The Lefsetz Letter is always interesting because of its spin towards the money-making end of the music industry. I'm not really sure what this guy does or used to do, but his angle is always ripe with sarcasm when it comes to record sales. For more, head here...
On Fall Out Boy (#1: 259,674):
"As for Fall Out Boy itself, the band has built an audience. By going positively mainstream. I wouldn’t quite call it selling out, but it’s not like they’re absent from the media circus. And said circus resulted in this total. But in a few years (months?) the circus will move on to a new act, and Fall Out Boy’s sales will tank, the band will be irrelevant.Something really turns me off about Fall Out Boy and I don't know what it is. Oh, wait. Yes I do. I remember seeing them live on SNL and it was completely flat. Dull. Dead. Granted, many a band have been struck down by SNL, but nothing about these guys do it for me. There seems to be something very artificial about their whole makeup/songs/following.
"In other words, Fall Out Boy is flavor of the month. Just marginally better than Panic At The Disco! It’s kind of like hula-hoops, but worse. At least everybody knew what a hula-hoop WAS, most Americans are still clueless as to the music of Fall Out Boy, and many have never even heard of the band. As for identifying a member of the act? Impossible except for those truly diehard."
Now Bloc Party, on the other hand...now we are talking. Not bad to bring the opening week in at #12, but Lefsetz raises some interesting points...
On Bloc Party (#12: 47,726):
"Doesn’t smell like a hit, does it?He's right about Bloc Party and the road. Matt Tong getting hurt definitely hurt their ability to pump this album drop, but what gives? Can we get some more American dates or what? I'm standing by, debit card in hand.
"Where do you get airplay/mindshare for an act like this, such that you can sell tonnage?
"Nowhere I know of.
"Oh, maybe you can get a song in a commercial or on a hot TV show, but then you alienate all the hard core fans and really, the newbies are only in it for the track.
"If you don’t make Top Forty music and you want to make money, take to the ROAD!"
1 comment:
Oddly enough, I'm currently writing a degree-level essay on Fall Out Boy. Sure, musically they're pretty trendy and they just write pop music, but lyrically there's a depth severely missing from damn near all music that's mainstream at the moment; a depth they have.
The song "You're Crashing, But You're No Wave", for example, deals with the trial of Fred Hampton Jr. In short what I'm saying is that I could talk for hours about Fall Out Boy's lyrics. While they're certainly not Ani DiFranco great there's a lot more to them than people might immediately see.
-Lexi C
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