Live and Commercial Success - Does it Matter? Options

[sellingthdrama]

I'm wondering if anyone cares whether or not Live's new album (or any of their new albums at any point in time) hits the top of the charts. For me, I will love their music as long as I can relate to it and feel it; regardless of where it ends up on the charts.

But part of me misses the commercial success of Throwing Copper. Part of me wants everyone to be talking about Live and how great they are. I want to hear them on the radio, and see them on TV, in the magazines. What it really is, is that I want everyone to feel how I feel when I hear their music - because it's a pretty great feeling. It's the feeling, if you ask me. That's a bit off topic, so anyway...

Anyone else have an opinion on this? Does Live's commercial success matter to you in any way?

[alcoholiday]

interesting tidbit about commercial success on edkowalczyk.com

What I do remember, though, (that is, in addition to the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup and the release of the highly underrated Jean-Claude Van Damme epic Timecop) is Live’s “Lightning Crashes.” Man, that song was everywhere that summer: you heard it on MuchMusic, you heard it drifting out of the windows of cars driving past you as you biked to the Mac’s, you heard stoned teenagers playing it on guitar on beach, you even heard your Mom and Dad humming along when it came on the radio. It was just one of those simple, slightly overwrought, arguably derivative but ultimately classic rock ballads, the kind of song that probably gets played at weddings, funerals and high-school grads with roughly equal regularity; the kind of song that actually embeds itself in the unconscious of everyone who hears it. Seriously: try to sing it to yourself right now; you can probably get the chorus on the first try. At the time, about the only knock on “Lightning Crashes” was that it was so huge, its success so overwhelming, that the previously unknown band who released it would almost certainly collapse under the weight of expectations, turning up on VH1 as “those ‘Lightning Crashes’ guys” in a decade’s time.

Of course, Live turned out to be much more than a one-hit wonder, putting out four more studio albums (including the soon to be released Songs from Black Mountain) and numerous modern-rock hits, although none quite as huge as their aforementioned breakthrough. And while some acts would try to turn their backs on this kind of early success, petulantly refusing to play their signature hit for fans, Live have largely embraced the nostalgic appeal of their early catalogue.

“‘Lightning Crashes’ seems to be a song that has really affected people,” admits Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk, on the phone from his home in Southern California. “People will come up to me and tell me that that song is really synonymous with a point in time in their lives, even if they’re not really fans of our band.”

Far from being offended or taken aback by such revelations from total strangers, Kowalczyk acutely understands the response his songs provoke in listeners, mostly because, as a music fan himself, he knows what it’s like to have such a deep personal response to something as remote and inherently impersonal as a mass-produced, mainstream pop song.

“I can’t say that I ever expected some of my songs to connect with people the way that they did, but then again I put so much of myself into this music that it doesn’t surprise me that other people feel so strongly about it,” he explains. “I mean, I know how I feel about the music that has inspired me: when I hear ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ I am so deeply connected to that music that I feel like it’s so much a part of me that I almost feel like a participant in it, in some weird way. That’s the beautiful thing about music: people really do participate in your story because they find some aspects of it that coincide with their own story.”

It is, perhaps, because of his fan’s perspective that Kowalczyk is so willing to indulge listeners’ appetite for the Live back-catalogue. “I’m so tuned into the audience, and they’re having some much fun and enjoying hearing the older songs so much, that I just kind of tune into their happiness and enjoy that,” he explains, noting that, as a 34-year-old guy who has only ever had one real job (rockstar), just being able to continue to tour and record successfully after 15 years on the job is a rare blessing.

“We’re 15 years into this, and people are still really into what we’re doing—I have to pinch myself sometimes when I realize that people are still interested in us,” he enthuses. “There are so few bands that really stick to it and make a go of it, so we’re going to keep doing it as long as we can.”

Besides, it’s not like he’s sick of the gig just yet. “Why would I complain?” he says. Honestly, there’s nothing like singing ‘Lightning Crashes’ in front of 30,000 people and having them sing it back to you. It just doesn’t get any better than that.”