the biz

i was reading a blog post today about Chris Brown’s most recent album “Fortune” debuting at #1 despite underwhelming sales. The first sentence in the post – “Is no one buying R&B albums anymore” – first had me taking the question personally and shaking my fist in compliance then when I stopped to think about it for a bit, I said to myself, “wait…no one is buying R&B albums anymore because 80% of the music on a R&B artist’s album isn’t really R&B anymore.”

I think its safe for me to say this especially being one of many people who grew up during an era where R&B was KING – need I remind you of artists like Mary J. Blige, 112, Faith Evans, Jodeci, Tevin Campbell, Shai, SWV and Bell Biv Devoe? Probably not. There was no blurring the lines with those artists. They were serving us R&B music. Period. It just seems like in the past ten years R&B has kind of become musically extinct with veteran R&B artists such as Usher, Chris Brown and Kelis [I know 'Kaleidoscope' and some of her albums after that was a precursor to the shit she's doing right now, but she was R&B in my eyes, there was no other category to put her in lol] crossing-over into even more dance-pop material.

One of the first R&B artists I remember doing something along those lines was Janet Jackson, but I never thought anything of it because her brother was Michael and she was pretty much allowed to do whetever she wanted, lol. But I cant help but wonder: did Janet and the execs at her label know something other R&B artists [& labels] didn’t know? Did they feel an early shift in the scope of the musical landscape before anyone else? I think Janet’s ‘diversity’ in her music came from her being one of the few R&B acts of her time to tour the world and explore what was going on musically in the different countries she performed in. From what I remember [and I could be totally wrong] 112, Faith Evans, Tevin Campbell and some of the other R&B acts I mentioned earlier [with the exception of Mary J Blige] were not going on World Tours even while their albums topped the Billboard charts. Lemme find out Europe has been pulling the strings on this shit the whole damn time lol.

I could be wrong, or I could be right. Either way, all I know is that R&B at one point was on the same level equivalently as Hip Hop. Hip Hop & R&B went hand in hand. Some of the BEST hooks in Hip Hop were sung by R&B artists [and still are today]. And it’s like Hip Hop just took off and left R&B behind to fight for the spotlight with the David Guetta’s and Calvin Harris’ of the world. And R&B couldn’t even keep up with that.

Who do we blame? The labels for trying to force a marriage between dance-pop and R&B? The R&B artists themselves for not sticking to their guns? The rappers who have decided to sing their own hooks via autotune? How about blaming ourselves – the consumer, for choosing image, hype and mass popularity over genuine TALENT? As much as I am excited for all these fresh and new emerging R&B artists, I worry. I worry for a genre of music that emotionally touches the hearts and souls of people. The fact that music like that isn’t popular anymore is a little scary to me.

Here’s a short list of R&B artists who I think will help keep R&B alive:
Jesse Boykins III, Frank Ocean, Lianne La Havas, Rochelle Jordan, BJ the Chicago Kid, Shi Wisdom, Tika Simone, & Zeyon. Go forth and google :)

What do you think? Why do you think no one is buying R&B albums anymore? let me know and provide me with a list of r&b artists you are listening to right now.

~lissa

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LOS ANGELES—June 16, 2008—MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, today announced the launch of a series of high profile user interface changes that include the site’s home page, navigation, profile editing, search, and MySpaceTV player. Today’s announcement—part of a year-long company initiative to redesign and rethink the core functionality of the site—will empower the site’s global community to more intuitively navigate throughout the site and better communicate with their family and friends around the world.

“A year ago we set out on a path to rethink the way people interact with the fundamental features of MySpace,” said Tom Anderson, President and co-founder of MySpace. “These changes lay the groundwork for what is to come—by the early fall we expect to reveal an entirely new and remixed MySpace that deepens the engagement of current users and attracts new ones.”

The changes will roll out throughout the week and features changes based on results from multiple in-home usability studies, online surveys, impromptu testing, focus groups, and user’s messages and comments sent to Tom’s profile. MySpace is working with Adaptive Path, a best of breed experience strategy and design firm based in San Francisco, to usher in some of the user interface changes.

Splash Page Re-launch: As the entry point for the site’s global users, the splash page is the gateway to the site and the primary log-in page for the community. On Wednesday, June 18 users in the United States will see a branded splash page takeover sponsored by a major advertiser and on Thursday, June 19 users will see the entire new look and feel which features a more intuitive and simplified log-in. The new splash page features a larger creative palette for advertisers, allowing for a flexible platform to put a large percentage of the page into a brand – an unparalleled opportunity for brands to engage users at the gateway to their MySpace experience.

New Navigation: Also on June 18, MySpace will unroll new site navigation sparked by user demand for easier access to key communication tools on the site such as mail and core viral community features such as music and MySpaceTV. The redesign provides a consistent and easy way to get from one place to any other place on MySpace and contains a drop-down menu housing additional functionality including Karaoke, Games, and Celebrity.

Profile Editor: The new profile editor will unveil a host of new personalization options for users making it easy for the community to customize profiles through a selection of styles and granularly detail their sections from a theme library offering color, borders, and images to choose from. Users with more advanced coding skills will still be able to fully customize profiles using HTML coding. The unveil of the profile editor comes on the heels of various profile enhancements including the recent launch of photo albums, photo editing, friend updates, status launch, page theming, and MySpace messaging with new search and sort.

New Search: On June 16 MySpace will roll out new searching capabilities with a consistent, clean user interface. MySpace is working with Lucene Open-Source engine and community to enhance search capabilities, marking the first time MySpace has contributed to the Open-Source community. Search will have improved filtering by location and added relevancy to search algorithms. Search results will be tabbed, with five tabs based on the top five search categories; People, MySpace site searches, Web searches, Music and MySpaceTV. With almost 20 billion searches on MySpace this year, MySpace is ranked third in total number of searches by any site.

MySpaceTV Player: Built internally, the MySpaceTV player has been redesigned for an incredibly rich user experience and will roll globally to the community on June 17. The new player includes scrubber, time-stamps, volume memory, and new menu systems which encourage the user to share and interact with content – and search within the player. The player fully utilizes Flash 9, with a true full-screen mode, and it supports HD. The new player offers a more flexible advertising platform with multiple formats (pre, post, ticker, companion banners) and advertising providers. The global launch will include international, language specific players (e.g. Japan) and will initially be released on all of MySpaceTV, with embedded videos to roll out iteratively.

The announcement of the global redesign initiative comes on the heels of the high volume of features that MySpace has ushered in over the course of last six month including the launch of the MySpace Developer Platform, Data Availability initiative, MySpace Messaging with Google Gears and new channels such as Games and Karaoke.

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the following message is from my boy sickamore:
*cueing Encore*

I’ve resigned as Director of A&R at Atlantic Records.

Gave my notice last week Tuesday, though today is my final day in the office. No, I’m not leaving to take another job. Nor was I fired attempting to cover it up. I’ve just lost faith in the major label system. I’m a guy of integrity so the last thing I’ll ever do is stay somewhere just to collect a check or say I’m “an A&R”. That’s just wack. Though I’ll continue to consult for Atlantic, Asylum Records, Columbia Records as well as continuing to help the artists I’ve signed like Wynter Gordon, Slim of 112 and of course Saigon.

People who know me know I’m very passionate about my career. I started two businesses (record store in 2002 and The Famous Firm b/k/a I Can Make You Famous) before I had this job. I didn’t take this position for the money. When Hip Hop first mentioned it to me in December 2005, I was hesitant. My lawyer laughed when I told her about it: “You’re going to get a job?!?!?! You make more money on your own! Atlantic is about to fold! You’re crazy!”. But I knew the experience would be vital for my career growth. So I took it. I told myself “give it at least two years.” That was February 2006.

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Posted by my man eskay:

Jay recently spoke to EW about Def Jam’s 26 Grammy nods and the status of his contract negotiations.

The New York Daily News said last week that talks were stalling because you made some big demands. Is there any truth to that?
No.

So from your perspective, do you think you’ll be at Def Jam next year?
Yeah, I think — I don’t know. Let me not even say that. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. But seriously, it’s not about money. That’s really the last thing. Of course, as a person that does these type of things and puts his heart and soul into it — and it’s effective, as the Grammys would indicate — you want to be compensated for what you do. But it’s really not about money. It’s really about the future of the music business, and not wasting anyone’s time. I don’t ever want to sit in a seat just to sit in a seat. I could be off doing something else that’s beneficial to the future of the music business as well as myself. So it’s not about money! I mean, you couldn’t pay me enough. And I don’t mean that in a cocky way.

I dunno man…I love Jay and everything but since dude’s been in the big chair the only thing he’s touched that’s turned to gold (or platinum) was Rihanna [and i mean that in the most appropriate way] & the rumors about Def Jam employees getting laid off b/c of low American Gangster sales is so not a good look.

The effects of the PDCIC Syndrome (Puff Daddy Corporate Identity Crisis) has taken effect.

I’m going to start a foundation.
~lissa

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Everyone dreams of becoming a famous rap star.
Slaving in the studio for hours, the collie weed straight from Jamaica, the six packs of Heineken, the comings and goings of groupies – it all gets so intense.

You roam the streets with your boys handing out fliers, strong-arming your way on to the guest list of the hottest parties, spend countless hours on MySpace adding friends in hopes that they listen to the four “buzz” tracks on your page.
You even go as far as to spend countless hours filling out a VideoFact grant for a music video.

The cycle repeats its self yet again – the collie weed, six packs of Heineken, the groupies….so intense.

Next thing you know your album release date is fast approaching. You and the boys talk about dreams of attending the BET, MTV, Vh1 awards, tapping those bomb ass American b*tches, the cars, the FREE collie weed when you finally step in the booth to do a track with Snoop Dogg.
You even start to believe it too.

Then the calls start coming in.
They want you for local magazine interviews, college radio, commercial radio, even internet podcasting. You begin boosting your album like it was Dr. Dre’s highly anticipated Detox.

Your video is on TV, but it only plays one or two times on “specialized” shows.
Your single is on the radio but it spins after 12a.
Its all good though, “your going platinum dawg.”….at least that’s what your boys say.

You even throw an album release party….only a few people show up, but its okay they gonna buy your album anyway. Besides the night you held the party wasn’t on a payday.
However…..
The night before your album is scheduled to drop you go all out – 2,199 sq. ft suite, bottles of Canei, endless ziplock bags of collee weed and the baddest b*tches that you’ve always meant to holler at but since you got an album dropping the next day it was just
oh
so
easy.

A week goes by….
Your video is STILL on TV, and its bumped up to Medium Rotation.
Your single is on the radio and now it gets Heavy Play.

You receive an email with an attachment.
First Week Album Sales – SoundScan is in the subject heading.
You’re so fuck*ng excited you print out the excel sheet and scroll your finger down the list until you see your name.

Pause.

Three?
Where are the zeros?
Three.
As in Three Blind Mice, Three Little Pigs…
uno.
dos.
tres.
quat…don’t get ahead of yourself buddy.

I think thats how the matches end on WWE with some dude in tights pinned to the round and the referee slaps the ground THREE times.

I think a bell even rings three times too.
Its over. Its over. Its over.

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