What’s the Goal?

I spend my time reading a lot of articles and interviews with and on Duran Duran during “Duranietime” (thanks to Rhonda for the term!) like this when they are doing a lot of publicity for a new album.  I always enjoy these interviews and articles as they often give me insight or what I think is insight about the band members, about the project and more.  For example, there were a number of articles during the Red Carpet Massacre phase that got me thinking that they weren’t 100% excited to be working with Timbaland (No, I don’t remember which ones.  I’m old.)  It seems to me that most of the current batch of articles have focused on how great it was to work with Mark Ronson and the return of the classic Duran feel.  It seemed to me that they were happy just to be making a quality album, making quality music.  Then I read this article yesterday:  Duran Duran: Still Hungry?  I didn’t have the same feeling after reading this one.

This article began as many of the current set of articles have with praise given to Ronson.  I appreciated that John talked about how every note and every word were considered when writing the album.  I like knowing that there was that level of intense attention to detail.  Then, the article took a turn as John explains how addictive having hits is and that the point of pop music is to sell.  In fact, he describes their goal as to “turn this baby around.”  I assume that the baby would be album sales and chart placement for their singles.  Now, normally, I agree with John’s thinking.  This time, not so much.

Why should the focus of pop music be to sell?  Why is it that pop music needs to be hits in order to be worthy?  I guess I don’t agree with that premise.  I can think of many pop songs that are high quality that aren’t hits and I can think of many pop songs which suck, which have charted.  In whose mind does this matter?  Does it matter to them?  Now, I can understand that they would want to have hits.  It is the most obvious means of showing how successful they are, but is that the only way?  Shouldn’t making higher quality music be more important?  Couldn’t hits be just an icing to the cake and the cake being having good songs? 

This debate is an interesting one to me as a teacher.  I’m constantly hearing other teachers, parents, the public and politicians talk about facts regarding how well students are doing.  Usually, when this is done, they are referring to test scores.  Yet, this measurement does not always work.  I’ll explain.  I am a special education teacher, which means that I work with students who have been found to have one or more disability(-ies).  Some of my students might score very well on standardized tests but then struggle behaviorally.  Do these tests show how well those kids are doing?  Then, I might have other students who will never score at grade level, due to their disability, but they might be making tremendous progress.  If I judged myself and them based solely on this one test, I would think that they are complete failures.  I would think the same of myself.  Yet, for the most part, I think my students are great.  They are not perfect but they come to school and they fight to improve.  Thus, I don’t think that they should be judged based on this one measurement.  Clearly, one size does not fit all.  So, why should Duran use this one measurement of sales or chart placement to determine their success?  Shouldn’t they realize that there is much more to it than that?  Besides, art isn’t always popular and they should remember that. 

To be fair to John, I don’t know the other questions that were asked or the other statements that were made.  I know enough about interviews to realize that quite a bit might be edited and that a certain angle might be focused on over others.  Nonetheless, I’m surprised that he even made comments like that.  I honestly thought that Duran might have moved past that focus.  I do get that having hits and being commercially successful is something that must feel so wonderful, but I don’t think it is good to always expect that.  Let’s face it.  The music industry is not always kind to artists as they age.  I don’t know that Duran is even being given a fair shot for this.  Are they then just leaving themselves open to major disappointment?  Instead, I would prefer them to feel good about what they have accomplished with AYNIN, no matter where they end up, chart wise, and no matter how many units get sold.  Perhaps, they should learn from my students, in this regard.

-A