Im just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you Fountain Of Sorrow Jackson Browne Apple discontinues the iPod and Garth Brooks puts up an MP3 selling site, believing its about the deal, unaware that no one wants gasoline in an electric world. Well, we havent quite hit that point in automobiles, and maybe hydrogen wins, but havent we had enough of Garths self-satisfied, aw shucks demeanor wherein he lectures us whilst saying its all about his family and his fans? Come on Garth, its all about you, always has been. And I hear hes doing half the shows he wants to, but what intrigues me is the deafening silence re his download store. This is a guy who holds a press conference for a fart, who weighs in on the minutiae of his career, why no victory lap delineating the sales of his music? Because the numbers are bad. Can I prove that? No, but neither can you. Thats the world today, you whip out a falsehood and hope it sticks, believing everybodys too busy to fact check. Kind of like the Miss America pageant. Watch John Olivers takedown of the organizations proclamation of its delivery of $45 million in scholarship money here: youtube/watch?v=oDPCmmZifE8 In other words, even when Garth Brooks comes out and tells us how many files hes sold, dont believe him. But the truth is files are dead. But what stuns me is the people who are now defending files over streams, who once upon a time defended CDs over files. They too are living in the past. And then theres Garths single. What a piss-poor effort. So treacly upbeat as to make one go into sugar shock. Garth couldnt see the game had changed? People loving people? In the land of Ferguson? Hed be better off hooking up with Dallas Davidson and the usual suspects since country radio is a game and either youve got to play it or live outside it, unlike at Burger King you cannot have it your way. So what weve learned here is its about the game, not the player. And that stunts work once, like Garths CD sale at Wal-Mart, and then they die. Yup, seen any superstar selling exclusive product at the reviled discounter recently? Not to the point anybody knows about it. Turns out country fans are streaming too, which is not hard to believe when the hits contain rap and electronic elements. Your job as a musician is to make music. Race car drivers dont build automobiles. Baseball players dont make bats. And theyre called Sony and Canon, not Spielberg. Garth, youre a has-been. Whos been so busy making lunch and driving your kids to school that you seem to have missed the entire internet era. You could catch up. But U2 couldnt. P.S. You wont watch the above John Oliver clip, because its fifteen minutes long, but his fans did. Furthermore, notice that HBO has not issued a takedown notice, knowing that when youre building your enemy is obscurity. But John Oliver is so good that hes developed a cadre of fans. And in todays world, where its so difficult to gain critical mass, those who do have power. Yes, while Garth and the rest of those left in the last century play to the media, the youngsters play to their fans, they go down. Knowing that whats in the media can be easily ignored, its seen for what it is, hype, and you establish fans one by one and if youre truly excellent they convert others and build an army. But John Oliver is on fire, Garth Brooks is a smoldering ember at best. -- Visit the archive: lefsetz/wordpress/ -- twitter/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, lefsetz/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, lefsetz/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=a8a3c1857243a5547548fb54681f4095 To change your email address lefsetz/lists/?p=preferences&uid=a8a3c1857243a5547548fb54681f4095 -- powered by phpList, phplist --
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:33:25 +0000