I've been to these in different circumstances. Some while attending conferences with partners. Others at private TV-biz events when I was your Newsday critic colleague -- Sugarland, Wallflowers, Temptations, Yo-Yo Ma (yay!), even The Who (raking in the big bucks when CBS was using their songs for "CSI" opening sequences). Most have featured only 2-4 top hits. You do get some energy, because acts only have to be "on" for 15 minutes. But there's also something perfunctory about these, when the acts know attendees aren't "real" fans.
I guess private biz events have always been with us in the situations you mention, Diane. What is so arresting about the Osnos article is how many people in America have the kind of personal wealth that only corporations once had. The Silicon Valley and Wall Street and just plain young multimillionaires who, to paraphrase Osnos, can afford to drop $150,000 on a Thursday afternoon indulgence.
Yes. Or dictating the playlist, which Susanna writes about and which I know from musician friends sometimes happens (even to the point of telling them what NOT to play).
Have you read Susanna Hoff’s new novel “This Bird Has Flown”? I just started it last night and it opens with a set piece about the indignities of private gigs.
Haven't read the book, Seth. But Osnos in the New Yorker goes into some of those "indignities," including the idea that just because someone is paying him so much money doesn't mean they get to smoke weed with Snoop Dogg.
I've been to these in different circumstances. Some while attending conferences with partners. Others at private TV-biz events when I was your Newsday critic colleague -- Sugarland, Wallflowers, Temptations, Yo-Yo Ma (yay!), even The Who (raking in the big bucks when CBS was using their songs for "CSI" opening sequences). Most have featured only 2-4 top hits. You do get some energy, because acts only have to be "on" for 15 minutes. But there's also something perfunctory about these, when the acts know attendees aren't "real" fans.
I guess private biz events have always been with us in the situations you mention, Diane. What is so arresting about the Osnos article is how many people in America have the kind of personal wealth that only corporations once had. The Silicon Valley and Wall Street and just plain young multimillionaires who, to paraphrase Osnos, can afford to drop $150,000 on a Thursday afternoon indulgence.
Yes. Or dictating the playlist, which Susanna writes about and which I know from musician friends sometimes happens (even to the point of telling them what NOT to play).
Have you read Susanna Hoff’s new novel “This Bird Has Flown”? I just started it last night and it opens with a set piece about the indignities of private gigs.
Haven't read the book, Seth. But Osnos in the New Yorker goes into some of those "indignities," including the idea that just because someone is paying him so much money doesn't mean they get to smoke weed with Snoop Dogg.