Sorry. I must have been Rip Van Winkling the last six months. Or so it seems, given that the last post on this gem of a blog was like Oct. 3. Damn, that must have been some good schiznit.
Let’s see, the last thing I remember was that Your Cheatin’ Pats were undefeated and basically coronated, there were like thirty people already running for President and Bush still was…oy!
I must get hold of a source of reliable news and catch up. That’s another thing…just before I blacked out, I remember things called record companies and newspapers. I wonder if they’re still around.
Okay, okay…focus. It says here on CNN.com that Your Cheating Pats lost to Tom’s Fereaking Giants…wait a minute, is this a parody site? And an African American guy is a lock for the dem nomination against a septagenarian republican? Even if the Onion highjacked CNN, this is a relief. No Giuliani, no Romney, no Huckabee. But, yep, Bush is still the pres, a whimpering dog of a pres at that. Says here that he went to the Saudis and begged for cheaper gas. They told him to pound sand. How appropriate. Lame ducks get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Or at least lame ducks with 70% disapproval ratings.
What about record companies and newspapers? A quick round of calls reveals that there still are such things but the bell is tolling for both those industries. Funny, when the word came out that the American economy was going to transition from goods and services to something called an information economy, you couldn’t have picked two better positioned industries than music and newspapers. But they both blew it.
While the global popularity of music has spiraled to ever greater heights, the record companies themselves have retreated further and further into their turtle shells. The paralysis started when their beloved shiny silver discs lost their luster, got worse when the one time savior MTV decided to stop with the ‘M’, and went into complete freefall when upstarts ranging from MySpace to NPR’s All Things Considered podcasts become the primary drivers for new music discovery. Imagine — you’ve got a million new entities promoting your product and you can still can’t find a way to make money from it. Sheesh.
Word is now that the folks who still have jobs at record companies just lay low, whether they’re in corner offices or out there in Dilbertville cubicles. Don’t raise your hand, don’t make a suggestion and for heavens sake, don’t spend any money on promotion. Just shut up and pray the checks keep coming (and see if you know anybody at Live Nation, I hear they might be hiring.)
Newspapers are even worse. After all, they’ve always been in the business of collecting and disseminating information. What better biz to be in when that’s what the economy is all about? But, like businesses that no longer want to answer their phones when customers call, newspapers no longer like to collect news. Why bother sending a reporter when you can watch the game on ESPN and then run wire service copy. Ditto with a war…or a hurricane…or a cat stuck in a tree.
And if collecting news is expensive, just think about selling it. All that paper…that’s gotta be expensive. Course they could actually compete with everyone else and make innovative and exciting websites, but why bother? Just follow the crowd and hope the checks keep coming…the checks keep coming…the checks….
I think I need a nap.
Posted by SpudBoy on: May 20th, 2008 > Read More »
I was reading a story in USA Today (aka the McPaper) about how hotel concierges are making an extra effort to clue guests in about local hot spots. (click here) One example cited was a hotel in California that sent a celeb-seeking couple to a restaurant where Michael Bolton and Nicollette Sheridan just happened to be dining. According to the McPaper, the sighting of the two celebs was “the highlight of their stay.”
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Breathing the same air as freaking M. Bolton and N. Sheridan is the highlight of somebody’s L.A. trip? Oy! What else did they do? Visit the local landfill? Watch the catch being cleaned at the docks?
I’ve never caught the celeb bug and I just don’t understand those who just can’t get enough of famous faces and their all-too-human foibles. While there are people like Kathy Lee G., P. Hilton and the late A. N. Smith who are (or were) principally famous for being famous, the sadder story is that class of celeb that transitions from being famous for a particular skill to being famous for having royally f’d up.
It is this class of celeb that seems to be growing fastest. The standard bearer and all-time-queen is, of course, Elizabeth Taylor who, at one time, was a right fair actor. Now she’s known for her various maladies, her support for AIDS-related causes and for being a good friend of another classmate, M. Jackson.
Lately, the train wreck celeb club has ballooned, with new members like L. Lohan, M. Tyson, M. Vick, O.J. Simpson, A. Winehouse, P. Doherty and others too numerous to mention. What is it with these people? Are they just really, really, really stupid? And if they’re so stupid, how did they manage to succeed in the first place?
The Queen-in-waiting, the one next in line to the throne, should Ms. Taylor ever succumb to any of her maladies, is B. Spears. Has anyone ever moved so swiftly from alleged talent to slo-mo train wreck? And why does anyone care?
The above-mentioned McPaper every week publishes an update on the progress (or, more specifically, the lack thereof) of her latest single, “Gimme More” which seems to have peeked at #54 on the radio singles chart. The question is, why do they bother to write about her music ‘career’ any more? Ms. Spears long ago ceased to be a music story.
About a month ago, a friend at a major record label told me that his company was giving up on two recent records because they “had lost the singles at radio.” All promotional support was being withdrawn from major release by two extremely well-known artists because they were unable to get contemporary pop radio to play the singles.
My first reaction was â “what!?”
Mind you, both of these records were charting on video countdown shows, were all over the Internet music sites and were generating substantial press in traditional print media, yet the plug was being pulled because of lack of performance at pop radio. Are you kidding me? It’s not online piracy that’s killing the record business. It’s the record business that’s killing itself.
As it happens, I know a lot of kids in the target demographic for these particular records and not one of them listens to pop radio. Their standard mode of music discovery is to watch television while surfing the net and IM’ing with their friends. That’s how they roll.
And that explains why Hollywood Records is on a roll. They’ve been working their roster of artists who have had major Disney Channel exposure and have happily broken record after record while pretty much ignoring radio.
But it seems like geezer radio dudes still call the shots at the remaining major labels. Sure, they know about the ânet and television, but if they can’t get their records on radio they just give up in a heartbeat. Crazy.
In a time when hits come from YouTube, from Grey’s Anatomy and from High School Musical, why anybody still kisses radio’s ass is beyond me. Look, the number one rule of radio is, was and always will be: “Play the Hits.”
The radio station that ignores this rule does so at its own peril. So what if the P.D. no longer gets bags of cash under the door or late night visits from persons of questionable morals, he or she still has to play the hits or watch the ratings sink…and start looking for a new job.
Radio doesn’t dictate the hits these days, but it still has to play them, so screw âem and look for the real hitmakers. Josh Groban was nobody’s idea of a slam dunk star when David Kelly cast him in the 2001 finale of Ally McBeal, but that appearance, a follow-up in the next season and a spot in the Winter Olympics closing ceremonies launched a career that continues to make solid bucks for Warner Bros. Records.
Or what about “The Fray?” Nice enough band, but before they landed on Grey’s Anatomy with “How to Save a Life” they weren’t exactly tearing up the charts. But within seconds of that particular TV airplay the Internet was on fire with Fray chatter and the record was on the launch pad toward double platinum status.
The Fray wasn’t the only band that benefited from the Grey’s connection. Each episode of the show is titled with a song, so the beneficiary list of Grey’s popularity is a long one and includes names like Snow Patrol, Amy Winehouse, Beck, Wilco, Paolo Nutini and many more.
Instead of prostrating before radio dweebs, the smart record guy might see what the Grey’s crew is up to next. Producer Mark Gordon has a new Sunday night show coming out on Lifetime TV called Army Wives. Let’s see…strong female audience, heavy emotional content, plenty of opportunity to weave music into the story line. Yep, sounds like a surefire hitmaker to me.
Posted by SpudBoy on: May 22nd, 2007 > Read More »
The realization hit me just the other night. I was eating dinner with my daughter and nary a television blared anywhere in the house. And none had been on since she got home from school several hours earlier.
While I haven’t been a heavy TV viewer for quite some time, I always make it a point — as an American, as a consumer and as a family member — to at least give the new fall offerings a try. You never know when something good might crop up.
This year, I was pleasantly surprised by the very good Friday Night Lights, on the fence about U.B. (Ugly Betty) and pretty much uninterested in everything else. Holdovers that got a bit of my attention included Veronica Mars (I’m a sucker for critically acclaimed, yet doomed, quality programming…see Friday Night Lights above) and My Name Is Earl.
In the interest of family harmony, I even gave Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy a try. But one by one, they’ve all fallen by the wayside. The villain is none of the usual suspects. You can’t blame video games - don’t play ‘em. DVDs? I might watch Big Wednesday once every six months. The Internet? After being online nine hours a day at work, I don’t go near it at night.
Nope, all the blame goes directly to shitty TV. Grey’s was cute, for a minute, but it’s appallingly improbable story lines were just too much to swallow. Plus the main character had all the waifish vulnerability but none of the quirky appeal of the far superiour Ally McBeal from back in the day. Earl, I think, got time-shifted into a time-slot duel with U.B., so I quit them both.
“Despy”, as we call the Housewives, just plain sucked and when Friday Night Lights drifted further and further into melodrama I drifted further and further away.
And now — nothing. I barely even pause for the stalwart standby, Seinfeld re-runs. My greatest victory in social engineering was convincing the wife and daughter that the morning shows like Today and GMA are not relaxing ways to greet the new day. The daily stress levels have plummeted since the plastic people and the goons who stand outside their windows hoping to “get on TV” were banished from our lives.
This is not to say that I don’t use television as a tool. I do watch NFL games, the Tour de France, two or three basketball games (per year), the Olympics and, yes, even golf’s Masters and U.S. Open. Sometimes the British Open, too, but never the PGA. I got through the first third of the the Academy Awards, even liked Ellen, but couldn’t come close to watching the whole thing.
And what about those music video channels? Uh, gee, are there any of them left? I mean channels that play music videos and have double digit channel numbers on cable. Don’t think so.
The irony in this is that if I happen to be in the presence of a TV that is on, I will stare at it mindlessly, with no comprehension what so ever. This is always the case when I visit my partner’s office. He keeps his tube on from the moment he walks in until the moment he shuts down for the evening. If I’m there, like a moth to a flame I will blankly stare at whatever images it displays.
That is where I saw the awful, and awfully hyped, debut of the former NBC morning personality on the CBS Evening News.  Can’t remember her name, but, geez, she was just wrong for the role.
Maybe that’s the problem with TV. Like our government, they’ll do just about anything instead of admitting their mistakes. Sure, they spent a bundle on bringing her to the network, but you’d think they’d have somebody in the booth or the executive suite who could just bring out the hook and end the misery.
Same thing with Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football. Didn’t you know, deep in your heart, by the end of the first half of his first game, that he had no prayer of ever being any good? This is not to say that Miller and what’s her name - Couric, that’s it - don’t have talents, it’s just that they were given assignments ill-suited to their abilities.
So, for the forseeable future, I think I’m over TV. I don’t say this with a snobbish attitude, cause I sorta like TV. I just don’t like what I see on any of the seven or eight hundred channels at my disposal. Let me know if you see anything good.
Posted by SpudBoy on: April 5th, 2007 > Read More »
Rumors have been flying the past month about the fate of good ole TRL, the venerable live show on MTV officially known as Total Request Live. Depending on who you talk to, the standard bearer of the video countdown show will be reformatted, rescheduled or even put out to pasture…perish the thought.
The cause for concern seems to be two-fold. On the part of the network, the erosion in ratings compared to the show’s Carson Daly-helmed heyday is reason enough to make a desperation play. Not surprisingly, the other teeny little problem is the feeling on the part of the labels that TRL doesn’t ’sell’ music any more.
Is Inspector Clouseau in the house? First of all, when Carson ran the show, he was a damn good host and TRL obviously suffered from his increasingly frequent absences. Second, when TRL ratings were at their zenith, little items like MySpace and YouTube hadn’t made their appearances yet. Third, 3:30 just ain’t the right time for a pop music show.
To test out the latter theorem, we did a little poll here at VoteTheMusic.com. Admittedly as unscientific as you can get, it was still interesting to see that the next to the least popular time slot for the show was the current time, 3:30 p.m., which picked up only seven per cent of the vote.
Tying for the lead with 36% each were two diametrically opposed views: ‘Don’t care. Don’t watch it’ and ‘Make it longer and play the freakin’ videos - 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.’ Take your pick. You can cave in to apathy or you can listen to the viewers and schedule the show when kids can watch it and — novel concept — play what they came to watch. Can the talk-overs and skip-by’s and play the videos.
Where’d the kids go? Sure, some of them are making their lives a public spectacle on MySpace and YouTube, but I’d wager even more are on the bus, on the sports fields, studying or in after school activities.
Play it when they can see it and they might actually go out and buy some music. Wouldn’t that be great?
Posted by SpudBoy on: March 5th, 2007 > Read More »
Well it rained and it rained and it rained in Miami, my old home town, but it was still pure bliss when the first two touchdowns were scored by ex-Canes Devin Hester and Reggie Wayne. How sweet was that?
After that, the next big moment came when the little guy, Prince, took center stage. The ever-so-hip NFL managed to lower the average age of their featured performers in recent years from just over 60 (Stones, McCartney) to the low 50s by serving up the still wet behind the ears (and everywhere else) 48-year-old guitar strummer.
Don’t take this as a knock on the Purple One, however. While he may be every bit as loopy as Michael Jackson, this is one talented dude. As rock stars go, he may well be the best guitarist, the best singer, the best song writer, the most compelling stage presence and for sure he’s the best dancer.
Even better, he put together a show that wasn’t just all about the Symbol. With just a touch of “All Along the Watchtower” he managed a tip of the hat to both Dylan and Hendrix and I’m sure there was an implied nod to New Orleans with “Proud Mary.”  Great performance, once of the Super’s best ever.
As it happens, I once had the mixed blessing of producing three straight nights of a multiple location, interactive, closed circuit satellite broadcast of performances by The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. It was an even more complicated process than it sounds.
But as technically challenging as the gig was, the even bigger challenge was that I was not permitted to speak to The Artist. No one was. Even if he was standing right next to you, you had to explain yourself to the one person who was authorized to speak to him. Then you would wait while the Authorized repeated your message to the Artist, who responded so quietly that you had to wait for the Authorized to repeat the answer back.
Then there was the other complicating factor: The Artist wouldn’t say what time he would play each night or even IF he would play. That makes it kind of tough when you’re reserving satellite time and paying crew. Somehow, I think the NFL may have cut a better deal.
Anyhow, there was more than a little apprehension before the first night’s potential performance, especially since the club was packed and absolutely amped for the show.Â
Not to worry. The Artist came out and absolutely slaughtered the place. Two non-stop hours and he killed it from beginning to end.
After the show, I got some of the greatest validation I’ve ever experienced in a quick conversation with Chris Blackwell, the genius credited with ‘discovering’ Bob Marley and the Wailers, Melissa Etheridge, U2, The Cranberries and a host of other globally influential artists. Chris told me that the performance that night was one of the top five shows he had ever witnessed in his entire life. Whoa!
The next two nights were chaotic in the extreme, but the Artist did in fact play every night, for a total of over five hours of show time. And here’s the thing: over those three nights, he never repeated a single song and, with the exception of one cover, he NEVER PLAYED A SONG I HAD EVER HEARD.
It was all new material. No “Purple Rain.” No “Little Red Corvette.” Three straight nights, three different audiences, and not once did we hear “Let’s Go Crazy!” I’ve never experienced anything remotely like it in my entire life.
Prince? Oh yeah, he’s still the one.
Posted by SpudBoy on: February 7th, 2007 > Read More »
Eeeesh. Six words that hit like a bamboo shoot to the eyeball. Six words that speak volumes. First off, they tell you that iPods have morphed from 8th Wonder of the World to mandatory part of the daily arsenal in record time.
Worse, they also tell you that iPods are replaceable parts on the level of Bic pens…only a little pricier. Also, that they tend to break. Daughter doesn’t ‘need’ new iPod because there’s another new one out there, but because her current one won’t turn off.
Going to your local Genius Bar is like checking into a rehab support group. Everybody bitches and moans, but they keep buying. Wife just laid out $200 to replace hers because of battery issues. Everybody has battery issues.
Everybody has battery issues and you gotta believe that is a design function. You can’t tell me Apple couldn’t make better batteries if they wanted to. They also couldn’t make it harder to service an iPod if they tried.
Which brings up the iPhone. Of course I want one, but you gotta wonder. Battery problems you can live with on a music player, but we’re now used to phones that stay live for days on end. Do you really want to invest in a jiggy new phone that won’t hold a charge and will likely need to be replaced about as often as you fill your gas tank?
Those six words also cut to the heart of the music industry. To wit, is the iPod killing it or saving it? Sure, it made the smallest dent in the pirate online downloading, but at the same time it transformed the business back into a singles model.Â
It’s a lot easier to buy those Lamborghinis and St. Barts getaways when you’re selling shiny silver $15 discs than it is when the going rate for three minutes of noise is 99 cents.
This just in…daughter’s iPod started working again. The industry may be dying but I live to fight another day.
Posted by SpudBoy on: January 26th, 2007 > Read More »
And not because I just watched âAn Inconvenient Truthâ and am suddenly inspired to tell everyone I know about global warming and direct them all to Climatecrisis.net. I actually really liked the movie. The plot was really well developed and I thought all the acting was top-notch!
In the movie, Al Gore says that we will let global warming become a huge problem because, as a society, we are resistant to change. The effects of global warming seem to happen in such tiny increments that we donât consider them big enough to take action against. Thereâs no BANGâ Melt. And we, as Americans, need that BANG to get scared enough to change our ways. Oh well. Not gonna happen.
Iâd like to focus more on resistance to changing interests in entertainment. It seems that music, film, and tv all have a bad habit of coming up with the same ideas over and over again, and then selling them as brand new.
This is good and bad.
A list of the top grossing music merchandisers of 2006, as compiled by the Kings of A&R, here, shows that artists with 10+ years in the âbizâ are still on top. Artists like Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi are all there. These artists still produce a great product, and deserve the spoils of their labor.
Now I know what youâre saying: âWhy should I look for something new when my favorites are still giving me what I want???â
Iâll tell you why.
It’s called âGREASE! Youâre the One that I Want!â
You just keep singing it. At weddings, prom, bar and bat mitzvahs, school musicals. You JUST KEEP SINGING GREASE! And now we are burdened with another reality show, and whatâs worse, another Broadway revival of Grease! And why?? Because we didnât want to change. The rest of the world called it âlameâ but we just would not listen.
Also, I just watched the 4 hour explosive season premiere of 24. And to be honest, it was alright. It wasnât great, it didnât suck. But it has a proven formula of success, and we like that, so weâre not going to change. The folks over at Slate seem to agree with me in their review as well.
So what am I getting at? I donât want you all to run out and buy a hybrid and burn your Grease DVDs and try to repair that big hole in the O-Town layer. That would be silly.
I guess I just think we should all be a little more open to new stuff. Thereâs so much undiscovered talent out there that deserves our attention, and instead, we just keep doing that ridiculous hand jive!
So get out there, find some new music. Check out a music blog like Music Emissions or Arjan Writes or The Hot Stuff Files. But do it FAST! Because that sun is going to burn up in like, 3 days.
Peace OUT, global warmers
-Evan @ VTM
Posted by Evan on: January 15th, 2007 > Read More »
Oops, sorry. I must have overslept the holidays. Now I know how Ohio State must feel. 51 days off and they were still asleep when they took the field against the Gators, who subsequently slaughtered them. That’s gotta hurt.
Anyhoo, when last we checked in, Bow Wow was doing his thing every day on 106 & Park and everybody else was having a righteous holiday season. Now the countdown shows are up and running and the big surprise is that not much has changed…except for Em, that is.
The most bankable rapper of the last several years is dangling off the TRL cliff, holding at #15 and only had 23 days on the actual countdown. This is from a guy who used to retire videos at 50 days without even breaking a sweat. Is the magic gone?
 Another former #1 sliding down the slippery TRL slope is The Fray. What up, Fray fans? Get your votes counted…seems like the TRL powers think this track is a little depressing for the good times TRL party vibe. Show ‘em your votes and let ‘em know you’re depressed too…like a Cowboys or Giants fan.Â
Yeah. Football. I’m depressed just thinking about it. I know, I know. This is when the excitement should be highest, but that just means it’s all about to end. February is the cruelest month, with football so far in the distance it seems like it may never come.
There’s just too much basketball to watch, can’t stand NBA playoffs in the middle of summer, can’t conceive of ever watching a baseball game or hockey game. It’s football or nada and soon it will be nada.Â
And just now word comes in for Giants fans that you’ll have a whole ‘nother year to kick Coughlin around. That must be like hearing you have to undergo chemo for a year…and then you get to die. Lucky Tiki gets to go to the broadcast booth while the rest of you suffer.
Eeesh. More about music next time. Promise.
Posted by SpudBoy on: January 10th, 2007 > Read More »
Ah, what a time to be in the music business…as long as you’re not toiling away at a new website. For those who have actual jobs at real labels, this is Downtime with a capital ‘D’. Label Fat cats long ago decamped for winter escapes in St. Barts, Cabo, Vegas, South Beach or Aspen while lower level grunts are still chillin’ with the family. Work? Not for another couple of weeks.
On the music TeeVee side, things move pretty slowly as well. Go ahead and cast your votes for TRL…but good luck getting them counted. There won’t be another new show for a good while. Ditto for VH1 V-Spot Top 20.
BET runs the fake-out move over the holidays. You’ll see 106 & Park on the schedule all week, but there’s just as much vote counting going on in Florida or Ohio as there is at BET. The tip-off? Look at the schedule and you’ll see that Bow Wow is performing every day this week. You think dude is actually trekking to the studio every day? Slim chance. Can you say “video tape?”
So it’s good to be in the biz over these holidays, even if file sharing has cut the annual bonus bucks checks down to levels a little lower than your average Goldman Sachs peon. At least they’re still handing out those bonuses, which is probably a little better than the spiral ham most folks get these days — if they’re lucky.
Anyhow, as is typical this time of year, global media overflows with ‘best of’ and ‘worst of’ lists for 2006. My personal favorite is the USA Today nod for Least effective use of celebrity as springboard to stardom )http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2006-12-25-yir-worst-music_x.htm) that went to Kevin Federline just ahead of Paris Hilton. The McPaper cited the oft-quoted statistic that young Mr. Federline’s debut CD sold “only” 6500 copies in its first week.
Are you kidding me? That’s the marketing list I want to see. If there are 6500 mouth breathers out there that actually paid for music by that guy, then I want to sell those same 6500 fans just about anything I can get my hands on. I’m telling you, that list is gold!
 And that’s it for SpudBoy today. I’m fresh out of material. Stay safe and hope that 2007 holds a bonus check for you.
Posted by SpudBoy on: December 26th, 2006 > Read More »
