You can't lie in the internet age...BECAUSE THE INFORMATION IS OUT THERE FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE! Just go online and see the screenshots of seas of blue dots on the Ticketmaster pages. Oh, you don't know because you don't care? NEITHER DOES ANYBODY ELSE!
J.Lo can't sing. Music was a brand extension, from an era when you could convert success in one vertical into another. Good luck having success in any vertical today. Which is why the major labels can't even break an act, especially when talent grows online via the personal efforts of influencers. The starmaking machinery... Man, that's broken.
So J.Lo and her handlers are delusional. They think she has fans. Who are desirous of overpaying to see her. This is a great demonstration of the government's misunderstanding, make that LACK OF UNDERSTANDING, of the concert market. It's supply and demand, baby, and if people don't want to go, they don't. No one has a gun to their head forcing them to buy a J.Lo ticket. But when more people than tickets want to see a hot act somehow it's the system's fault. This is how the government loses credibility. Don't overreach in the information age.
Then again, 20% of the population believes Biden is responsible for the evisceration of abortion rights. Are they just plain stupid, or are they exposed to "news" that is so biased and incorrect that they don't know the truth, or is there so much misinformation out there that they're just confused. Go on X/Twitter, it's become a cesspool of misinformation. Scroll for a while and you start to question your own beliefs, that is the power of misinformation.
And why should J.Lo tell the truth when Trump does not. Maybe if you lived in the right wing bubble you thought his press conference the other day evidenced truth, but the "New York Times" went point by point, popping the bubble, and other news outlets, TV channels, cut away because not only did they believe it was propaganda, it was billed as a press conference and no questions were allowed.
And if the President lies, why shouldn't some measly entertainer? I mean politics is more important than entertainment, right?
No. The people feel powerless in politics. Not only two expired men running for the highest office, but a sold out, do nothing Congress. And therefore they've taken their shots at J.Lo.
Anybody could have seen this coming. Except for J.Lo and her handlers still living in the last century.
J.Lo was built by artifice and we now live in an era of authenticity. Yes, if you want to succeed and stay you've got to be selling authenticity, credibility. You've got Noah Kahan testifying as to his mental health, Zach Bryan singing straight from the heart, and doofuses from the past, from the monoculture, from the MTV era, believe that nothing has changed, when nothing could be further from the truth.
People don't even respect movie stars anymore. They're empty vessels, they're ACTORS! There's no truth there. Musicians are the ultimate spewers of truth, when done right, music comes straight from the heart. But no one believes the written by committee tunes of J.Lo come straight from anywhere other than the cash register.
As for Taylor Swift...like her, hate her, ignore her, but no one is questioning that her songs are testimony about her life. Even BTS broke based on revealing honesty.
This was my point about Kate Hudson's music career. That dog doesn't hunt anymore. Her music is good in an era where it has to be great to break through the noise. And she looks like an interloper in music. A dash for cash. She needed to reposition herself along the lines of Taylor Momsen, come from the bottom up in music, build a career fan by fan and stay at it. Music can't seem to be a lark, it's got to be a COMMITMENT!
And then there's the Black Keys. Their frontman is not warm, you can't identify with him, he's not brooding in a Thom Yorke way, but in a get off my lawn way. Very talented, but he needs hits to fill arenas. Succeed once and you can tour forever. But it might be in clubs, or people's houses. Your success will sustain if your career is built without hits, like with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, because there are no casual fans. The looky-loos fill out the big halls for so many performers. And then they move on to the next act when it is hot. How many hard core music fans does J.Lo even have? She was selling fashion, in videos, stardom, in an era when competition was nowhere near as fierce as today, when relationships and cash went a whole hell of a lot further than they do today.
So what we do know is the post-pandemic concert boom is over. If you build it, they may not come. This does not mean that concerts are not a unique experience in an era where experiences are everything, just that the consumer is more discerning, and thinks twice before throwing down inordinate amounts of cash, especially to see someone who can't really sing anyway.
And they've canceled 40 festivals in the U.K.
No one needs to go to a show, NO ONE! Especially in an era where music can be listened to for free and streaming television shows oftentimes have more gravitas than what is on stage. You have to be hot, you have to have that je ne sais quoi that makes people want to come. They've got to believe the experience will change their life, it just won't be an excuse for the performer to buy another house.
Even worse than the cancellation of J.Lo's tour is the mainstream news articles talking about the fan backlash. Nobody cares. We don't need a deep dive analysis of a has-been. She was cruisin' for a bruisin', asking for constant attention and respect when there was no reason to give it to her, of course this is going to come back and haunt her. It was just a matter of when.
That's what makes entertainment so fascinating. You can go from zero to hero, from the bottom to the top, nearly instantly. This is not the same in other high-paying verticals. Want to be a doctor? You've got to study for umpteen years. Want to be a hit artist? Record something on your laptop and upload it to Spotify. And then complain you're not a star.
No one would complain that they're a high school dropout yet no one sees them as a doctor. But in entertainment? You make it up as you go.
So, we've got all this misinformation. That streaming doesn't pay upcoming talent when in the old days that same "talent" would be working at Walmart. You're not entitled to be a successful, highly-paid artist, just like J.Lo is not entitled to sell out arenas. People have to like you, want to pay attention to you, lay down their cash for you, and that's a harder lift than ever before in this era of plethora.
But if you read the news, you'd think that Spotify is the devil. Not its competitors, just Spotify. Because Daniel Ek, who changed the landscape, who rescued the labels, is now a billionaire. Whereas Apple and Amazon are faceless, just me-too music companies built by enterprises famous for something else. But Ek? He's putting acts out of business. He doesn't pay. And he's a billionaire to boot. There must be someone at fault here, there must be a rip-off involved.
Just like with Ticketmaster. It must be Ticketmaster's fault that prices are high. As for the fees, they all go to the company, don't you know? And anybody could sell tickets better than Ticketmaster. None of this is true, but it's accepted knowledge not only in the public, but the news and the government.
God, ignore the criticism today. Assuming you have faith in yourself, know what you're doing. If I listened to feedback, I wouldn't be able to write a thing. And more misinformation crosses my transom than ever before. I've got all these authorities spewing hatred and inaccuracies at me because the truth doesn't feel good, it doesn't match their emotions. Placate these people at your peril.
Then again, look how far Trump has gotten telling lies, giving the people what they want.
But if we went by the popular vote instead of the Electoral College, Trump wouldn't have a chance, nowhere close. The rules are saving him.
There are no rules in rock and roll. And that's exactly the point. The spoils go to those who break down barriers, who do something new. The aforementioned Zach Bryan isn't selling dancing and production like J.Lo. That was great in the MTV era, now the audience has moved on, wants something different.
The ball keeps moving, the game keeps changing, and those in power and the media hate this, they expect things to stay the same, when the internet has come along and turned over every table, changed everything.
And what is mainstream media's position?
THE SMARTPHONE MUST DIE!
Yes, get off your phone, shut it down, go back to the way it used to be. You know, when you couldn't call up an Uber, when you had no idea what temperature it was, when you couldn't take notes instantly... I could go on and on, but the media won't hear it. The same media that expect us to be interested in the music of the has-been known as J.Lo.
Hell, what you did yesterday means less than ever before. Just ask Justin Timberlake, he might have brought sexy back, but now people think he's an old dad with nothing to say who they don't need to pay attention to. Used to be Timberlake could sell out arenas himself, now he's planning to go back on the road with NSYNC.
Once again, you don't care. And that's just the point. You've got a feed, personalized to you, on your smartphone. It's what you're interested in 24/7. And you're faulted for this. You should pay attention to the mainstream, you should get with the program, you should do it the old way so the old players can maintain their lifestyles.
WHY?
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