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The Lefsetz Letter
Kate Bush
by Bob Lefsetz
Despite all the hype, "Aerial" only sold 22,593 copies in its first week of release, and 10,492 its second. It debuted at #48 and fell to #129 in its second week. Kate was even beaten on the chart by that great musical talent Regis Philbin. Then again, Regis is on TV every weekday. And Kate Bush can be heard almost nowhere. That's the crisis in today's music business. Not burning, not P2P, but EXPOSURE! Or, lack thereof. Got to tell you, I didn't give "Aerial" a good chance. It didn't immediately grab me when I inserted it into my CD player (which I can do on a Mac, unlike a PC...and, did the recall hurt second week sales...quite possibly, but that's a shitty debut number nonetheless). Not that I could really blame the record. I just wasn't in the MOOD for Kate Bush, I was a bit too amped up, one has to be relaxed to enjoy the music of the high-pitched chanteuse. But driving back from the Valley last week, I heard her on XM's Cafe, on a show entitled "The Nude Music Review". They were playing a song "Joanni", the second to last cut on the first CD, which I never got to. After all, these albums don't come with instruction booklets, which track to play first, to get hooked. After all, these albums are supposedly works of art. To be digested in their entirety over time. But in a world where the history of recorded music is available at one's fingertips for free, one needs an introduction, one needs to be shown the way, it's not like the old days, where you spent fifteen bucks and PLAYED the damn album, since you had so much invested. Then again, that's what Sony wants you to do. And I'd defend their position if 100,000 people had popped for "Aerial" the week it came out. But, looking at this piss-poor sales number, it's clear that something's wrong with the paradigm. Do you know "Don't Give Up" from "So"? Sure, that's a Peter Gabriel cut, but its magic can be attributed to Kate Bush's vocal. "Joanni"'s got that same feel. When you're home alone. With more lights off than on. When you're resting on the couch with the newspaper. When you're all by yourself after ending a relationship and needing something to comfort you. I immediately retrieved "Aerial" when I got home and played "Joanni". It worked. Starting the album at the top, I still wasn't hooked. But then, "How To Be Invisible", the track BEFORE "Joanni", mesmerized me. And I liked "Coral Room", the song after. I figured if I played "Aerial" enough, maybe I'd like the first four cuts. But, before I spun those again, I decided to play CD 2. Which turned out to be FAR SUPERIOR! Good throughout. I feel like a member of a secret cult. Who've had "Aerial" unfold before them. Obviously, print media didn't penetrate the public. There was a story in every publication known to man. Turns out the old record label saw is true...nothing promotes music like radio, like the ability to HEAR it. We trusted the deejay. We counted on the deejay. It was his job to pick out the good tracks. And, if we liked them, we bought the album. This game died in the nineties. When we purchased albums based on one track and found out they were complete trash. A whole bunch of people resigned from the record-buying marketplace. And then, trying to reach who was left, the major labels forced OBVIOUS stuff down our throats at Top Forty. And the margins...they disappeared on radio. The whole scene inverted upon itself and sucked itself down the hole in the center. We need someone to reach down into that hole, at the center of a long playing record, at the center of a CD, and pull the music back out. I heard another band on the Nude Music Review entitled Winterpills. Go to their Website, http://www.winterpills.com/ (click on "music" and launch the player), and listen. They're a slightly more energetic Elliott Smith. I love new music. I love the kind of stuff that doesn't get played on terrestrial radio. Not the kind of stuff you dance to, not the kind of stuff that hits you in the face, but the kind of stuff that PENETRATES you, and changes your life. Bob Lefsetz, Santa Monica-based industry legend, is the author of the e-mail newsletter, "The Lefsetz Letter". Famous for being beholden to no one, and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself. His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Rick Nielsen to Bryan Adams to Quincy Jones to EVERYBODY who's in the music business. Never boring, always entertaining, Mr. Lefsetz's insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music's American division and consultancies to major labels. While Rhino may occasionally disagree with some of Bob's opinions, we certainly agree with his right to state them. At the bottom of each column we give you, the reader, the opportunity to respond and we encourage you to do so. We will post select comments.
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.
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Comments:
Bob,
I have not yet purchase Ariel - it is on my Hit List for post-holiday shopping. Kate and I go all the way back and include her first four or so albums that are like fingernails down a chalkboard to my ears. She got Good with The Dreaming, then Great with Hounds of Love, Sensual World, and Red Shoes - love all three of those. So I am looking forward to this album (that old term).
And I completely agree with you about DJs completely having sold out Interest to Dollars. With the vanilla-pudding on songsheets, the audience polls to people who obviously do not know any better lurking in the background, and radio conglomerates who want to make money by not reaching out, by not rocking the boat with new unusual not-top-40 stuff, - oh, and the encroaching Talk Radio and overhyped segmentation of the radio audience - it just isn't nearly as cool and wonderful to listen to standard broadcast radio these days. Maybe hope lies in fee-for-service radio - no commercials, no polls, something you might not like followed by something you might like - we'll all see soon enough, eh?
-Nathan
Radio is no longer where it's at.
Why do you think people download music?
TO FIND IT!
Speaking of acts that get no airplay in the US, try my favorite band, The Corrs. Nice to see Rhino touting the "Home" album they have out, but Atlantic has done a pisspoor job of promoting them in the US. Now they've been relegated to Atlantic UK, and Jason Flom, the man who discovered them and turned them over to David Foster ten years ago, is out as CEO at Atlantic.
Apparently, nobody in the music business in the US can comprehend a band that does slick pop and lively Irish traditional instrumentals in the same mix. Apparently everyone is further confused by the simple fact that they're a family band - but they ain't exactly the "Brady Bunch" or the Osmonds.
Meanwhile the band itself continues to plow on, despite marriages and babies (Sharon is pregnant at the moment) and Andrea's movie career taking off - they vow to continue the music.
How the 240th best-selling band in the world (according to a Wikipedia list, anyway) that is also one of the best-looking bands in the world and respected by people like U2 and the Rolling Stones got ignored by the biggest music market in the world would make for a story.
Bob,
I agree. There is no commitment to the art of the album anymore. Watching my teenage son discover music (old and new), I realize it's all about the song. His "album" will be made up of a song by Jethro Tull, Chili Peppers, Slightly Stoopid, Green Day, Hendrix, Incubus, etc. He never listens to a whole cd. It makes me sad because discovering an album is like falling in love. You kind of build a relationship with a record. An attachment. I feel the music lovers of today will miss out on that experience.
As far as Ariel, I'm not in love. I like some songs... and I still love Kate, but it didn't hit me like her other albums. But I'm still trying. I will keep listening, because maybe on the tenth listen the magic will occur.
Lucille daCosta
You are a member of a small club (Kate Bush fans) this new release has some wonderful moments, I really have enjoyed getting to know it, I love the cut "Pi". It is too bad media exposure is so impossible these days for any artist with a difference. oh well I'm one of those that bought Aerial and I like it. By the way a good radio station to check out is "KPIG"(a central Calif. Station) it is availible online Realnetworks(for a fee) KPIG has real live DJs and a wondefully diverse play list, do check it out and yes they play Kate Bush sometimes. thanks for the review M. A.
Interesting article, and I agree with it, for the most part. It's a dire situation.
Aerial is an unmitigated sales disaster in the States, but you might be interested to know it has sold quite well in the UK. It debuted at #3, has spent 13 weeks in the Top 75, and was awarded Platinum status more than a month ago. Of course, Kate Bush has always been big in the UK, but the first single "King of the Mountain" only got played to any significant degree on BBC 2. It hasn't dented pop radio at all, and there hasn't been a second single yet.
I wonder what the difference is? Kate Bush's last truly big hit in the UK came 20 years ago, and she's been pretty much invisible for the last 10, so I doubt she's coasting on reputation alone. What is it that allows her to go Platinum with ease in the UK, but barely scratch 50,000 in the US? (I doubt she's hit that level yet). I can tell you, pop radio is just as shitty (if not moreso) here than in North America.
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