Archive for the 'Music' category

Music & Lyrics

Feb 20 2007 Published by under Comedy, Movies, Music, Pop Culture

Jumping off the topics of Net Neutrality and Presidential politics for a moment, let’s talk pop culture. With Little Quip closing on 2 years old and Baby Quip on the way, Mrs. Quip and I rarely get out to the movies. Most of our movie consumption takes place via red and white envelopes about 6 months after the big screen release (thus the reason I do occasional DVD reviews, but rarely do a timely movie review).

This weekend was a rare treat, however. We actually arranged an adult outing to a meal and a movie. The flick of choice was Music and Lyrics. I thought I’d take a moment and share some thoughts.

First, let me say Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore have both done this movie about a dozen times before, albeit with other people in the opposite gender’s lead. The movie itself was pretty boilerplate for the romantic comedy genre as well. The story follows the usual storyline, the two meet through odd circumstances, become close, eventually sleep together, Grant does something stupid to make Barrymore go away, and in a big public display of his love, Grant gets the girl back.

Despite the rather formulaic production and casting, though, the movie was really pretty good. Grant gives his usual performance as the oafish, egotistical, but still somehow personable songwriter. He was the Andrew Ridgely portion of a British pop band (appropriately named Pop!) in the 1980s. After an ugly split, he watched his former partner (think George Michael, but without the gay bathroom escapades and drugs) go on to huge success.

Barrymore is a woman who stands in for the woman who normally waters his plants and was the inspiration for a best-selling novel about a woman with limited talent who seduces a college professor. Her former lover, a college professor who never revealed his marriage, is the author of the book.

Both question their worth after having been dumped by their former partners, and are wallowing in a sea of mediocrity.

What is truly refreshing is the sub-plot of the song they’re trying to write and the movie’s depiction of the music industry. As a big fan of music, I have been fairly disappointed for a number of years now that the industry seems to support whatever “it” girl happens to be gracing the pages of Us magazine, and really no longer cares about creating music.

Cases in point, Hayden Panettierre and Paris Hilton. I understand the music industry, through the application of technology, can make a barking dog a Grammy winner, but do we really need to keep proving that? Do we need to keep giving goofy teen actresses and billionaire heiresses record deals simply because they have a high Q rating?

Sorry, I digress…

The movie does a great job of skewering these vacuous pop princesses. The cover of a magazine featuring the movie’s version of the next Shakira – Cora Corman, played by Haley Bennett – features an appropriate quote, “I don’t want to think anymore, I just want to exist.”

That could be the motto of the music industry. Its inclusion in the film sums up the apparent disdain the movie’s writers have for the music biz. The acting is good, the story is predictable, but for me, the open mocking of the music business makes Music and Lyrics worth a look.

No responses yet

KeithUrban.com

Feb 16 2007 Published by under Celebrities, Country Music, Music, The Internet, The Law

When I first heard of Keith Urban’s lawsuit against Keith Urban, I thought the whole thing was pretty stupid. Why would a huge country music star sue a nobody in New Jersey for trademark infringement simply because they have the same name. It seemed to be a typical case of those with more money than sense demanding something for free (in this case a domain name) and suing when they don’t get their way.

Well, I owe the country music star an apology for thinking so little of him. It turns out he has a pretty good reason to be miffed at the painter, but I still believe he should lose his charges of “federal trademark infringement, dilution of a federally registered trademark, federal unfair competition and violation of the anti-cybersquatting consumer protection act and the Tennessee consumer protection act.”

At issue is www.KeithUrban.com. Unlike the infamous Julia Roberts decision, Keith Urban the painter has a legitimate reason for owning the domain name. It may not even qualify as cybersquatting. The burden of proving there is a bad-faith motive in holding the name is going to be difficult since it is the guy’s name.

That said, if you look at the site, you’re quickly going to see that the guy goes to great lengths to hide the fact that he is not “that” Keith Urban. There are no pictures of himself, no contact information other than an e-mail, and references to painting as “a hobby”, leading you to believe his day job is something else (country music star, perhaps).

I suspect the legal decision in this will leave the domain with the rightful owner (the painter). However, he’s probably in some danger of being charged with some deceptive trade practices.

No responses yet

Avast! There Be Pirates! Arg!

Oct 10 2006 Published by under Craziness, Crime, Music, Technology, The Internet

Last week I commented that companies and our government need to come to terms with their feelings on piracy. Our trade representative is holding up Russia’s membership in the WTO until (among other things I hope) they deal with AllofMP3.com – an illegal music download site that also happens to be the number one download site on the planet.

The trouble was aptly summed up by the head of ABC-Disney recently.

“So we understand piracy now as a business model… we don’t like the model, but we realize it’s effective enough to make piracy a key competitor going forward. And we’ve created a strategy to address this threat with attractive, easy to use ways to for viewers to get the content they want from us legally; in other words, keeping honest people honest.”

BING! BING! BING! We have a winner!

This is exactly the right approach to a really tough problem. If a competitor was selling the same product you are selling (say barbeque grills) and kicking your ass, you would either a) lower your margin to sell more units, b) differentiate your unit so people understand the value proposition, or c) find another way to compete.

Unfortunately, in the case of piracy, the competitor is literally selling your product, to someone that should, by all rights, be your consumer. But they aren’t. So what do you do? Do you sue your potential customer? Probably not the best way to build a customer relationship. You find a strategy to compete.

Kudos to ABC-Disney for figuring this out and approaching this from a rational business perspective.

No responses yet

Cheap Downloads and Rankled Bureaucrats

Oct 05 2006 Published by under Apple, Craziness, Crime, Government, Marketing, Music, Pop Culture, Stuff That Sucks, Technology, The Internet

With all the problems facing the US today, and Russia wishing to join the World Trade Organization, clearly the most pressing issue before our government is the illegal download site AllOfMP3.com. That’s the word from ArsTechnica today. They’ve got a good write-up on the comments and complaints by our Trade Representative on the subject.

It strikes me as odd that the music industry hasn’t figured something out, yet. If AllOfMP3.com is offering songs for download (granted illegally); charging based on the length of the song (longer songs cost a few pennies more); and is currently the number one music download site in the world; why haven’t they realized how many more units they could move by charging less?

The music industry is so greedy that they set an arbitrary price of $1 per song, which makes downloads just about as expensive as the CDs that they been price-gouging on for years (despite the fact that unlike CDs, music downloads have zero distribution cost, zero packaging cost, and zero mark-up for record store middle men).

AllOfMP3.com, at 15 to 20 cents per song is kicking the shit out of Apple who is charging 99 cents. If you really want to put them out of business, work out an arrangement with iTunes and cut your price.

You will, based on AllOfMP3′s traffic and sales, move an assload more units, at no additional cost, and not have to worry about others.

The problem is marketing people.

Marketing people like to figure out the maximum amount that someone might possibly be expected to pay, so they can maximize profit. It’s not a function of costs and a “reasonable” profit. It’s a question of how much are your costs, and how much more can you possibly sell for. Unlike most other industries, however, the music industry has an effective monopoly.

The record (quaint little old pieces of vinyl that you may be too young to remember) companies have been in collusion on CD prices, and now are in collusion on Mp3 prices. It may be one of the few remaining industries where the government still turns a blind eye to predatory anti-consumer behavior. Why? Simply because the entertainment lobby throws around a lot of money and the geeks in Congress want to appear cool by having their pictures taken with celebs.

Honestly, AllOfMP3.com should be teaching the music industry the way to run their business. Instead, the greedy bastards in the music industry will continue to use their lapdogs in the federal government to do their bidding to guarantee obscene profits.

One response so far

RockStar:SuperDisappointment

Sep 14 2006 Published by under Celebrities, Craziness, Crime, Music, Pop Culture, Programming, Rock Music, Television

MusicTelevisionCrimes Against MusicSo I’ve been watching RockStar:Supernova all season only to find the time spent was a complete and total waste of time. Last night’s finale was a complete and total affront to all that is music.

If you haven’t been watching, or didn’t catch last season, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version. Fifteen wannabe rock stars sing for Gilby Clark (of Guns and Roses), Tommy Lee (of Motley Crue), and Jason Newsted (of Metallica) who are putting together a band comprised, apparently, of aging rockers that nobody else in the music business wants to work with anymore. The best singer (theoretically) gets to be the front man for this collection of giant egos.

So last night their choice came down to Dilanna (sort of a strange looking South African-Texan hybrid who can really bust out a song), Toby (a really strong Australian performer that was, week after week, the best of them all), Lukas (a former wing-slinger at Hooters who gave the same performance every week regardless of what song he was singing) and Magni (a bald Icelander who was more likable than charismatic, but still had pipes).

In a spectacular attack on all that music stands for, they picked Lukas. Magni lost out early when he and Toby ended up in the bottom two. Toby escaped only to get booted moments later. Toby, if the contest was based on talent, stage presence, and ability, should have been their singer.

Dilanna was exceptional, and all of the Supernova members praised her, but I really think she would be better as a solo artist, rather than fronting this group of pseudo-has-beens. The band even acknowledged that Dilanna was a phenom when they offered to write, produce, and play on her solo album.

So why Lukas? God knows I can’t answer that. Maybe they’re looking for someone who can make Tommy Lee look normal, make Jason Newsted look attractive, and won’t challenge them for poon on the tour. I honestly don’t know.

All I do know is when they all took the stage, Lukas’ and Gilby’s voices clashed so terribly, and sounded so bad together, that Mrs. Quip and I agreed we could take no more and flipped the channel. I suspect a lot of potential fans (which, even if they picked Toby, I, probably would have a hard time considering myself) did the same.

Update: From the “Life’s Irony Is Sweet” file comes news that a judge has enjoined Tommy Lee’s band from using the name “Supernova” since another band has been using the name for 17 years and put out several albums under that moniker. So CBS just spent several months and millions of dollars on branding a show (and a band) that no longer exists a day later. You gotta love it.

5 responses so far

« Newer posts Older posts »