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Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V8 #327



> >   I poked around at a couple of the major online stores, and it looks to 
>me like these are actually doing okay.
>
>Your point is well made. The reality is the sales figures - at least in the 
>UK - that critics and the media base their stories on are drawn from chart 
>shops whose sales figures are collated to present the weekly "top 40" in 
>both album and singles...As you may guess or know, they are geared to the 
>teen buyer who buys "chart music". Their stock, and the charts, are thus a 
>self fulfilling prophecy.

So the article about Mick's sales was likely another form of age 
descrimination by critics, who chose a figure pretty much out of the air to 
indicate Mick's album was doing poorly and that he was no longer marketable.

One problem, then, is how to get the critics in line before releasing an 
album.  Maybe Mick doesn't care what they think--he gets to have fun making 
a cd with lots of different people and he gets the money in the bank 
anyhow--but still the article is damaging to his reputation and to that of 
older artists in general.  Was it the disco beat that put the critics off?  
Do they have something against Mick these days?

I gather that Who cds are all selling well since the CFNY, so any new album 
is likely to generate a little interest with the public.  Even if there's no 
publicity, a new album there in the bins would likely sell as well as any of 
the others.  The critics said nice things about  the Who2K tour, and the 
CFNY.  If TED can come up with ANY songs they agree on, it seems like now is 
the time to release new work.


keets