I know there's been some discussion as to who the targeted audience is for Travelogue, or if there even is one, if its marketable, etc.... I thought this was an interesting article on Pearl Jam and the approach they're taking.
>From today's NY Times: Pearl Jam Turns Pop Fame on Its Head: Less Is More By HUGO LINDGREN EDDIE VEDDER of Pearl Jam, with his basso profundo voice and mile-deep furrows in his brow, was, for a time, the mascot of grunge-era MTV. Then he decided he couldn't take it any longer. Mr. Vedder says the turning point came several years ago when he was in Australia. He had gone to a fair, and, as was his custom, he practically hid in his own clothes: collar turned up, hat pulled low. Minding his own business, he felt a tap on his shoulder; he wheeled around expecting to have to tell a fan to please leave him alone. Instead he saw a friend, a well-known professional surfer. "He was just there with his family, walking around like an ordinary person," Mr. Vedder recalled recently. "I thought right then: That's what I want. That's what I got to get back to." So how do you find a middle ground between fame and reclusiveness? "You stop going on television," Mr. Vedder said. "You get your life back." He and his band mates got their lives back, but at a steep cost - at least if measured in record sales. Every studio album they have made, with one exception, has sold less than the one before it. Their debut release, "Ten," from 1991, sold nearly 10 million copies; their 2000 release, "Binaural," sold 750,000. If Pearl Jam was a stock, you would have dumped it by now. "We decided that our audience needed some serious weeding out," Mr. Vedder said. Pearl Jam's latest album, "Riot Act" (Epic), which is due out on Tuesday, reflects the band's campaign to defuse its popularity. The record sounds as if it were made to slip quietly into the marketplace, connect with the faithful and leave everyone else alone. There is no catchy single, and not even the slightest echo of anything else happening in pop music now. --- Victor Johnson --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.cdbaby.com/victorjohnson Look for the new album "Parsonage Lane" in March 2003 Produced by Chris Rosser at Hollow Reed Studios
