Of course Jack Antonoff is thrilled with the state of the music industry
"The fans are god," said the Grammy Award winning producer. And who do the fans love more than Jack Antonoff?
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It’s easy to evangelize about how great the system is when you hold all of its gears in your pocket. Such is the case for ubiquitous producer and collector of pop stars Jack Antonoff, who, in addition to performing with his band Bleachers, has produced hits for Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, The 1975, and many others. Put another way, Antonoff has created—or at least had a hand in—much of what we consider to be “the modern music scene” nowadays (at least for pop-heads). So, even if he’s kind of right, it’s still a bit of a bummer to hear him talk about how awesome it is—especially when so many others who aren’t so lucky have voiced extremely valid concerns over exploitation, safety and the TikTok of it all.
In a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon, the host praised Antonoff for getting “Cruel Summer” (which he co-wrote with Taylor Swift) to the top of the Billboard chart four whole years after its release. “I’m loving where the music business has gone,” he responded. “It’s just melted down into nothing but what people like. And you can talk your crap about this or that, but the fans are god. What they say goes.”
If the fans are god, then Antonoff is the chosen one. While we could debate whether or not this has rendered the industry an actual meritocracy, as Antonoff seems to be implying, he does go on to lend some important context. It used be that the process of choosing singles was a constant back and forth with record companies between that song that, for the artist, “if you cracked me open is my soul” and whatever the business side thought would resonate with people, he explained. This led to a constant tension for artists between wanting to stand by their vision for their own art, while also not breaking their contract or losing out on future opportunities.
“But [in] the new world, it’s just sort of over. It’s cooked,” he continued. “The idea of a single is just what’s the song that if you could get your friends in a room you’d play?” What happened with “Cruel Summer” is a “testament to that” because “with no one on the business side doing anything, kids started playing it more and more.” This is where this writer loses him a little bit. Sure, no one at the Swift’s label pushed the song but a gargantuan tour and multiple recordings for purchase sure did. It’s also hard to believe in the utopic vision of a truly fan-driven industry when multiple artists have come forward with stories of their labels pushing them into fabricating a viral moment on TikTok in order to boost a new release. While Antonoff insists that the industry is “in a fun place for just the work,” it’s clear that for most people not named Jack Antonoff, there’s still some ways to go. It is a pretty vision though.
21 Comments
congrats on writing something that made even me say “geez, lay off Jack Antonoff!”
Yeah, it’s remarkable how angry the writers on this site get whenever anyone seems to be even the least bit happy or content. “Don’t they know about exploitation?!?!?”
Huh?
If I read it right, Jack Antonoff thinks that it is easier for artists to make and champion the songs they connect with instead of having studios push radio friendly singles and therefore fans and more easily find the music that truly resonates with them.
And in saying that the music industry is better than it used to, Jack Antonoff has implicitly chosen to support people attacking artists at concerts, executives and producers taking advantage of unfair though inherent power imbalances and the fact that being part of a major corporate business can be unsatisfying and is not a guarantee of success and riches (or whatever that Huckmag.com article was trying to say, it was very long…)
Anyway, Jack Antonoff is successful and didn’t use that platform to rage against all of the inequities in his industry and instead pointed out one way it’s gotten better, so fuck that guy. Also, he and Lena Dunham broke up a long time ago and then the jerk went and dated a woman that most people consider to be more conventionally attractive and we still haven’t forgiven him for that.
Exactly. I have a buddy who’s been making music for over 20 years and he’s loving the way he can put his stuff online and have people from all over the world be able to listen to it. Used to be he and whatever band he was with would just do local shows and hand out CDs, now he can put songs online and actually make money from them instead of spending money to press CDs.It might be harder to make loads of money as musician, but it’s a lot easier to make some money while getting your work out there.
Your buddy is “loving” something? Somewhere, the AV Club is gearing up to call him out on his unacceptable optimism.
Tell ‘em, SteveDave!
coastal rich kid plays well with other coastal rich kids, movie at 11
“Jack Antonoff has implicitly chosen to support people attacking artists at concerts, executives and producers taking advantage of unfair though inherent power imbalances and the fact that being part of a major corporate business can be unsatisfying and is not a guarantee of success and riches”
Utter horseshit. Utter, unvarnished horseshit.
Has the mainstream music industry ever been other than “what people like”? I mean, I thought I was cool in the 1980s and 1990s because I liked alt-rock rather than Arena-Rock, but the whole reason why arena rock stars filled arenas was because a lot of people liked them. And even the alt-rock I preferred was governed by what people liked, just a smaller audience.
He (Jack) is an idiot. And yes, you are correct.
Me, whenever I hear about Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” song: “Taylor made a Bananarama cover?”
Objectively, still a better song.
“Objectively”
Opinions are subjective, stupid.
“If the fans are god, then Antonoff is the chosen one.”
If the fans are god then why would they “choose” a producer? Their chosen one is going to be an artist, not a fucking producer. That’s like saying Joseph is the chosen one rather than Jesus.
Weird, I’m listening to the Bleachers live album that came out in August right now.Also: He’s right.
I believe the appropriate response is “Oh fuck off Jack”.
“the people that buy what i manufacture are great!” thanks Jack
I think his music stinks.
His perception of the industry really only applies to like, twelve people. They’re all already super connected and on the same major label together and they’re established songwriters and producers who mine diminishing returns of nostalgia on previously loved songs and samples. And Billboard conspires to put them at the top of the charts no matter how many people organically like them ahead of time because, like always, taking risks is discouraged and familiarity is encouraged.
The fans are not god. The algorithm is. If you pull up Spotify and listen to a song he produced they’ll play a dozen more songs he produced because that must be something you like. And why not? Most of his songs are paint by numbers pablum churned out quickly as content. It all sounds pretty same-y.
And that is fine. The mass market wants music that is predictable and safe to turn on and use as background noise. But the current era of pop music has sounded the same for a long time. Maybe I’m just an old man shouting at clouds but I just don’t think pop music has lasting power anymore.