Two Pieces from the Times

As the rest of you prepare your lists and consider what to discuss from 2008, I'm submitting these two pieces from the New York Times.

1. In Jon Caramanica's concert review of a recent Lil Wayne concert in New Jersey, Caramanica declares Lil Wayne to be the music story of 2008. As evidence, L.W. sold more records than anyone else in '08; his album sold faster than anyone else's album in its opening week; and it recently earned the most Grammy nominations all time for a rap album. So, is the pride of New Orleans, LA really the story of '08?


2. In a cover story for the Arts page on Sunday, chief pop critic Jon Pareles writes about the expanding overlap between new music and marketing use. Pareles gives it a new spin though in these few paragraphs:

The question is: What happens to the music itself when the way to build a career shifts from recording songs that ordinary listeners want to buy to making music that marketers can use? That creates pressure, subtle but genuine, for music to recede: to embrace the element of vacancy that makes a good soundtrack so unobtrusive, to edit a lyric to be less specific or private, to leave blanks for the image or message the music now serves. Perhaps the song will still make that essential, head-turning first impression, but it won’t be as memorable or independent.

Music always had accessory roles: a soundtrack, a jingle, a
branding statement, a mating call. But for performers with a public profile, as opposed to composers for hire, the point was to draw attention to the music itself. Once they were noticed, stars could provide their own story arcs of career and music, and songs got a chance to create their own spheres, as sanctuary or spook house or utopia. If enough people cared about the song, payoffs would come from record sales (to performer and songwriter) and radio play (to the songwriter).

. . .

And as music becomes a means to an end — pushing a separate product, whether it’s a concert ticket or a clothing line, a movie scene or a Web ad — a tectonic shift is under way. Record sales channeled the taste of the broad, volatile public into a performer’s paycheck. As music sales dwindle, licensers become a far more influential target audience. Unlike nonprofessional music fans who
might immerse themselves in a song or album they love, music licensers want a track that’s attractive but not too distracting — just a tease, not a revelation.

To me, this is a genuinely persuasive thesis on how marketing use (something this generation blithely accepts) has perceptible detrimental effects on the creative process (something we still hold sacrosanct).

So looking back, Modest Mouse was completely unbiased in the writing of "Gravity Rides Everything," then just by chance Nissan wanted to use it in an ad, and then out of necessity Modest Mouse obliged and made a quick buck, right? So goes the basic narrative of indie rockers using their music in commercial ventures. But maybe, says Pareles, it isn't so simple after all...

-PGJ