Bob Lefsetz Asks, Is Music Out Of Touch With America?

By Bob Lefsetz

" For two years we've been hearing about the disillusioned and downtrodden who voted for Trump. The media has been flagellating itself, bending over backward to atone for completely missing the 2016 election. But is this same media now missing the concomitant beliefs of the younger generation and dispossessed on the left?

"Actually, it's kind of funny, the left wing press is the left wing candidates' worst enemy. The mainstream media does not stop looking for gotcha moments with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Conventional wisdom is we need a centrist to bring us all together, is this right?

"Music was the anti in the sixties. Led by the biggest group ever, the Beatles.

"The seventies were a victory lap.

"The eighties were about MTV and the ability to reach more people and make more money than ever.

"The nineties were about hip-hop, learning that everything N.W.A. and Ice-T said on their albums was true.

"The aughts were about disruption, the mainstream's inability to cope with the internet. It was about tech more than music.

"In the teens, the tech wars are over and it's all about money. There's supposedly not enough in recordings, so ticket prices are exorbitant and acts are in bed with corporations. That's the goal, to get some of that deep-pocketed money and ultimately become a brand yourself.

"The end result has been the marginalization of music, the content is no different from the superhero/cartoon movies, and its impact on the culture is even less. Oh, you'll see financial stories, but doesn't that prove the point?

"There's an incredible backlash against billionaires and corporations, but musicians don't stop cozying up to them, and don't stop lauding them.

"Meanwhile, concerts are productions, material, whereas music at best is ethereal. Music is secondary to the total effect, which is why so often it's on hard drive.

"I'd say we need a reset, and we're gonna get one. .. "

– Excerpted from Is Music Out Of Touch With America, posted in a Jan. 29 edition of The Lefsetz Letter