THE END OF THE INNOCENCE (AND ALL THAT GOOP)
- The FastTracker
- Jun 25, 2014
- 3 min read
The news that the new records from Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have seen some of their lowest First Week sales figures was cause for celebration and then something close to concern.
Celebration as, personally, I find both divas to not have anything to do with music while shoving the ups and downs and Humpty Dumptys of their showbiz relationships out there only helps to underline just how important publicists have become.
On the other hand, if these two celebrities with all the various media platforms at their disposal can only register mediocre record sales, what chance is there for the musician without two cents to rub together?
Or, as we are suddenly seeing a pandemic of showbiz relationships crashing like love on the rocks- Chris Martin and the Goop woman, Jay Z and Beyonce, Ms Lopez and her Toy Boy, Keith Urban and I Can’t Move My Face From The Botox etc- is there some divine intervention going on by aliens where eyes are finally being opened and we’re getting to the heart of the matter and no longer caring about all this Tiger Beat nonsense- once the domain of teen idols being used to prop up the careers of, especially, middle-aged celebrities who are finding it difficult to accept the aging process or else seeing that marriages of convenience will always end up being inconvenient?
There appears to a changing of the guard in the world of entertainment as seen by Jimmy Iovine joining Apple with Dr Dre with their billion dollar Beats Music and Beats Electronics products.
It’s nothing personal, it’s only business, and musicians becoming businessmen and having to really work at this separates the men from the boys.
Nothing comes easy and superficial celebrity goop drummed up by reality television weaned publicists has become boring while musicians who think they can coast along or “musicians” who aren’t musicians at all are finally being seen for what they’re not.
Thankfully, there is a new, young band like The Struts to remind us that musicians need to be REALLY good to get anywhere in today’s crowded, jaded, cluttered, unoriginal music marketplace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq_BaUrFnhk
What baffles me are those who are presented with opportunities on a silver tray and squander these away through a warped sense of entitlement.
No one is indispensable and if a musician pushing forty, looking a gift horse in the mouth, thinking yet another dopey, fawning apology will work, comes across as The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
It gets tiring for everyone who gets caught up in this boring game.
Nothing is worth undertaking for all the emotional rescues that are put in place and one side moves on while the other side is left to do what it’s always done: manipulate and find someone else to use as a crutch.
Sadly- and pathetically- there are some very weak human beings out there hoping for the best.
They’re like the addictive gambler who believes that Big Win will happen tomorrow. But, as we all know, that Big Win never comes.
Same for any musician today fortunate enough to have a paying gig: Respect it- and imagine life without it.
If anything pisses me off more than those charlatans trying to “save music” through transparent cons, it’s musicians given opportunities and not doing anything with them and thinking Okay is good enough. It’s not.
Okay is always only Okay and seeing no growth potential, and no efforts to improve the product and content, there comes the time to set off to see the Wizard while skipping down that Yellow Brick Road with Toto, meeting new people, hearing new music, starting a new life, and wondering why on earth one didn’t embark on this journey earlier.
Yes, it’s like making that final break in a relationship that should have ended years earlier and finding that Right One.
Music is love and love is music and approaching both in the same way with the experience of knowing the sideshow involved, and knowing who’s wearing the white hats, is liberating and a creatively fulfilling celebration of rebirth and progress instead of getting dizzy, Miss Lizzy, hearing the same old song and jumping through the same hoops.
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