Thursday, April 21, 2011

I’m Just A Singer In A Rock & Roll Band… But I’m The One With The Actual Contract… A Cautionary Tale... Earworms & New Stuff…

Let me begin by saying that I’m a huge music fan…but not a fan of the music business.  It’s the business part that makes it icky for me.  If everyone in the world were altruistic and always looking out for their fellow man half the stuff we hear about concerning the shady tactics of record companies or bands would not be happening.  How many times have we heard about the record company taking advantage of the naivete’ of a new artist and making them sign a bad contract, effectively making them an indentured servant to the record label. 

Now I don’t think in every instance it is the label’s fault, as sometimes the artist doesn’t seek legal counsel before signing or is so desperate to sign that they don’t read the fine print.  But it’s the business part of the music business that disturbs me. 

Another very common situation in the industry is when the artist is under the control of someone else, be it their manager, parent, agent, promoter, or just someone they trust.   Regardless of whose spell they’re under, the outcome is usually catastrophic with respect to the stability of the band.  Sometimes the image that the band presents is much different than the reality behind it.  Our story begins here…
[and no…it’s not about Yoko Ono and The Beatles…Diana Ross & The Supremes…or Jessica Simpson and her Dad, Joe…]

Now regardless of which side you will take, or which side is the truth, the lesson in all of this is a] Read The Contract b] Have your entertainment lawyer Read The Contract c] Make sure your name is CLEARLY written on The Contract and d] Read The Contract…Again…before signing off on anything… At the very least.

Our subject today is a band called Paramore.  You may have heard of them.  They are a rock band formed in Franklin, TN in 2002 by Hayley Williams [Vocals], Josh Farro [Lead Guitar/Background Vocals], Zac Farro [Drums] and Jeremy Davis [Bass Guitar].  In the intervening years they have had a few minor lineup changes, but the crux of the dispute comes from Hayley Williams and the Farro Brothers.

They began as every other new artist out there, with management, the record label, and the producers helping them create a “product” that could be marketed to the masses.  They were successful.  Now a couple of things to know about this group as we continue is this:  They were signed to a major record label [Atlantic Records] but were distributed under the niche label Fueled By Ramen.  This was because the powers that be felt it would be better for the image of the band to be distanced from a major label giving them more indie credibility.  Also, in an effort to give them more word of mouth push, the record label decided against giving their first record “All We Know Is Falling” any major radio promotion.  The A&R [Artist & Repertoire] wanted the group to be discovered by the kids rather than having it shoved down their throats.  The album sold moderately but putting the band on packaged tours like Winter Go West and Warped over the next couple of years garnered the word of mouth that the label was looking for. 

Another piece of information regarding how the band was “signed” is this.  Hayley Williams was signed to a solo deal in 2003, but due to her not wanting to be marketed as a pop princess, she insisted that she wanted to perform alternative rock music, with a band… so the label acquiesced to this request and unbeknownst to the band…Williams was the only one on the contract.  But Paramore was off and running.

As the popularity of the band continued, focus on Lead Singer Hayley Williams began to be more and more specific, which would make sense given that she was the only one the record label was initially interested in anyway.  To them, the band was interchangeable, but Williams was not.  In an article with Kerrang! Magazine in 2007 Williams was made the focus of the interview.  Williams was stated as saying “the article was an untrue portrayal of the band, particularly because it focused on her as the main component”.  Sincere or not, she championed the “band” ethos and continues to do so to make sure the audience continues to view Paramore as a band, and not “Hayley Williams & Friends”… 

Following later in that year the band would explode worldwide with their album “Riot!” and sell more copies in the first week of that record than total sales of the first record to that point.  To date it has been certified Platinum by the RIAA, successfully releasing the singles “Misery Business”, “Hallelujah”, “CrushCrushCrush”, and “That’s What You Get”. 

In what would become the classic “He said, She said” argument, the pressures of the band and the popularity of their lead singer would begin to cause friction within the band.  Williams was everywhere, in the press, on the premier circuit, and in the paparazzo’s lenses.   The band would informally go from being “Paramore” to “Hayley Willams & Paramore” to just Hayley Williams [from Paramore] in the press.  Regardless of whether it was a conscious effort by the artist or the record label machinations, it did not bode well for the other founding members of the band, who would be viewed more as a backup band to their lead singer. 

After recording one more record “Brand New Eyes” in 2009 and a tour, founding members Josh and Zac Farro quit the band on December 18, 2010.  The band released a statement "A couple of months ago, Josh and Zac let us know they would be leaving the band after our show in Orlando last Sunday. None of us were really shocked. For the last year it hasn't seemed as if they wanted to be around anymore. We want Josh and Zac to do something that makes them happy and if that isn't here with us, then we support them finding happiness elsewhere. But we never for a second thought about leaving any of this behind." The post also stated that the remaining members had “no intention of disbanding.” A South American Tour was then confirmed. 

On his blog, Josh Ferro disputed the account, claiming that the band was "a manufactured product of a major-label." He further accused Hayley Williams of being manipulated by her management, treating the rest of the group as her solo project, and claimed she was the only member of the band who was signed to Atlantic Records, while her band mates were simply "riding on the coattails of her dream".

Organic alt-rock band or record label confection?  You decide.  I think that it’s probably a little of both.  I believe that Hayley Williams was sincere in wanting to keep it a band unit.  But I also have to believe that the powers that be are going to do what’s best for business regardless.  In the end the lesson is still this: no matter how sincere a band is when it begins it can very easily become controlled by the record company, management, or family, and the intentions of these entities doesn’t have much to do with loyalty or the pure creation of music, because everything has to have a bottom line.  This is why the music business is a “business”, and make no mistake…they will be the ones who reap the benefits. 

So make sure you Read The Contract!...

And now for something completely different… Earworms!...

What is an earworm, you ask?  An earworm is [Courtesy of Wikipedia…] a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm,  is a portion of a song or other music that repeats compulsively within one's mind, put colloquially as "music being stuck in one's head."

Use of the English translation was popularized by James Kellaris, a marketing researcher at the University of Cincinnati, and Daniel Levitin. Kellaris' studies demonstrated that different people have varying susceptibilities to earworms, but that almost everybody has been afflicted with one at some time or another.

The Official Earworm Synonym List includes alternative terms such as "music meme", "humsickness" , "repetunitis", "obsessive musical thought" and "tune wedgy."
I am particularly fond of the phrase “Tune Wedgy…”  but I digress..

Earworms can be caused by that particular catchy chorus running through your head ad-infinitum to the point where you either A] Buy the single, or B] put a contract hit out on the artist and songwriter [you may want to stick to A….]. With the advent of electronic distribution and samples, this is most common as you go to hear a piece of a song you are interested in and all you hear is the bridge, or the chorus, and so your brain doesn’t know where to go after that.  Great for marketing the song, bad for a brain tuned to The Rolling Stones and you’ve got Katy Perry’s “Waking Up In Vegas” careening through your mind. [Neither good nor bad…just different…]  Or you are trying to remember the melody to your most recent favorite song and the commercial jingle that was just on gets stuck in your head. Again, great for marketing, not so good for your unsuspecting brain.

Another way that you can be afflicted by earworms is when you only remember a small portion of a song, and the brain fills it in with random noises until you can pick up the lyric again.  A great example of this one is “Informer” by Canadian rapper Snow [That in itself an oxymoron…] All anyone really knows of the words because they are completely indecipherable is this… Informer…[da da da, random humming, da da da, more humming…] icky boom boom down.  I will now challenge you to sing all the correct words with the proper phrasing… didn’t think so… But I bet it’s stuck in your head later… You Are Welcome…

So…how do you deal with the earworms? Well there are a few ways.  One is to replace it with a different one.  Given the short attention spans we all suffer from as we get older that can’t be too unreasonable an option.  Although the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.  So while you are trying to eliminate Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” from your mind you may end up stuck with the “Macarena”… Not really a gain there is it?

The other option would be to share your curse with others, that way you can at least make others suffer as you have.  In order to do this you just randomly sing along out loud with your earworm until the person next to you catches on.  By that time, it’s too late, and they’ll be singing it in their head all day long.  My wife is particularly gifted in this area.  She will randomly sing the most bizarre stuff when I’m in the middle of doing something so that I’m stuck with it.  She finds such glee in doing that.  So I will randomly get her back.  Sometimes it’s with random show tunes.  Sometimes it’s with the earworm she just got out of her head, and had the misfortune of telling me what it was.  It’s all in good fun.

The positive side of the earworm is that earworms can be used for educational purposes.  From something as simple as creating a song to remember the alphabet that we are all familiar with [abcdefg, hijk, lmnop, qrs,tuv, wxyz…now I know my abc’s..next time won’t you sing with me…] to using earworm-type music in language learning to help memory retention on foreign words.  So there are some positives out there that have helped along the way.  For more information on the use of earworms in education you can go to http://earwormslearning.com . 
It’s not just about torturing the guy next to you by singing “If you like pina coladas..and getting caught in the rain” repeatedly until the melody of “Escape” by Rupert Holmes is jammed in his head for good…
Well…maybe it is…
Coming Soon To A [You Pick The Medium]…

April 5 - Songs for Japan by Various Artists, Rush – Moving Pictures [CD+DVD Audio-Deluxe Edition], Ray Davies – See My Friends, Smithereens – 2011, Hollywood Undead – American Tragedy, George Michael – The Lowdown, Asking Alexandria – Reckless And Relentless, Kingdom Come – Rendered Waters

April 12 – Alison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplane, Foo Fighters – Wasting Light, Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What, k.d. lang – Sing It Out Loud, Mana’ – Drama Y Luz, Elbow – Build A Rocket Boy!, Jessie J. – Who Are You, The Feelies – Here Before

April 19 – Glee Cast – Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers, Steve Miller Band – Let Your Hair Down, Gorillaz – The Fall, DJ Quik – Book Of David, Pendragon – Passion, Badlands – Badlands & Voodoo Highway [Remasters], Kimberly Caldwell – Without Regret, Asia – Live At The London Forum

April 26 – Emmylou Harris – Hard Bargain, Steve Earle – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Rolling Stones – The Complete Singles [1971-2006], The Airborne Toxic Event – All At Once, Lynda Carter – Crazy Little Things, KFMDM – WTF?, Mike & The Mechanics – Road, Bowling For Soup – Fishin’ For Woos, Otep – Atavist, Savatage – Gutter Ballet [Reissue]

So…in closing…Read The Contract!... and when all else fails…accept the earworms… they like you too…

Thanks for coming along for the ride…see you soon.

J.

Friday, April 1, 2011

My Band Is Better Than Your Band…And I Just Hit Dislike On YouTube To Prove It...Guilty Pleasures And The Maintenance Of Image…

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” –
                                                          Shakespeare - Queen Gertrude, in Hamlet, act 3, sc. 2. l. 230

I had the opportunity to read some really inane posts on YouTube the other day as I was searching for a particular video.  I have spoken before about the concept that everything can have its own artistic merit, whether or not everyone likes it.  The challenge is just how stupid we can look when defending a certain genre, or artist.  The artists in question weren’t as important as the language and ferocity of the attitudes present.  It was that if you liked “X” artist you were cool, and if you liked “Y” artist you were stupid.  Artist “X” is a very successful heavy metal artist.  Artist “Y” is a very successful pop performer with a much younger demographic.  The person writing the post wanted to create a campaign to go onto artist “Y”s videos and dislike them, so that it received more dislikes than likes.  I think at the time I was more embarrassed than afraid.  You see the demographic of artist “X” is probably twice to three times the age of the demographic of artist “Y”.  That would indicate that an adult made these comments, and actually wanted to waste his time and others putting down someone else.   And I couldn’t help but wonder why…

When I was a kid, I had music in my head all the time.  It didn’t matter where I was or what I was doing there was always a song playing.  Now, as strange as this may seem, I was always paranoid that someone else could hear the songs in my head.  I don’t know what made me think that, because I couldn’t hear their music.  But I was always paranoid that on a day that I’m decked out in my Rush shirt they would hear in my head that I’m randomly listening to something else.  Instead of “The Spirit Of Radio” I have “Tragedy” by the Bee Gees stuck in my head.  In truth in my opinion both are good for very different reasons, and at this age I don’t care if someone sees that differently.  They can’t hear the songs in my head.  But when you’re a kid, and image matters, you don’t want to be ridiculed for any reason.  

So I would mentally change the station in my head if there was something different playing than what was expected.  Does it sound crazy?  Sure it does for the time, but I’m sure at this age if that is the least of my problems I’m doing ok.  I was a metal head, and Heaven forbid I’m caught with “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band in my head…  So these songs took on new form in my life, as I’m sure they have in others as well.  They became known as “guilty pleasures” and they were songs that you would listen to only when you were alone, and could enjoy them for the mindless, guilt-free enjoyment that they brought you.  It goes back to when you’re a kid, you feel you have to fit in, or explain everything away so that you don’t end up at the other end of someone’s fist, or the loser table at lunch. 

Statistically, I know that everyone out there has at least a few guilty pleasures in their iPods.  Hell, I have an entire collection like that.  And the reason that I know that everyone has them is this…

As an example… Remember “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice.  Now more recently it has become a retro dance song that still gets airplay, but do you know anyone that actually bought it in 1990? Or more to the point admitted they liked it?  Think hard… thought so…can’t name very many people can you…?

Well, the RIAA [Recording Industry Association Of America] certified the single as “Platinum” for sales of 1,000,000.  So that means that one million people bought it.  In 1990, when the single was released, the population of the United States is listed as 248,709,000.  That would mean statistically 1 person for roughly every 249 bought the single.  Who are these people, and where did they go?  I could name 249 people in my own home town, and I’m willing to bet that none of them would have copped to buying it. 

But the stats show that at least one of them did.  You see, I’m willing to bet that some of them did, and they listened when no one was listening.  And that’s ok.  I’m willing to bet that as they got older they realized that other’s opinions really didn’t matter and they actually played it out loud!... And if you’re like my wife and I, you may have played a song for your kids and then were reminded by them that you’re not cool, and you never were.  Such is parenting in a modern age…  Don’t worry, when they have kids, remember to pull out the soundtrack to “High School Musical” and remind them how much they used to love it, and dance to it.  And make sure their kids know too, because karma works...and it will catch up with them eventually. 

Now one of the biggest guilty pleasures I have ever seen is the often maligned 80’s hair bands.  For my simple research on this one I go back to the DJ shows that I have done.  I note that no matter how buttoned up and conservative the crowd is [especially the female attendees], if you play anything from that era, it can become a free for all.  The same people you just watched gracefully dancing to a romantic song by Van Morrison are now head banging on the dance floor with their shoes off [and occasionally some clothing as well…] and their hair whipping everywhere.  They know the words, they recreate the moves from the videos and they sing at the top of their lungs…sometimes from on top of the chairs or tables. 

Be it Poison, Whitesnake [I have seen someone try and recreate the dancing on the Jaguar on their table…it was not pretty…], Twisted Sister, Winger, Guns ‘N Roses, and even though I don’t really consider them hair metal, Def Leppard.  There’s not a girl in the room that doesn’t know the words to “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and if you throw out “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC, you can pretty much anticipate what’s going to happen.  And as you watch them move you realize that they don’t care who is watching.  And that’s the best part, because they were able to finally let loose and enjoy themselves.

For every listen that someone gives to Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets”…someone in that group is also listening to Madonna, or a Schubert symphony, or Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”.  Or they have a small child and are listening to “The Wheels On The Bus”[over and over and over again…].  In the end it doesn’t really matter.  The point of the music is to uplift your spirits, make you think, maybe teach you something, and in the end become yours, because everyone interprets things differently.  And what you hear might not be what they hear, and vice-versa, but it’s all good.  But only you can decide if you like it, and no one else.  And as far as the image… no one really cares, so why should you?...  You define the image…it doesn’t define you.

So the radio station in my head eventually got a new program director and the format went free-form.  Just today it went like this… Iron Maiden/Gordon Lightfoot/Tommy Tutone/Destiny’s Child [I have to thank my wife for that one…She sang the intro to Bootylicious at the ball fields the other day…]/Dream Theater/Brad Paisley/Stealer’s Wheel/Whitesnake/Loreena McKennitt/England Dan & John Ford Coley/Rush/and Within Temptation, and that was just the first hour.  I’m sure yours was just as diverse, and as much fun.

And that guy on YouTube who said that to be cool you must be a metal head and everything else is cheese… well he’s probably home right now as we speak listening to Yanni.  He just won’t admit it…

Thanks for coming along for the ride…See you soon.

J.