Even More Notes From Sunny Los Angeles

The Mong
Music Group Commentary
May 2008

ENON – “‘HIGH SOCIETY” = 4 STARS
Enon’s “High Society” is great mix of genres and influences with consistently excellent hooks.

THE KILLS – “MIDNIGHT BOOM” = 3.5 STARS
Some great tracks (particularly “Tape Song” and “Hook and Line”) mixed with some good tracks makes for a very good overall 2008 release that will definitely be in rotation for awhile and maybe even a star adjustment before year’s end.

R.E.M. – “ACCELERATE” = 3 STARS
A perfectly enjoyable if not predictable release from these college radio pioneers.

G’HITS
If there was a G’HITS it didn’t make it to me on time via my twice-weekly snail mail forwarding. Sorry.

Topic Questions:

Question 1: Are "social networking" sites like MySpace and Facebook helping the demise of the music industry?
Answer 1: In all facets of the entertainment industry, from movies to video games to music and beyond, the so-called “folks in charge” are living and dying (or, more accurately, buying and selling) by the whims of the general public, which is all too accessible yet inaccurately measurable by the Internet. So instead of setting tastes and trends the folks in charge all to often follow these; or, more accurately, they follow the faulty indications of tastes and trends. “Faulty” because it’s usually the squeaky wheel that gets the most attention (online and elsewhere) and the Internet’s most popular sites are determined by hits, which, more often than not, is a measure of good marketing and promotion (high financed or grass roots) over quality or content. Worst of all, the big-shots who rely on “social networking” sites and other types of Internet indicators do it not from a desire to please the public but as a way to cover their collective and individual asses. For example: “How could we have known this record wouldn’t be a smash hit; the band has 100,000 MySpace friends?!?” And their boss nods in agreement and no one gets fired. This is, perhaps, an oversimplification, but I see this “cover your ass” MO here in La-la land, in one form or another, almost every day.

Question 2: Because of this and downloads...where do you think the music industry will be in 5 or 10 years?
Answer 2: I think it’ll be much the same: Idiots in control trying to figure out never-miss ways to guarantee hits and failing miserably most of the time. As for downloads, it seems that this has more or less equalized with iTunes essentially cornering the market. As for the industry tycoons, they’ll probably still be making money off the work of artists but since pretty much any band can use iTunes and other Internet methods for self-distribution, it seems like this could lead to a revolution of artist control over content and the bottom line. Who knows?