who is Bob Lefsetz?

I had no idea that he had reach with anyone under 50.

lol

bene-fecal

Please tell me his Pitbull review is satire and he really knows that there was music besides cliched long-haired baby boom classic rock, and that people have been dancing to music since like forever....Maybe this is just a letter to himself

It was a party.

The classic rock era was passive. Today's music scene is participatory!

People have become stars in their own lives, utilizing their mobiles to post to Instagram, everybody believes he's famous, is it any wonder today's music reflects this?

We used to adulate the acts, now we adulate ourselves.

And this is very hard for the oldsters to understand.

Pitbull came from nothing. And so many of today's concertgoers don't have much. What else to do but dance? While you're plotting your ascension up the economic ladder.

You would have cracked up. The show began with a scroll of text akin to "Star Wars," detailing Pitbull's rise from the depths. And then the man elevated from the floor and from there on the energy sustained, the audience was happy, it was everything yesterday was not.

Pitbull flashed pictures of a private jet on the big screen. As if your goal in life was to have a NetJet account. He was the ringmaster, and you can sit at home and judge it, but it was so much fun!

Usually it takes five or seven minutes and then I'm bored. I've seen it. They're playing music I'm barely familiar with with lyrics I can't comprehend and I stand there wondering how long it's gonna be to the end. But in this case the show was a pleasure. I enjoyed it.

As did those in attendance.

It also didn't look like a classic rock crowd. Everyone said it was 60% female, but when I went out for a pee, in between acts, when the deejay kept most people entertained, I encountered nothing but women, dressed in their finery. You didn't come to this show in your duds, you put on your look. Was it a Latino thing? Christy Haubegger, my firsthand expert, told me that's what her people did. But not to snare a man, but to show how fine they were. Yes, there were endless lines of women with no guys in sight, prancing as if they were in one of those MTV videos.

And Pitbull had six dancers, constantly changing outfits, akin to those girls you hire at your wedding or bar mitzvah, but it did resemble a rap video of the nineties. Only in this case Pitbull wasn't being exclusive, but inclusive. It wasn't about drawing a line between performer and audience but keeping them connected.

And sure, he played his hits. Duetting with Kesha on "Timber," who appeared on the big screen, as did other famous personages.

And interspersed were famous rock songs, like "Sweet Child O' Mine," it cracked me up, this wasn't a concert as much as an event.

But Ne-Yo did show up in the flesh, to sing "Give Me Everything" with Pit. The worldwide hit produced by Afrojack.

And there you have it.

While you've been home practicing your guitar, writing dreary songs about love lost, the genres have merged. They rap in country, and this huge hit would play just great at Electric Daisy.

And in the Sahara Tent.

Yup, instead of a deejay, there could be a live performer at these shows, and then everything you thought you know would be history.

It's a brand new world out there. One the young people have only known.

Sitting in the audience passively watching longhairs strum their tales is now passe. Sure, it still exists, who knows, it could come back, but our entire scene has flipped upside down, it's about having fun in our brutal culture that venerates winners and excludes losers and today's young people know this and have decided they're going to climb the ladder, because being at the bottom is anathema.

Pitbull's just the cheerleader.

With worldwide hits with worldwide sounds.

Wake up to the new world, it's not going anywhere, it's not a fad. Everybody knows these hits and sings and dances along to them, whether they be white, Latino or black. Society has moved on. Warner Brothers might have been the icon of the seventies, but today it's not about your soul but your bank account, and to deny this is to exclude yourself.

So join the festivities, have fun, dance while you're plotting your ascension, to get your mind off reality, to escape the punishing life fostered by baby boomers who claimed to love one another, but turned out to be the greediest souls on the planet.

Their children know this. And have decided to party like it's 1999.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

This guy writes. So many sentence fragments. For dramatic effect.

and there's nothing wrong. with that.

Yes, Lefsetz, dressing well is a Latino thing.

Everyone said it was 60% female, but when I went out for a pee, in between acts, when the deejay kept most people entertained, I encountered nothing but women, dressed in their finery. You didn't come to this show in your duds, you put on your look. Was it a Latino thing? Christy Haubegger, my firsthand expert, told me that's what her people did. But not to snare a man, but to show how fine they were. Yes, there were endless lines of women with no guys in sight, prancing as if they were in one of those MTV videos.

Bob Lefsetz, embedded reporter in the Latino experience

oh good another sea-of-women setpiece

He can really be creepy. Not to mention clueless--Clearly, growing up in Connecticut he never ventured out of his rock world to see and dance to James Brown or a Fania salsa show...

hahaha this is basically evolving into an "Old Guy Goes Around Getting Boners At Pop Music Concerts" travelogue blog

of course they're not trying to snare a man, they're not an endless sea of barely pubescent girls

What does his girlfriend Felice Mancini, who he sometimes mentions, think about these lines?

This guy make DeRo seem like The Dean (or pick your critic exemplar).

we pick on dero a lot but he's a competent writer that is generally writing about music and albums and concerts that are occurring not insane flights of fantasy and senile "hip and with it" technoramblings of an insane rich eagles fan

"one of those MTV videos"

and at least DeRo is one of the few people out there still trying to keep R Kelly's misdeeds on people's minds.

indirectly, so is Lefsetz

lol

R Kelly's misdeeds on people's minds

he didn't pee on anybody's brain, dude

omg

A year or more ago, Lefsetz used to post responses to his blogposts from both regular folks and music biz insiders. Sometimes they even disagreed with him or criticized his point of view. Alas, he now only seems to post responses from music biz folks who agree with him.

He could do some research and see that Tinashe is on the Billboard hot 100, but nah, he'd rather rant

TOP TEN LISTS

Let's call them what they are, not the ten best records or books, but the ones that are gonna make you look good by quoting them.

Earlier today I was reading the Top Ten records from the L.A. "Times" critics. In some cases, I'd never even heard of the albums.

Check 'em out here: http://lat.ms/1JQdyF4

Have you heard of "Ought" and "Cold Specks"? They're on Chris Barton's list.

How about Tinashe, White Lung and Arca? August Brown listed them.

I could keep listing the obscurities, but it's just going to give fodder to the experts, so deep in their holes that they think this off the radar stuff deserves to go mainstream and the problem is radio doesn't play it and Spotify doesn't pay for it and you wonder why most people tune out music.

You can't list Eric Church's "Outsiders," because too many people bought it, it's too popular. You can't be a member of society, you must be an "other."

This is an old paradigm run rampant.

Used to be there were comparatively few albums released and you made yourself feel good by denigrating the taste of the masses. That's right, you put on your black and judged anything popular as junk. But the internet blew a hole wide open in that paradigm. With so many albums released, that which is not successful is just obscure. And when you tell those who are not deep into your hole they're great and these people check them out and discover they're not, you do a disservice to music in general.

That's right, what's holding back music is all the self-righteous pricks who need to believe their obscure favorites are the best, that they're being ripped off by the system. It's these people who are muddying the water, making the scene incoherent.

In some cases, I'd never even heard of the albums.

This is basically a lazy tautology, no? I have never heard of them, therefore they are obscure. If this guy wasn't such a lazy, cowardly pussy he would actually listen to those so-called obscurities and try to write a coherent assault or admit defeat.

Or, conversely, one might suggest that anything listed in a major metropolitan newspaper is almost, by definition, not really obscure. Someone should show this guy an issue of The Wire's year-end.

Anyway, I wish this choad was more obscure.

The conspiracy continues. A few critics put an obscure artist like Tinashe on their year end lists and voila! a few days later she has more Spotify plays than superstars like Eric Church. Vast and pernicious.

Bob was so deep into my hole. He's great, you guys.

Tinashe is not only on the Hot 100 but "2 On" was certified platinum!

Platinum is just a million sales. There are, what, 7 billion people in the world? I think that means it is totally obscure. Let me know when she goes platinum x 100.

I can't even decipher the argument. You should only recommend things that people already know? Because they'll be intimidated or turned off if you recommend something they haven't heard of?

It's not populist if you're not talking about stuff everyone knows.

what is Bob Lefsetz

I understand actually criticizing Lefsetz at this point is sort of like shooting Bjork's goldfish, but I'm going to do it anyway. Like Bob, I hadn't heard Ought before their name started popping up in year-end "best of 2014 lists". Unlike Bob, I think of these lists as an opportunity to expand my knowledge, rather than a chance to confirm my pre-existing opinions. So I listened to Ought, and it turns out that I really like them. But hey, you keep right on cursing the darkness, Bob.

why does there have to be music i haven't heard of? it makes me feel weird

tbf, whoever was the editor for that list didn't google Arca either, or they'd realize the wrong label was listed for his album release

btw, for anyone who genuinely doesn't understand where lefsetz is coming from, i'll break it down for you. he is the voice of the People, and the music he likes is the People's music. people who champion music other than the music he champions are either elitist self-appointed gatekeepers, if he hasn't heard of the music, or purveyors of mind-numbing pap, if he has heard of the music and disapproves. you could actually make a decent argument that he is in fact the voice of the People considering the sheer number of people who have exactly this approach to judging the aesthetic value of creative work...

I just love his idea that some eager young music fans are going to have their spirits crushed because they excitedly go to listen to a White Lung song and are so disillusioned they give up on music forever.

this guy's ideology is so genuinely bizarre

He's like the Alex Jones of music commentary.

Does Alex Jones talk about pubescent girls as much?

if getting riled up about HPV vaccines counts, then yes.

2014: The Year White Lung killed music

should be noted that the dude also thinks taylor swift is obscure:

Name two songs from “1989.”

Even better, have you heard anything other than “Shake It Off?"

i'm not clear what records released this year he thinks anyone has listened to. besides, i guess, eric church.

"Radio Lefsetz Reminds You: Listen To The Church of Your Choice (As Long As It's Eric)"

bjork's goldfish?

well the silver lining here is i didn't even know there was a new cold specks record

zach: yeah, the one flopping around on the floor in faith no more's "epic" video. "shooting fish in a barrel" seemed somehow inadequate.

"Christmas used to mean something. Back when I was in college, we couldn't wait till Christmas. You'd hear about Christmas on the radio, and when it came to your town you were all primed for it. Everyone knew everything about Christmas. Hell, it was as big as the Eagles back in the 70s. No one cares anymore. Christmas isn't on the radio. Irving Azoff told me he couldn't even get Christmas into WalMart this year. That's because Christmas stopped caring about its fans. It became about organic chestnuts and free range turkey. Hell, the average Christmas fan in Omaha, Nebraska doesn't want organic chestnuts and free range turkey. He wants the Christmas he grew up with. Can anyone even name a present they got this Christmas? No, you can't. That's because Christmas stopped mattering etc etc etc"

what authority does this little man have

Is that what's bothering you, Bunkie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qty7IP8wlXM

I like him calling Nilsson's "Coconut" the "All About That Bass" of its time.