Crazed by the Music

It’s not even December yet and already I’ve been asked to submit year-end best of lists to four different places.  Scary, ain’t it?  Not just that they’d ask for my opinion but that all these publications, zines and newspapers are so enthrall to this idea.  Not that it’s unique to music either as witnessed by this PR Week article.  Obviously, we can’t get enough of ‘em but that doesn’t mean that these kind of lists don’t have problems.

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After an embarrassing ad layout for Rolling Stone, cig giant RJ Reynolds decided to drop their magazine advertisements (though the company insists that they made the decision way in advance, this little fiasco likely didn’t help matters).  On the surface, this sounds like a good thing- less encouragement for people to smoke.  But one big problem is that with publications in such dire straits nowadays, the loss of RJ’s ad dollars is going to hurt them even more.  That ad money is what helps keep them afloat.  This might mean even deeper cuts, layoffs, buy-outs, etc. at a number of publications.  On balance, not much of a plus, is it?

The legacy of one of the finest rock mags ever is still being battled out, literally and figuratively.  This New York Observer article has news of dust-up between two factions, including publication of a recent anthology of articles.  As a former writer there said, since it’s debatable at best if the rights have been cleared with the individual writers (they probably haven’t actually), that could be grounds for suit in addition to the other court activity that’s swirling around the magazine.  Also note comments from Connie Kramer (widow of founder Barry Kramer) and Dave Marsh at the bottom of the article.

Why is it that we have a tradition of rock and pop stars who over-indulge in vices and yet we still love them so much?  Maybe it adds to their mystique or we like to live vicariously through them or by now, we just think it’s part-and-parcel of who and what they should be.  Whatever the reason(s) might be, I was wondering this after reading endless headlines about the antics of Amy Winehouse.  I happen to like AW- she’s a fine singer and songwriter.  So, it kind of distresses me when I hear about the gallons of boozes and mountains of narcotics she liberally dabbles in and the resulting embarrassing behavior (canceling shows, drunken appearances at other shows).  What’s a fan to do?

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Conservative writer David Brooks is no wingnut and once in a while, he has some thoughtful things to say about culture, as witnessed in a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.  He’s smart enough to turn to Little Steven for additional words of wisdom and there’s no question that the music audience has gotten increasingly fragmented over the last few decades, even before the advent of the Net.  Also, Frere-Jones’ New Yorker article about indie rock that Brooks cites is more than a little flawed. Also, I’m kind of skeptical about articles that see the 60’s or 70’s as a golden age where music brought everyone together- what about “disco sucks” or punk vs. oldies or rednecks vs. longhairs?  Still, Brooks (and Little Steven) have an admirable idea about school curriculums centered on music, that’s not likely in a country where music programs are being cut all the time.  Brooks is right up the upcoming dearth of area fillers, especially as the current crop of classic rockers may not have many years left in them.

Compare that to Jermaine Dupri’s A Good Album is More than Just a Collection of Singles.  He might know a lot about making records but here, he’s the hateful soul of the record industry that he’s immersed, spewing on fans and Apple while taking no blame for its own problems.  You don’t have to go any further than the article’s comment section to see everything that’s wrong with the article.  An abject lesson of how the industry may still not get it and why they’re still slowly killing themselves off.

Bill Drummond’s been known to pull off some jokes not just as a member of KLF but also with his hi-jinks against the art world but he’s dead serious about what he calls “No Music Day,” which will be this Wednesday, November 21st.  For the last few years, he’s called on clubs, musicians and radio stations to lay off the tunes for a 24-hour period.  While this didn’t become a country-wide sensation in the UK, he’s convinced BBC Radio Scotland not to broadcast any music that day.  So is this a good idea or a nutty scheme?

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First is a Wall Street Journal story about the cleverly named “Rcrd Lbl” (get it) which is looking to give away music free and without DRM on its own blog.  As always, money is the sticking point and in this example, the company looks to get their money from advertising and then to pay off the participating bands a percentage of their take from that.  Even the label itself admits that this ain’t the ultimate solution to the music biz’s woes but expect to see other experiments like this in a post-Radiohead (expect to hear that term a lot) world where the industry is getting more and more interested in finding new models.  It’s gotten to the point where the head of Warner Bros has gone from damning to praising iTunes, even though you know that he’s still cursing Steve Jobs under his breath, especially since Apple’s still makes its profits selling iPods and not music per se.

On a happier note, there’s this inspiring article about music therapy and one its greatest practitioners, Clive Robbins.  Along with the important work of Oliver Sacks, this is more proof of what a strong, stirring effect music has our bodies and souls.

After Paste magazine decided to follow Radiohead’s lead and offer their magazine for a pay-what-you-want price, Premiere Guitar magazine is now doing the same.  What’s fascinating about this is that: 1) the publishing world is picking up on a music industry model, 2) there’s only speculative results back about how well Radiohead did though it’s believed that they raked in mucho bucks, no matter how many people downloaded for free.  Granted that like the music industry, the publishing industry is also in desperate straights right now, also flailing around to find a sustainable model.  Granted, these kind of moves are good for publicity and to shoot up subscription bases (which can be turned into increased ad dollars) but as you see here, it is a gimmick that gets you noticed.  The question now is, will this be a winning model for the magazine biz?