“I’ve been so excited for tonight,” #GarthBrooks said before the first concert of the tour, “Because it is the moment when we finally get rid of all the crap in between the artist and the people who allow me to be an artist.” American culture, especially in entertainment, is one of script doctors and image makers. Someone who can show sincerity, and actually facilitate an emotional connection between himself, as an entertainer, and the people he entertains, is rare. Whether or not one likes the music of Garth Brooks, it is arguable that he is the last and only populist in pop culture. “I’m just a guy who eats too much, is lazy, and loves to play music,” Brooks said. It is not merely an authenticity that Brooks uses to connect with his admirers, but his embrace of an average identity. Brooks talks about his fans with more reverence than he talks about himself and without sounding like a used car salesman or cheap politician. “I don’t care who you are, $70 is a lot of money,” he said when discussing his practice of keeping ticket prices low. At $55, especially considering the insane demand for his tickets, the price of admission to a Garth Brooks performance is a bargain. The costs of merchandise were right out of the 1990s: $20 for T-shirts, $30 for sweatshirts. “Raising the ticket price, just because there is a big demand for tickets, was never an option for me,” Brooks said. Many performers claim to represent the working class, but Brooks is one of the few who actually enforces his words with the action of making his concert experience affordable. And Brooks isnt shy about his resistance to social media. “Country radio is the bridge between the artist and the people,” he said. “Social media twists everything, but on radio, it is my voice directly to the listener.” He is starting a new digital music store, called Ghost Tunes. The promise is that Ghost Tunes will pay the songwriters more money, allow the artists to determine how their music is sold, and provide the best deals for the fans. To help promote the service, Brooks is offering a digital bundle of ten of his albums for merely $29.95. Unlike other internationally famous bands and artists who resist, or at least criticize, digitalization, Brooks frames his argument—and now his new sales pitch—in the language of artistry and democracy, casting technology on one side, and “the people” on the other. “Music is now all about the technology that delivers it,” he said. “When you put the songwriter last, music suffers.” He went on to elaborate using his odd, but surprisingly effective and persuasive rhetorical combination of egomania and humility: “People tell me, when it comes to music, that it was just a victim of the Internet. ‘The genie is out of the bottle,’ they say. Well, I’m creating the genie, and I want to get it to the people in the best way I know how.” 134 million genies sold later, Brooks has the luxury to continue to, as he would put it, “be Garth.” “I’d be lying if I said I was not influenced by some of the talented kids, like Bruno Mars and Jason Aldean, but the last thing I’m going to do is chase anything.” The deafening volume of the crowd, screaming in high pitch in reaction to every small move Brooks made during the opening night of his tour, proved that he doesn’t have to chase anything. Millions will continue to chase him. Even after a strange concert like this. The large screens showed a skull and crossbones, as if Motorhead was ready to take the stage, and then a child appeared, repeating, “The machines are taking over.” At that point, a sphere lit up, resembling the landing of the UFO in E.T., and the overheard lights descended on the stage. Brooks’ band came out chanting “war,” and then Brooks emerged singing a new song, “Man Versus Machine.” At its conclusion, the entire band stood together, staring at the light unit as it moved, threateningly one was to presume, toward them. Any philosophical statement was lost in the oddity of the moment, and for his first entrance on a major concert stage in 14 years, Brooks made it decidedly anti-climactic. The special effects and lighting also contradicted the simplicity of his performance personality, and the organic nature of his homegrown appeal. It was bizarre, but the fans barely noticed. When Brooks went into his second song, an old hit called “Rodeo,” the cheers grew so loud it was hard to hear him sing.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:01:58 +0000
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