Re: Why TRS Is Not A Success

[larryh@infi.net (Larry Hufstedler)]

Fiona McQuarrie (fmcquarr@upei.ca) wrote:    
: is way better than lots of what's on the charts. So why has it
: plummeted? Here's my reasons:
: - Rotten promotion. I'm sorry, but I don't think the record cos. have done
: a very good job at all of getting the word out. And I'm afraid at least
: some portion of the blame here has to be placed on the shoulders of the
: Goddess herself. A restricted number of interviews and a few personal
: appearances are not going to do it, no matter how valid the reasons for
: the limits.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]

It has been clear from the start that promoters in the US have little
interest in promoting Kate Bush. They didn't mind distributing a few 
copies of her stuff, but get it hot on the charts? No way. It was only as
demand increased from dedicated KB fans spreading the word that there was
much in the way of promotion. 

 It is simple. In the 60s, record companies lost control. They has no idea
what would sell. As a result, they threw up their hands and tried all sorts
of things. After Hendrix, and other, to THEM, bizzare music was selling, 
they just could not predict the market. So they opened the gates and gave
a chance at the bigtime to all sorts of different performers. By the middle
70s, they had it figured out, more or less. And the music industry settled
down into a rut of predictable rock pablum for the most part. They LIKE it
that way. So nice and simple. I believe it was David Lee Roth who said that
your song didn't have a chance if it did not use one of 10 chord
progressions and one of 4 beats. I remember the massive gap between our (60s
generation) and my parents music. Today, my brother's kids are listening to
much of the same stuff I grew up on. There has been little change in pop
music for nearly 30 years!  It is formula crap. Pop music could be written
with a basic program running on a Radio Crap Color Computer with 16K!

 Along comes Kate Bush. Excellant versitile voice, brilliant composer, 
blows away nearly everything else going. And she is a big hit in Britain.
Danger signs light up in the minds of the pablum producing US music
industry. In the first place, KB might start something. They might lose
market predictability. And, if people got into Kate, they might demand
higher quality. Then THEY would have to find real talent, instead of
grinding out another formula band that will appeal to Beavis and Butt-head.
 "Drums, guitar, and death... They finaly got it right.." 

  Oh sure, they will sell the CDs, wouldn't want to miss out on the bucks.
But spend a million on Kate like they did Bruce Springsteen? No way. Better
to save the promo bucks for some infantile psuedo psycho-babble band before
the lead singer eats a drug overdose.  

  In some cases, one could say that music of real quality might be too
different for people to assimilate. Not so with Kate. She invariably
includes a few songs which conform to the typical expected format just
enough to get it past the one ince minds of the MTV public, yet she
preserves quality on another level for those of us who want to perform
violent acts when they play "Dust in the Wind" for the 153758E20th time.


 


--
 larryh@infi.net     **** Cleanliness is next to impossible ****