The Who Aren't Popular Anymore - Who's To Blame?

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@akrobiz.com>]

Re:  The Who's BBC Sessions

> > > Just a comment on possible strategy.  Do you have any suggestion as to 
> >why the album didn't sell well?

I'm sure it sold as well as MCA expected.  I think they (MCA) realize that 
they can release a new (or remastered) Who album, spend very little on any
kind of promotion, & still turn a profit.  Maybe not a big profit, but I'm sure
they're not expecting BIG profits from Who material anymore.  1973 is long
gone.

> >Yeah, it wasn't promoted at all. Most people still don't know it's out. You 
> >forget that we know Who stuff months in advance, but the general public 
> >doesn't even look in the Who bin anymore. Most of my customers who ask me 
> >for Who CDs don't even know about the remixed versions.

Have there been any radio, T.V., or print ads for the remastered albums?  I don't
recall seeing or hearing any.  I'm not talking about ads for individual albums, I 
mean ads promoting The Who's entire back catalogue.  Again, this might be be-
cause ad spending like that is not in MCA's "Who budget."

> I still think it was the sound.  When Zeppelin's Sessions came out, they 
> played it over the system at the record stores, and folks walked up to the 
> counter and asked for it.  Would never have happened with The Who's 
> Sessions.  The clerks in the store could never have stood to listen to it 
> that long.

Fang.....I mean.....keets, that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?  While The Who's
BBC Sessions wasn't the upgrade of the boot I thought it was going to be, it
still wasn't horribly bad.  I know a number of non-Who freaks who bought it
& were pleased.  No complaints about the sound from them.  And these are
people who buy dozens & dozens of other artists' CD's in the course of a year.

Let's all run to the bathroom & splash some cold water on our faces & remember:
The Who aren't in that "Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Beatles" category of popularity.
They just aren't.  

We can blame Pete, we can blame Bill Curbishly, we can blame MCA, we can
blame Jon "Antichrist" Astley, we can blame commercial radio, etc., etc., etc.
But what's the real reason?

My theory:  The Who's reputation & stature was critically damaged by the 1983
breakup & subsequent "reunion" tours.  Rock fans began laughing at The Who.
The same rock fans who work in the record industry or in radio.  People with de-
cision-making power.

And I believe that the 1989 tour drove away thousands of existing or potential Who
fans.  They were playing football arenas on that tour!  Sixty-thousand seat venues!
What happened?

Well, we thought that was the only Who we could get anymore.  Bloated, pissy-
Pete-mood Who.  Many fans said, "Fuck that.  That's not The Who I want."

Then the QUAD tour in 1996 further added to the damage.  Many people by that
point saw The Who as a comical caricature of their former glory.  People just gave
up.

And we wondered why the 2000 tour didn't sell more tickets.  Even all the
reports & reviews about it being a "stripped-down" Who didn't help.  Too many
former fans had jumped ship.

Now we're finally seeing the result of the past 20 years or so:  mediocre CD sales
& mediocre interest in a band that negatively disrupted a large portion of its fan-
base.

Just think if the 2000 tour could be substituted for the 1989 tour.....  


- SCHRADE in Akron