Jon Bon Jovi committed the most egregious sin imaginable.
It wasn’t the mere fact that he exists (as some will snark), or that his music, praised and panned in equal volume, proved rather successful in the not-so-distant past. Worse, far worse, JBJ had the nerve, the sheer gall, to take a shot at Apple’s Steve Jobs, the Man Who Can Do No Wrong. In a recent interview with the Times Magazine, Bon Jovi lamented the total shift to iTunes and digital downloads and said “Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.” Of course Jon has received endless grief for this statement, slammed as another out-of-touch old man who just doesn’t get it. And those are the kind words. Yet read the whole quote, and JBJ does make a valid point about how young people, in this generation, are missing out on the whole experience of going to a record store since all they need to do is click and download what they want. True, music is more portable, and we have more choices, and we can pick out just the songs we want and discard the filler. But is that truly better? Or is it just isolating us, and our tastes, from others whose tastes might be different? All these are valid questions. Where JBJ was off was in his target of who, or what, brought the music industry down. Mainly, in my view, record companies and/or their business partners have consistently misread, or even underestimated, the public’s ability to determine what is good and what is not. They also think publicity and headlines should outweigh talent. Worse yet, in the heyday of the CD they kept records at $15 to $20, regardless of quality. Thus, even if you took the leap of faith and bought it, you had to pray that the whole thing was good, not just two songs out of 10. This happened, too often, and people moved away once digital options, especially iTunes, opened up. Now they mostly don’t bother with whole albums, for good reason. A majority of artists simply aren’t good enough to have their work sustain itself for a whole record. Add to that another modern horror – Auto-Tune. There’s no defense for this. Whether in pop or country or any other genre, far too many performers resort to this pitch correction so that they can “perform” better. Yeah, maybe so, but there goes your authenticity. It’s lazy, too, to let some machine save you if you can’t sing on your own. Yet as the good and bad parts of technology grab our attention for the right and wrong reasons, there’s still reason to hope that true, authentic music can win out. Note Arcade Fire getting the Grammy for Album of the Year. Note how the retro-cool Decemberists from Oregon snared a top-seller with “The King Is Dead”, recorded in a barn with real instruments and real voices – with really good songs from start to finish. For me, though, the most striking example of how the public still has good taste, when allowed to express it, is in the rise of a young woman from Britain named Adele. A couple of years ago, Adele’s debut, simply called “19”, helped propel her to the Best New Artist Grammy, and deservedly so. With a resonant and soulful voice, she could skip from ballad to dance track without losing any of her power. What’s more, she never oversings just to show off. It’s a lesson divas twice her age never learn. Adele’s self-penned songs in the debut were, at times, uneven, but a few stay in the bloodstream long after you listened to them. Just try to listen to “Chasing Pavements” or “Hometown Glory” and not be moved. Oh yeah, and not one note Auto-Tuned. Good as that was, Adele’s follow-up, the just-released “21”, is even better. More versatility is shown, and the songs, all about (or inspired by) a relationship that had just ended, shows a young woman who writes as well as she belts. Even the cover tracks shine. The first time around, Adele made Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” her own, a nearly impossible trick. On “21”, she does the same with the Cure’s “Lovesong”, turning a somewhat morbid late-80s standard into a cool, wistful bossa nova number with awesome guitar backing. Lo and behold, 21 topped the album charts here in the States and in many other countries. The sad part is that some take shots at Adele because, well, she carries a few more pounds. What, you want her to be anorexic and/or strung out? So to Mr. Bon Jovi, the music industry is not dead and no one, Jobs or otherwise, is going to euthanize it. Not as long as Adele and her friends are around to keep things interesting – and as long as fans recognize that talent and reward it.