Headlines

June 20, 2008

Liz Phair: Major label presidents 'don’t have particularly healthy personal lives'

EMusic Blog | Read Full Story >

eMusic:

God it’s amazing who the fuck they hire to be presidents of major labels. I’ll never understand. I’ve met so many shitty presidents of record labels. How these assholes get promoted to the level that they reach… If I had fucking three million dollars a year to spend on someone, I think I’d fucking pick someone a lot better than that. Someone that had some leadership, or maybe some wisdom? I mean, God, what happened to leaders? Where did they go? What is with the dysfunction in seats of power? How do they get there? I was talking about this with my mom, and what we came up with is that they’re willing to do stuff other people aren’t. They are willing to stab in the back, or they don’t have particularly healthy personal lives. So they rise and rise because people who want to protect what they have tend to step out of the way when they see people like this.


Post a comment


12 Comments

#1 Andy says:

I wonder who she's talking about :}

#2 raspberryjones says:

"All that pot I was smoking — maybe I was channeling some kind of collective unconscious."

#3 Chadams says:

Yeah - awfully insightful (though she has been a great source of interview answers as of late). Glad she got her "pop star wannabe" phase out of her system so she can be entertaining in this manner.

#4 The Truth! says:

True, dat Liz. I worked at a major label and was blown away by the lameness of our President. Not only did he never leave his office to see what anyone else at the company was doing but he showed ZERO leadership, made tons of promises to artists and managers and then refused to take any calls from anyone after he broke those promises and instead instructed the marketing department to handle the angry calls. Add in his constant shifting of marketing budgets from the developing artists to the promotion of yet another greatest hits repackaging of same lame, washed up, x-star so he could get some good numbers to please his corporate bosses...pathetic. Even when those greatest hits would flop, he'd somehow still get to keep his job. All around, a spineless leader with zero leadership who somehow retained his position for eons until the company was acquired and he was ousted.

#5 m says:

i'd hit it

#6 djd says:

fucking awesome.

#7 Favorite Shirt says:

Speaking of stabbed in the back. Thanks, Andy Slater, for writing me a HUGE check for my ill-fated attempt at pop stardom and attempting to throw me a lifeline from my dwindling fanbase of aging indieboys - here's a thinly-veiled rip on your whole essence.

#8 Anon says:

Amen sister!!!!!!!!

I worked under Clive (thank God the naked emporer is dead!, or one banana peel away) and Jack Rovner and Donnie and Danny Goldberg and Polly Anthony...Yeah. I'm a douchebag lifer.

But I have kids and a mortgage like everybody else. The industry is in hospice. Not much time left and hopefully, those left will care more about what they do than what they make.

#9 Anon says:

By the way, I always wanted to fuck you but that shot...well.

#10 Dave says:

@ #7:

It's not really a case of him writing a huge check to make the pop-star stuff happen, it was a case of "fuck you, your album sucks and we're not going to release a major label album without a pop single" so they forced her to either re-do the album to major label 'standards' on her own dime (or get fucked, as she'd owe the label money at that point) or take more money to work with The Matrix and big name people in order to get an album out that the label would release.

It's not like she got a million bucks and made songs with Avril's hitmakers because it was a great idea... (regardless of the effect which was actually better sales and a semi-hit single at the time). Blame the shitty label for pushing her to "sell out". The album might have been mediocre anyway... but it would have at least been 4 less pop songs of disappointment instead and that would have totally pleased the fanboys right?

#11 pot kettle call says:

i was privvy to what was going on during those 2 records and she was an entirely willing participant (not that that disqualifies what she is saying here, she's entirely right). she flipped her fanbase so much she was selling LESS concert tix even with a huge push and semi-hit. i don't have a lot of sympathy. she could have made quite a decent living as a credible artist selling 200K per release and playing 1K-2K theatres. but i love her early stuff, and have always found her hot, and interesting, so i at least will give her another chance

#12 shut up. says:

while i have absolutely no love for this shithole industry - this one is well past her expiration date. go back into your hole. take your pick.


Click Here