who is Bob Lefsetz?

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for someone who doesn't believe in donald trump this guy sure fawns over him a lot

― for sale: baby shoes, never worn your ass (katherine), Monday, August 10, 2015 10:51 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, 10 September 2015 13:34 (eight years ago) link

damn should have posted that an hour and 17 minutes later

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, 10 September 2015 13:35 (eight years ago) link

Last I looked it was called the MUSIC business! Not the hype business.

posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 10 September 2015 13:35 (eight years ago) link

Last I looked it was called the MUSIC business! Not the Adam and Steve business.

posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 10 September 2015 13:35 (eight years ago) link

two weeks pass...

First they came for the CDs.

Then they came for the cable.

... (Eazy), Tuesday, 29 September 2015 04:27 (eight years ago) link

So, so long not only record stores, but discs of all kinds. You love vinyl, great, I know some Civil War re-enactors you might want to talk to.

So long meaningless sales reports in the media. They’re gonna switch completely to streaming as soon as “Billboard” does, which will be a step too late, but is in the offing.

So long front-loading your publicity. If you can’t get people to listen over time, if your album has got no legs, you’re better off not putting it out. People know whether it’s a dud in a day. And no one is fooled by your scorched earth publicity campaign, they’re actually turned-off! The hip-hop and R&B stars lead with days worth of advance publicity, if they employ any at all!

How could they get it so right?

Because they’re in touch with the street, and they know that if you’re not busy being born…

You’re busy dying.

... (Eazy), Tuesday, 29 September 2015 04:28 (eight years ago) link

one month passes...

Ted Gioia is the new Bob Lefsetz. Here's a talk he gave called "The Crisis In Music" (quotes his):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NT-fbu4b40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xOK9ETlhRs

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 11 November 2015 22:25 (eight years ago) link

ouTube and Spotify freemium are cheaper. And no one's using Rdio, not to mention Rhapsody and Apple Music... HA!

my harp and me (Eazy), Thursday, 19 November 2015 01:37 (eight years ago) link

I’ve been a victim of internet hate. Sometimes private, sometime public. Sometimes e-mail, sometimes on Twitter and other social networks, as well as nooks and crannies all over the web.

My crime?

Having an opinion and a status those complaining do not.

fact checking cuz, Thursday, 19 November 2015 06:35 (eight years ago) link

I won’t say I’m powerless against the online terrorists. I’ve learned you can conquer them. By attacking them individually. By hitting them where they live. Criticizing their little lives, getting personal. They don’t like the light shined upon them. If you make it about them, as opposed to the content, they freak.

Which is why I’m all in favor of striking in the middle of the night, when the enemy is unprepared. That’s what the Israelis do.

denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Thursday, 19 November 2015 07:22 (eight years ago) link

Root out ISIS. And root out spam and online hate while you’re at it.

Position Position, Thursday, 19 November 2015 14:33 (eight years ago) link

just when you think he can't go any higher, he levels up

tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 19 November 2015 14:35 (eight years ago) link

no doubt the man is a miracle

Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 19 November 2015 16:21 (eight years ago) link

Which is why I’m all in favor of striking in the middle of the night, when the enemy is unprepared. That’s what the Israelis do.
damn, what does this mean?! midnight tweet storms!? please lesfetz don't hurt em

tylerw, Thursday, 19 November 2015 16:26 (eight years ago) link

His shtick is deathless...some pearls from his Allen Toussaint tribute:

I bought “Dixie Chicken” because of incredible reviews. And when I broke the shrinkwrap and dropped it on the turntable…I didn’t understand it, not at all. But I kept playing it, BECAUSE I PAID FOR IT! That’s what’s different from today, music was scarce, we didn’t have much of it, and when we made an investment, we wrung it for everything it was worth.

FORTUNE TELLER
The Rolling Stones

This is so fresh, so magical, such a window back to the midsixties, it makes you want to jet back there right now, when you had to leave the house to feel the music in you. This is so simple in a way so much of today’s music is so complicated. Without comping and additional tracks there’s an honesty and a raw humanity that you can only marvel at. And the irony is this is exactly what the Stones have sold on tour, then and now. You go to see them and they’re rough, but then they lock on and your jaw falls open. Because it’s about catching lightning in a bottle as opposed to perfecting an image and sound for a public who you thinks wants it but doesn’t. People want truth, reflected back to them, never forget it.

...and my new d/n

Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 19 November 2015 17:58 (eight years ago) link

People want truth and three chords!

nickn, Thursday, 19 November 2015 21:15 (eight years ago) link

kind of feel like truth is the opposite of what i want

tylerw, Thursday, 19 November 2015 21:19 (eight years ago) link

Maybe just some truth?

michaellambert, Thursday, 19 November 2015 22:40 (eight years ago) link

i can't handle the truth!

tylerw, Thursday, 19 November 2015 22:48 (eight years ago) link

as far as I can tell his argument is "we need to solve income inequality so the plebes can stop calling me a big fat meanie. also, ISIS?"

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, 19 November 2015 23:07 (eight years ago) link

also this -- "I won’t say I’m powerless against the online terrorists. I’ve learned you can conquer them. By attacking them individually. By hitting them where they live. Criticizing their little lives, getting personal. They don’t like the light shined upon them. If you make it about them, as opposed to the content, they freak." -- comes perilously close to endorsing doxxing of, idk, taylor swift fans

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, 19 November 2015 23:09 (eight years ago) link

perilously close to endorsing doxxing of, idk, taylor swift fans

i think that goes beyond "perilously close." i think it's literally what he's suggesting.

fact checking cuz, Friday, 20 November 2015 01:33 (eight years ago) link

yeah like I try very hard to be non-bombastic (no, really), but I defy anyone to produce a reading of this that is not completely horrifying

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Friday, 20 November 2015 01:36 (eight years ago) link

Brett Leve. A twentysomething who accosted me at Coachella and told me his organization was buying a ski area. Little did he know downhill sliding was my passion. So, when they invited me to go to their digs in Eden, Utah, to partake of the snow at their newly-purchased Powder Mountain, I went.

And was stunned at the caliber of person.

denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, 20 November 2015 02:12 (eight years ago) link

that guy seems like a dick.

i made a scope for my laser musket out of some (forksclovetofu), Friday, 20 November 2015 02:51 (eight years ago) link

A twentysomething who accosted me at Coachella and told me his organization was buying a ski area.

^^^ late woody allen character description btw

denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, 20 November 2015 03:03 (eight years ago) link

Dude is frothing mad at Adele. Holy shit.

self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 20 November 2015 16:29 (eight years ago) link

Even car companies are hipper than you, they’re leaving CD drives out of their vehicles. My new computer has no disk drive, even though I bought it a year ago and it’s state of the art.

denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, 20 November 2015 16:30 (eight years ago) link

There’s plenty of money if you get mindshare. But you want to give up mindshare?

tylerw, Friday, 20 November 2015 16:50 (eight years ago) link

Oh wow, that Adele piece is seriously fucking ignorant. How dare one of the biggest selling artists of the decade, one of the last major performers whose fans are actually willing en masse to invest in a CD, LP or full album download, maker of one of the handful of genuine "Event Albums" of the year, elect to not go to a streaming platform right away!

Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 20 November 2015 19:03 (eight years ago) link

I was inundated with e-mail about this act Adele. At first listen I loved her, then when I downloaded all the tracks I realized that she was just a bit too jazzy for me. But I applaud where she’s coming from. But although she’s a smash in the U.K., I seriously doubt she can make it big here in America. Because she’s FAT!

feb. 21, 2008

h/t digital music news

fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 15:18 (eight years ago) link

brutal, what a huge piece of shit idiot

bricc baby hitlo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 15:23 (eight years ago) link

First and foremost, mindshare. It’s nearly impossible to get in today’s cluttered, cacophonous society. Used to be you got on radio and then MTV and you reached everybody. Now, except for Adele herself, no one can do this. Quick, sing a 1D song! You can’t, but they just won big on the AMAs. And you can pooh-pooh that awards show, or you can just admit that music has changed. It’s not that you’re old, it’s just that the biggest acts are niche and if you’re not one of them, god help you in making a living.

Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 27 November 2015 23:59 (eight years ago) link

haha no just kidding you're old

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 28 November 2015 06:17 (eight years ago) link

So I was wondering what the heck this one was after these past few days of him being rightly trashed.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2015/11/25/broken-together/

And...I don't know, it's like a combination of nakedly confessional fucking up in a post-divorce/midlife crisis way that somehow is a big build-up to saying this towards the end:

"That’s the name of the song, “Broken Together.” It’s by Christian rock band Casting Crowns, whose name I knew but whose music I was unfamiliar with."

But seriously, this essay is like Emo Mitch Albom run rampant. Which should say something.

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 28 November 2015 14:15 (eight years ago) link

We all want to be touched. Metaphorically and physically.

I don't have the time or energy to make a counterargument (stevie), Saturday, 28 November 2015 14:20 (eight years ago) link

Seems like he's angling for David Brooks' spot.

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, 28 November 2015 14:29 (eight years ago) link

I imagine the part about '...your ass falls...' isn't part of the Casting Crowns song, and that makes me sad.

Boz Scaggs was Adele back in 1976 (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:06 (eight years ago) link

haha tooting my own horn here but my fake lefsetz adele post on ned's facebook wasn't too far off:

This isn't the old days, stars don't last the way they used to. There's no more Jackson Brownes, no more Bruce Hornsbys...nowadays it's keep moving -- or die. If you're not the Next Big Thing, you're yesterday's news. Adele better wake up, because the new world of streaming music is a fast lane that -- in the words of Don Henley -- will "surely make you lose your mind."

Sure, there are still a few senior citizens that will log on to iTunes to pay for music -- or worse yet, go to Target and buy a CD. But they are dying - and dying fast. Today's listeners need it now and they need it for nothing. This is a generation that's too busy Snapchatting and sexting to even notice that you've released an album. In fact, most of todays music consumers have literally never seen a television. It's not about selling music, it's about selling a lifestyle that they want and you have. If you don't get it, you're just another loser hawking antique teakettles from a park bench in Pittsburgh.

Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:12 (eight years ago) link

But seriously, this essay is like Emo Mitch Albom run rampant.

tuesdays with mopey

Why because she True and Interesting (President Keyes), Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:43 (eight years ago) link

well done UMS. pitch perfect.

husked, tonal wails (irrational), Saturday, 28 November 2015 17:12 (eight years ago) link

three weeks pass...

People gravitate to one winner. Hear anybody championing their Samsung Galaxy recently? Everybody’s on an iPhone, with iMessage. And if you’re about to send me hate mail telling me I’m wrong, I hope you like your low income no friends lifestyle, because all the winners are on the Apple platform, and you keep saying you want to win…

(please no long guns of any kind) (Eazy), Wednesday, 23 December 2015 17:36 (eight years ago) link

what a fuckin asshole

Artists are two-faced. Taylor Swift can refuse to be on Spotify but is all over YouTube, what’s up with that? Have the courage of your convictions Tay Tay.

Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 23 December 2015 17:43 (eight years ago) link

So I’d like to say I watch every episode of “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,” but it’s not that funny. Turns out Larry David was the genius. He’s even referenced herein, with the Prez talking about playing golf with Mr. Enthusiasm, who wears enough sunscreen to have it dripping from his ears. How can it be that an irreverent schmuck can play golf with the most powerful man in the world? That’s what happens when you hang it out completely, when you’re unworried about judgment, people cling to you. That was the essence of John Lennon. Could Larry David be the next Lennon? Think about it.

denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 05:54 (eight years ago) link

Lefsetz is really operating at a consistently mindblowing pitch right now

tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 10:28 (eight years ago) link


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