Talking to Terry Gross on NPR was surreal enough, but one day Diana from Last Call with Carson Daly e-mailed unexpectedly and asked if I'd be interested in appearing on the show. I checked my busy schedule and responded that yes, I did believe I could make time for it. Thus began an adventure to Los Angeles with my best friend Booms as an entourage of one as well as an incredibly savvy and kind driver and "handler" named Lisa. Afterwards, it didn't really click in that I'd survived the appearance until I checked the DirecTV guide at the hotel bar and saw my name listed in the grid. Oh, then Booms and I had a LOT of margaritas at a Mexican restaurant in Burbank.
Here are clips from the show, January 22nd:
As you can see, Mr. Daly knew the material pretty well and asked sharp questions. A few people have asked what he told me. I actually can't remember our conversation at the beginning, because I was nervous, as well as shocked that he pulled me into the "bro hug" -- I was expecting a plain old handshake! As you maybe can see, I had no idea what to do with my left arm. During the commercial break I asked if he ever met Lou Pearlman and Clive Calder, two of the main characters in the teen-pop chapter of the book, during his days on MTV. He said he definitely had met Lou a few times and Calder "I think once."
Afterwards, thanks to Lisa the Driver's machinations, I got to chat with Carson for about 10 minutes backstage. He took issue with my theory, in the book, that teen pop was purely a singles genre, and he defended specific albums by Backstreet Boys, 'NSync and 98 Degrees. I'll respond merely by saying it was strange indeed to be arguing with Carson Daly, the pied Total Request Live piper of boy bands and Britney, about the validity of teen pop as an album genre.
A few other great things happened. After I appeared on Denver's Jay Marvin Show earlier in the month, Jay enthusiastically invited my band, The Propane Daisies, to appear January 19th to play several songs and answer questions about our influences and such. It was quite a thrill. OK, it's not my band -- I actually joined after Eric the Singer showed up at our July 4 yard sale last year to buy some cheap princess stuff for his daughter. I think we sound good, though.
More book reviews: Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Time Out New York, Metro and New West.
Thanks, everybody, for your kind words about the book. I've tried to respond to every e-mail but still have some catching up to do.
1 comment:
I just read an article on your book in the Wall Street Journal and decided to check out the blog. I completely agree with your view that the music companies really failed because they were clinging to an outdated business model. Apple took over the industry because they were able to harness the power of web-based music purchasing. The beauty of the model is that they have control of each step in the process of consuming music so they can focus on creating a seamless way to connect music purchasing to music listening on an iPod. It's not about optimizing one step in the process its about optimizing the entire process so it's as smooth as possible for the user. Consumers will choose the most frictionless method for getting their music. Apple capitalized on this. I guess the music executives were too focused on buying their new McMansions to recognize who was really paying the bills. Traditional music companies are unlikely to ever be able to compete. We recently blogged on this if you are interested: http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2009/02/why-the-music-industry-doesnt-have-a-prayer-against-itunes/
Looking forward to getting a copy of your book.
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