Everyone is entitled to my opinion...

 

To say I am a sceptic would be an under statement…

I question pretty much everything… except of course, the wit and wisdom of David Lee Roth. But when it comes to the music industry, maybe I am a little too jaded to be truly impressed by press releases, album reviews and live reviews or marketing strategies.

 

This week saw the 10 billionth download from the iTunes store. Ten billion! Now, I am more than prepared to take that figure as accurate (I don't believe it, although for now, I will accept it), but knowing that iTunes had a counter on the iTunes store for the past few weeks, you could see that this was building to a nice big feel-good music story.

 

A 71 year old country music fan from the US won US$10,000 of iTunes credit, making it the biggest record voucher of all time, by downloading a 1958 Johnny Cash track. That was the 10 billionth track. A 52 year old country music song...

 

Now I love Johnny Cash, don’t get me wrong, but in an industry that thrives on being young and hip (indeed, NEEDS it to survive) surely they could have found someone say, a little younger, to win?

 

Maybe someone downloading the new Ke$ha single perhaps??

Or is the music of your parent’s childhood the future of downloading music from iTunes?

 

Scary…

 

Gigs and Stuff

Last week was a bumper week of live shows in Sydney.

 

AC/DC, Whitney Houston, Jane’s Addiction, George Michael… the Soundwave festival… it was a crazy week.

 

I bookended my week by seeing AC/DC on Monday and George Michael on Friday. AC/DC is like rock n’ roll pantomime. You know the name of the song before they introduce it. You know what Angus is going to do in every song (head-bang and guitar solo), you know that Brian is going to scream a lot and say things to the crowd that you can’t understand (but you cheer anyway) and you know that Mal, Phil and Cliff are going to nail down some of the best hard rock rhythms of all time…there are ZERO surprises at an AC/DC show. And you know what? I couldn’t care less.

 

Hearing 70,000 people scream “I’m on a highway to hell” was a lovely comforting moment for me and made the upcoming Hillsong convention at the nearby Acer Arena seem a little incongruous.

 

But hearing myself say “I really enjoyed the George Michael concert” was a BIG surprise.

 

Seriously, the production and the use of video screens was some of the best I have seen. I was sitting a million miles away from the stage but the sound was spot on and the screens made it feel way more intimate than you’d expect, particularly at the stupid Sydney Footbal Stadium. This would have to be the worst stadium in the entire country. You can’t get in easily, you have to queue for 45 minutes to buy a beer, the toilets are just as bad and heaven help you if there is an emergency on the way out.

 

I never want to see a show there again.