2:59

The Grammys were on tonight and offered up amusing performances from The White Stripes, Foo Fighters & Chick Corea, George Clinton and Outkast among a few others. It wasn’t as interesting for me as last year’s, but one thing about it really bothered me.

At one point someone from the Recording Industry took the stage and gave a speech about illegal downloading to sporadic applause. The speech didn’t exactly bring the crowd to their feet and there was an air of unease about the whole thing. That fact’s reassuring in itself, because while I’m sure all the artists there appreciate getting paid for their work, I doubt they all agree with the RIAA’s gestapo tactics. They then previewed a really weak ‘public service announcement’ ad for some industry run website. The RIAA spokesperson who announced it was the most stereotypically slick corporate weasel type I’ve ever seen. He looked like Garth Motherloving (the Ben Stiller voiced sugar executive) from the Simpsons.

Now I’m not going to weigh in on the whole downloading controversy here. My views really don’t represent the majority of the youth these days, as I tend to romanticize having a big music collection like kids did in the 70s and I work with enough bands to actually feel guilty about ripping them off. So unlike most I can see where the RIAA’s coming from. However if they ever want to recover their public image from their horribly misguided tactics of suing children, the way to do it is not with cheesy ads and speeches from slick executives. Kids these days are far more savvy when they’re given credit for, and while they may not understand the negative effects of downloading music they can sure as hell see through preachy ‘after school special’ fare like that ad.

Now I don’t have the answers nor do I claim to, but isn’t it obvious that this campaign will fail to resonate?

As much as I hear kids scoff at them I think the MPAA has the right idea with their ads before movies. They get the guy who paints sets to talk about how he’s the type of guy getting screwed when people steal his work, not the actors or executives. While far from perfect and not without it’s dubious moments, at least this ad’s straightforward and appealing to people’s sense of sympathy.

Lawsuits nontwithstanding, the RIAA’s main problem relations wise is that they garner a total lack of sympathy from their customers. Why not open some dialog that appeals to people’s intelligence rather than metaphorically standing on the roof of your luxury car while waving a kitchen knife screaming ‘YOU WANNA STEAL FROM ME? I’LL FUCK YOU UP! COMMON! TRY ME! I’M FUCKING CRAZY!’

‘but hey, what do I know. All I can say is that I’d likely sympathize with the plight of their industry yet I’m even disgusted and turned off by their current tactics. I can only imagine how the kids growing up in this climate feel.

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I have to agree with the review in AMP that it’s getting really hard to hate The Strokes. Despite whatever revival nonsense they supposedly represent, the song “Under Control” from their new album is a phenomenal tune.

Spinning:

The Strokes - Room On Fire
The Specials - S/T
Lucero - That Much Further West
The Clash - London Calling