Totally irrelevant!

Dear Rock Star,

    I'm pretty sure the first signs of becoming irrelevant in music world is worrying about becoming irrelevant.  At this stage in the game getting radio play, a song in a club or getting the kids to turn out does not matter.  Give it up...it's a bullshit excuse.

    What matters, you ask?  Making a great friggin' album that you can stand by and that can stand by you.  Give up on concept albums, give up on time tested combos.  Just go with your gut and your heart because that's how it worked out so well when you were young.  The whole point of this conversation is to discuss an album you made 20 years ago...an album you boast about playing seven straight songs from live back on it's tour.  You STILL play like five of those songs straight through.  RELEVANT?  How many can ya play of your newest album?  Huh?

    The times the are a changin' and you should be worried.  But not about the radio.  Worry about staying in good grace with iTunes.  And PLEASE don't even mention file sharing.  Maybe you gotta pay the bills but people aren't going to stop file sharing and the bottom line is that you're artists.  Unless...it's not about art anymore and then please let me know now so I can retire.  I'm still here because I believe in the art.

    Wake up old man!  You just finished the best (quality) tour of my professional career and the companion album kinda sucked.  Imagine what you can do with a solid album filled with life and soul instead of antidotes and ambiance.  The world is still your oyster if you want it.  You have no competition...definitely not Lady Gaga.  Come on, that's who we're talking about here, right?

    I kinda do appreciate the humility you show on this subject...but more-so it shows how out of touch you are with your audience.  Just like your songs, we'll stick by you but you gotta stick by us too.  We'll make you relevant if you don't make us irrelevant.

    Sorry to be harsh but I've never kissed your ass and I'm not gonna start now.  I'm quite confident that you still got it even if you think you've misplaced it.  Hint:  It's in the songs.

    Love,

    Me

    P.S.  Thanks for explaining Even Better Than The Real Thing.  If you had said it was a piece of Pop Art back in 1991, I wouldn't have spent the past 20 years saying it was the only piece of crap on the album.  Maybe it would have been a better fit on Pop.  Oh.

 

(No clue what I'm talking about?  Click here.)

Comments

[Amanda]

I agree with you almost completely. Radio play is completely irrelevant these days - it's about as useful as a music video. It should be about the songs - if you build it, they will come! (or to quote the great sage Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "don't give me songs, give me something to sing about.") I don't dislike NLOTH as much as you do though - I think some of those songs will stand the test of time. (Ask me again in 2 years and see if I still think that)

[Hillary]

I HOPE most people don't feel the way I do about NLOTH. I just can't get behind most of it and I get the vibe that the band can't either. I don't know...ask me again in 2 years and see if I think that too. I'm going to put a reminder in my MobileMe to discuss this on 9/12/13.