Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Friday, October 23, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
Dreamforce 2015, Day 3: Lightning, Tuxedos, Women, And Loud Guitars
Dreamforce is like the Super Bowl for sales technology enthusiasts. Vendors let their imaginations run wild with gimmicks and props that will get attention. The Salesforce people are the champs at pulling publicity stunts. I pull a few stunts of my own sometimes in between keynote addresses.
The latest Salesforce SaaS tool is Lightning, a reworking of the old dashboard with a cleaner layout and more customizable data feeds. I took the photo above at their big product pavilion. It is suitably dramatic and fits my energetic personality. Ordinary conference goers can look like Nikola Tesla playing with electric current. Salesforce people know their selfie special effects.
George Zimmer is applying a lifetime of retail clothing experience to his new startup, Generation Tux. I took a photo with the man himself at their booth. The emailed version came out poorly so this version next to my conference badge is the next best thing. I attended George's feature presentation and it was probably the most creative live display at Dreamforce. The guy played up his ageless pitch lines and compared himself favorably to a similar-looking . . . Most Interesting Man In The World. His marketing and tech team explained the cloud power behind their concept. I will be impressed if Salesforce's PaaS can handle logistics management for online retailers.
George is a master showman. He plans to officiate a wedding on New Year's Eve in Times Square while the big ball drops, and he finished with a flash mob dance troupe showing off his line of tuxedos. Kudos to George for accommodating gay couples who want tux rentals for their weddings. I had no idea that market research revealed how much control brides want over wedding details. Gay marriage brings a new twist on who gets to decide those details now. I also ran into the opening keynote's Hawaiian musicians at George's big pitch. My business life is full of such serendipitous moments. I don't get invited to weddings so this event was my proxy.
Speaking of business, it's my business to discuss some very important keynotes from the third day. Larry Brilliant from the Skoll Global Threats Fund described how innovators found many ways to beat biological nightmares. We can thank determined inventors for defeating smallpox and polio. The unscientific opponents of vaccinations deserve no thanks. Mindfulness advocates on Dreamforce's fourth day have a lot to chew on because alert people will innovate. Big Data makes digital disease surveillance cheaper and broader than ever for public health systems in developing countries.
Marc Benioff and Parker Harris got to tell famed tech journalist Kara Swisher about their progress in advocating for womens' careers. Marc admitted regrets for not doing more earlier in Salesforce's life, but I noticed he interrupted Kara several times when she was about to ask important questions. Male executives need to change that habit. I am dismayed to see that the term "micro-aggression" is now an acceptable description of workplace cultural traits. Men need to watch their language and bad habits, like interrupting someone, lest they be labeled micro-aggressors after they reach some unspecified threshold of unacceptable actions.
Kara's questions shed some light on how female thought leaders view controversial gender relations subjects like male privilege. White male backlash against perceived slights is increasingly evident in the rhetoric among Donald Trump's supporters. Women see The Donald's supporters as bewildering in the context of white male leadership in history. Middle class men have in fact seen stagnant real wages since the early 1970s, so perhaps we should not be surprised when the less informed among them seek scapegoats in minorities and women.
Marc mentioned Travis Kalanick's reluctance to grok Uber's need for a more public morality. Some CEOs really do need a backstage chat to frame moral images as brand-builders. Uber probably needs an intervention to prevent its culture from running off the rails. Send over Sheryl Sandberg to lead their Lean In circles. Maybe Parker could go instead; he was so proud of Salesforce's leader development programs that he mentioned it several times on stage.
It's too bad Marc gives himself a middling grade in supporting women's equality in the workplace. I'd give him a much better grade than the "F" I give myself. The bosses who treated me worst in life have all been women. I just don't like anyone, male or female, so I could never work at Salesforce.
Forrester Research had a very interesting talk on customer obsession from three of their leading folks. The age of the customer sounds like a big theme for them and I'll bet it sells a lot of consulting contracts. I would use the Forrester Customer Experience (CX) Index if I were actually selling things, but I'm not, so I read their insights just for kicks. I do not think a distinction between business technology and traditional IT is necessary to make the case for increased capex spend, as long as a smart CMO and CIO can show how it drives revenue. I have heard the term "mobile moments" at other conferences. Exploiting those moments in a simple enough context means having a buy button loaded into everything.
The heavily advertised women's panel featuring Jessica Alba and Susan Wojcicki was a can't miss event for yours truly. In times past I would have said something about admiring hot babes, but guess what, I really am trying to expunge bad attitudes from my life so I don't end up with Uber's branding problems or The Donald's reputation. Susan's sisters Anne Wojcicki and Janet Wojcicki are also quite accomplished. I did not know that Google started when its founders rented out Susan's garage. I noticed that these women don't mind discussing their hormones or motherhood rites with each other, even in front of large audiences. Women are different from me. No kidding.
Jessica shared one of her early adviser's lessons that if a business plan has more than 20 unanswerable questions, then it isn't ready for launch. One big unanswered question is what Jessica's venture, the Honest Company, will do about a lawsuit from a disgruntled customer. She did not discuss her company's legal challenges at all on the Dreamforce stage. The company's sunscreen left a lot of customers feeling burned. Jessica is known for her really nice skin tone and persistent tan. Her discussions of her products' development did not give me the impression that she is deeply familiar with the effects of chemistry on human skin. Contrast that with the answers Marc and Parker give to questions about how their SaaS products work. Gender equality matters, and so does technical competence.
I learned a few more things about gender relations. Paid maternity leave matters very much to working women. They are very concerned about job security in the absence of formal policy guarantees, either from employers or the federal government. I also noted the audience's very audible shocked reaction when moderator Gayle King said her post-partum physical appearance became a management concern when she returned to the newsroom. Wow, professional women are really sensitive to how others perceive their looks on the job. Wow. Men, take note. Every comment we make about a woman's physique in the workplace becomes a micro-aggression.
Talk of educating, training, and recruiting women in STEM careers was a big hit with this audience. Men in management need to take a serious look at women they can develop for advancement. Silicon Valley executives should of course advocate for diversity but that's tough to do when companies like Uber are in denial about their need for stronger morality. Jessica admits that she hires failed entrepreneurs who learned something at each failure. Her preferred strengths of hustle and common sense are fundamentally moral attributes. Moral failures are less likely to lead to introspective learning.
The third day ended with a big, loud, hard, Dreamfest music concert at Pier 70. That venue is perfect for outdoor rock and roll, plus more free food and booze than I've seen in a long time. I had my fill of hot dogs, fish and chips, and other fried comfort foods that absorbed the one glass of pinot noir I could hold. Gary Clark, Jr. gave a bluesy performance that channeled Stevie Ray Vaughan's spirit. The Killers have been on my mental playlist for a decade and I was thrilled to see them play live. "Mr. Brightside" was an awesome way to kick things off, and I wish they had played its sequel "Miss Atomic Bomb" but it was not meant to be. I was totally thrilled to hear the Killers cover Journey's "Faithfully," one of my favorite songs, even if it only lasted for one stanza.
I did not stay for the Foo Fighters although they headlined the show. I could not stomach more than one song of that group on my way out the gate to grab one more hot dog. Giant TV monitors showed Dave Grohl squatting in a chair screaming wildly. The most musically competent Foo Fighters song was "Big Me" and its parody candy commercial tells me everything about how this band parodies a real rock band. No thank you. I do not support rock bands who obnoxiously display their lack of musical skill. The Killers were harmonious, nuanced, and layered. Foo Fighters have always been monochromatic and uninspired; their entire sound is derivative of Nirvana's brief flash in the pan. The Killers are on one of my Spotify playlists. Find it and hear them yourselves.
Dreamforce's approach to planning the bus movements to and from Pier 70 showed the limits of software professionals' real world abilities. Software people have trouble understanding hardware precisely because logistics must move things around the real world that cannot be transported digitally. I made this remark to another Dreamforce guy walking into the Pier 70 gate for the show, and he high-fived me. I totally scored a "killer" observation at Dreamfest.
The latest Salesforce SaaS tool is Lightning, a reworking of the old dashboard with a cleaner layout and more customizable data feeds. I took the photo above at their big product pavilion. It is suitably dramatic and fits my energetic personality. Ordinary conference goers can look like Nikola Tesla playing with electric current. Salesforce people know their selfie special effects.
George Zimmer is applying a lifetime of retail clothing experience to his new startup, Generation Tux. I took a photo with the man himself at their booth. The emailed version came out poorly so this version next to my conference badge is the next best thing. I attended George's feature presentation and it was probably the most creative live display at Dreamforce. The guy played up his ageless pitch lines and compared himself favorably to a similar-looking . . . Most Interesting Man In The World. His marketing and tech team explained the cloud power behind their concept. I will be impressed if Salesforce's PaaS can handle logistics management for online retailers.
George is a master showman. He plans to officiate a wedding on New Year's Eve in Times Square while the big ball drops, and he finished with a flash mob dance troupe showing off his line of tuxedos. Kudos to George for accommodating gay couples who want tux rentals for their weddings. I had no idea that market research revealed how much control brides want over wedding details. Gay marriage brings a new twist on who gets to decide those details now. I also ran into the opening keynote's Hawaiian musicians at George's big pitch. My business life is full of such serendipitous moments. I don't get invited to weddings so this event was my proxy.
Speaking of business, it's my business to discuss some very important keynotes from the third day. Larry Brilliant from the Skoll Global Threats Fund described how innovators found many ways to beat biological nightmares. We can thank determined inventors for defeating smallpox and polio. The unscientific opponents of vaccinations deserve no thanks. Mindfulness advocates on Dreamforce's fourth day have a lot to chew on because alert people will innovate. Big Data makes digital disease surveillance cheaper and broader than ever for public health systems in developing countries.
Marc Benioff and Parker Harris got to tell famed tech journalist Kara Swisher about their progress in advocating for womens' careers. Marc admitted regrets for not doing more earlier in Salesforce's life, but I noticed he interrupted Kara several times when she was about to ask important questions. Male executives need to change that habit. I am dismayed to see that the term "micro-aggression" is now an acceptable description of workplace cultural traits. Men need to watch their language and bad habits, like interrupting someone, lest they be labeled micro-aggressors after they reach some unspecified threshold of unacceptable actions.
Kara's questions shed some light on how female thought leaders view controversial gender relations subjects like male privilege. White male backlash against perceived slights is increasingly evident in the rhetoric among Donald Trump's supporters. Women see The Donald's supporters as bewildering in the context of white male leadership in history. Middle class men have in fact seen stagnant real wages since the early 1970s, so perhaps we should not be surprised when the less informed among them seek scapegoats in minorities and women.
Marc mentioned Travis Kalanick's reluctance to grok Uber's need for a more public morality. Some CEOs really do need a backstage chat to frame moral images as brand-builders. Uber probably needs an intervention to prevent its culture from running off the rails. Send over Sheryl Sandberg to lead their Lean In circles. Maybe Parker could go instead; he was so proud of Salesforce's leader development programs that he mentioned it several times on stage.
It's too bad Marc gives himself a middling grade in supporting women's equality in the workplace. I'd give him a much better grade than the "F" I give myself. The bosses who treated me worst in life have all been women. I just don't like anyone, male or female, so I could never work at Salesforce.
Forrester Research had a very interesting talk on customer obsession from three of their leading folks. The age of the customer sounds like a big theme for them and I'll bet it sells a lot of consulting contracts. I would use the Forrester Customer Experience (CX) Index if I were actually selling things, but I'm not, so I read their insights just for kicks. I do not think a distinction between business technology and traditional IT is necessary to make the case for increased capex spend, as long as a smart CMO and CIO can show how it drives revenue. I have heard the term "mobile moments" at other conferences. Exploiting those moments in a simple enough context means having a buy button loaded into everything.
The heavily advertised women's panel featuring Jessica Alba and Susan Wojcicki was a can't miss event for yours truly. In times past I would have said something about admiring hot babes, but guess what, I really am trying to expunge bad attitudes from my life so I don't end up with Uber's branding problems or The Donald's reputation. Susan's sisters Anne Wojcicki and Janet Wojcicki are also quite accomplished. I did not know that Google started when its founders rented out Susan's garage. I noticed that these women don't mind discussing their hormones or motherhood rites with each other, even in front of large audiences. Women are different from me. No kidding.
Jessica shared one of her early adviser's lessons that if a business plan has more than 20 unanswerable questions, then it isn't ready for launch. One big unanswered question is what Jessica's venture, the Honest Company, will do about a lawsuit from a disgruntled customer. She did not discuss her company's legal challenges at all on the Dreamforce stage. The company's sunscreen left a lot of customers feeling burned. Jessica is known for her really nice skin tone and persistent tan. Her discussions of her products' development did not give me the impression that she is deeply familiar with the effects of chemistry on human skin. Contrast that with the answers Marc and Parker give to questions about how their SaaS products work. Gender equality matters, and so does technical competence.
I learned a few more things about gender relations. Paid maternity leave matters very much to working women. They are very concerned about job security in the absence of formal policy guarantees, either from employers or the federal government. I also noted the audience's very audible shocked reaction when moderator Gayle King said her post-partum physical appearance became a management concern when she returned to the newsroom. Wow, professional women are really sensitive to how others perceive their looks on the job. Wow. Men, take note. Every comment we make about a woman's physique in the workplace becomes a micro-aggression.
Talk of educating, training, and recruiting women in STEM careers was a big hit with this audience. Men in management need to take a serious look at women they can develop for advancement. Silicon Valley executives should of course advocate for diversity but that's tough to do when companies like Uber are in denial about their need for stronger morality. Jessica admits that she hires failed entrepreneurs who learned something at each failure. Her preferred strengths of hustle and common sense are fundamentally moral attributes. Moral failures are less likely to lead to introspective learning.
The third day ended with a big, loud, hard, Dreamfest music concert at Pier 70. That venue is perfect for outdoor rock and roll, plus more free food and booze than I've seen in a long time. I had my fill of hot dogs, fish and chips, and other fried comfort foods that absorbed the one glass of pinot noir I could hold. Gary Clark, Jr. gave a bluesy performance that channeled Stevie Ray Vaughan's spirit. The Killers have been on my mental playlist for a decade and I was thrilled to see them play live. "Mr. Brightside" was an awesome way to kick things off, and I wish they had played its sequel "Miss Atomic Bomb" but it was not meant to be. I was totally thrilled to hear the Killers cover Journey's "Faithfully," one of my favorite songs, even if it only lasted for one stanza.
I did not stay for the Foo Fighters although they headlined the show. I could not stomach more than one song of that group on my way out the gate to grab one more hot dog. Giant TV monitors showed Dave Grohl squatting in a chair screaming wildly. The most musically competent Foo Fighters song was "Big Me" and its parody candy commercial tells me everything about how this band parodies a real rock band. No thank you. I do not support rock bands who obnoxiously display their lack of musical skill. The Killers were harmonious, nuanced, and layered. Foo Fighters have always been monochromatic and uninspired; their entire sound is derivative of Nirvana's brief flash in the pan. The Killers are on one of my Spotify playlists. Find it and hear them yourselves.
Dreamforce's approach to planning the bus movements to and from Pier 70 showed the limits of software professionals' real world abilities. Software people have trouble understanding hardware precisely because logistics must move things around the real world that cannot be transported digitally. I made this remark to another Dreamforce guy walking into the Pier 70 gate for the show, and he high-fived me. I totally scored a "killer" observation at Dreamfest.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Towards A Pythagorean Musical Algorithm
Pythagoras was an ancient Greek dude who was really into mystical thinking, mathematics, and music. He was also into Egyptian mysteries that were pretty much worthless but history has forgiven him. His approach to music had a special focus on math and rules that governed harmony. Math is more advanced today. Our music should be just as advanced.
The Music Genome Project tracks songs into broad genomes with specific genes. The project aims to match lesser known music to listeners' existing tastes. Its obvious utility lies in signaling to artists how they can construct music that a clearly defined market demographic will buy. Consider that some white people like hip-hop and some African-Americans like country/Western. Race and gender demographics matter less in an era of Big Data when algorithms can match individual consumers with music they like.
Let's consider further that modern algorithms have something to learn from ancient philosophers. The golden ratio has guided architects and artists for centuries. Musica universalis was an imaginary form of music occurring naturally in the universe. I believe algorithms plotting these two concepts into something like the Music Genome Project could produce marketable music. Classical music has always followed precise modes, like 4/4 time for an orchestral work or the standard twelve notes in Western music notation. Applying math to ancient theories gives us more musical options.
Other musical theories like Sonido 13 are ripe for experimentation with algorithms. Music innovation should no longer be confined to obscure composers or theorists working in isolation. Computer science can theoretically generate new music automatically through an algorithm's continual processing. Generating enough new songs and compositions means some of them will find an audience. Pythagorean musical algorithms can apply the golden ratio to the music of the spheres, and to all other kinds of creations. Someone will buy it among the market for space and ambient music. Ancient concepts can be new again.
The Music Genome Project tracks songs into broad genomes with specific genes. The project aims to match lesser known music to listeners' existing tastes. Its obvious utility lies in signaling to artists how they can construct music that a clearly defined market demographic will buy. Consider that some white people like hip-hop and some African-Americans like country/Western. Race and gender demographics matter less in an era of Big Data when algorithms can match individual consumers with music they like.
Let's consider further that modern algorithms have something to learn from ancient philosophers. The golden ratio has guided architects and artists for centuries. Musica universalis was an imaginary form of music occurring naturally in the universe. I believe algorithms plotting these two concepts into something like the Music Genome Project could produce marketable music. Classical music has always followed precise modes, like 4/4 time for an orchestral work or the standard twelve notes in Western music notation. Applying math to ancient theories gives us more musical options.
Other musical theories like Sonido 13 are ripe for experimentation with algorithms. Music innovation should no longer be confined to obscure composers or theorists working in isolation. Computer science can theoretically generate new music automatically through an algorithm's continual processing. Generating enough new songs and compositions means some of them will find an audience. Pythagorean musical algorithms can apply the golden ratio to the music of the spheres, and to all other kinds of creations. Someone will buy it among the market for space and ambient music. Ancient concepts can be new again.
Friday, July 10, 2015
The Haiku of Finance for 07/10/15
Go make some music
Concert tour and merchandise
Rich artist on road
Concert tour and merchandise
Rich artist on road
Van Halen And Genius In The Music Business
I went to a Van Halen concert for the first time in my life last night when they played the Concord Pavilion on their Tokyo Dome Live in Concert 2015 tour. They put on a loud, tight show with plenty of flair from all of the players. I got to relive the 1980s because most of the setlist for this tour was from their earlier albums. Everyone should have careers they enjoy, and if you follow your bliss then financial rewards will follow you. Concert fun and business success often go hand in hand.
Ignore all of the sniping from this 2015 tour's critics. There were no rough lead vocals or pre-recorded backing vocals. Diamond Dave stretched a bit for the high notes he can't reach anymore in his older years but his phrasing and timing were clear enough. Wolf was in front of his mic, singing and playing in time, and he flawlessly led off the famous bass chords from "Runnin' With The Devil." Alex's drum solo sounded like Miami Sound Machine gave him some inspiration. Dave does not have the vocal range of Sammy Hagar or even Gary Cherone, but his stage presence is one of the intangibles that make Van Halen special to fans. Dave twirls a mic stand like nobody's business and his dancing punctuates Eddie's guitar licks. These guys put on a professional show.
Some Diamond Dave quotes were instant classics. Asking the audience "How 'bout that women's soccer team?" was the perfect break during his harmonica intro to "Ice Cream Man." I wouldn't have used a Bill Cosby joke, but I'm not Dave. I don't know what "Fifty shades of Dave" means, or whether there's an America Town in China, or whether his description of a long-ago Mexican girlfriend was accurate. Knowing why would take the fun away. Whatever tension exists between Dave and Eddie was not visible at all on stage. Eddie played along with Dave's verbal gags like a classic straight player to an improvisational comic.
Other professionals were obviously hard at work on the business end of this tour. The merchandising tent was full and people lined up to spend $20 or more for a $5 T-shirt. The band's 2012 tour grossed over $54M from ticket sales but I couldn't find a figure for merchandise sales. The tour revenue averaged over $1M per show that year. Guitar Player breaks down the album sales from the band's eras under two very different lead singers. Dave sold more records for the band but Sammy's net worth is much higher, probably due to all of his Cabo Wabo business ventures. No one seems to be tracking Gary's earnings from Van Halen III; his only album with the band went gold, the lowest US certification of any album in Van Halen's discography.
The blurry photo above is the band on stage. Trust me, it's them. If the spirit moves you, well, you move. I was moving along to the beat the whole night, raising my fist with the "hey hey hey" chorus of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and everything. Other people could have jumped around the aisle during "Dance The Night Away" but the seats on either side of me were empty. I have high standards, and I'm not jumping around a Van Halen concert even though most of the people in attendance did that at some point in their lives. Oh BTW, I only date drug-free intellectual babes.
The first Van Halen item I ever purchased wasn't even their music. I bought a replica of the poster above during junior high school in 1988 because it just looked so freaking cool. I think the poster was designed for their appearance at the 1983 US Festival. I recall seeing a recording of the US Festival once. One thing from the recording still rings clear as a bell in my memory. The chords that became the riff for "Top of the World" on 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge were audible during the closing chorus for "Dance the Night Away" in that 1983 show. Eddie played those "Top of the World" riffs during the closing of "Jump" in last night's Concord concert. He obviously loves the way it sounds and I wonder if he regrets not performing any songs from the Sammy era live while touring with Dave. I still have that 1983 poster rolled up in my closet. I feel on top of the world whenever I look at it because it's just so darn patriotic. It is still freaking cool after all these years and I'll hang it up when I'm ready.
Van Halen's body of work remains compelling after four decades because its principal artists are true virtuosos. Wolf is still growing musically but he's coming along fine by all indications. He is making his dad very proud. Dave, Alex, and especially Eddie have always been excellent performers. Some people are just gifted, and wasting natural talent is a crime against nature. Whenever something in business bugs me to the point of exasperation, I think about songs like "Dance the Night Away," "Panama," "Jump," "Dreams," and "Top of the World" to remember that chaos gives birth to a dancing star (paraphrasing Friedrich Nietzsche). I am supposed to be a financial virtuoso. Whatever chaos Dave and Eddie use to create their most memorable songs is something I can tap into myself. It is simply impossible to be sad or angry when you're standing on top of the world, dreaming of jumping all the way to Panama so you can dance the night away. Great music makes you want to do just that every time you hear it.
Van Halen takes forever to put out new music now that their founding members are all age 60 or over. I could not shake the suspicion that this tour for their only live album with Dave could be their swan song. I am very grateful to have seen them just this once if this turns out to be the first and last time I can witness their creative genius in person. The mark of genius is to make a difficult task look easy. Dave and Eddie make rock music look so easy that every amateur in the audience imagined themselves in the music right along with them. The gross revenue from my one concert ticket won't make the band much richer but it should be enough for each Van Halen member to buy a sandwich if they're so inclined. Have lunch on me, guys. You earned it.
Ignore all of the sniping from this 2015 tour's critics. There were no rough lead vocals or pre-recorded backing vocals. Diamond Dave stretched a bit for the high notes he can't reach anymore in his older years but his phrasing and timing were clear enough. Wolf was in front of his mic, singing and playing in time, and he flawlessly led off the famous bass chords from "Runnin' With The Devil." Alex's drum solo sounded like Miami Sound Machine gave him some inspiration. Dave does not have the vocal range of Sammy Hagar or even Gary Cherone, but his stage presence is one of the intangibles that make Van Halen special to fans. Dave twirls a mic stand like nobody's business and his dancing punctuates Eddie's guitar licks. These guys put on a professional show.
Some Diamond Dave quotes were instant classics. Asking the audience "How 'bout that women's soccer team?" was the perfect break during his harmonica intro to "Ice Cream Man." I wouldn't have used a Bill Cosby joke, but I'm not Dave. I don't know what "Fifty shades of Dave" means, or whether there's an America Town in China, or whether his description of a long-ago Mexican girlfriend was accurate. Knowing why would take the fun away. Whatever tension exists between Dave and Eddie was not visible at all on stage. Eddie played along with Dave's verbal gags like a classic straight player to an improvisational comic.
Other professionals were obviously hard at work on the business end of this tour. The merchandising tent was full and people lined up to spend $20 or more for a $5 T-shirt. The band's 2012 tour grossed over $54M from ticket sales but I couldn't find a figure for merchandise sales. The tour revenue averaged over $1M per show that year. Guitar Player breaks down the album sales from the band's eras under two very different lead singers. Dave sold more records for the band but Sammy's net worth is much higher, probably due to all of his Cabo Wabo business ventures. No one seems to be tracking Gary's earnings from Van Halen III; his only album with the band went gold, the lowest US certification of any album in Van Halen's discography.
The blurry photo above is the band on stage. Trust me, it's them. If the spirit moves you, well, you move. I was moving along to the beat the whole night, raising my fist with the "hey hey hey" chorus of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and everything. Other people could have jumped around the aisle during "Dance The Night Away" but the seats on either side of me were empty. I have high standards, and I'm not jumping around a Van Halen concert even though most of the people in attendance did that at some point in their lives. Oh BTW, I only date drug-free intellectual babes.
The first Van Halen item I ever purchased wasn't even their music. I bought a replica of the poster above during junior high school in 1988 because it just looked so freaking cool. I think the poster was designed for their appearance at the 1983 US Festival. I recall seeing a recording of the US Festival once. One thing from the recording still rings clear as a bell in my memory. The chords that became the riff for "Top of the World" on 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge were audible during the closing chorus for "Dance the Night Away" in that 1983 show. Eddie played those "Top of the World" riffs during the closing of "Jump" in last night's Concord concert. He obviously loves the way it sounds and I wonder if he regrets not performing any songs from the Sammy era live while touring with Dave. I still have that 1983 poster rolled up in my closet. I feel on top of the world whenever I look at it because it's just so darn patriotic. It is still freaking cool after all these years and I'll hang it up when I'm ready.
Van Halen's body of work remains compelling after four decades because its principal artists are true virtuosos. Wolf is still growing musically but he's coming along fine by all indications. He is making his dad very proud. Dave, Alex, and especially Eddie have always been excellent performers. Some people are just gifted, and wasting natural talent is a crime against nature. Whenever something in business bugs me to the point of exasperation, I think about songs like "Dance the Night Away," "Panama," "Jump," "Dreams," and "Top of the World" to remember that chaos gives birth to a dancing star (paraphrasing Friedrich Nietzsche). I am supposed to be a financial virtuoso. Whatever chaos Dave and Eddie use to create their most memorable songs is something I can tap into myself. It is simply impossible to be sad or angry when you're standing on top of the world, dreaming of jumping all the way to Panama so you can dance the night away. Great music makes you want to do just that every time you hear it.
Van Halen takes forever to put out new music now that their founding members are all age 60 or over. I could not shake the suspicion that this tour for their only live album with Dave could be their swan song. I am very grateful to have seen them just this once if this turns out to be the first and last time I can witness their creative genius in person. The mark of genius is to make a difficult task look easy. Dave and Eddie make rock music look so easy that every amateur in the audience imagined themselves in the music right along with them. The gross revenue from my one concert ticket won't make the band much richer but it should be enough for each Van Halen member to buy a sandwich if they're so inclined. Have lunch on me, guys. You earned it.
Friday, July 03, 2015
Behemoths of the Online Music Marketplace
Competition in the online music sector looks much like the cloud computing sector. A small number of companies with huge audience penetration fight to distribute products whose unit production costs are close to zero. Cloud computing and music are not completely identical; cloud storage space and performance are commodities where music can sometimes command a premium price.
The big channels include Apple Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Pandora Media. All except Spotify are part of publicly traded companies. Apple's cash hoard makes it the strongest competitor regardless of the other competitors' market penetration. Apple can win any price war and drive less well-funded companies out, just as it can in cloud computing. Apple Music and iTunes do not cannibalize each other thanks to matching through the iCloud Music Library. Apple Insider describes the library's back-end technical challenges; those problems will lead to user cancellations if Apple doesn't fix them soon.
The key difference between cloud computing and music is not the commodification of storage but the brand image and performance of the final product's aesthetic features. The UX design of the desktop interface and mobile app certainly matter. The musical artists' published product is the aesthetic users ultimately want to experience. Listener demand for some artists is price inelastic and those artists exercise outsize power over their distribution channels. Taylor Swift's recent demand that Apple pay its artists during a free trial period has encouraged independent artists to view Apple Music more favorably. Prince demanded that some streaming services pull his music. The streaming services that retain access to the most lucrative music libraries - The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, etc. - will have to pay premiums to those artists' publishers, estates, or digital rights managers.
It is too early to tell whether music will become hostage to the walled garden trend in computing. Your favorite artist may very well end up available only on one streaming platform. Limiting exposure in such a way would be a tragedy for the listening audience. Streaming services pursuing two-tier pricing models will continue to charge premiums for unlimited access and special access to the most popular artists, while enabling advertising sponsorship for free subscribers. Keeping those top artists happy means streaming portals must expand both audience share and the presence of smaller artists on their platforms. The bigger the audience, the bigger the advertising subsidy that makes up for the added costs of hosting popular artists. A vast number of boutique performers on a streaming channel should attract a sufficiently sizable demographic base that makes "freemium" advertising permanently viable.
Full disclosure: No positions in any of the companies named above. The Alfidi Capital website and blogs use Google AdSense code to display advertisements.
The big channels include Apple Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Pandora Media. All except Spotify are part of publicly traded companies. Apple's cash hoard makes it the strongest competitor regardless of the other competitors' market penetration. Apple can win any price war and drive less well-funded companies out, just as it can in cloud computing. Apple Music and iTunes do not cannibalize each other thanks to matching through the iCloud Music Library. Apple Insider describes the library's back-end technical challenges; those problems will lead to user cancellations if Apple doesn't fix them soon.
The key difference between cloud computing and music is not the commodification of storage but the brand image and performance of the final product's aesthetic features. The UX design of the desktop interface and mobile app certainly matter. The musical artists' published product is the aesthetic users ultimately want to experience. Listener demand for some artists is price inelastic and those artists exercise outsize power over their distribution channels. Taylor Swift's recent demand that Apple pay its artists during a free trial period has encouraged independent artists to view Apple Music more favorably. Prince demanded that some streaming services pull his music. The streaming services that retain access to the most lucrative music libraries - The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, etc. - will have to pay premiums to those artists' publishers, estates, or digital rights managers.
It is too early to tell whether music will become hostage to the walled garden trend in computing. Your favorite artist may very well end up available only on one streaming platform. Limiting exposure in such a way would be a tragedy for the listening audience. Streaming services pursuing two-tier pricing models will continue to charge premiums for unlimited access and special access to the most popular artists, while enabling advertising sponsorship for free subscribers. Keeping those top artists happy means streaming portals must expand both audience share and the presence of smaller artists on their platforms. The bigger the audience, the bigger the advertising subsidy that makes up for the added costs of hosting popular artists. A vast number of boutique performers on a streaming channel should attract a sufficiently sizable demographic base that makes "freemium" advertising permanently viable.
Full disclosure: No positions in any of the companies named above. The Alfidi Capital website and blogs use Google AdSense code to display advertisements.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Public Archives Can Build a Music Brand
Library science isn't just for geeky old spinsters anymore. Information archiving and retrieval can be part of a brand building effort for digital properties. Take the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as an example. Click on its Library Archives page to see the local music history they've unearthed. Photos crammed into boxes from older students' attics are now online. The SFCM's oral history project dovetails with other regional projects like UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library ROHO and the UC Regents' California Digital Library (specifically their Online Archive of California searchable database).
Uploading old folks' reminiscences is more than a way to keep their memories alive. Mentioning the leading lights of modern music that have added star power to SFCM can help build that institution's brand when tied to an SEO campaign. Impresarios like Kurt Adler, Frederica von Stade, and Midori Goto have made their joyful noises in SFCM's halls over the years. Any performance materials they generated can be digitized. Uploading their multimedia stuff to SFCM's website makes the whole site more attractive to Google's search engine. Music enthusiasts worldwide will then have an easier time discovering SFCM's rich history. The brand's value will rise and the school's graduates will be more marketable in music careers.
I wrote SFCM into my will because training young people in music is important to our society. I don't want young musicians to go down the path of the San Francisco Symphony's stupid loser union musicians who deserved to be fired. The Conservatory is exposing its students to entrepreneurial lessons that will enable them to produce and perform music in the free market. Independence from collective bargaining may be one of the greatest gifts a musical education can give. Archives of star performances can give an educational brand some superstar power in the marketplace.
Uploading old folks' reminiscences is more than a way to keep their memories alive. Mentioning the leading lights of modern music that have added star power to SFCM can help build that institution's brand when tied to an SEO campaign. Impresarios like Kurt Adler, Frederica von Stade, and Midori Goto have made their joyful noises in SFCM's halls over the years. Any performance materials they generated can be digitized. Uploading their multimedia stuff to SFCM's website makes the whole site more attractive to Google's search engine. Music enthusiasts worldwide will then have an easier time discovering SFCM's rich history. The brand's value will rise and the school's graduates will be more marketable in music careers.
I wrote SFCM into my will because training young people in music is important to our society. I don't want young musicians to go down the path of the San Francisco Symphony's stupid loser union musicians who deserved to be fired. The Conservatory is exposing its students to entrepreneurial lessons that will enable them to produce and perform music in the free market. Independence from collective bargaining may be one of the greatest gifts a musical education can give. Archives of star performances can give an educational brand some superstar power in the marketplace.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, and Kate Earl in Concord for Summer 2013
Live music is an opportunity to wonder at mass behavior. Some artists fade away after a single hit and others have careers for decades. The handful of bands that have survived in American pop culture since the mid-90s captured the zeitgeist of the dot-com bubble's promise of endless prosperity. Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls are among that small number. I got to hear them live on July 23 at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord during their 2013 Summer Tour.
The Pavilion itself is impressive. It's a Frank Gehry creation that looks like someone chopped an edge off a Borg Collective cube and propped it up in the hill country of Contra Costa County. I don't quite get the business logic behind Sleep Train's sponsorship, unless people in the Bay Area really need new mattresses more than once a decade. Bay Area denizens break down into tribes of intellectuals and laborers. I normally hang out with intellectuals but I can deal with the masses when I'm out in public. Longtime concert goers mark their tribal affiliations with T-shirts from previous tours. Lots of these folks must love the big name tour circuit.
The opening act was Kate Earl, a very strong performer with radio-friendly tracks like "One Woman Army" and "All I Want." Kate will easily be a star because she has talent and the crowd felt it when she connected with them. I was particularly impressed when she hit several progressively higher notes to demonstrate her vocal range, and her voice was stable at each octave. It also helps that her looks and emotive ability translate well to video. Check out her video for "Melody." She's a natural performer and boldly displays sensuality.
Even top acts aren't above using base comic relief. After Kate Earl's set, some random performer in a bear costume got up on stage and gesticulated to the old Disney standard "Bare Necessities." I guess that was to please the kids in the crowd, or perhaps to fulfill a union contract that stipulates some minimum amount of time the roadies must be on stage. Even roadies have unions these days, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) helps ensure that the ticket prices you pay at live performance venues remain as high as possible to pad their fat pockets.
The Goo Goo Dolls had tons of energy in their set, plus tons of touring musicians who aren't part of their regular lineup. The one thing I've never fully understood about touring performers is their desire to supplement their official lineup with extra musicians who didn't record the songs in a studio. I have a pet theory that I would like a music industry insider to either confirm or debunk. I think studio recordings are now so overly processed, engineered, and dubbed that the only way to achieve a comparably rich sound while live is to add more live musicians. I don't care much either way. The Goo Goo Dolls sounded great with their extra backups.
John Rzeznik was a crowd favorite. I suspect he'll go down in music history as a game-changing singer and songwriter. His lyrics are poetic and his vocals have so many alternating layers that the band's oldest hits never tire out. Their newer songs often share similar rhythms with their older standards but it's not like you're listening to the same song twice. The only thing the Goo Goo Dolls need to do to remain successful is to stop their bassist Robby Takac from singing lead. His bass playing is fine, but the dude just can't sing. His raspy voice contrasted with John's melody displays an obvious talent gap. It is no coincidence that the band achieved its commercial success when John took the lead vocal role from Robby after their first two albums. It is also no coincidence that none of the album songs where Robby sings lead have ever been released as singles. Even the audience noticed the difference in vocal quality; they were polite and sedate when Robby sang but enthusiastic when John regained control of the stage. This observation won't sit well with hardcore GGD fans but someone has to tell the truth. Just play, Robby, and let John sing.
Matchbox Twenty went last and played the longest set. Here's another of my pet theories. I suspect that music industry tradition reserves the last and longest set for the band that has sold the most retail music. That used to be measured in CD sales but now MP3 downloads are probably the leading metric. The RIAA keeps statistics on shipments of music packages. The IFPI has worldwide data. I don't subscribe to either service so I don't get full access to their data histories by artist. The closest I can come in open sources is to compare the unofficial Matchbox Twenty discography with the comparable Goo Goo Dolls discography. Argh, the GGD page doesn't have total sales figures per album. Shucks. Billboard is no help either; it has article histories but no sales data.
I'm getting off track here, but I just can't help thinking about business topics even at a rock concert. Matchbox Twenty simply rocked. Their old standards from the mid-'90s pleased the youngsters in the crowd. The two hot chicks in front of me just couldn't stop shaking their shapely bee-hinds during "3AM" and "Real World." I had to stand for most of Matchbox Twenty's set because so many yahoos were standing up in front of me, including one tubby guy who insisted on waving his arms in some bizarre Tai Chi poses. That's rock 'n roll for ya, where even no-talent slobs think they can be stars.
The prominent use of video effects as part of both headliners' stage acts is a sea change from road shows of yesteryear. My very first live rock concert was Tesla in Sacramento on New Year's Eve 1992. The hued lights would blink in time with the rhythm section and the bright lights would cue the audience to go nuts at the musical "bridge" points in each song, much like an "Applause" sign in a TV recording studio. The last big name rock concert I attended was when The Cranberries played San Francisco's Warfield in 2002 as their popularity was just about to wane. It really does take me a decade to get around to a show. Anyway, the Cranberries had plenty of flashy lighting but no big video monitors to tell the audience what they should be feeling. The video cues in the Goo Goo Dolls' "Come to Me" included supertitles of the lyrics so we could all sing along to one of their new releases. Matchbox Twenty launched their set with a video of some Vaudevillian actor introducing them, and introduced "3AM" with a video of a clock radio hitting that time. Video added a dimension to these groups' artistry that I never expected to see live. Watch a YouTube video of some old '80s hair metal band and you'll see that lighting and video cues used to be as subtle as sledgehammers; now they're as sharp as scalpels.
Many of the younger folks in attendance couldn't have been past elementary school age when these two bands were in their heyday during the dot-com bubble. Most of them weren't even born when INXS released "Don't Change," but they rocked out to it anyway when Matchbox Twenty covered it during their encore. Those teens and twentysomethings now have a memory of an old song made new again.
Pop music's pervasiveness allows us to time-stamp our lives. I'm in Generation X, the first generation to transition its listening preferences from FM radio to CDs to MP3s and finally web streaming. The time-stamps of each of the hits that night are as readily visible for me now as when they were first imprinted . . .
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Name" in 1995 . . . meeting my platoon for the first time at Yongsan Garrison, Republic of Korea.
- Matchbox Twenty's "Push" and "3AM" in 1997 . . . driving back country Texas roads around Fort Hood after major exercises, going past the boundaries of the maps the base gave me.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" in 1998 . . . browsing the old German shops made new for tourists outside of Warner Barracks in Bamberg, and regretting that the remake City of Angels wasn't nearly as good as Wim Wenders' original Wings of Desire.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Black Balloon" in 1999 . . . watching Air Force pilots throw plastic furniture from the Officers' Club patio at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, with a very attractive female Air Force lieutenant who might have done anything I'd asked her to do (if only I had thought to ask).
- Matchbox Twenty's "Real World" in 1999 . . . at my promotion to Captain on the fourth floor of the Zone night club in Songtan, Republic of Korea, surrounded by my fellow soldiers and Korean bar girls with Anglicized stage names.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Here is Gone" in 2002 . . . commuting to MBA classes in San Francisco where most of my classmates held me in contempt for my military background, and wondering how badly my pending recall to active duty would hurt my civilian career (as it turned out, almost terminally).
- Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell" in 2003 . . . risking my rank and paycheck to fight every illegal order I received from corrupt and incompetent military superiors, all while wondering why I was still bothering with the Army.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Before It's Too Late" in 2007 . . . rebuilding an Army unit and its training regimen from the inside out at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the same barracks where I was told as a cadet in 1994 that I did not deserve to be a soldier.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Notbroken" in 2010 . . . returning from war in Iraq, not broken at all.
- Matchbox Twenty's "She's So Mean" in 2013 . . . when my Army rank, personal net worth, and business reputation are higher than I ever imagined they would be in my darkest days.
I marked a new time-stamp at this concert with Kate Earl's "All I Want." All I wanted was to see awesome performers live. Popular music will never really change. Frank Sinatra was the first pop crooner to make young women swoon and Elvis Presley was the first to make their boyfriends jealous. The Beatles made pop music go transnational, with or without Tavistock's help. Heavy rhythms recall our tribal origins as hunter gatherers. Those rhythms can still bind us as temporary tribes, under the stars in outdoor pavilions.
The Pavilion itself is impressive. It's a Frank Gehry creation that looks like someone chopped an edge off a Borg Collective cube and propped it up in the hill country of Contra Costa County. I don't quite get the business logic behind Sleep Train's sponsorship, unless people in the Bay Area really need new mattresses more than once a decade. Bay Area denizens break down into tribes of intellectuals and laborers. I normally hang out with intellectuals but I can deal with the masses when I'm out in public. Longtime concert goers mark their tribal affiliations with T-shirts from previous tours. Lots of these folks must love the big name tour circuit.
The opening act was Kate Earl, a very strong performer with radio-friendly tracks like "One Woman Army" and "All I Want." Kate will easily be a star because she has talent and the crowd felt it when she connected with them. I was particularly impressed when she hit several progressively higher notes to demonstrate her vocal range, and her voice was stable at each octave. It also helps that her looks and emotive ability translate well to video. Check out her video for "Melody." She's a natural performer and boldly displays sensuality.
Even top acts aren't above using base comic relief. After Kate Earl's set, some random performer in a bear costume got up on stage and gesticulated to the old Disney standard "Bare Necessities." I guess that was to please the kids in the crowd, or perhaps to fulfill a union contract that stipulates some minimum amount of time the roadies must be on stage. Even roadies have unions these days, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) helps ensure that the ticket prices you pay at live performance venues remain as high as possible to pad their fat pockets.
The Goo Goo Dolls had tons of energy in their set, plus tons of touring musicians who aren't part of their regular lineup. The one thing I've never fully understood about touring performers is their desire to supplement their official lineup with extra musicians who didn't record the songs in a studio. I have a pet theory that I would like a music industry insider to either confirm or debunk. I think studio recordings are now so overly processed, engineered, and dubbed that the only way to achieve a comparably rich sound while live is to add more live musicians. I don't care much either way. The Goo Goo Dolls sounded great with their extra backups.
John Rzeznik was a crowd favorite. I suspect he'll go down in music history as a game-changing singer and songwriter. His lyrics are poetic and his vocals have so many alternating layers that the band's oldest hits never tire out. Their newer songs often share similar rhythms with their older standards but it's not like you're listening to the same song twice. The only thing the Goo Goo Dolls need to do to remain successful is to stop their bassist Robby Takac from singing lead. His bass playing is fine, but the dude just can't sing. His raspy voice contrasted with John's melody displays an obvious talent gap. It is no coincidence that the band achieved its commercial success when John took the lead vocal role from Robby after their first two albums. It is also no coincidence that none of the album songs where Robby sings lead have ever been released as singles. Even the audience noticed the difference in vocal quality; they were polite and sedate when Robby sang but enthusiastic when John regained control of the stage. This observation won't sit well with hardcore GGD fans but someone has to tell the truth. Just play, Robby, and let John sing.
Matchbox Twenty went last and played the longest set. Here's another of my pet theories. I suspect that music industry tradition reserves the last and longest set for the band that has sold the most retail music. That used to be measured in CD sales but now MP3 downloads are probably the leading metric. The RIAA keeps statistics on shipments of music packages. The IFPI has worldwide data. I don't subscribe to either service so I don't get full access to their data histories by artist. The closest I can come in open sources is to compare the unofficial Matchbox Twenty discography with the comparable Goo Goo Dolls discography. Argh, the GGD page doesn't have total sales figures per album. Shucks. Billboard is no help either; it has article histories but no sales data.
I'm getting off track here, but I just can't help thinking about business topics even at a rock concert. Matchbox Twenty simply rocked. Their old standards from the mid-'90s pleased the youngsters in the crowd. The two hot chicks in front of me just couldn't stop shaking their shapely bee-hinds during "3AM" and "Real World." I had to stand for most of Matchbox Twenty's set because so many yahoos were standing up in front of me, including one tubby guy who insisted on waving his arms in some bizarre Tai Chi poses. That's rock 'n roll for ya, where even no-talent slobs think they can be stars.
The prominent use of video effects as part of both headliners' stage acts is a sea change from road shows of yesteryear. My very first live rock concert was Tesla in Sacramento on New Year's Eve 1992. The hued lights would blink in time with the rhythm section and the bright lights would cue the audience to go nuts at the musical "bridge" points in each song, much like an "Applause" sign in a TV recording studio. The last big name rock concert I attended was when The Cranberries played San Francisco's Warfield in 2002 as their popularity was just about to wane. It really does take me a decade to get around to a show. Anyway, the Cranberries had plenty of flashy lighting but no big video monitors to tell the audience what they should be feeling. The video cues in the Goo Goo Dolls' "Come to Me" included supertitles of the lyrics so we could all sing along to one of their new releases. Matchbox Twenty launched their set with a video of some Vaudevillian actor introducing them, and introduced "3AM" with a video of a clock radio hitting that time. Video added a dimension to these groups' artistry that I never expected to see live. Watch a YouTube video of some old '80s hair metal band and you'll see that lighting and video cues used to be as subtle as sledgehammers; now they're as sharp as scalpels.
Many of the younger folks in attendance couldn't have been past elementary school age when these two bands were in their heyday during the dot-com bubble. Most of them weren't even born when INXS released "Don't Change," but they rocked out to it anyway when Matchbox Twenty covered it during their encore. Those teens and twentysomethings now have a memory of an old song made new again.
Pop music's pervasiveness allows us to time-stamp our lives. I'm in Generation X, the first generation to transition its listening preferences from FM radio to CDs to MP3s and finally web streaming. The time-stamps of each of the hits that night are as readily visible for me now as when they were first imprinted . . .
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Name" in 1995 . . . meeting my platoon for the first time at Yongsan Garrison, Republic of Korea.
- Matchbox Twenty's "Push" and "3AM" in 1997 . . . driving back country Texas roads around Fort Hood after major exercises, going past the boundaries of the maps the base gave me.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" in 1998 . . . browsing the old German shops made new for tourists outside of Warner Barracks in Bamberg, and regretting that the remake City of Angels wasn't nearly as good as Wim Wenders' original Wings of Desire.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Black Balloon" in 1999 . . . watching Air Force pilots throw plastic furniture from the Officers' Club patio at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, with a very attractive female Air Force lieutenant who might have done anything I'd asked her to do (if only I had thought to ask).
- Matchbox Twenty's "Real World" in 1999 . . . at my promotion to Captain on the fourth floor of the Zone night club in Songtan, Republic of Korea, surrounded by my fellow soldiers and Korean bar girls with Anglicized stage names.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Here is Gone" in 2002 . . . commuting to MBA classes in San Francisco where most of my classmates held me in contempt for my military background, and wondering how badly my pending recall to active duty would hurt my civilian career (as it turned out, almost terminally).
- Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell" in 2003 . . . risking my rank and paycheck to fight every illegal order I received from corrupt and incompetent military superiors, all while wondering why I was still bothering with the Army.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Before It's Too Late" in 2007 . . . rebuilding an Army unit and its training regimen from the inside out at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the same barracks where I was told as a cadet in 1994 that I did not deserve to be a soldier.
- Goo Goo Dolls' "Notbroken" in 2010 . . . returning from war in Iraq, not broken at all.
- Matchbox Twenty's "She's So Mean" in 2013 . . . when my Army rank, personal net worth, and business reputation are higher than I ever imagined they would be in my darkest days.
I marked a new time-stamp at this concert with Kate Earl's "All I Want." All I wanted was to see awesome performers live. Popular music will never really change. Frank Sinatra was the first pop crooner to make young women swoon and Elvis Presley was the first to make their boyfriends jealous. The Beatles made pop music go transnational, with or without Tavistock's help. Heavy rhythms recall our tribal origins as hunter gatherers. Those rhythms can still bind us as temporary tribes, under the stars in outdoor pavilions.
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