some point you've got to start with a clean sheet of paper, which is what Airbus did.

There's no clean sheet of paper at the major labels. They're committing the same crime from the turn of the century, believing if they can just get a handle on distribution, they can win. Yes, don't pay those with de minimis streams and pay their stars a bonus. But that's old thinking. Distribution has been flattened, everyone can get their wares in front of the public, the question is how do you make the public interested?

Well, the moribund labels couldn't figure this out, so just like with Napster, the public took the great step forward, with TikTok. And the irony is those trying to break on TikTok are just the opposite of Lucian Grainge and the insiders complaining about payments. They're doing it for free, often on a lark, pure inspiration, like the Beatles, et al. It's about the creativity, and the majors haven't been able to play that game in decades.

Yes, online creators are smart. They know it's an attention economy. And to make it you've got to create 24/7 and there's no guarantee of success. These are not the people complaining about streaming payments, those are people inured to the old system. They bought all the equipment, they might have even taken lessons. They saved up to record in a good room with a good producer and they think dividends should be paid when the game they're playing no longer even exists.

In a world where we don't even read the same news, what are the odds we're going to listen to the same music? NIL!

But no one will own this. Not the musicians, the labels or the media. This would require vision, and there's no vision involved, no planning for the future, no career outlook. Let's just keep doing it the old way and expect it to be a success.

Want to succeed? You're going to have to be different. If you're a voice only, like on the TV competition shows, you're doomed. The most important thing, as it has always been in art, is conception. The idea. To do what others have done is a fool's errand. Who cares if you can sing, play and dance. Those people are a dime a dozen. Can you wow us with a different idea?

We don't need your music. We don't need anybody's music. We need air, food and shelter, but we don't need music. People might like music, but it is their choice whether to listen. Unfortunately, scrolling TikTok is individuated and interesting in a way programmatic radio with commercials is not. We live in an on demand, personalized culture and to ignore this is to be fumbling blind.

How come the influencers have it right and the musicians have it so wrong?

The influencers know you must be new and different and build a core audience and feed it each and every day. And if you're lucky, you might make a living. And the day you stop creating is the day you stop earning.

Furthermore, not every influencer believes they're entitled to a living wage. They play and adjust their wares to gain traction. And if they don't get it, they stop. But I keep hearing from "musicians" doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different response.

If you're not a good singer... Don't tell me about Bob Dylan, he's the greatest lyricist of all time!

You've got to have the chops, desire is not enough.

But desire is important, very important. But not as important as inspiration. And if you're truly inspired and execute you might be able to gain an audience that keeps you alive.

Depressing?

That's the game we're all playing. Not to reach everybody, but enough people to stay alive. Why should it be any different in music?

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FTI #406: Never.

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Beyoncé Goes Country

What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where Taylor Swift leaves country for Top Forty and Beyoncé leaves Top Forty for country?

One in which the story is almost always about the personality and the money but almost never about the music itself.

There's a lot to say about Beyoncé. Her marriage, her children, her brand extensions, but except for the tenure and breakup of Destiny's Child, deep in the rearview mirror, none of it has been salacious, or political. In a world where many have children sans marriage and divorce remains rampant, Beyoncé appears to be old-fashioned, an American role model, not that those outside the Black community give her her proper due.

But none of this is the story, the story is the music. Starting with "Texas Hold 'Em" and now the release of the album "Cowboy Carter," which even has a cover of a Beatles song?

This has been fascinating to watch. The conversation has been about the music, and solely the music. Other than the question of whether Beyoncé will be embraced by the country community. Usually everybody's talking about the penumbra as opposed to the nougat, the essence, the music itself.

And as far as making a revolutionary, political act... We hear all this hogwash about voter registrations... Even "Billboard" did a story how artists are so far reluctant to make political endorsements. Turns out political endorsements by musicians don't move the needle that much. It's been a long time since the Eagles dictated to Jerry Brown as opposed to the opposite. But what Beyoncé has done here is make a direct move into a community that is seen to be a walled garden with distinct rules that can't be broken. Women on country radio? People are still saying there are not enough of them, despite there being a plethora of stars.

What qualifies as country music? Is it a big tent? Does it really represent America's heartland? Never mind that Beyoncé hails from red state Texas.

There have been a lot of stories asking these questions. All because a superstar made a record. Garth Brooks went rock and changed his name to do it. Believing he wouldn't be accepted by the rock community, despite loving and basing some of his stage show on the antics of KISS. And when he was unsuccessful, he went back to his original moniker and retreated to Nashville. But Beyoncé seems to have changed nothing about herself, there's no compromise, no selling out, no whiff of money whatsoever.

That's the only story that really penetrates anymore. America is thrilled with grosses, how much money you make, in the same way it is fascinated by billionaires. Make money good, not rich bad. Didn't used to be this way, but that was back in the sixties and seventies and most of the people who lived through that era are off playing shuffleboard.

Now if you look at the Spotify numbers for "Cowboy Carter"...

When Morgan Wallen puts out a new album, tracks dominate the Spotify Top 50. Ditto Taylor Swift. That is not happening with "Cowboy Carter." As a matter of fact, the streams for the album's tracks are positively anemic. None of the twenty seven tracks breaks 100,000 streams other than the two previously released singles and "II Most Wanted," the duet with Miley Cyrus, which has 106,156. Now numbers are fluid so soon after release, but one thing is for certain, "Cowboy Carter" is confounding listeners, even if it's not confounding critics, who have raved.

You see Beyoncé has thrown the long ball. For most of the twenty first century everybody has stayed in their lane and delivered music that is close to what they've already had success with, or what else is having success. Which is why the hoi polloi, the casual listener who used to represent the wide embrace of music, making acts household names, is paying attention to "Cowboy Carter." The music is the story and they're intrigued by it. My inbox has e-mail from white boys checking out the album and loving it. Who else will be tempted to listen?

That's a heavy lift. To get someone to make an effort, to actually click and listen to something. That is the game. However, it is not the only game. We can all name the ultimate in clicks, Mr. Beast, people like that. But they're stunting, what is driving attention is not worthy of attention, never mind discussion. To go against type, expectations, to take risk, is anathema in our clicks-driven culture. They with the most clicks wins, right? Well, I'm not so sure. Instead of complaining that you don't have what the superstar has, try creating your own lane, doing it differently.

And sure, Beyoncé doesn't need the money. But at what point do you get sick and tired of doing the same thing over and over again?

Listen to the music or not, one thing is for sure, you know that Beyoncé has gone country. Just as many as know Travis Kelce is Taylor Swift's boyfriend, if not more. "Cowboy Carter" is not gossip, it's a Trojan Horse not only into the country world, but America itself, which has devolved into a sports contest between deeply rooted teams, the red and the blue.

And then you have the old rockers who hate country, calling it redneck dreck. But country is the new rock. And Beyoncé found a way to enter the marketplace without selling out, an incredible feat if you think about it. You can see the wheels turning. Someone had an idea, they were excited about it, rubbed their hands together saying this will be good. And had fun executing. This is far different from calling the usual suspect writers, producers and mixers to create a hit... You know, the opportunity cost is so high, you want to pick your investments and do your best to buy insurance.

Furthermore, what has Lucian Grainge's protest against TikTok achieved?

It has hurt Universal artists. Clearing the lane for Beyoncé to clean up on the social media service of choice, the one that breaks records.

The acts always suffer. And so far TikTok is not backing down. So, the Universal artists are taking one for the team. So, they should be sure to ask Lucian for health insurance and cash for groceries when they're down and out.

Now the game of consumption has completely changed. To employ the overused aphorism, it's a marathon, not a sprint. These records exist online, waiting to be discovered, to be clicked on, to be embraced. When you break the mold it takes a while for people to catch on, for word to spread. But the music remains available. The story continues. Which is why it takes years for tracks to become hits.

I'm not saying therefore "Cowboy Carter" will end up being a monolith. No one has their finger on popular culture these days. You make a stand and do what feels right and laugh at the pollsters and prognosticators.

But one thing is for sure, despite all the hoopla, we live in a niche society. K-pop is huge. But either you listen or you don't, you know the songs or don't care. Other than BTS, I'm not sure the average citizen can even name another K-pop act, never mind a song.

But we keep on reading how big K-pop is.

I get it, it's a business story.

But "Cowboy Carter" is a music story, and we haven't had that spirit here since...

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