I Am Not A Role Model

    The year was 1905 and a baseball player from the Pittsburgh Pirates, named Honus Wagner became the first athlete to endorse a product for money.  He had a contract with the Louisville Slugger that would allow the baseball bat company to sell bats with his signature engraved on the barrel.  That deal started a love affair between celebrity athletes and their consumers/fans that would grow to unimaginable heights.  Today, Athletes like Tiger Woods and David Beckham have net worths of 500 million and 260 million dollars respectively.  Most of that money is from endorsements and both of these men are known worldwide.  Companies capitalize on the success and name branding of these men and sell everything from cars to watches to shoes because fans will pay through the nose for a pair of cleats that David Beckham uses.  Their faces (or bodies) are on billboards, commercials, buses, magazines, TV, and video games.
 
    This exposure is what the corporations want, to flood the market with a hot commodity, i.e. a successful athlete, and as long as they stay winning they will ride the wave of popularity.  What happens when the athlete makes a public mistake?  That depends on how that mistake it is perceived and dealt with.  Tiger Woods had a very public "mistake" and his cost him and the companies he endorsed millions of dollars.  No longer would people want to buy a Buick because Tiger has one but would rather buy something else so no one associates them with the adulterer.  His PR team dealt with that scandal terribly and unfortunately, he never recovered fully.  On the other hand, David Beckham has been reported to have had affairs with numerous women and most recently, this past August.  The thing is, most of us didn't hear of this.  Why?  His PR team is quick to react and squash rumors and issue statements on behalf of their client.  After a reported cheating rumor, you see pictures of him and his wife, Victoria (Posh Spice), all over town appearing to be madly in love.  We don't know what really happened, but people wouldn't stop buying Adidas soccer cleats because of a rumor.

     Athletes are people with everyday problems like the rest of us, except they have lots of money and the fact that every move they make of the court or field is documented by everyone.  I like the ad from the 90's with Charles Barkley (the most honest man in sports in my opinion) where the entire campaign was about athletes not being role models.  Parents should be role models.  I will never forget those commercials because they are so true.

Who Remembers Dial MTV?

     I will never forget coming home from General John Stricker Middle School as a 7th grader and turning on Dial MTV at 3pm everyday.  For those who aren't familiar, Dial MTV would tally call-in votes and determine the top ten songs/videos of the day.  The countdown would begin as I pushed my homework aside and sat in front of the massive 27' TV to see the countdown.  Did I mention I was also sitting at my drum kit, anxiously spinning my drumsticks like Tommy Lee.  Then a song I knew would come on and I could play along.  I learned to play drums that way and to this day, I could probably pound out any Motley Crue, Guns & Roses or The Outfield song (search "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight" to see the best video EVER!!!  I particularly love the tom-toms part from 2:03-2:27 and could play it in my sleep)  With real video's and music on TV essentially dead, where can we hear or see new artists?

     I hate to say, but it is difficult.  Established artists promote themselves with commercials, appearances, merchandise and sometimes scandal.  What can the up and coming band or singer do?  They have to try to succeed on one of the many reality competition shows to even get facetime on TV.  They can't sell merchandise because no one knows them and scandal is only good AFTER you are successful.  That leaves new artists with a long, arduous and well travelled road to follow.  Playing shows and building a following is the only way that a new artist can truly make it.  Long nights humping your equipment from one crap hole to another, making barely enough money for food and gas, much less suitable shelter.  Then there is a side of playing gigs that people who never played music don't realize, at some point you decide (as a band) to stop doing originals and do covers.  Once that happens, your dreams of making it big die, but the steady money making music beats doing a 9-5 job.
      The bands who stick with their dream, use social media to promote themselves and it actually is a great, inexpensive tool.  I still have friends trying to make it and they are all over Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram to get their name out there.  At the grassroots level, you are just trying to sell enough CD's and Merchandise at the shows to get you to the next one.  Even the big artists still get their bread and butter from shows.  The tickets, CD and merchandise sales at these performances are crucial and if you don't believe me, I challenge you to go to any show and not find merch. tables.  You can't.  The record companies have been stealing from artists since the recording industry started.  Now the consumer is stealing from the record companies and they take it from the artists' cut anyway.  Either way, the artist is surviving because they figure out ways to be creative and brand themselves.