So I was stuck in traffic, listening to Jelly Roll telling Howard Stern about his new song “I Am Not Excellent,” which a lot of people feel, but don’t admit, and then Mr. Roll sang it with the band, and I was Shocked. At first I wondered if this was a recording, or if a hard drive was involved. But with a full band and a sound this good, it’s no wonder he’s a star.
Mainstream media is paying attention to the Balkanization of the music scene. It took too long, but now the truth is obvious:
“Why pop music is so ‘boring’ now – New albums from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa should be popular. On the contrary, they have fallen short of their past work .
Free link: https://t.ly/bJo46
In other words, despite the hype, the actions they tell us are so momentous are not. The Wall Street Journal blames it on quality, but no matter how good your record is, you can’t cover everyone:
“But now, in a world overflowing with content, TikTok has rewritten the record label playbook, listeners are digging deeper into their own personalized niches, and even ardent pop fans won’t recognize content in the Billboard top 10. In a world like this, In a centralized market, where disappointing albums can in turn hurt concert sales, it all goes to show that music executives across genres appear to have more influence over the star-making machine than ever before. Be small at all times.
Uh-oh, Lucian Grainge and other big guys are tailoring their businesses to Wall Street, and that’s bad news. They keep telling Wall Street that everything is going up, up, up, but there seems to be a hole in the barrel. Sure, their catalog is a blue-chip revenue machine, but by focusing on a handful of major artists, they’re missing the mark just like a movie studio. It turns out that everyone doesn’t want the same thing, and despite the constant media hype, there’s not even a consensus on what these “hot products” are good for. Additionally, as we’ve learned in the past, if you’re a hit artist, you rely on hits, and when the hits dry up, so do your ticket sales. It turns out that in music, the turtles who care most about it, often the ones who create it alone without a committee, have die-hard fans who will stick with them through thick and thin, while those with ink don’t, at least not in staggering numbers.
Think about it…the tour got canceled and now the record got cancelled. In other words, most of the public is just not interested.
As for the Wall Street Journal thinking the music isn’t that good… people in the 21st century have been denying that, but it’s true. I’m not saying there isn’t good stuff out there, but the stuff that captures the zeitgeist and gets everyone talking isn’t there. At least not to a large extent.
What’s happened here is we’ve gone through the MTV era, the advent of the internet, and the brief period post-COVID, and now what? People are becoming more discerning these days and less susceptible to hype when they leave home.
Contrary to what complaining artists tell us, distribution has been figured out better than in any other entertainment vertical. This is the software we have problems with, namely music. The creative tools are in the hands of the proletariat, distribution costs are miniscule, and the system is no longer rigged. Do people really want to listen to your music?
A bigger question is whether the era of superstardom and hit songs is a thing of the past. Or is this new model more like Zach Bryan, who rose from the bottom, first became famous with his songs, won a core audience, and then grew, performing without any frills and selling authenticity.
Jelly Roll sells similar stuff.
Zach Bryan is much more serious. Jelly Roll has fallen into the machine, while anti-star Bryan has not. But is Jelly’s success well-deserved? Has Mr. Rolle learned anything in his thirty-nine years that the young man in the hit songs didn’t? Rolle broke the rules. We don’t love anymore. Older, fatter men with sweet voices singing resonant songs…
People gathered around him.
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Let’s be clear, Jelly Roll operates in a controlled market, and the last market that makes sense is country radio. Playlists are defined and followers can still listen, which is not the case with other types. This helped the performance.
Then again, Morgan Wallen is America’s Greatest Showman.
People hate it when I say that. They have a million cuts of beef. But if you look at the statistics, it’s Warren all the way. He has produced albums that have not only been in the top 10 year after year, but have also sold out venues and become hit after hit.
If you just play that damn record, you can hear it. Yes, he has a Southern accent, but you accept Tom Petty, don’t you? Yes, he used the “N-word” and threw a chair off a roof… As for the latter, my inbox is filled with people calling this rock star behavior seventies etiquette. My point is, does Morgan Wallen deserve to be canceled? There were people who were against DEI and Wake, and now they are asking for it to be cancelled. We all make mistakes. When did this happen and your culture became dominant? If you can’t learn lessons, can’t you make progress? Those who say change can’t be made will elicit the same reaction on the other side. That’s why Bill Burr said there would be no more cancellations and Jerry Seinfeld said the same thing. It’s kind of like what the Wall Street Journal article calls hotshots everywhere…the media is out of touch with the people.
But my thing about Warren is you can sing along. Good luck singing along with most of the people in Spotify’s top 50.
But jelly rolls do.
“I’m not good
I can barely get by
I have forgotten the day
And have insomnia at night
I’m not good
I’m hanging on the rails
So if I say I’m fine
All I know is that I’ve learned to hide it well.”
Isn’t that America? American men, of course. Internalize your feelings and don’t share weaknesses, but the guy is telling his truth and it’s yours.
“I know I can’t be the only one
Who is holding on for dear life?”
Bode Miller and filmmaker Brett Rapkin make a new film about a mountain suicide, The Paradise Paradox: https://t.ly/mcNVw
And the New York Times just published a report on the suicide epidemic in Montana:
“She’s trying to save America’s ‘last and best place’ from suicide – for the past three years, Montana has had the highest suicide rate in the country. Most deaths involve guns. But suicide rarely comes up in conversations about guns. in the national debate.
https://t.ly/FcsFg
Meanwhile, Spotify’s top 50 artists tell us how great their lives are. They specialize in veal. You might like the songs, but you can’t relate to them. But you can experience “I’m not good”.
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So I’m listening to “Jelly Roll” by Stern, and he comes across as very likable. Have a sense of humor. And it’s not stupid.
He lived a hard life, like country artists before him. He’s been to jail. He put it all into the song.
Isn’t this what we are looking for? Didn’t John Lennon tell us to give him some truth? That’s what we’re looking for in this fake, sell-out culture. The only antidote is art, but artists, and the labels that supply them, have relinquished that power. Like movie studios, they are busy making and promoting music that is supposed to resonate with everyone, but ends up resonating with very few. What do you expect when songs are endlessly massaged? With rewrites and remixes…so busy making sure they were a hit, if there was ever any lightning in a bottle, it’s now been extinguished.
We are now in a new era. When the media says that in front of the industry, you know you’re in trouble. The old paradigm is dead. The days of pop songs dictated by a few and known to many are over.
That doesn’t mean you can’t have your own business or even sell large venues and make a lot of money. Because what we have now is a passionate fan base. That’s what you want, people who bleed for you, live for you, and forget the rest. Stay true to your vision.
Everything is gone. The multi-single album has tracks spread over many years. Three or four year album cycle. Stiffness kills your career (it’s just lost in the product miasma). There are new rules and the game has been removed but players continue to play but they don’t win.
Can I use some extra lyrics to “I Am Not Excellent” by Jelly Roll? Any more insights? That’s good. But he’s not Bob Dylan, who only comes along once in a generation. But Jelly Roll can not only sing, he can write variations, he can compose a song, a formula that has been lost to many in this world of chords.
You should listen to Jelly Roll’s interview with Howard Stern.
You can see the clip I listened to and quoted above here: https://t.ly/1eUyA
Spotify: https://t.ly/c7AqJ
YouTube: https://shorturl.at/e9cCG
