Grinder
15 May 2002, 17:43
Carey's Comeback
Jim Bessman, 09 May 2002
Artist developments dominated the week's news for a change, starting
with the return of Mariah Carey to the record company ranks. Following
her pitiful fiasco at Virgin Records (which in January chose to buy out
her contract for $28 million after her first album for the label, the
soundtrack for her box office movie flop "Glitter," likewise tanked
dismally), the troubled Carey will form her own label with Island/Def Jam
Music Group. She is expected to have a new album ready by the end of the
year or early 2003, and will also sign other artists to the as yet
unnamed label, which will be headed by former Arista VP Jerry Blair--who
previously worked with Carey at Columbia.
"Setting up this company for her is really guaranteeing her legacy,"
Blair told the Associated Press, giving the word "legacy" quite a
stretch. Wisely, Carey did not make herself available to comment.
Meanwhile, a band with a true legacy announced what is said to be there
farewell tour in typical tongue in cheek fashion. The Rolling Stones
flew to New York's Van Cortland Park in The Bronx in a blimp to proclaim
that their 2002/2003 year-long world tour will kick off Sept. 5 in
Boston. The tour, using the same band lineup as the 1998-99 "Bridges to
Babylon/No Security" tour, will involve stadiums, arenas, theaters, and
clubs with different stage productions for each type of venue, and will
be accompanied by the release of a two-disc retrospective including some
new material.
Editorial comment: People-mainly rock critics-have been complaining for
years that the 50 year-old-plus Stones should just hang it up. Not me.
So long as people want to see them-and are willing to shell out the
$50-$100 ticket price-why should they? No one ever demanded that the old
blues guys quit-and most of them merrily kept going until they kicked
the bucket.
Speaking of tours, Sevendust, Filter, and Gravity Kills are the big
names for the first "Locobazooka" tour, which opens June 27 at Milwaukee's
Summerfest with Audiovent, Nonpoint, Reveille, and Mushroomhead also on
board. The tour is named after an annual concert held in Worcester,
Mass.
Sadly we hereby report the death at 70 of Otis Blackwell, the
songwriter whose many hits included Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel," "All Shook
Up," and "Return to Sender," and Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of
Fire."
Moving over to industry news, the Recording Artists Coalition will
explore ways for musicians to obtain affordable healthcare coverage, and
will then propose a new healthcare program.
At the RIAA, a "Consumer Profile" survey shows that rock remains the
most popular music genre in the U.S. (24% of the market), with pop
surpassing rap/hip-hop for second place followed by r&b, country, religious,
jazz, and classical. And a study by the Websense Inc. technology
company shows that the number of peer-to-peer file-sharing software sites has
increased by over 500% in the last year, even as usage declined-in the
face of legal actions--at what have been the leading services
(including Napster and Morpheus).
Fueling the increase, apparently, is the rise in workers who download
software using their workplace's highspeed Internet lines-leaving their
companies legally vulnerable: The RIAA last month settled for $1
million with an Arizona firm whose Internet technology was allegedly
exploited by employees--to the tune of thousands of infringed MP3 files.
Jim Bessman, 09 May 2002
Artist developments dominated the week's news for a change, starting
with the return of Mariah Carey to the record company ranks. Following
her pitiful fiasco at Virgin Records (which in January chose to buy out
her contract for $28 million after her first album for the label, the
soundtrack for her box office movie flop "Glitter," likewise tanked
dismally), the troubled Carey will form her own label with Island/Def Jam
Music Group. She is expected to have a new album ready by the end of the
year or early 2003, and will also sign other artists to the as yet
unnamed label, which will be headed by former Arista VP Jerry Blair--who
previously worked with Carey at Columbia.
"Setting up this company for her is really guaranteeing her legacy,"
Blair told the Associated Press, giving the word "legacy" quite a
stretch. Wisely, Carey did not make herself available to comment.
Meanwhile, a band with a true legacy announced what is said to be there
farewell tour in typical tongue in cheek fashion. The Rolling Stones
flew to New York's Van Cortland Park in The Bronx in a blimp to proclaim
that their 2002/2003 year-long world tour will kick off Sept. 5 in
Boston. The tour, using the same band lineup as the 1998-99 "Bridges to
Babylon/No Security" tour, will involve stadiums, arenas, theaters, and
clubs with different stage productions for each type of venue, and will
be accompanied by the release of a two-disc retrospective including some
new material.
Editorial comment: People-mainly rock critics-have been complaining for
years that the 50 year-old-plus Stones should just hang it up. Not me.
So long as people want to see them-and are willing to shell out the
$50-$100 ticket price-why should they? No one ever demanded that the old
blues guys quit-and most of them merrily kept going until they kicked
the bucket.
Speaking of tours, Sevendust, Filter, and Gravity Kills are the big
names for the first "Locobazooka" tour, which opens June 27 at Milwaukee's
Summerfest with Audiovent, Nonpoint, Reveille, and Mushroomhead also on
board. The tour is named after an annual concert held in Worcester,
Mass.
Sadly we hereby report the death at 70 of Otis Blackwell, the
songwriter whose many hits included Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel," "All Shook
Up," and "Return to Sender," and Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of
Fire."
Moving over to industry news, the Recording Artists Coalition will
explore ways for musicians to obtain affordable healthcare coverage, and
will then propose a new healthcare program.
At the RIAA, a "Consumer Profile" survey shows that rock remains the
most popular music genre in the U.S. (24% of the market), with pop
surpassing rap/hip-hop for second place followed by r&b, country, religious,
jazz, and classical. And a study by the Websense Inc. technology
company shows that the number of peer-to-peer file-sharing software sites has
increased by over 500% in the last year, even as usage declined-in the
face of legal actions--at what have been the leading services
(including Napster and Morpheus).
Fueling the increase, apparently, is the rise in workers who download
software using their workplace's highspeed Internet lines-leaving their
companies legally vulnerable: The RIAA last month settled for $1
million with an Arizona firm whose Internet technology was allegedly
exploited by employees--to the tune of thousands of infringed MP3 files.