"Of Freaks, Indies and Bubble Gum": TIME Magazine's List of Music-Biz Lingo, 1973

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http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,903845,00.html

Poll Results

Option	Votes
WHIPPED: Drunk.	2
TRIP: A cat's bag, style, anything he's got going down.	2
RELEVANT: The kids will buy it.	2
ON THE FARM: Woodshedding, or getting it all together; harks back to the not-so-distant days when rockers rented farms	2
DO ME A SOLID: Do me a favor.	2
BUBBLE GUM: Rock for the preteeny-bopper set; the lowest common denominator in pop music.	1
BOOGIE: To relax, kid around, do one's thing, take it easy.	1
STIFF: A record that does not sell.	1
BOP: To drink, smoke, pop pills, goof off or otherwise have a good time.	1
PRODUCT: Records, as in "He puts out a lot of product."	1
OUTRAGEOUS: Great.	1
FREAK: A rock performer with an attention-getting mannerism or physical handicap (e.g., albino Blues-Rocker Johnny Wint	1
BREAK or BREAK OUT: To become a hit.	0
MONSTER: A superhit; also, the creator of a superhit.	0
INDIE: Independent producer or record company.	0
HYPE: False or exaggerated claims about a performer or record. GOOD HYPE —Promotion or advertising that is, astoundingl	0
STREET: The marketplace; also, the latest industry rumors, as in "The street says..."	0
TURNTABLE HIT: A record that gets air play but does not sell.	0
UP FRONT: Having top priority.	0
ARTIST: Any performer, of whatever ability.	0

― jaymc, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:24 (thirteen years ago)

Have heard all of these at one time or another, but never "on the farm."

― Pope Frank is the messenger of your doom (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:25 (thirteen years ago)

Entries that were cut off:

"FREAK: A rock performer with an attention-getting mannerism or physical handicap (e.g., albino Blues-Rocker Johnny Winter)."

"HYPE: False or exaggerated claims about a performer or record. GOOD HYPE: Promotion or advertising that is, astoundingly enough, true."

"ON THE FARM: Woodshedding, or getting it all together; harks back to the not-so-distant days when rockers rented farms to do everything but farm on."

― jaymc, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:26 (thirteen years ago)

Voted "do me a solid" just to annoy 乒乓.

― carl agatha, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

love the snottiness of the definition of Artist; torn between Bubble Gum and Turntable Hit for my fave expression

― Sarushima baby jive (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:53 (thirteen years ago)

OUTRAGEOUS

― buzza, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:55 (thirteen years ago)

to do everything but farm on

like solids?

― how's life, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 16:58 (thirteen years ago)

I've noticed some backlash against the term artist around here recently and idgi. what other catchall term would you use to encompass bands and solo acts but specifically the people whose name is on the front of the record?

― wk, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 17:17 (thirteen years ago)

torn btwn FREAK and STIFF

― brio, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 17:20 (thirteen years ago)

what are some examples of the backlash against "artist"

― how's life, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 17:26 (thirteen years ago)

music industry wanker words

entry #1!

― "LOL is other people" - Jean-Paul Snarktre (wins), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:02 (thirteen years ago)

I thought "outrageous" got its start here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnnx1n898U8

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:11 (thirteen years ago)

music industry wanker words
entry #1!

yeah, I was thinking of that thread but then I remember somebody saying something similarly snarky on another thread around the same time. I guess it was just an isolated incident that somehow built itself up to a full scale "backlash" in my mind.

― wk, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 19:03 (thirteen years ago)

I voted "RELEVANT: The kids will buy it." This seems like the epitome of music industry thinking.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 19:05 (thirteen years ago)

yeah love the snark in that and 'artist: any performer, of whatever ability'.

here's the cover for that issue -

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1973/1101730212_400.jpg

― balls, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 19:52 (thirteen years ago)

nice. milton glaser?

― wk, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:15 (thirteen years ago)

why does Nilsson look like Count Chocula

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:17 (thirteen years ago)

probably because he was trying to do that Dracula movie/musical thing at the time...?

― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:18 (thirteen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Dracula_%281974_film%29

― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:19 (thirteen years ago)

why does Ian Anderson look like Aretha playing a flute

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:19 (thirteen years ago)

probably because he was trying to do that Dracula movie/musical thing at the time...?

or the cover of Son of Schmilsson that came out about 6 months before this magazine

― wk, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:22 (thirteen years ago)

that's right! makes more sense

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:22 (thirteen years ago)

were these verified as real? the list smells awfully like:
https://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/hist100.96/grungehoax.gif

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:23 (thirteen years ago)

swingin' on the flippity-flop
tryin' to do my best
we lock the door
we kill the beast
KILL IT

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:26 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Monday, 22 April 2013 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

I still don't get what exactly "On the Farm" is supposed to mean.

― The last of the famous international Greyjoys (Nicole), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 00:27 (thirteen years ago)

^ It's when a band rents a cottage out in the country somewhere and pretends that they're living in the 19th Century and jams and perhaps does some recording free of rock star distractions. Traffic were the first do to it back in '67 or thereabouts. The Band did it, and Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin when they went to Bron-Yr-Aur in Wales. It explains why so many album covers of the late '60s/early '70s seem to depict the band as a commune of farming folk from the 1800s.

― Josefa, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 04:18 (thirteen years ago)

eight years pass...

B-b-but what about Mick and the boys?

― Planck Generation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 July 2021 16:02 (four years ago)

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