who is Bob Lefsetz?

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The assertion that the Lumineers are bigger than Beyonce was pretty lol.

Ulna (Nicole), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link

there's not one sentence of this that rings true at all.

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago) link

I wasn’t sure what to do after Springsteen’s appearance, join a gym or masturbate. It was spectacle befitting the game, one could argue strongly it was more dynamic and exciting than the game. You had no desire to check your Twitter feed, all you could do was pay attention.

But how much did this have to do with music?

Who do we blame? Tom Petty? Who invented a new paradigm and then went for a victory lap wherein he embodied blue collar America in a tight t-shirt? Do you think Tom Petty works out? Ha!

Springsteen made Tom Petty look old. He proudly strutted his beefcake arms, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s men feel good about themselves.

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link

She proudly strutted her luscious thighs, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s women feel good about themselves.

downton arby (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link

Stupid Beyonce liking ladies.

Ulna (Nicole), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link

man I'm glad no one sexualizes Prince

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link

x-post- you should send that Springsteen satire to Leftsetz

curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link

Scroll down to the previous Lefsetz Letter for pure Patrick Bateman vibes - an ode to Phil Collins' Face Value.

Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link

even the under-the-radar digs are just meaningless, like:

The thought of her drinking Pepsi is akin to believing Alicia Keys uses a BlackBerry!

uhh you can very well believe keys uses a blackberry. shitloads of people use them! she endorses them, right? (esp if lefsetz means "BB" as a stand-in for smartphones in general) and no, it doesn't make it more likely that beyonce drinks soda.

really annoying that i feel compelled to direct any brainpower toward this crap, but this guy is inexplicably influential

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link

i saw the twitter hate but not the reason why til now. feel slightly unclean.

why DO people pay attention to this guy though?

lex pretend, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link

For posterity, here's the link to the actual super bowl/beyonce post rather than his blog's generic url:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/02/03/beyonce-at-the-super-bowl/

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link

"She proudly strutted her luscious thighs, in one fell swoop making a whole swath of America’s women feel good about themselves." nvm somehow i missed this one, moronic and offensive. but. man i hate beyonce's music and thing.

you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link

...though i wonder if he really is. is there a term for people who don't advance thought in any way but have a career bravely telling people what they already think? it's not really 'influence' but, idk, management

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link

Blame the CD, where subtlety doesn’t sound good.

you are totally illiterate about your own field of expertise, jesus

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:37 (eleven years ago) link

The pundit class?

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link

Xpost

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link

wish wcc had saved her powder for this dude

mookieproof, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:39 (eleven years ago) link

well of course, but i meant a succint term as opposed to 'influence'

"confluential" maybe, lol

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:39 (eleven years ago) link

people pay attention to him because the music industry, including the gameable bullshit awards like the grammys, are more about appealing to the executive wisdom and idiocy of the lefsetzes of the world than actually making music.

same old shit

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:40 (eleven years ago) link

Scroll down to the previous Lefsetz Letter for pure Patrick Bateman vibes - an ode to Phil Collins' Face Value.

He's not kidding. Sadly.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link

I'd say less influential than indicative of the type of people at the executive offices of music labels.

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link

he reminds me of ~music matters man~ middle aged dudes on message boards everywhere (not just rock boards either, classical music boards too)-- there's always some invariably female pop star acting as an ideological bugbear for these ppl, fuck these assholes in the eye IMO. At one time it was Madonna, then it was the (always misspelled) 'Brittany' Spears, I'm seeing Katy Perry inveighed against a lot now...

there were chinchillas, these weird little rat animals, in cages (Jon Lewis), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link

keep scrolling down to where he links up amanda palmer and howard stern approvingly!! well, stopped clock i guess

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:42 (eleven years ago) link

The conflation of Madonna as a looks-only, no-longevity musical phenomenon that he's comparing Beyonce to falls completely flat when you realize Madonna is in her third decade in music and still relevant enough to be played regularly, even if newer material falls flat at the super bowl or whatever. Trying to make her performance about looks, and then saying that Beyonce succeeded on looks, is ridiculous.

Dude is a biased old sexist.

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:47 (eleven years ago) link

uhh you can very well believe keys uses a blackberry. shitloads of people use them! she endorses them, right? (esp if lefsetz means "BB" as a stand-in for smartphones in general) and no, it doesn't make it more likely that beyonce drinks soda. -goole

Not to defend Lefsetz, but I recall him quoting an older A. Keys article where she said she used an iphone and so he was critiquing her based on that prior usage. in addition to Leftsetz, others were commenting on her suddenly endorsing Blackberry after having been an iphone user (with her own designed iphone app too I think)

curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:47 (eleven years ago) link

Jon Lewis OTM. The Steve Hoffman board is lousy with those schmoes.

Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link

huh all right. i could have figured. that's pretty damn dumb.

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link

xp

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link

His recent discovery of '90s techno was pretty funny. He circulated a playlist someone sent him with Moby on it

curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link

wonder if he thinks all the people in super bowl pepsi commercials actually drink pepsi all the time

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:58 (eleven years ago) link

I mean, other than beyonce

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:00 (eleven years ago) link

That seems dumber on Blackberry's part than Keys. Lol at the idea that the authenticity fetish extends even to product endorsements.

rob, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:03 (eleven years ago) link

tbf Lefsetz reminds me of the brand-loyal old people who are wandering in trying to buy an RCA television or whatever because the one they had for the last thirty years was the best

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link

Yes & no. He definately has that old-school mentality regarding certain values and certain styles of music but he is always boasting about how knowledgable he is on the latest tech, he happily praises Amanda Palmer for her online approach, and he dismisses the music industry for its stuck in the past ways regularly.

curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:39 (eleven years ago) link

Great, so instead of 1974 he lives in 2004.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:41 (eleven years ago) link

that old-school mentality regarding certain values and certain styles of music

RCA televisions

btw his traditional likes are kind of artistically and technologically bankrupt, too

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:57 (eleven years ago) link

he likes amanda palmer's online approach because she works in a more classical mode of composition and live arrangement

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:58 (eleven years ago) link

racism and sexism are timeless and really have nothing to do with whether he likes the Eagles or crowdsourcing or both.

Oblique Strategies, Monday, 4 February 2013 20:59 (eleven years ago) link

the main way the music industry is stuck in the past is the idea that the heads of music labels, who themselves do not make music or tour at this time, are arbiters of taste and success in the music industry

these are also the only reasons people listen to him, assuming that experience is key over popular appeal and experience of those who regularly tour

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link

i'm sure i said this on another thread, but he's got some kind of cossacks-work-for-the-czar mental error going on. his analysis is that it's "the industry" that's pushing all this bad CD-quality (lol) pop music (at once blander and more aggressive than is ideal) on "the people", who could not possibly like that music really, which is why the business is faltering. but "the internet" will allow new rabble-rouser/hustler types to reach the people directly, resulting in a hopeful return to dominance of AOR/MOR folk-pop with feelings.

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:11 (eleven years ago) link

well said

mh, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:13 (eleven years ago) link

howard talked about this today and mentioned lefsetz. his take was "it was a dance recital more than a musical performance."

you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 21:33 (eleven years ago) link

beyonce doesn't usually bookend her stadium shows with half a football game either, what the fuck do these guys think they're even talking about

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:34 (eleven years ago) link

They have a classic rock/ rockist mentality combined with sexism, and they like to be provocative. Lefsetz also keeps returning to certain themes of his that do not always make sense-- he suggests that we should never blame ticketmaster or the like for high ticket prices or shows selling out quickly because, according to him, the artist alone deserves the blame for not dictating a lower price to the ticket service and for not coming up with a special method of distribution that will allow more fans than scalpers to get the tickets. I think blame can be shared, but everything seems to be black or white to him.

curmudgeon, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:45 (eleven years ago) link

wasn't it more of a dance recital than a musical performance tho

you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 21:51 (eleven years ago) link

wasn't it more of a dance recital than a musical performance tho

No, it was not. There were talented musicians up there, performing under what I would imagine were really difficult conditions sound-wise (what's the monitor mix like at the fucking Super Bowl?). But no one's ever gonna talk about them. The guitarist had to shoot fucking sparks out of her guitar to get noticed at all.

誤訳侮辱, Monday, 4 February 2013 21:57 (eleven years ago) link

he likes amanda palmer's online approach because she works in a more classical mode of composition and live arrangement

this isn't true, I don't think - Lefsetz's deal is basically to champion the internet as it was understood at the outset of social media, when Myspace was (briefly) the default mode of presentation. He's not terrifically interested in the nature of an artist's composition or their arrangement; he's old-school in the sense that what counts for him is success, hits, asses in seats.

available for sporting events (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 4 February 2013 22:00 (eleven years ago) link

talking about the talented musicians behind beyoncé: http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/02/but_what_about_beyonces_band.html

lex pretend, Monday, 4 February 2013 22:00 (eleven years ago) link

what's the monitor mix like at the fucking Super Bowl?

in-ear monitors p. much industry standard now tbqf

available for sporting events (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 4 February 2013 22:00 (eleven years ago) link

cool link lex!

goole, Monday, 4 February 2013 22:04 (eleven years ago) link


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