Bob Lefsetz: 6 Lessons from Rebecca Black
Last week, viral star Rebecca Black appeared on Ryan Seacrest's show and hooked her up with Debra Baum, a manager with DB Entertainment. Black has since signed with DB reports say. What do we make of all this? Bob Lefsetz, a music industry thinker you're probably familiar with, outlined 23 things we could learn from Black on his blog.
Here are my favorite 6 of Lefsetz's insights:
1. Shelf life online is forever. Like a land mine waiting to be stepped on decades later, if you can Google it, it can always blow up. In other words, a spin on radio evaporates, a YouTube clip is waiting to explode.
2. Music and video production are cheap. Rebecca Black's mother paid Ark Factory two grand and got not only a song but a video. Not only does this beg why major label productions are so expensive, it reinforces the fact that anybody can play. In other words, if you're bitching about needing money to make it in the music game, you're playing by the old rules.
3. Don't equate fame with being rich or longevity. Fame is oftentimes brief and oftentimes the famous make almost no cash. I.e. reality TV. But there's an endless parade of wannabes willing to prostitute themselves for a bit of fame. Is it the human condition or a reflection of America, where the poor can no longer be rich and fame is a substitute?
4. Rebecca Black lives in a different world. If you're twenty something and have been slugging it out for years trying to make it don't complain about Rebecca Black. She lives in a different world. To make it and last in music takes longer than it has since the seventies. The MTV era made stars overnight, which faded almost instantly. Now you gain traction slowly, only your fans know you, they spread the word online and you pray that you never gain a Rebecca Black moment, because that means you'll be ridiculed and be toast.
5. Either go for train-wreck value or be exceptionally good. Yes, if you're an "artist", mediocre doesn't cut it. The landscape is evanescent lowest common denominator crap or incredible art. In other words, if you're not going to be the next Bob Dylan or Radiohead, stay in school.
6. Rebecca Black is a bigger story than SXSW, certainly than any band that played there. Question the old game. Instead of wasting money to make yourself feel good, stay home and think. Come up with something that truly gets us to turn our heads.
Comment below. Read all of Bob Lefsetz's insights here.
another lesson is have tosh.0 mention your video
Yeah, this is bull****! I’m officially ticked off. She gets signed to a well known manager for sucking??? WHA???????
I was watching Exit Through The Gift Shop last night and that movie makes it pretty clear that if you can make a spectacle of yourself in ANY manner, you’re going to be famous and make a ton of money even if you’re doing something that is illegal and hurting other people (defacing private property sucks for the owners who have to clean it up or foot the bill to have it cleaned up).
#2 is very interesting. $2000 isn’t “money” anymore? What planet do you live on, man?
A planet where the major record labels can spend well over $100k shooting a 3min video, and invest less than half that amount in a full album.
That would be #17 in TFA.
Something tells me this wasn’t exactly a union production.
Are you really that thick? Do you think the music business is some kind of talent show?
I was just talking from the perspective of the “bitching artist” — $2000 is 200 hours of work @ $10 per hour.
And word to Roger Bixley, we don’t live in a world that can afford Unions anymore. The Plutocracy won.
It seems like your perception of good and reality’s perception of good are out of sync. For you to stay in the game, one needs to adjust to the other (in reality, they both adjust to one another to a certain extent). I know which perception I intend to follow.
If you have a project that can bring 10,000,000’s of youtube views, I’ll invest $2k.
This is probably the most poorly thought out article I’ve seen on Hypebot in awhile. How you’re ascribing some kind of strategy to this rare case of actual viral video is beyond logic, reason, or plain common sense.
There was no strategy here. The song made people laugh (and I’m sure somewhere in Utah…some folks actually like it). It had about as much thought put into it as the stoned kid coming home from the dentist.
There was no strategy that went into this (if there were an actual strategy here, we would all have been familiar with this label/production company’s roster ages ago, no? Or are you arguing this is the first time they got it right?). It was simply a very very poorly written song with WTF lyrics (“gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal”). Add clueless pre-teen and autotune and a nation of cynics…comedy ensues.
People LOVE hating boy/girl bands/artists. Particularly snarky high schoolers, college types and fans of SNL. That’s not strategy. That’s some weird tick that developed in Western Culture. People have been laughing at teen artists since before Horatio Sanz was making fun of the Backstreet Boys. Again…that’s NOT strategy. It just is.
Point #2 on this list…wow. The cost of production had NOTHING to do objectively or subjectively with the success of this video. It was the content. You can make a kick ass video with an iPhone app you spent 5 bucks on. Everyone knows that. Duh. How do we know everyone knows that…cuz it’s what everyone’s been doing. Even Erykah Badu’s ‘Window Seat’ didn’t have some huge crew. Sooo even the majors know it. Not sure how this relates to Rebecca Black’s vid being a success. This is as insightful as telling a musician “hey you don’t need to go to a $500 a day studio anymore…all you need is a laptop, a decent mic, Logic and a dream…Go get ’em tiger!!” (see I’m being cynical…can’t help it I’m one of the millions that loved this video for all the wrong reasons)
Finally, the advice “Go for…exceptionally good….mediocre doesn’t cut it” How MOTU is that? Oh that stands for Master Of The Obvious…oh you knew that? Obviously. But see how you’ve contradicted yourself? This song and video themselves are mediocre at best god-awful at worst. So umm what are you saying exactly….unless you think this is some genius song writing and an amazing video….if so…well…I dunno what to say.
Point #6…nonsense. If Rebecca Black winds up with a more successful career than the buzz bands of SXSW this year I personally allow you to seek me out and skin me alive with a rusty butter knife. What are you basing this on? That’s like saying the aforementioned stoned little boy coming from the dentist is more popular than Will Ferrell. Nonsense. Lets not forget Odd Future scored Jimmy Fallon with literally tens of millions fewer views. Soooo again…what are you saying exactly?
Don’t confuse instant fascination/gratification with some random media content as something that is enduring, or will have long term cultural significance. People still think watching narcoleptic goats on Youtube is funny….would you invest in a Narcoleptic Goat feature film? If so I’ll write the script….if you pay me. Maybe we can get Dancing Baby to play the lead, and get William Hung to do his rendition of “Chocolate Rain” for the score.
Good lord man. I love Hypebot but sometimes you guys are reaching waaaay too far. Sometimes a video simply goes viral, and that’s all there is to it. If there were actually a science to this practice that could be extracted and followed as law…everyone with negligible musical talent a terrible song, and a mediocre video would be famous today.
Pay $2000. Make a song that has almost 100% dislikes. Get signed out of pity because she is 13 and people felt sorry for her. Makes sense.
If you can accurately predict youtube views, I’ll invest way more than $2k.
I think the music industry and instant talent x factor reality shows have blurred the line between what is good and what is popular. You don’t need talent or a strategy anymore, look at Susan Boyle. Whatever happened to former Pop Idols Rik Waller and Michelle McManus is anyone’s guess. Instant fame, instantly forgotten.
“Either go for train-wreck value or be exceptionally good. Yes, if you’re an “artist”, mediocre doesn’t cut it.”
Oh! The irony!!!
Who is Rebecca Black?
Is she friends with William Hung?
Hizzah!
Ark Music Factory succeeds by failing so miserably that people can’t help but talk about it. Damn, I can’t believe I never thought of that business model.
I like this song. I think I’ll buy it.Catchy