Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Rubin... THE Savior?


This past Sunday I started to read an interesting article on Rick Rubin, mega producer and founder of the now defunked Def Jam. Supposedly he is the savior of the troubled record industry. I'm not sure what to think about Rick Rubin anymore. Well, the article started great, but really, the only thing I can conclude is that he got a great deal, his contract conditions with Columbia is a dream and how he loves the Gossip. Sony and Columbia has replaced well-knowledge music staff with high-paid executives and have tried to compensate it by Rubin’s hippie-spiritual-rub-my-ears and belly persona.

What I found the most interesting: “This summer, Columbia Records began a program called Big Red. The company invited 20 college students from Harvard, Penn State and the University of Miami to work on various music projects”, one being a focus group.

"The kids all said that: [which we all know]

a) no one listens to the radio anymore
b) they mostly steal music, but they don't consider it stealing
c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod.

They also said that MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."

Honestly, I just don’t see how this guy is our savior…
Talking about some common opera singer from London that was discovered in the British version of American Idol, and him wanting to create a buzz on him before the album drops in the states. I don’t know, I understand there is a market for this, maybe I'm not in any way into popular shit as much. But I'm thinking longevity, Rubin is thinking about...? You tell me. Reviving the Chili Peppers, Cash and Diamond. Next up, Phish? Creed? Hootie? The Offspring? Look, I respect what he's done, especially with Def Jam... Let's see what he'll do at Columbia. As for the Gossip, hopefully he will not let them down.

Must reads on this:
Stereogum on Rick Rubin You can also see the video of the opera singing dude!

The Lefsetz Letter First in Music Analysis
Bob Lefsetz is to damn good!

2 comments:

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

I love even the title on the Stereogum article--he will "definitely maybe" even they aren't sure he will work it seems...

Disneyrollergirl.net said...

I get my music info from reading these blogs!