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L. Kent Wolgamott: CD releases prove rock still sells

Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:10:01 am CDT

It’s pretty slow on the area music scene this week, so I’ve been scanning the wires trying to get some kind of a handle on what’s going on in the music world at large. Here are a couple of observations:

Last week, Tool’s “10,000 Days” and Pearl Jam’s self-titled release combined to sell 843,000 copies — proof that even in today’s diverse, hip-hop and R&B-dominated market, rock can still sell.

That’s important to note in an entertainment world that is dominated by market forces. For some reason, how a movie performs at the box office on its opening weekend, how many copies a record sells or how many people an act can draw to its concerts have become THE important pop culture measuring devices, quality be damned.

So rock albums topping the charts keep the form in the discussion rather than leaving it on the sideline with other “specialty” music such as blues, jazz and bluegrass.

Of course, the rock that tops the charts isn’t generally the indie hipster stuff. It’s mainstream and tends toward the heavy side of things. “Pearl Jam” got generally good reviews and moved 279,000 copies. Tool sold 564,000 copies of “10,000 Days” even though it got less stellar notices, an indicator that critics’ opinions matter little when it comes to mainstream music releases.

The big news in the weekly SoundScan report, however, is that CD sales continue to slump.

Last week, 10.1 million CDs were sold, up 6 percent from the previous week but down 9 percent compared to the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 2 percent compared to 2005 at 192.1 million units.

The culprit getting most of the blame for declining CD sales is downloading of music from the Internet, which continues its steady rise in popularity.

While they’re making some money from the downloads, that trend offsets standard record company economic models. That’s because most Internet music consumers are still buying their music — one song at a time. That means record company profits are coming in 50 cents at a time rather than $8 to $10 for a CD.

The latest on Keith Richards’ misfortune

The big news on the rock star front has been the misadventures of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who fell out of a tree in Fiji while on vacation late last month. The fall caused Richards to undergo an operation in New Zealand to relieve pressure on his brain.

Then the rumor mill kicked up saying Keith had suffered brain damage and had to undergo a second surgery. That prompted the band to issue this notice:

“Keith Richards did not undergo a second operation. The first and only operation was done on Monday, May 8, and was 100 percent successful,” the band’s statement said. “There was no brain damage. He continues to improve as expected.”

Apparently there’s also been some contradiction as to how Richards fell. Some reports say he fell out of a tree — who knows what he was doing up there — others say he fell from a watercraft. In any case, he’s 62 and likely to be out of commission for a while.

Jazzfest revives

New Orleans

Even though Fats Domino bowed out of performing on its final weekend and may have played his last show ever, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which wrapped up Sunday, was, by all accounts, an uplifting success.

Precise attendance figures weren’t available at midweek. But according to reports from vendors in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, this year’s attendance was likely about the same as last year — which is saying something in the aftermath of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

One of the best things about this year’s Jazzfest — and something at least kind of positive to come out of Katrina — is that New Orleans artists such as Irma Thomas, The Meters and Domino are getting far more attention now than they had for decades before the hurricane flooded the Cresent City.

I know lots of Nebraskans who have ventured south for Jazzfest in the past. But I don’t know anyone who made the trip this year. With its success this year, I’m guessing they, along with thousands of others, will return to the festival in 2007 and into the future.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.