RS: Talking about the lifestyle thing, what about the American
lifestyle versus the European lifestyle, and the way music is
perceived?
Gary Salzman: The major labels in America never were interested in
doing dance music. They wanted to market it. They wanted to have it
working with their rock and roll album mentality, and that's just not
the way dance music works. It is very different. It works in a mixed
format, it works in a single format, although it also doesn't work
that way, because the radio stations don't play it. You have to have a
business model and a business plan that incorporates what's going on
with the lifestyle into how you sell your music. No one in the
business community has really embraced that for dance, not as much as
they are now. Now they are embracing it. You hear a lot of rhythm in
commercials and in sales, in TV, and you see it in clubs everywhere,
so it's not going away. You just have to set your business models up
to work that way, and it doesn't necessarily work that way in an album
format. That being said, when you do play a dance record on the radio,
it works. You can see that from things like Everything But The Girl's
Missing and Cher's Believe. I mean, Cher sold twelve million records,
that's more than any rock and roll record, and it really did well for
an artist who a lot of people had discounted and didn't want to work
with. Everyone you talk with will tell you that's a pop record. Well
it's not, it's a dance record. It's four on the floor, it's auto
tuned, it's a dance record, and it's as much a dance record as any
dance record that's ever come out. It's just been played so much it's
become popular. That's also part of the business that people just
don't get, that you can't make pop music. You've got to make things
people want to buy, that become popular.
RS: Pop music isn't a genre, but it's when music does well?
Gary Salzman: Right. This goes back to what Clear Channel plays, and
what other radio stations aren't willing to (play). It goes back to
Eliot Splitzer thinking he was going to fix the record industry, but
not having a clue – going after the record labels but leaving the
radio stations alone. This goes back to all the problems from when
Clinton was President and he and Congress just allowed Clear Channel
to buy everything. They have a business model and they're working
within the framework of the law now, but you didn't have these types
of problems ten years ago, twelve years ago.
RS: Earlier you gave an amazing quote, and now I want you to
expand on it: "good music is an oxymoron."
Gary Salzman: My biggest peeve is when people say their music is
better than your music, or that you're cool if you listen to this
music – it's basically trying to get everyone to conform. It's trying
to rope everyone in a room, into the same place, and say if you do
this you're good, if you do this, you're bad. This is good music, this
is bad music. I've heard this kind of thing used so many different
times in so many different places. Like, Paul Van Dyk and Tiesto, this
is real good music, but KTU was bad music. But that's just wrong,
that's just totally incorrect. It's the worst part of this business
when you hear, "Oh, circuit music is just circuit music. It doesn't
belong on the radio." That's wrong. It's closed-minded, it's just
thinking small. And that's why, when people say (things like that),
I'm immediately turned off, I don't want to talk about it, because
there's no such thing as "good music." What is good music today was
considered garbage ten years ago, and what was considered garbage ten
years ago was horrible ten years (before that). That brings me back to
talking with my mother, when she used to yell at me, "How are you
listening to that noise?" Well, you know, your good music is someone
else's bad music, and your bad music is some else's symphony.
RS: With your expertise, if I'm a DJ producer and I come to you
and say I want to go on the road, I want to start touring, I want to
have a career in the music business, what's your first response?
Gary Salzman: I'd send them to AM only. I don't represent DJs, that's
not what I do. The first thing I'd do is send them to a booking agent.
The second is, I'd ask them if they write songs and if they have a
point of view. And I'd ask them if they're interested in making
records, if they're interested in developing themselves as an artist.
I'd tell them that everyone wants to be rich, and everyone wants to be
famous, and everyone wants to be a star. But getting past that, do you
have something to say? Is there a reason to do this? And then, do I
like what you're doing, and do you like working with me? It's a whole
group of questions, and I'm consistently amazed how people pick
managers, how people choose what they want to do. It's about being
valuable, it's not about getting a record deal. If you make a great
record, someone's going to put your record out, I guarantee it. And if
you play really well as a DJ, and you have a point of view when you're
playing as a DJ, and you're making music that has a sound or a style,
you'll be found. (If you say) "this is my music, I want to get my
music out, I want to continue to make more stuff that's like this, I
want to do this" – that's very different.
