Like a fat kid steals Cake
For some reason my Billboard feed stopped working a while back and suddenly started working today. So I was inundated with 96 items. I’m glad they worked that out and I’m glad I’m in a position to be so meh about music industry news that I barely noticed. Apparently, though, last week brought the lowest selling #1 album in chart history with Cake’s new record selling a mere 44,000 units in its first week. There are no zeroes missing in that number! Back in the good old days when CDs cost 18.98 and we spent our days snorting blow and counting our money, those kind of numbers might put you in the upper reaches of the Top 100.
This morning, as I sat in the library of the K-12 school where I intern, four girls came in and sat near me. The tail end of the conversation they were having about ipods featured this line from one of the girls: “I just use _____ to get the music out of the videos and then they are mp3s. I don’t even use iTunes anymore.” (I didn’t redact that, I just didn’t quite catch what tool she uses to do this – there are several). As they got to work, I thought in my head, “you have no idea that the person who is sitting three feet from you is only here because of that very sentence.” Well, it’s not that simple, but that’s certainly a big chunk of the reason. I didn’t say anything. But I will. Someday.
We live in a nest of thieves.
When we look back at the 20th century, I wonder how much of what seemed to us to be immutable and indispensable will have fallen away, like blacksmithing and the telegraph.
I recall reading something a week or two ago about Taylor Swift having a lowest selling #1 album ever. Did she set a low record that Cake then lowered again? Wow.
I love the new Cake album, which I doubt surprises you.
Sarp, but they’ll never take blogging away, right? RIGHT? PS, I could really use a good blacksmith.
Beth, yes, that was also amongst the 96 feed items. The week before, she sold the fewest for a #1 at something like 52k units and then the following week her record (I guess both meanings of the word) was beaten by Cake.
No, it doesn’t. 🙂
Becca, as long as there have been people there have been story tellers and gossips, and the need to record and reflect came before cuneiform. What do you think those cave paintings are?
You’ll always be needed.
I always thought they were pron. But I never really understood art.