96. Superheavy

Sales this week: 7,399
Cume: 29,710
Weeks on chart: 3
Percentage drop: -40.1

1. Mick Jagger doesn’t know who his audience is.

I’m not saying he doesn’t have an idea who might buy this album, it’s just that he doesn’t have a personal relationship with them, he has no line of communication, HE DOESN’T HAVE THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESSES!

That’s your number one promotion job, finding out exactly who your audience is. So you can make them aware of your new work and infect them and get them to spread the word. This is the most efficient marketing system. It’s direct to fan. And it’s incumbent upon all acts to do this.

2. If you want sales make Top Forty music.

You can get around this if you’re the Dave Matthews Band, if you know who your audience is as per #1 above. If not, you’re gonna sell bupkes.

3. If you’re gonna make Top Forty music, work with Dr. Luke or Max Martin, the producer/writer du jour.

You might think the Top Forty game is simple, but it’s not. The winners in the field have not only worked in it for years, they’ve studied it, they know what works, they’ve put in the time. Respect them for it.

4. If you don’t make Top Forty music, you must go on the road.

That’s where you build careers today, that’s where you maintain them. But if you’re doing something new, you’ve got to break all the rules. People don’t expect the solo band member to replicate the group hits, they expect to be disappointed. So they don’t want to go, they certainly don’t want to overpay. So you’ve got to underplay and undercharge as an investment in your career. And you’ve got to over-deliver, so when you come back again, soon, patrons will bring their friends, so you can build. It’s a lot of hard work, something that’s anathema to the superstars going solo.

5. TV can sell music.

If you’re on the show and the track is perceived to be good. Ergo the success of "Moves Like Jagger" and the failure of the Steven Tyler track.

A guest shot is almost meaningless. What you’re selling here is your connection with the viewer, who sees you every week. They feel like they know you. They’ll buy the track in solidarity if they believe it’s great. Tyler’s track was a joke, a boring, perfunctory exercise. Today you’ve got to be better than great to succeed. J. Lo delivered a track better than what she’d done in years, so her fans bought it, but no one else did, because J. Lo’s a great dancer, can be a good actress, but she’s a no-talent musical artist.

6. You have to ask yourself if you’re a musician or a star.

Mick Jagger is certainly a star. But no one thinks he’s a musician. Most people believe he hasn’t done anything great since the sixties. You can no longer coast, unless you’re going on the road and playing those ancient hits. You’ve got to prove it every day.

7. Mainstream publicity reaches the mainstream.

And the mainstream is last, they’re the followers, not the chance-takers. The movers and shakers, the early adopters who’ll spread the word, ignore the mainstream press. Better to reach a few fanatical bloggers than the "New York Times".

8. Everything above is known to everybody under thirty. But it’s all a secret to everybody over thirty, especially those who’ve had success in the past.

Artists don’t realize that today your past history gives you a foot in the door and nothing more. Youngsters know it’s all about the grass roots, building community online, or playing the overly-promoted Top Forty game.

It’s fine if you want to give up. But if you want to make new music and have it get traction today you must obey the above rules. And the music must be great. But that’s no guarantee everybody’s going to pay attention. This is where your history hurts you, people expect your new material to be crap. If it’s great, you have to wait for the hype to die down and for the music to percolate in society. Traction will be slow and small. This album may not ever blow up. It may be the one after or the one after that.

You’re starting all over.

Believe it.

HERE's the link to the original post.

Is Bob Lefsetz related to Bruce Lipshits ???

No, but I hope Mick takes Bob's advice on how to conduct his career seriously. Clearly Bob is in a position to better understand how to be successful in music than Mick Jagger.

And to think I only made it to Rule #4 before I stopped reading.

I want to say that Keith seemed to work with those rules pretty well, as far as they applied to him when he did his solo stuff. The Net wasn't near what it is now back then, so much doesn't apply.
I see Keith working #4 and #6, but more so: as much as Keith pretends to scorn the Net and all, he knows to place his people in right places to get into the know, and do the research.
Jagger is super active, modern, on top of technology, but he gets so much about his fanbase blatantly wrong.

Very very good article.

What is the Steven Tyler track he refers to?

The article is a bit too hard against MJ, but although I hate to say it the author is right when he says that Mick does everything to be seen as a star and not as a musician. He made great music and he could to interesting stuff, but instead he records a track with J Lo that consists of fart-like noises and some "hard like rock'n'roll" blah blah.

very good, that is exactly how it is.

Don't leave out the fact that you have to put out really, really good songs. Cream always rises to the top. If the songs are great they will find an audience. If they suck they will dissapear into the trash bin. The public knows the difference. Apparantly Mick (and plenty of others) have forgotten this simple premise.

I've read the whole thing through twice and it still strikes me as pompous crap. Truthfully, I think Mick is trying to follow this model or something similar these days and while I understand appealing to new markets, such efforts are not likely to resonate with the hardcore Stones audience. To me, this article is all about how to be the next American Idol Top 40 flash in the pan artist. It mistakes today's formula which produces bland generic music for the path of artisitc excellence. I'm certainly critical of the band together or apart, perhaps never more so than I have been over the past decade, but this is the same pop formula they were rebelling against 50 years ago. I don't want Pat Boone any more than I want Taylor Swift. b

Well the part about the New York Times being the last thing is certainly true. He, or probably his record company, should learn that their feeding of self-indulgent established journalists, is really nothing but showing contempt towards their fans. Why should these people hear the record 6 weeks before I do, while I'm the one buying the record. Twenty years ago you could get away with that type of bullshit, but now not anymore.

Mick is not a musician?...not taking chances?...not using the internet?...Leftsetz is often on target regarding his musical advice...but this time, BAH! See if you can make it as an iconic musician for fifty years, not rest on your laurels, and take musical chances.

...granted the "audience" part has got to be tough for Superheavy. Believe it or not, I have spoken to a lot of non-musicians I know who do not know of any of the artists in this group other than Mick Jagger.

I like some of the tunes

"We've got tradition, got erudition. We're not to afraid to experiment...So...give it up party down and to H*ll...with all the..."

Quote
mr edward
8. Everything above is known to everybody under thirty.

9. Don't have the only member of your group with a giant smash album and smash
tour recently walk out on you, and refuse to do any publicity, or lend
any more of his credibility to your attempt to rip off him and his band.

You know I use to think you were running wild with a fantasy with that theory, but now you're starting to look completely on the money. If the "Energy" music video and single doesn't come along soon it's starting to look like SuperHeavy has been abandoned. I'm curious if it occurred to you just how much "Hard" with will i. am, J-Lo, and Mick sharing vocals seems to be cut from the SuperHeavy fabric.

Quote
Gazza
Very very good article.

and where exactly were your hosannas when NoComment warned about all this
stuff weeks ago?

Quote
WilliamPatrickMaynard
You know I use to think you were running wild with a fantasy with that theory, but now you're starting to look completely on the money. If the "Energy" music video and single doesn't come along soon it's starting to look like SuperHeavy has been abandoned. I'm curious if it occurred to you just how much "Hard" with will i. am, J-Lo, and Mick sharing vocals seems to be cut from the SuperHeavy fabric.

We have commented about how we thought Mick did a great job on that track (not
that we are in love with the track as a whole) in that he was mixed at the
right level and clearly viewed himself as an adjunct to it, not the star of it,
sort of like he was on "you're so vain" (although maybe will.i.am and not mick
deserves credit for this appropriate use of jagger).

we are just getting really sad about this whole thing. damian comes out of this
probably with no loss or gain, because he was smart enough to walk away from
it first. AR probably gets a boost. but its really gonna hurt the other three.

thats another thing we warned about weeks ago. if superheavy did poorly, it
would harm the stones, that is, if there is such a band anymore. guess
we'll get our first inkling about this hypothetical negative trickle-down
effect with "some girls".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-17 08:42 by nocomment.

I don't agree with comparing Mick's contribution to "Hard" with "You're So Vain" since he's actually the lead vocalist for the last third of the song. Every time I've played it, I always think it's starting to go into the "Satisfaction" riff right at the end - once it stops sounding like someone farting at any rate. Agreed that Mick sounds great on it.

I don't see how SuperHeavy failing would hurt Dave Stewart more than any other Dave Stewart project. In the long run, it will probably be treated as one of his mock pop group projects. Joss Stone's career shouldn't be hurt one way or the other by this unless you mean the potential to get a boost to the next level (that's intangible to me). Damian Marley's absence since, as you point out, his band comprised the rhythm section on the album is decidedly odd particularly if the second video doesn't happen.

Somehow I'm not expecting a big media push for SOME GIRLS, certainly not the EXILE treatment from the way things seem thus far. We'll see. Still waiting to find out when "Hard" is being commercially released and what sort of reaction it garners.

Quote
WilliamPatrickMaynard
I don't see how SuperHeavy failing would hurt Dave Stewart more than any other Dave Stewart project.

Still waiting to find out when "Hard" is being commercially released and what sort of reaction it garners.

We'll be shocked if "Hard" isnt another victim of this SH fiasco. And maybe
that's all we should say about us... shocked. As for Dave, he's gonna be the guy
forever who got that tattoo of an album that didnt sell and the band that didnt
even play one gig and so he's the producer you only go to if you want an album
made fast and cheap, because in your market niche you can't expect to sell very much.

His days of aiming to play in the Katy/Rihanna league are over. His days of
seeming like the new Keith Richards are over. And Joss better get away from him
fast and get back with the likes of Common and Nas and Damian quick before she
becomes damaged goods too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-17 09:51 by nocomment.

After Steve Jobs passing we have read many things (more of for good than bad) about him. Some of them written or said by people who has got enough in life to deserve being read or heard. But some other have been said or written by people who I am still questioning myself who they are.

The same for this Jagger issue: Who is this pedantic guy? I don´t mind if Jagger is harshly critizied, but this pseudoscholar and pedantic rant is unbearable. If he knew Jagger better he should have had a bit more humble approach.

His days of seeming like the new Keith Richards are over.

....... another one for Keef ta bury ....



ROCKMAN

Quote
nocomment
[As for Dave, he's gonna be the guy forever who got that tattoo of an album that didnt sell and the band that didnt even play one gig and so he's the producer you only go to if you want an album made fast and cheap, because in your market niche you can't expect to sell very much. His days of aiming to play in the Katy/Rihanna league are over. His days of seeming like the new Keith Richards are over. And Joss better get away from him fast and get back with the likes of Common and Nas and Damian quick before she becomes damaged goods too.

I don't know of anyone else who considered Dave Stewart "the new Keith Richards." I doubt that SuperHeavy's lacklustre sales will hurt him professionally. The guy has written and produced plenty of hits for other artists over the years. No one's going to think they won't work with him because of his involvement with a super-group that went over like a lead zeppelin. The guy's writing and producing songs for artists all the time and probably has more hits than misses on his CV. As for the tattoo, you do know they are not permanent, right? And that's if the tattoo in the video isn't fake to start with. Jeez, I can't believe I'm discussing Dave's tattoo and how it must make him feel now that SuperHeavy didn't set the world on fire for re-discovering the sound of UB40 in 1989.

As for "Hard," it's definitely coming out. How involved Mick will be in a music video or performing the song live, I couldn't guess but the BLACK EINSTEIN project is actually anticipated by people that like that kinda stuff.

we hope y'all are right, and all this is just a blip on the screen.

we feel something much much heavier is going on, but we hope y'all are right.

NEVER have we more wanted to be wrong, about the apparently onrushing downside.

NEVER have we more wanted to cling to the increasingly unlikely upside.

y'all, please be right.

peace.