At dinner the other night, I asked how many people had heard Katy Perry's "California Gurls". You might be stunned, but most people had not. Because they just didn't have to. The days of AM radio, when Beatles fans knew Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra hits because they couldn't switch to another station and avoid them, are done.
via the most recent Lefsetz Letter, a respected music industry e-newsletter, titled "The Wilderness Inside".
Hey Bob: I hate to break it to you, but the reason why none of your dinner companions have heard "California Gurls" is because they are old. You are old. I would put $100 bucks on the fact that if you tried this same experiment in a high school classroom, close to 100% of the students would say, "Yes, I have definitely heard 'California Gurls'".
Bob, you are such a relic, a fossil from the days of N*Sync and Hootie & The Blowfish, the rare person who popped bottles and flew around in private jets during the heyday of CDs and managed to keep his job post-Napster. You are in no way, shape or form Katy Perry's target market—why would her label waste their money trying to get her to your ears? As you've mentioned to me before, they are ALL GOING BROKE.