True Blue Artist = True Blue Fans

by Bob Lefetz

"'We wanted people to be happy,' Moss said. 'You can't force people to do a certain kind of music. They make their best music when they are doing what they want to do, not what we want them to do.'"

Jerry Moss

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/sports/05moss.html?_r=1&ref=sports&pagewanted=all

That's so perfect, I'm tempted to not say another word.

But the point is, if you've been involved with a major label recently you know the above aphorism is completely untrue.  They don't want unique visionaries, they want malleable clones.  They want performers who are willing to do anything to make it, compromise all their values, set aside their vision in order to work with selected producers and songwriters in search of a hit.  And you wonder why mainstream music is in such bad shape.  Or, to put it another way, can you imagine a major label signing Supertramp?  Nurturing the band until it can produce a masterpiece like "Crime Of The Century" but not hit its stride commercially until three albums after that?

But there's even more:

"Alpert watched Moss practice what they preached when Waylon Jennings came to their office one day early in his career with a problem. The legendary guitarist and producer Chet Atkins wanted to sign Jennings. The problem was that he still owed A&M a couple of albums.

'We knew Waylon was going to be a big artist,' Alpert said. 'We also knew that this was the break of a lifetime for him and what we had to do. We let him out of his contract, and I knew right then that we'd be successful as long as we saw it from the artists' point of view.'"

Seeing it from the artists' point of view???  That hasn't been true for decades.  Or, as Don Henley so eloquently put it, "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969".  In the nineties and early part of this century it was all about the executive.  Remember when Christopher noticed Tommy Mottola going into a club in "The Sopranos"?  Most people had no idea who Jerry Moss was, but they loved his records.  Everybody seems to know who Clive Davis is, but so many of the hits he created have been completely forgotten.

And this lack of respect for the artist is what's killing the major labels.  Anybody with a backbone refuses to take part in the shenanigans.  But the silver lining is now you can do it for yourself.  And all the greats will.  Ultimately aided by businessmen who respect them.

Never underestimate the public.  People know mainstream music is disposable.  Shit, you can download the track and delete it just like that...why would you want to keep yesteryear's hit?  While those alive during A&M's heyday treasure their collection, it's a part of them that survives not only graduation, but divorce.

This is a simple business.  It's about great music.  All the marketing, all the promotion is subservient to the tracks.  There are very few great artists out there, but so many businessmen who want to employ them to get ahead.  So, we've got wannabe executives hyping wannabe musicians to ever less reaction.  But one true artist eclipses them all.

Posted via email from Music Business Information