First off, there should be some kind of law against waiting a month+ to post something new on a blog. I know I hate it when people I read habitually do this, and the fact that I have succumbed to it without any reasonable excuse is decent evidence that I am in fact a complete hypocrite.
So I'm sorry.
But after listening to Young Jeezy's The Recession in my car for the past week or so, and I just had to review the album. Because with so much wannabe gangster rap permeating the air waves these days, its good to see somebody who does it right.
The Recession, quite typically of Jeezy, is all about his charisma. Never to be confused with a cunning poet like Nas (who is featured on Black President, the best track on the album), when at his best, he uses impeccable timing and his grating voice to instill a persona on this album.
But perhaps more importantly, he remains hungry and in tune with society as the US economy indeed spirals into a recession. His attitude on Crazy World has Jeezy proclaiming,
When I was fourteen I turned nothing to a quarter mealProbably why I never give a f**k about a record dealAnd I ain't never tried this shit imagine how the wife feelBut that don't even matter though trying to pay the light bill
Jeezy personifies the attitude of people struggling to make ends meet with the "Fuck you, I'm trying to survive," mentality. And this is what makes his style so persuasive in the first place; he's been there. And he hasn't forgotten. For all of his shortcomings, this point remains excessively clear to the listener.
Rap has been a part of my life ever since the days of MC Hammer and Tag Team (of the "Whoop There it Is" fame).
But I really began my immersion into hip-hop in 1996 and 1997, with two albums; 2pac'sAll Eyez on Me, and Nas' I am...
Both had their own styles that captured my attention. 2pac was pure emotion, raw and brutally honest. Nas was similarly honest, but more observant and lyrically superior.
Consequently, for the past 11 years or so, I have been a Nas fan, listening to his music, seeing his concerts, following his evolution and maturity as an artist.
On his 2004 release, God's Son, Nas reflects,
It's becoming unbearable, making hits is easy
Because he is so established, Nas has strayed away from the game of producing singles simply for the purpose of selling records like so many of his peers. On his latest album, his first and so far only single, "Hero", has the driving, infectious beat of Polo Da Don, one of the most sought after producers right now, as well as a hook sung by Keri Hilson, another certified hitmaker.
But rather than fulfilling the cliches we are used to seeing from rappers, Nas uses this space to articulate the importance of voice in his work, likening himself to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Billy Joel.
But Nas doesn't stop there. The track "Sly Fox" is about Fox News, America's favorite propaganda machine.He was involved involved in a protest on fox news as well outside of their headquarters a couple of weeks ago as well.
And this is where things get downright sad.
Later on in that week, Jim Jones, of "Ballin" fame, and really, not much else, attacked Nas, saying that his protest was simply promoting his album.
Really Jim?
Nas is one of the most respected guys in the rap game. With six number one albums, including one of the most classic rap records of all time under his belt, Nas has spawned a legion of fans, imitators, and haters due to his prowess behind the microphone. Do you really think bashing Fox News is going to help him sell records? Do you think middle aged white parents will be more or less inclined to buy a rap artist cd for their kids if he is radical or friendly? And you really don't think Fox News is a problem whatsoever, even in light of the recent news about the White House instructing what the pundits say on this network?
C'mon Jim. Your a one hit wonder trying to keep your fame by messing with a legend. And you showed your utter ignorance in doing so.
The past decade really has been an extremely mixed bag for music listeners. With mp3 players, p2p networks, and more recently jump parties, it is easier to get access (legally or not) to music everywhere.
But where do you discover new music? Sure, there are blogs dedicated to reporting new musical trends in various genres. iTunes or Amazon gives you recommendations about artists that are similar to yours. And I guess you can listen to terrestrial radio. If you want to hear 'Crank Dat' by Soulja Boy, or 'Big Girls Don't Cry' by Fergie. Again. and Again. and again and again.
But I don't have to tell you how obnoxious terrestrial radio is. Because chances are, you already knew that. And you probably stopped listening a few years ago, unless some aspect of your car stereo isn't working.
But this phenomen has happened not because broadcasting music you have never heard before is an outdated model, just that the groups in control have stagnated to a point where they are almost beyond saving. (check out the link above if you are interested at all in the demise of terrestrial radio).
Pandora is an online radio provider that brilliantly delivers personalized radio stations based on your musical preferences. When you open the website for the first time, a display box asks you for the name of a song or artist you enjoy. Upon entering this name, Pandora accesses 'The Music Genome Project," described on their website as,
Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.
Using this Genome, Pandora will play songs with similar genes to those of the one you originally selected. Everytime a song is played, a small box appears on the player on the webpage, allowing the listener to give the song a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Whether the listener likes this song adds to the musical preference of this particular station, thus fine tuning the musical tastes of the user even further.
But really, the genius beyond this is that it allows users to listen to music that is outside of what they may normally listen to. When you meet someone new, you may find yourself asking them, "What kind of music do you like?" with responses generally originating into genres that have been constructed from a business perspective of selling more music. Good for the record companies, but in reality, listener tastes are much more complex than that. Pandora recognizes this, and in my own experience, delivers with flying colors. Over this weekend, whenever I have been on my computer, I have been listening to Pandora. I have reconnected with old music (First of Da Month- Bone Thugs and Harmony), and I have been introduced to new artists, (The Black Pack) and songs by artists I enjoy but hadn't been previously exposed to (Incubus, Daft Punk).
Of course, there are some problems with Pandora that need to be addressed. Besides almost being shut down about a year ago, Pandora also is vulnerable to failure because it relies soley on the genes of a certain song to recommend new music, which can be problematic because the program can not always pick up quickly why a listener likes a certain song. For instance, I put Forever by Chris Brown into the program to see what appeared, and the first five songs I didn't really like, most of them missing the dance vibe and soulful playfullness of Chris Brown's voice.
Last.fm, another online radio station, has no algorithim for predicting what music a user will like, but instead uses a vast social network to determine what kind of music a Chris Brown listener would like based on people in the network with similar tastes. Steve Krause, VP of Analytic Products at CNET, writes in his post, Pandora and Last.fm: Nature vs. Nurture in Music Recommenders, that,
Last.fm simply describes what goes together according to its audience and then makes relatively simple inferences from that. So if there are hidden factors that Pandora isn't explicitly capturing, Last.fm is at least capturing them indirectly.
This social factor on Last.fm also recommends like minded listeners to users, making it more interactive than Pandora.
All told, I really enjoy Pandora, even if it does not play songs I love everytime. It is able to play songs that sometimes come out of left field, but that I find myself adoring, something I could rarely say about terrestrial radio in my life. While it does not have the social networking capabilities of a last.fm, I have still been using the program and enjoying it non-stop since I got it. And thats what really matters. Well maybe not to you, but to me.
And finally, this video is courtesy of Pandora reminding me of my favorite music video from 3rd grade...
So I have always liked Radiohead. A girl I was in love with turned me on to them a couple of years ago, and while they were not really typical of anything else in my collection, I embraced their minimalist sound. When I saw this video on youtube yesterday, it reminded me of all of the songs that I had previously downloaded of theirs on limewire. After going back and listening to them a little bit, do you konw what I did? I went to the iTunes store and downloaded two of their albums. Now I'm not trying to make a holier than thou statement, because I don't really bash on people who use p2p exclusively, because I used to as well. But I still went out and bought the album. And who knows; if i didn't surround myself with hip hop heads, I might even go see them live. Maybe I can check youtube to see if that would be interesting too.
im not slave to clocks. Night is dark, day is light, and if you live in southern cali, there are only two seasons; kinda warm, kinda not as warm.
but i have become a slave to other things in my life, starting with He-Man, the master of my universe at age five.
My most recent addiction? The internet. Especially web 2.0y stuff. (note: took a break from writing this to watch 30 minutes of 90's cartoon openings, a link form the He-Man video above.first moment I have ever felt like I no longer represent the youth of America. but i digress.)
I used to have an i google account, but like so many other things in the web 2.0 universe, for the life of me, I don't know what the password is anymore.
I do remember that it used to have Garfield comics on it, but I was never a big fan of the orange cat anyways. If there were random Calvin and Hobbes comics offered, I probably would have never left.
Because that is what these websites, igoogle, pageflakes and the like, are all about. Consolidating things in a way that is easy to navigate, but also, perhaps just as importantly, consistently entertaining me.
So the best place to start is probably my "Just Fer Fun" section, tucked off on the far right hand side of the page, but probably the reason I continue to open my pageflake somewhat consistently. Email, weather, pictures of my hometown, all at the same time. Not to mention interesting articles not necessarily directly related to anything about my life.
But that little draw gets me to the more important stuff. Like my RSS feeds.
Because like all the random crap, the RSS feeds are generally interesting as well. They are just not necessarily party conversation. But no matter my mood, there is so much information available and accessible that I can always find something that interests me. Whether I'm in the mood to read about urban culture/fashion at Hypebeast, one of Time magazine's 50 best websites of in 2008, or the dry objective reporting of the RIAA suing 13 year olds on Recording Industry vs. The People, I have at a moments glance the two most important views of the music industry; fan perspective, and industry perspective.
I also get exposed to new music I would never hear on the radio, while simultaneously reading about a new generation of artists from a respected voice in the industry like Bob Lefsetz. The fact that I can navigate through the two so seamlessly allows me to really consider the validity of his argument. Is he the messiah, as so many people seem to believe? Or has his status rendered him out of touch and essentially useless? I can make my own opinion in a flash, open up my blog and start musing.
But the information does not end there. One of the problems I have found with reading blogs in the past is that by nature, authors have a certain scope, which prevents them from adopting new perspectives and ideas, or even considering new things to be valid. Therefore, while I am a dutiful reader of many blogs, I can glean even more information from the internet with my universal news and blog search. The universal news search today provided me with information I have been expecting for awhile, about the decline of traditional tv/movie viewing habits, akin to that of the music industry. Hopefully, for their sake, they are a little bit more prepared for the precipitous decline of their traditional distribution methods.
Finally, all of this rather general information at least flashes through my mind, and I normally pick out a nugget or two that are related and pique my interest. From both the blogs I subscribe to and my universal news feed, I have read many different opinions about Digital Rights Management, and chose to survey the academic realm to find something a bit more tangible than simple theories with little factual evidence. Through either sheer luck or the sheer genius of google book search (I would be a genius/happy employee if i ate this for lunch every day), I came across Stanford professor William Fisher's book "Promises to Keep" an early and inspiring look at the changing texture of digital rights management for the entire entertainment industry. This book (or, what I read of it), really changed my perspective on the best way to encourage creation of the arts that so many people hold dearly.
So I guess Im glad I got back into my pageflake. It definitely brings up a lot of interesting material, and I can truly say it has helped generate some interesting content for me. And it updates me when stuffwhitepeoplelike.com updates. Which is what truly matters.
With the release of the Carter III, i feel its my duty as a hip-hop head to comment on it... and i will. soon. I just kinda gotta listen to it first to let it sink in. In the meantime, this is more than worth your time...
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I can just picture Jerry Colliano, whether he is sitting at his desk, or walking around, quietly observing what is going on around hi, chuckling to himself and shaking his head.
His approach to his blog, Inside Music Media, is definitely Yoda-like. He makes curious observations that always apply to the situation at hand, without always overtly stating them. In his post, The Magic is the Music, Jerry begins by making innocent observations about young people:
Shorts.
Young people in shorts, being threatened by ushers to turn off their cell phones (“you’ve got two seconds to turn it off”). Most people dressed for this Broadway show like schleppers. But, then again, times have changed.
Right off the bat, Jerry lets the audience know that he is old because he cannot fathom this phenomenon. Some of his audience is probably older as well and can relate to his feelings, but he also wants to establish himself as different from his younger counterparts, so that he can show how/why his views may be different from theirs later on down the road.
For the most part, his overall tone is one of acceptance of youth culture, which is both a reflection of his own personality and a reflection of how he believes the music industry should interact with the youth of today.
But he doesn’t blast the industry for their backward approach like many of the other blogs that permeate the blogosphere about the music industry (see my post about the Lefsetz Letters). Rather, because he has nothing to lose by the music industry’s failings, he simply diagnosis their problems, and lets them decide if they want to deal with it appropriately. In his post Radio, Records & TV in the Next 10 Years, Jerry talks about the similarities between the various entertainment industries, noting what has been successful and what has not.
Restructuring the labels to concentrate on the music, the artists, the live venues, the branding, the merch – now that’s the magic that the labels have long ago lost.
Jerry uses some of the jargon of the music industry (merch) to establish himself as an insider of sorts. The word does not feel forced at all, but instead, merely gives him respectability points to a certain extent.
In terms of Jerry's own voice, there are no insults, no laments, no furious thrashing of his keyboard to release his emotions.
Kind of like a professor with tenure. You should listen to him, but if you don’t, he doesn’t care. He’s getting paid anyways.
And like a professor, he teaches with examples, using facts rather than opinion to state his case, convincing the reader to understand his point of view rather than shoving it in their face. Here he is focusing on Generation Y's interactions with another faction of the entertainment industry:
Why increasingly they are watching TV on their laptops – parents, I’m sure you can testify to this one. ABC runs Lost – forces them to watch a pre-roll commercial as payment for the rerun of what they gladly missed on cable TV. They get around it by using the time to check their email.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs knows this is true which is one reason why he is introducing what will be a long line of even lighter and brighter laptops that will eventually make the next generation’s TV ultra portable.
Jerry doesn’t come out and say that the entertainment industry is losing the battle to kids in generation Y it doesn’t understand. He doesn’t have to. The facts speak for themselves. And in detaching himself, he actually makes his argument more valid.
And in the few instances he does state his opinion about the business, he’s straight to the point.
the magic is the music.
And that’s it.
Twice now in the same post he has referred to 'magic' as the key to the music industry. The word itself is meant to evoke images of things that go beyond the business world, things that are indescribable and special. In other words, no matter how you dress, package and market it, the music is the most fundamental part of success. And the industry has to have that point driven into their collective heads. End of story.
The language of both posts is brief and almost mundane, making it easy to understand, but more importantly, it makes the solution seem so simple. He does not need to be a smart guy with a great vocabulary to figure this all out. He merely needs to assess the situation realistically and with an open mind, without the pretentiousness of the people who he is trying to help in his own way.
In my illustrious musical life, I have had many influences and people I would like to thank. When it comes to the internet and the anarchy it has caused, however, the voice of Bob Lefestz stands out among others.
Author of the Lefsetz Letters, Bob has been writing for about 20 years (according to his site) about the music industry, originally as a newsletter, and now as a wanna-be blog. Lefsetz is so prominent in the music industry that his blog is the 10278th most popular blog on technorati.com. Not only does he have many fans who are common folk like myself, but his voice also carries to the top of the biz. He garners the attention of some of the biggest artists, executives and producers in music, even sometimes posting their emails, both negative and positive, that he receives from them, like this one from rapper/country artist/ex Pamela Anderson-er Kid Rock:
I was reading your article saying that country music fans r some of the best fans in the world. I said to myself…."Shit, I’ve known that for ten years" !!!!!!
Kid Rock
Now, Kid Rock may not be the biggest or most talented name in the music biz, but he does read the Lefsetz Letters, and even takes the time to respond. So he might know a leetle more than me, and be just a tad bit more respected.
Part of the reason people love Lefsetz is his candid approach to a variety of topics. He doesn't shy away from throwing anyone, from the biggest stars to the infallible gods who are often given a pass (ahem, Clive Davis and Simon Cowell), under the bus. But his true strength comes in his ability to take industry news and personalize it. Recently, Paul McGuiness, manager of the super group U2, insisted that the US government force ISP's to charge its users a monthly fee if they want to download mp3's from their server. Bob replies:
I’m crying foul. I’d love it if the ISPs offered legal music. I’d pay ten bucks a month for all I can eat and keep. I already pay Time Warner $165 a month, ten dollars more is fine. But, they don’t tell me how much TV I can watch, they don’t shut my Internet down, they don’t insult me, they stay out of my way.
If only the label stayed out of my way. If only the acts they purveyed didn’t stop beating me over the head in the media, telling me how great they are. If only the "hippies" in Silicon Valley Mr. McGuinness rails about were (not) in control of music. Then maybe we’d live in a better universe. I always loved that hippie music better than this pop crap anyway, didn’t you?
Bob is putting himself in the shoes of the average music fan, the people who hate the music industry for punishing us for their own short term thinking. His biting sarcasm really makes the reader take his point of view, understanding just how backwards his thinking can be.
Despite the great commentary and ability to poignantly poke holes in arguments, his blog is not really a blog at all. While he does post often, his blog is read only, so only comments he selects are published for others to see. This kind of, ya know, goes against the whole concept that web 2.0 is supposed to be an aggregative discussion place. His desire to keep the riff raff off his page is kind of a throwback, meaning that Bob sees his opinion as intrinsically more valuable than others, simply because we can always see his opinion, but only the reactions of others if he chooses to divulge them. Beyond that, the man doesn't have a blog roll, or much information about himself. It's just Bob's thoughts; and they are valuable in their own right. But the "riff-raff" might have some compelling thoughts to contribute.
Bob's blog is kind of an inspiration to me because I like how he discusses issues in the music industry using his own experiences as starting points. I am definitely going to try and do this as much as I can in my own writing, because the personal experiences fans have with music is what makes it wonderful escapism and inspiration.
But I can't write like he does. Simply put, I know my limitations. I know that I have not been around as long as Bob, I know I do not understand the past, present and future of the industry like Bob does, and finally, I simply want to be open to more discussion. Despite his intellectual superiority, he doesn't use the beauty of blogs as well as he could, closing off his thoughts from those of his peers. Everyone has something to say, and I want to hear about it, not simply tell people my point of view.
To check out more of his ranting and ravings, check out these articles that piqued my interest Hall & Oates at the Troubadour this one is an unlikely personal ode to the great pop duo Daryl Hall and John Oates of the 80's, showcasing his blunt and entertaining personal opinions about what kind of music is effective. Next Up: The MySpace Deal This piece is about how the music industry is behind the ball on record deals, and is definitely more of a professional blog, with analytical analysis and statistics to back up Lefsetzs' arguments. That being said, it still has his narration, making it more interesting.
Finally, this post was simply unfathomable to me because I have never seen another person Lefsetz's age get my generation like he does here... Liberty City
Enjoy, he knows whats up.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
This is the kind of thing that works. Justice isn't trying to appeal to a wide audience, there is no glitz and glamour here... Market segmentation, right?
It's been a long, long time coming but I know a change gonna come
Or, if AC/DC is more your particular cup of tea (well, maybe more like brand of whiskey), remember that, "
It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll
Record companies, new artists, hell, even superstars have been feeling a financial crunch since the dawn of the digital age, as an industry that rocked and rolled to huge successes throughout the 90's has suffered immensely in recent years.
As a fan, wannabe creator and eventual purveyor (thats the idea, anyways) of music, I want new artists to have a chance to be heard. I want them to succeed if they have a worthwhile story to tell. And really, I want to be inspired.
This blog space will be used as a forum to discuss my thoughts (and yours) in regard to the future of the music industry, by diagnosing the problems of the past with the solutions of the future. More specifically, I want to examine how the digital age is affecting previously held notions about intellectual property, and the fallout from these new implications. I want to look at all approaches, from the poor unfortunate soul’s at the RIAA fighting against the tyranny of a 10 year old girl, to the free release of music a la Radiohead and Immortal Technique.
I also want to look at marketing music in new ways. Are social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook the way, or are they already becoming extinct? With radio becoming less and less popular, especially among younger people, where will generation Y (and beyond) find new music?
But I can’t just talk business.
Where’s the fun in that?
I also have to discuss how music as an art form is evolving, both for better and (more likely) for worse. The digital age has made artists (as well as no talent ass-clowns) rich off ringtones and singles while genuine albums can't be given away.
Will this change how music is created? Personally, I believe we have arrived at a point where most popular music is a muddled, muted mess, seriously lacking in creativity and vision. Just look at American Idol. Yeah, it generates revenues, and lots of it, but the producers pigeonhole the artists into toned down pop versions of themselves (ahem, Ruben Studdard) by selling them to hit-makers whose goal is completely financially motivated. Yea, this is all good and well in the short run, but if this oligarchy persists, you can bet on even more stagnation in the music industry.
The conservative theology of Wall Street investors has led to the rise and glorification of hit-making producers who write candy. As good as it is, its fleeting, and after having too much, you kind of start to feel sick. I want to see what artist will come along to take us back to creativity and ingenuity and spice up what has become dull.
So feel free to tell me your thoughts on anything, including how idiotic/stupid I am because believe me, I have my moments.
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