"i just wanna be a page
in jeannie's diary
one single page
in jeannie's diary"
People start talking about the music business and my eyes glaze over.
Maybe I'm done. Maybe I'm through. My dick just doesn't get hard anymore. Men and women accost you in bars, talk about chart positions, number one records, and I just don't care.
Maybe it's my age. Maybe music is a young man's game. Maybe I've been in it too long.
I mean I want to know EVERYTHING that happens with Apple Computer. But what's spinning on Top Forty radio? WHO GIVES A FUCK??
"how does her world spin
without me in her nest?
could there really be such happiness?"
The business first fell apart in 1979.
What killed it was that suddenly, the alternative was MAINSTREAM! It took a long time. But finally even the rednecks grew their hair long. And had their own album rock acts like REO Speedwagon. The whole country was AOR crazy. It imploded.
The first punk revolution actually didn't take hold.
Then, the tail end of new wave merged with the new romantics and both were featured on MTV and we learned a cardinal rule...television sells records. But what we DIDN'T learn til the end of the eighties was that MTV kills CAREERS!
The nineties were a refinement of the eighties. Labels no longer cared about careers. They just wanted a BIG HIT! Like Charles Koppelman. With no one noting that Charles ultimately lost his empire.
Then, we were supposed to experience a renaissance with DreamWorks.
DreamWorks was a seventies label reincarnated in the nineties. It was DOOMED to fail. From the ADVENT! DreamWorks made ALBUMS in an era when all anybody was interested in was SINGLES!
Radio didn't want albums.
The public had forgotten what albums were.
Without MTV and Top Forty radio play there was no Top Ten SoundScan appearance. So, DreamWorks' albums were like trees falling in a forest. Nobody HEARD them. Even though HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars were lavished on them. Rufus Wainwright? YOU know who he is, but most people don't.
Rufus belongs on an indie label. Because that's where credibility is nurtured. Indies recognize they're making music for a MARKET! Whereas the majors have this fantasy that ALL of their releases can go multiplatinum, and therefore they overspend on them.
But despite completely misunderstanding the marketplace, DreamWorks released some good records. It's just that nobody heard them. Until now. On satellite radio.
Satellite radio is the underground FM of today.
If you say satellite radio doesn't count, you probably had short hair in the late sixties, and didn't try dope until deep in the seventies. You weren't HIP!
Admit it. You work in the music business, and you're not HIP! How can this BE??? Aren't we SELLING hip? How did the music business become the MOST unhip major medium?
Satellite radio delivers the CURE! The thing Mitch Bainwol REALLY wants, that is if he knew anything about the music business. Satellite radio delivers EXPOSURE!
That's the music industry's problem. No one HEARS the music.
Oh, you hype me on all this tripe. Tell me where it's going to debut on the chart. You don't GET IT! I don't care about statistics, I care about MUSIC!!
"oh, she's got a dark side too
even murderous
but i love that
just like her"
Driving in my car Friday afternoon, I realized I was still into music. When I heard "Jeannie's Diary". On XM's Loft.
Somehow the players think a hit act is about CLOTHING! About LOOKS! About who the act's FRIENDS are!! They've completely marginalized the ESSENCE!
The essence is something you HEAR! Just like Paul McCartney's vocal in "Another Girl".
"she could have anything she wants
so why not me?
she could have anything she dreams
oh, to be one single page
one single page
in jeannie's diary"
Listening is a private experience. It's a COMMUNION! Between you and the act. The act is setting a mood, touching an emotion. That's DEEP in your soul.
Britney can sing about being in love, but she doesn't know what love is. Love is a feeling of butterflies. A feeling of euphoria crossed with a feeling of loss. You can verbalize it all day, but you won't get the feeling across unless you're speaking to the person you're in love WITH!
But it can be worse. Much worse. When it's UNREQUITED love.
Oh, I hate when I get a crush.
Oh, it's even worse when they e-mail me. I don't know whether to respond, to try and stay connected. Or whether to be silent, be cool, showing indifference, which is supposed to be attractive.
I wake up and I see their name in my inbox and my heart flutters. It's like somewhere deep inside they know I believe that if only they'd give me a green light, my life would be complete. And theirs too.
You know this feeling. Or else you're not alive.
But I don't hear this feeling in the Top Forty. And, INHERENTLY it's not something you see. It CAN'T be on TV or in a movie. No, it's got to be MUSIC! It's got to be something you HEAR!
That's what we used to be selling. THAT'S how come this business blew up.
And it would be healthy again if there was a market of exposure for something other than the major label hit tripe.
Please download the eels' "Jeannie's Diary". From their 2000 DreamWorks album "Electro-Shock Blues".
No, don't go out and buy it. Because you won't.
But if the threshold of acquisition is low. You'll experiment.
"oh, she's going to let me in
i just know it's so
then again, who do i kid?"
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