[lucey]

Under 30s have lived not only with computers their whole life, have been marketed to like never before, and have had more structured childhoods than ever before with less chaos and less demands on them for self-starting ... they live with and under media like a parent, so close to them that they don't see it's influence. A band will often musically self-compromise, castrate itself for 'commercial' ideas that sneak in unknown, ideas that ultimately undermine it's commercial potential. The audiences are the same way, follow the leader is the motto, be it following radio or MySpace buzz. Dane Cook is not a funny comedian, but there he goes again, making you think he is. My Space works ... sorta. I asked a girl about a band I had never seen just before their show ... she was way into the up and coming Modest Mouse, a super hip and seemingly smart chick ... so I said "what does this band sound like" ... and all she could tell me about the music was, "they're very important." What about the music? Do they sounds like this or that? Drums? Keys? What ? "They're very important."

Hip hops beginnings as well as rock's 60s, punks 70s, and even the cut/paste 90s grunge era were built on fuk the system youth, not follow the leader youth. Music is what's important, not the scene ... the scene is what might follow if you connect emotionally. Individuality is not an outfit at the mall, or a new look to your MySpace, it's a way of relating to power. The next big thing used to have substance beyond media, and can still, but it's more likely to want to follow.

Success is still possible. Why are the Black Keys on a world tour right now and your band is not?

The computer has played into it, but it's been rolling down for 30 years. How many great artists would never had a chance post 1983 visual dominance? MTV, visuals and marketing dominant, top down, not bottom up music. Lawyers in the 80s mucked it up, A+R trust fund kids ever since, wannabe players looking to exploit the scene for a hot chick and a quick fix, not make a scene from scratch. There are exceptions, but individuality is not the rule, it's the exception.

The ownership of artists work by labels was not meant to work well forever ... it's exploitive and dehumanizing effects are invisible often, but toxic almost always. Vision, courage and the like are not to be found at conglomerates. Music is not a widget.

Marketing to younger and younger people has obviously failed to grow the music business by any real amount and has alienated people over 40, people with money, who are just as savvy if not more so than the 20s that think they own the scene. Thanks to the marketing of their whole youth and their fortunate upbringings, plus growing up attached to computers/media/marketing, there is a sense of arrogant power and also a lack of individuality in many young people. CEOs will tell you the same thing ... to many expectations and not enough initiative.

Why do young engineers often worry more about sample rate than the actual sound of a converter? Because numbers are the thing they can judge most easily, not the substance of the device's sound.

Get back to work!