Dolled up like a carefree ’70s singer (not unlike Taylor Swift in the current issue of Vogue), Miley Cyrus took to the Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s stage for a performance of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”. The LOL star was accompanied by one acoustic guitar, which made her vocals the focal point — and she pulled off a mesmerizing performance pretty easily.

“I’m so excited to be on this record, just with so many cool people — everyone I’ve dreamed of working with,” Miley told Ellen, referring to her inclusion on the Chimes Of Freedom – The Songs Of Bob Dylan compilation. “And just being able to cover a Dylan tune is so awesome.”

Who knew Bob Dylan’s music had magical powers to turn flashy, attention-seeking pop stars into sensitive warblers? After Ke$ha showed a softer, glitter-less side by covering “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” for the Bob Dylan tribute album Chimes Of Freedom: Songs Of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, next up is Miley Cyrus, who takes on “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Watch the 19-year-old pop star record her tribute to the iconic singer-songwriter in her new video below.

Miley Cyrus – “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”

The cover has a lovely, more relaxed arrangement of Dylan’s original song, and Miley sounds more raw and subtle than she’s ever sounded before. (See, Miley? You don’t need gigantic bird wings or age-inappropriate outfits in order to get people talking.)

What do you think of Miley’s cover? Is it more convincing than her attempt at channeling Nirvana? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below.

Ke$ha fans eager for some new music from the dollar sign diva can get their fix via the surprisingly emotional, raw vocal she laid down while covering Bob Dylan’s 1963 single “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” for Amnesty International’s upcoming Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan compilation. “Getting a chance to cover a Bob Dylan song for Amnesty Interntaional was a massive deal for me,” K-Dolla admitted in a making-of clip. Watch below.

“I pulled up my Garage Band on my laptop and just sang through the song once,” Ke$ha explains in the below video. “And by the end of it I was just crying hysterically alone on my bed.”

Turns out that initial vocal is the one she and producer Bob Ezrin went with for their contribution to the 76-song compilation, which also features Adele, Miley Cyrus and My Morning Jacket, among others, and will be released on January 24.

Ke$ha records “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”

Other artists who have covered Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” include Peter, Paul And Mary, Johnny Cash and The Four Seasons (as the Wonder Who?). Here’s the original:

Bob Dylan — ”Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”

What do you think of Ke$ha’s take on the song?

[Via Rolling Stone]

With R.E.M. announcing their breakup, the veteran alt rock band from Georgia is releasing their two-disc R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011 collection on November 15. Actress Kirsten Dunst stars in one of two videos for the new single off the hits set, “We All Go Back To Where We Belong” (the second video features poet John Giorno). This got us to thinking about other know personalities who’ve appeared in music vids in recent years. Head below to watch R.E.M.’s clip with Kirsten, and to see our roundup of celeb-filled videos.

R.E.M. — “We All Go Back To Where We Belong”

Of course, Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette actress Dunst first got the music video bug 12 years ago when she first appeared in this one:

Savage Garden — “I Knew I Loved You”

Below is a list of some other recent music videos that feature cameos by famous faces. We stuck to the last few years in order to keep this roundup from becoming the length of a novel. But surely we forgot some? Help us out by mentioning others that pop to mind in the comments below!

1. Katy Perry — “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”
For the video for her fifth Teenage Dream single, Katy enlisted the star power of some Glee cast members (Darren Criss, Kevin McHale), some ’80s icons (Debbie Gibson, Corey Feldman), a viral video star (Rebecca Black) and a few retro-fave musicians (Kenny G, Hanson). The results: one addictive clip, and her fifth #1 hit on the Hot 100.

2. Beastie Boys — “Make Some Noise”
The veteran NYC rappers’ 2011 MTV VMA Video Of The Year-nominated clip boasts Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood and Danny McBride as the Boys themselves in an epic vid that also features the likes of (take a deep breath) Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Orlando Bloom, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Jack Black — not to mention Kirsten Dunst!

3. Lady Gaga — “Paparazzi”
In the video for Gaga’s fourth single off her debut album, Alexander Skarsgard plays the untrustworthy, snake-in-the-grass love interest of the our heroine — which, come to think of it, doesn’t sound too different from his role as “Eric” on True Blood. The Swedish actor’s next pop star encounter — the action film Battleship, which also stars Rihanna — hits the silver screen next year.

4. Lady Gaga — “Judas”
Mother Monster cast Norman Reedus, who plays trashy redneck with a heart — maybe —Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, as double-crossing Jesus disciple Judas Iscariot in the clip for her second Born This Way single.

5. Willow Smith — “21st Century Girl”
Who better than Cicely Tyson, the iconic star of such films as Sounder, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Help and Diary Of A Mad Black Woman to play the wise old sage in young poplet Willow’s futuristic video for her second single?

6. Bob Dylan — “When The Deal Goes Down”
Speaking of iconic, Scarlett Johansson never looked so radiant as when she got dolled up in 1950s-era frocks and posed for faux home movie footage in this emotional and beautifully-shot video for Dylan’s Modern Times single.

7. Ke$ha — “Blow”
“Well, well, well — if it isn’t James Van Der Douche.”

8. Eminem feat. Rihanna — “Love The Way You Lie”
The fire and the fury of Em and RiRi’s own respective relationship demons from the past were vividly brought to life by Meghan Fox and Dominic Monaghan in this violent clip, which helped the song secure both its place at #1 on the Hot 100 and wins at the People’s Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards and Soul Train Music Awards.

What did we forget? Let us know below!

This Bob Dylan tribute album is getting really weird. Chimes Of Freedom: Songs Of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, a tribute compilation of covers honoring the iconic singer-songwriter, was already making headlines by featuring Ke$ha on the track list. Now it’s been revealed that Miley Cyrus — of all people — will contribute a cover of one of Dylan’s songs. Hopefully this recording will go over better than her cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” did.As previously announced, Adele will cover Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” (which also featured on her album 19), and Ke$ha will take on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”. It has not yet been revealed which song Cyrus will record.

Sting, The Dave Matthews Band, Patti Smith and My Morning Jacket will also contribute covers. The LP is expected to drop in early 2012, and all profits will be donated to Amnesty International.

With the full track list yet to be announced, who else from the pop world do you think should contribute a cover? We’d love to hear a “Blowin’ In The Wind” cover from Lance Bass boy band Heart2Heart, personally.

So, that poem purportedly written by Bob Dylan at camp in the ’50s that’s supposed to fetch at least $10,000 at auction next month? If you press “play” on the above YouTube embed you’ll find out that a variation on those words has been put to song–and not by the teenaged Dylan, but by the Canadian country singer Hank Snow, from whom those words were appropriated. “Little Buddy” appeared on a 78 in the late ’40s, then was included on Snow’s 1958 album When Tragedy Struck, which also included such mood-lifters as “Don’t Make Me Go To Bed And I’ll Be Good,” “Nobody’s Child,” and “I’m Just Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail.” Christie’s had this to say:

“Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled ‘Little Buddy.’ The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song.”

“This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan and Christie’s is pleased to offer them in our Pop Culture auction on June 23.”

And the asking price is still $10,000. I wonder if the camp, which was going to use the proceeds from the sale to fund new cabins, will offer to split its rewards with Snow’s estate?

Dylan “poem” was actually Hank Snow song [Reuters]
HANK SNOW- LITTLE BUDDY [YouTube]
Earlier: Is Bob Dylan’s Poem About A Dead Dog Worth Five Figures?

A poem handwritten by a teenage Bob Dylan, which was published in his camp newspaper during the 1950s, is one of the many Dylan-related pieces of memorabilia that will be up for auction at Christie’s next month. The poem is expected to fetch at least $10,000 from some Dylan completist out there, with proceeds going to the camp; it’s after the jump. Be warned: If the idea of a drunk man beating a dog to death (because the dog “barked in joy”) is something that upsets you, you might want to proceed with caution. (Although I rather do like the meter employed by Dylan here, I have to say.)

“Little Buddy”

Broken hearted and so sad
Big blue eyes all covered with tears
Was a picture of sorrow to see

Kneeling close to the side
Of his pal and only pride
A little lad, these words he told me

He was such a lovely doggy
And to me he was such fun
But today as we played by the way

A drunken man got mad at him
Because he barked in joy
He beat him and he’s dying here today

Will you call the doctor please
And tell him if he comes right now
He’ll save my precious doggy here he lay

Then he left the fluffy head
But his little dog was dead
Just a shiver and he slowly passed away

He didn’t know his dog had died
So I told him as he cried
Come with me son we’ll get that doctor right away

But when I returned
He had his little pal upon his knee
And the teardrops, they were blinding his big blue eyes

Your too late sir my doggy’s dead
And no one can save him now
But I’ll meet my precious buddy up in the sky

By a tiny narrow grave
Where the willows sadly wave
Are the words so clear you’re sure to find

Little Buddy Rest In Peace
God Will Watch You Thru The Years
Cause I Told You In My Dreams That You
Were Mine

Bob Dylan [Christie's]

• Jamie Foxx tonight’s Idol mentor [MJ]
• Pete Doherty thought to have swine flu by the always-calm British press (but honestly, dude has lived through so much else that swine flu is nothing, nothing at all) [STV via NME]
• Environmentally conscious Rothbury festival’s headliners: The Dead, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and String Cheese Incident [JamBase]
• Def Leppard to continue country-crossover attempt with appearance on CMT Awards [DefLeppard.com]

Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Together Through Life, the 33rd studio album by Bob Dylan:


• “But he saves the real Bosch canvas of negativity for the end, in the zydeco shuffle ‘It’s All Good.’ Mr. Dylan sets up one ugly scene after another—verminous restaurants, murderers on the prowl, disease, basic human melancholy—and at the end of every verse sings, ‘It’s all good, it’s all good.’ This is not a great song, and very little on Together Through Life seems destined for his repertory’s long haul. But whether this is basic devilishness, or Malthus revisited, or acceptance of faith, or just a clever poem juxtaposing protest rhetoric with do-nothing rhetoric, it all suits him.” [Ben Ratliff, NYT]


• ”Dylan sounds comfortable cruising with this band, repudiating the bombast and the clutter of 21st Century rock and pop. That’s both praise and criticism, because Together Through Life never quite kicks into a higher gear. Heard at a distance, it suggests a toss-off from an artist who has done better work in the past.
He has. But he also has ‘the blood of the land in my voice,’ as he sings in ‘I Feel a Change Comin’ On.’ To quote another irascible iconoclast, a man’s got to know his limitations. And Dylan makes the most of his.” [Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune]


• ”Increasingly, the now-68-year-old Dylan makes music that outwardly has less and less to do with ‘modern times.’ Together Through Life continues that trend, and though it’s not the strongest of his 21st-century work, it still demonstrates Dylan’s ability to make music that connects with a resonating past, while speaking to the here and now.” [Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer]


• “But Dylan is just as sure, in nearly every other song here, that there is strength in numbers—and that number is two.” [David Fricke, Rolling Stone]

Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp are bringing what seems like a traveling version of Farm Aid to minor-league baseball stadia around the country this summer. Tickets for all shows are priced at a flat rate of $67.50 and the seating is general admission, so those people who want to set up shop near second base to watch the show can do so. (They’ll probably have to get there early, though.) Dates after the jump.

7/2 Sauget, IL at GCS Ballpark
7/4 South Bend, IN at Coveleski Stadium
7/8 Louisville, KY at Louisville Slugger Field
7/10 Dayton, OH at Fifth Third Field
7/11 Eastlake, OH at Classic Park
7/13 Washington, PA at Consol Energy Park
7/14 Allentown, PA at Coca-Cola Park
7/15 New Britain, CT at New Britain Stadium
7/19 Syracuse, NY at Alliance Bank Stadium
7/21 Pawtucket, RI at McCoy Stadium
7/23 Lakewood, NJ at FirstEnergy Park
7/24 Aberdeen, MD at Ripken Stadium
7/25 Norfolk, VA at Harbor Park
7/28 Durham, NC at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7/29 Sevierville, TN at Smokies Park
8/4 Round Rock, TX at The Dell Diamond
8/5 Corpus Christi, TX at Whataburger Field
8/7 Grand Prairie, TX at QuikTrip Park
8/11 Glendale, AZ at Camelback Ranch
8/12 Las Vegas, NV at Cashman Field
8/14 Fresno, CA at Chukchansi Park
8/15 Stockton, CA at Banner Island Ballpark

Boy, who did the Bob Dylan cheese off over at Rolling Stone HQ to lose his Most Favored Artist status? His new album Together Through Life only received four stars from Jann Wenner’s ostensibly rock-and-roll magazine. Usually, they hand out five-star raves to Dylan records like weird versions of Mountain Dew at college radio conventions. Heck, isn’t the “give superstars good ratings even if their records are terrible” rule called “The Dylan Rule”? Did Rolling Stone suddenly grow a conscience about the five stars they gave that Mick Jagger record a few years back and decide to start rating things on a semi-reasonable level? Perhaps, but what does a four-star review from RS even mean?

If I were Dylan, I might be insulted by that four star review. Here are some other classics that Rolling Stone gave four stars:

Bob Dylan, Good As I Been To You (another Dylan “classic” four-star record)
Frente!, Marvin The Album
Mick Jagger, She’s The Boss. (The, ahem, four-star review for the next Jagger solo joint, Wandering Spirit, calls this one “feckless posturing”. Let’s hear it for editorial consistency!)
Keith Richards, Talk Is Cheap
Neil Young, Trans. (OK, I love this record. Speaking of Mr. Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere only got four stars. So, it’s only as good as She’s The Boss?)
Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch. (Lucky Town got four and a half!)

Confused yet as to the power of a four-star review? A little more context: Sugar Ray’s 14:59 received three and a half stars, while Pavement’s Wowee Zowee received two and a half. Also, Smash Mouth has received three stars three times, meaning that Bob Dylan’s new one is “one” better than Smash Mouth.

Together Through Life [RS]

We are now less than seven days out from the 2009 Grammy Awards, the most important night in music that few people truly care about. We wanted to do something to pay tribute to this great institution that, once a year, reminds us that long past their prime artists are still making records people enjoy. And so, Idolator is proud to announce the 2009 Grammy Awards Awards, recognizing the most Grammy-esque things the Grammys have done in the past year.

The first category recognizes one of the most enduring legacies the Grammies has given us: categories which, from their conception to their honorees, make us weep for the future of music as an artform. Ladies and gentlemen, your nominees for Most Soul-Crushing Category:

Best Rock Album

Earns its stripes this year by not just hitting the “out-of-touch” thing dead-on, but actively awarding mediocrity by nominating a lackluster Coldplay album, a boring Kings of Leon album, and a phoned-in Kid Rock album that was most notable for the way its digital merchandising strategy paid off. Rock and roll will never die, y’all.

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical

Not just because it includes will.i.am! We also have the Johnny K, who produced three of the most loathsome rock albums of the year (Staind, Plain White Ts, 3 Doors Down); Danger Mouse in a year when he accomplished nothing of import; and Nigel Godrich, who got nominated just for In Rainbows. And will.i.am.

Best Surround Sound Album

Because apparently Ringo Starr made a surround sound album.

Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Despite the exceedingly broad inclusion criteria—”For a contemporary classical composition composed within the last 25 years, and released for the first time during the Eligibility Year”—the nomination committee still managed to give a nod to “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan.”

And The Envelope, Please: This year’s winner has to be Producer Of The Year, if only because of its (relative) strength in previous Grammy years. Not to mention will.i.am.

The 51st Annual Grammy Nominations [Grammy.com]
2009 Grammy Nominees

There are two reasons that I’m glad I kept putting off my treatise on the very unfortunate Bob Dylan vs. will.i.am smackdown in honor of Pepsi: First, MTV News’ James Montgomery pretty much summed up my thoughts on the overall “the present is kinda crappy, let’s just OD on sugar” feel of the ad; and second, I found out that the Coca-Cola-sponsored collaboration between Cee-Lo, Patrick Stump, Janelle Monae, Brendon Urie, Travis McCoy, and Butch Walker had debuted online today. Guess which one is about 50 million times more pleasurable to these ears? I’ll give you a hint: It’s the one without Shrek in its attached video. Embeds of both tracks after the jump.

Yes, we get it. Everything was better in the… well, whatever era that isn’t now that this commercial is trying to evoke. The present day has to deal with cell phones at concerts and will.i.am tainting the next generation of children forever! Ugh.

Meanwhile, Cee-Lo’s voice sounds great, and I love the overall “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” feel. Yay!

Open Happiness [coca-cola.com; HT absolutepunk]
Open Happiness [YouTube]
Pepsi: Refresh Anthem [YouTube]
Pepsi’s Bob Dylan/ Will.I.Am Ad Could Have Been Worse [MTV Newsroom]

NB: This post also serves as yet another piece of evidence that Billy Joel needs to write a 20th-anniversary version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

A few people are up in arms about Bob Dylan licensing “Blowin’ In The Wind” for an ad in the UK, what with the song being all iconic and such. But really, this shouldn’t ruffle as many feathers as it has; Dylan, after all, licensed “The Times They Are A-Changin’” to a Canadian bank over a decade ago, and he’s lent other songs to Cadillac, Victoria’s Secret, and Apple. If anything, the piece of Dylan licensing that may debut during the Super Bowl this Sunday is way more offensive to these non-Boomer ears, thanks to it bringing one of the greatest, yet still most annoying, beneficiaries of the Barack Obama Presidential campaign into the mix:

Other commercials under consideration include comedy spots for Pepsi Max with the catchphrase “I’m Good” and a spot for Pepsi set to Bob Dylan‘s “Forever Young” and featuring classic clips of the singer-songwriter and new shots of hip hop musician will.i.am.

New shots “of,” not “at,” alas. (I read it wrong too.) So when is the Obamariffic deluxe version of Songs About Girls coming out, anyway? I mean, it’s not like it could be any more of a bomb than it was last time around.

[Reuters]
Bob Dylan Allows British Ad To Use “Blowin’ In The Wind” [EarthTimes via Fark]

During the Bush administration, everyone seemed to agree: there were no protest songs. Or, at least, no good ones. At any rate, it definitely wasn’t like the ’60s. In her latest blog post for NPR, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein provides a welcome correction to this idea, noting both how many protest songs there were and how widespread the perception was that releasing a protest song was a bad idea. But even if there were protest songs, surely they didn’t have the same effect as in the ’60s, right?

Well, that depends whether we’re talking about an actual effect or an assumed effect, and when it comes to the ’60s, we always seem to be talking about the assumed effect. That decade’s hagiographers have been very successful at encouraging the idea that music helped to end the war, but just because people were listening to Bob Dylan doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t have opposed the war without him. As for our current decade, the implication seems to be that because the Dixie Chicks got into trouble for making a snide anti-Bush remark, the powers that be must have a vested interest in suppressing music that expressed opposition to the government—which would then mean that protest songs are indeed dangerous. This was a real perception, certainly real enough to have a chilling effect, as Brownstein remembers:

My own band, writing and recording our fifth record during the winter of 2001, put more than a few songs about Bush and the war on what was to become One Beat—specifically “Combat Rock” and “Faraway.” It’s interesting to note that, upon the album’s release in early 2002, interviewers focused on the so-called risk we were taking by including those songs.

Ultimately, though, it’s unlikely that the administration’s effort to stifle dissent was aimed at music specifically. More likely is that it was aimed at the press (successfully) and at partisans more generally; pop was just collateral damage. Still, maybe it was ignored because music has gotten so toothless that it’s not worth worrying about anymore, right? Well, not really. The dominant view of the ’60s always forgets all the bubblegum and parent-pop that was even more popular than the politically engaged stuff, and overstates the reach and importance of the artists we’ve come to value. It seems more likely that music wasn’t more politically engaged in the ’60s; rather, it was more culturally prominent, more of a megaphone for the values of the majority, and thus more representative of public opinion. When music is smaller, why should politics pay attention to it?

The funny thing about all this, of course, is that the election of Barack Obama represents a rejection of “the ’60s,” or at least its dominance over our political and cultural dialogue. By picking Obama over Hillary Clinton during the primaries, Democratic voters seemed to indicate a desire to move away from arguments about culture war and identity politics. Music, on the other hand, still seems stuck in the boomer mire; even the supposedly transformative album of 2009 can be legitimately described as “psychedelic.” There seems a disconnect here.

Eight Years Gone [NPR]

Odetta, famed African-American folk singer, songwriter, actress, and activist, passed away in New York City at the age of 77 last night. Beloved by everyone from Maya Angelou to Bob Dylan to Martin Luther King, Jr. Born in Birmingham and raised in Los Angeles, she began her career in musicals before heading up to San Francisco and falling in with the folk crowd, mixing it up with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She was signed to Vanguard Records, which was home to darn-near everybody who was anybody in the folk scene at the time. It’s important to keep in mind that “folk music” of that time was more than just people singing sad songs on acoustic guitars. It was more of a movement than a sound, and it tied directly into the social movements of the time, of which Odetta was an active participant. It was also more than a little non-white, led by artists like Harry Belafonte and Odetta. In fact, MLK himself called Odetta the “The Queen of American Folk Music.”

Odetta did some acting, too, and some funkier stuff in the late ’60s and early ’70s (see above). She continued touring until, well, until just a few months ago, when her health finally kept her off the road for good. She was even slated to perform at Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony! She received the National Medal of Arts, she was a Kennedy Center honoree, and Congress bestowed its Living Legend Award on her.

On a personal note, after reading various obits of Odetta, I hate that I only came to Odetta’s music recently, and, then only as an indie rock dilettante who discovered her through Stephen Merritt’s^* work with her on The 6ths’ Hyacinths and Thistles. I bought a few Odetta records at yard sales and such over the years, and I’ve found them to be surprisingly stirring affairs, with her rich, deep voice working through traditionals in a manner that’s downright odd to someone not used to her delivery. She jumps completely inside these songs and finds their hidden peaks and valleys. It’s jarring at first for someone whose conception of folk music is strummy acoustic guitar sing-a-longs a la Peter, Paul, and Mary; ultimately, it’s never less than fascinating and almost always completely engrossing. I’ll make sure to rectify my lack of Odetta knowledge post-haste.

Odetta Holmes dies at 77; folk singer championed black history, civil rights [LA Times]

^* Does his work with Odetta give him any anti-racist points?

Sometimes you need to hear the hoary, obvious classics. Bob Dylan knows this as well as anyone, which is why his show last night, at the University of Minnesota (from which he dropped out after a year before heading to New York to make it on the folk circuit), climaxed with “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which Dylan played after noting that “It looks like things are going to change now.” According to veteran Minneapolis critic Jon Bream, “After Dylan and his band took their bows and the houselights went on at Northrop, concert-goers checked their cell phones and started screaming about the results of the presidential election. They headed outside of Northrop and began singing and dancing on the University of Minnesota campus.” Sounds familiar, no? [Star Tribune]

One of the things you find yourself saying about music when you’re a teenager, along with “I like everything except country,” is “I respect them, but I don’t like them.” You say this partially to not look like the sort of ignoramus who doesn’t appreciate Yngwie Malmsteen’s tapping technique, and partially because you don’t want to piss off your friends. But it turns out this simple formulation stands in for an entire complex relationship between bands and their audience. Kevin Roberts, CEO of marketing giant Saatchi & Saatchi, calls the sweet spot where loving and respecting come together a “lovemark.” And there’s a graph!

Roberts’ argument is that many brands attain respect, either by consistently putting out high-quality products or by cultivating an image of being high-quality through marketing. But if a respected brand goes away, it can easily be replaced by another. Brands that have achieved “lovemark” status, however, are irreplaceable, because consumers have developed a kind of personal relationship with them; the best example for this sort of thing would be Apple. It takes a long time to get to this point, but once you do, you’ve secured a good, long run for yourself.

We probably need to wave our hands at an issue at this point: there’s an extra “r” in the object under discussion, and that might make the kind of people who have personal relationships with bands uncomfortable. We don’t like to think of bands as being commercial entities, despite the evidence that money is essential for the realization of artistic vision. But this discomfort is also a fact of life, something that bands have to skillfully avoid if they want to become respected and/or loved–to pretend not to be commercial entities while staying ruthless in their business dealings. Still, the music industry could always use a little advice on its marketing techniques.

For those of us that just talk about music, the graph is a useful conception. For instance, it explains the angry disconnect between dedicated fans of particular popstars and everyone else. Clay Aiken fans, to take an example entirely at random, rate Clay highly on the Love axis, and even if the rest of us don’t, we can at least understand how people would. But because Claymates go further and insist that he should be rated highly on the Respect axis too, it causes a disconnect. Even if there’s no rational basis for the feeling, everyone who’s not a Clay Aiken fan would agree that he doesn’t really seem worthy of respect, no matter how much you like him. Claymates’ conviction that their love for Clay comes along with a sort of logically consistent respect makes them seem, well, a little unhinged, or at least like rubes. Of course, you can say this about dedicated fans of anything you yourself see as worthless.

Roberts’ specific tips for how to achieve lovemark status contain some useful pointers for up-and-coming bands, and a handy description of how that sort of fandom works for the rest of us:

A Lovemark’s high Love is infused with these three intangible, yet very real, ingredients: Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy.

Mystery draws together stories, metaphors, dreams and symbols. It is where past, present and future become one. Mystery adds to the complexity of relationships and experiences because people are drawn to what they don’t know. After all, if we knew everything, there would be nothing left to learn or to wonder at.

Sensuality keeps the five senses on constant alert for new textures, intriguing scents and tastes, wonderful music. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. Our senses work together to alert us, lift us, transport us. When they are stimulated at the same time, the results are unforgettable. It is through the five senses we experience the world and create our memories.

Intimacy means empathy, commitment and passion. The close connections that win intense loyalty as well as the small perfect gesture. These are often remembered long after functions and benefits have faded away. Without Intimacy people cannot feel they own a brand, and without that conviction a brand can never become a Lovemark.

Now, of course, the way he’s putting this involves a lot of cringeworthy marketing-speak, but the essential point remains valid. In Hammer of the Gods, it’s made very clear how Led Zeppelin intentionally cultivated an aura of mystery and how effective this was in securing a rabid fanbase. As frustrating (and seductive) as mystery can be for critics, it’s what keeps fans coming back for more. Bands today know well the value of intimacy, certainly. If you communicate with fans through the usual channels, it seems impersonal, but if you do it through YouTube and social networking sites, it seems more personal somehow, and fans like that. Intimacy allows you to control your own image. If there’s anyone who’s hit the lovemark sweet spot in these regards, it’s Bob Dylan. After a period in the woods, he’s become such a figure of sensual, intimate mystery (introducing long-lost tracks on a radio program where he talks directly to you) that he’s essentially the Apple of music: respectable, classy, a little edgy but also a link to the past. And the fact that he’s doing it intentionally is somehow part of the appeal.

A final word about respect and Yngwie Malmsteen: it’s been fashionable for a long time now to decry virtuosoism, and perhaps rightly so. But one of the interesting things about the new rhythm games is that it turns virtuosity, seemingly a fixture of the Respect axis, into a form of pleasure: intricate, masterful performances make for challenging, rewarding gameplay experiences. Maybe we’ll get to the point where we love a band for their Rock Band tracks, but can’t really respect someone who doesn’t seem very relevant outside of video games.

About Lovemarks [Lovemarks]
Archived version [archive.org]

Supermarket shelves in other parts of the world (and at certain specialty shops in the US) contain a food product called Marmite, which is basically a bread spread made out of yeast extract. I personally tried it when I was 16, after an Australian pen pal sent me a few packets, and my Cool Ranch and Domino’s-trained palate found it absolutely repellent; I haven’t tried it since, because the thought of doing so makes me shiver. But apparently it’s pretty divisive in the UK, to the point that the product name is actually being used by some music-biz insiders to describe certain artists who have a love-’em-or-hate-’em appeal. The musical omnivores at Popjustice explain: “the phrase describes the sort of band or artist which divides opinion as strongly as the disgusting/delicious yeasty food product Marmite. It is not a phrase used to describe how good or bad something is–there’s no value judgment involved.” Popjustice says that Alphabeat, the Scissor Sisters, and Bob Dylan are all “Marmite artists”–although a shitty band being pushed by a publicist to no avail is not, so don’t try it next time, publicists. Confused yet? Well, in keeping with our English-class form, the term is used in context after the jump!

Radio Person 1: “Right then, shall we playlist this new Alphabeat single?”
Radio Person 2: “I fucking hate Alphabeat.”
Radio Person 1: “I fucking love Alphabeat.”
Radio Person 2: “Yeah they’re a classic Marmite band. I suppose a lot of people do fucking love them so even though I do not like them myself I fully understand why they deserve a place on our radio station.”
Radio Person 1: “Oh hang on, the new Snow Patrol single’s arrived.”
Radio Person 2: “Let’s just play that then.”

So, after describing the whole “marmite” ideal to Dan, we got down to business. What other artists are officially yeasty to a point of being utterly unpalatable to some, yet beloved by others?

danielgibson77: wait, there are people who don’t like alphabeat?
mauraatidolator: i KNOW!
mauraatidolator: but who else could qualify for this distinction? who is so divisive that they rend internet message boards in two?
danielgibson77: my morning jacket?
mauraatidolator: hmmm.
mauraatidolator: no, they’re just shitty.
danielgibson77: people like them, maura
mauraatidolator: well they’re wrong.
mauraatidolator: vampire weekend!
danielgibson77: i think the same shitty argument could be made

See, the Popjustice folks say that “there’s no value judgment involved,” but I dunno, it feels like that could never, ever be the case, if only because the people on the “nay” side may never be convinced that the bands are not just 100% intractably awful. However, after doing some research–which mainly involves looking at the comment threads on past Idolator posts–I think I’ve come up with a handful of Officially Marmite Artists:

Pink Floyd.
Fall Out Boy. (Whose new Elvis Costello-aided single is quite good, btw. Oh noes, here come even more fights!)
Oasis. (Paging Jay-Z!)

And maybe The Doors? Those posts a few months back sure got a lot of attention. Anyway, add your own!

Marmite Music: A study [Popjustice]

Come November, the UK charity War Child will release a new all-covers album, Heroes, as a way to raise funds for its efforts to protect children in conflict-ravaged areas around the globe. So far, the tracklisting is as such: Duffy covering “Live & Let Die”; Hot Chip re-recording Joy Division’s “Transmission”; Beck taking on Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”; the Kooks doing whatever it is they do to the Kinks’ “Victoria”; and Rufus Wainwright constructing a medley from two songs off Brian Wilson’s Smile. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Wainwright track is the one that piques my interest most; while Paul McCartney said that Duffy’s version of the Wings track was “great–I was really impressed,” I’m a bit, shall we say, skeptical. I get that she’s cute and can rock a romper onstage, but how much longer must we all suffer through this “next Dusty” charade? (And who picked her to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this week, anyway? Is this season’s musical theme “artists who don’t sound that great live, but it’s OK because our crummy sound tech prevents even the best bands from sounding any good at all, ever?”) [Billboard]