antiMUSIC is pleased to welcome industry insider Jake Brown to give us his perspective on topics involving the music business. Jake comes to us with an impressive resume that not only includes heading his own record label, but also as an established music biographer with several books under his belt. 
 

Is Lenny Kravitz still a rock star?  He seems intent on convincing the world that he is these days, in case they forgot... and especially considering that his last 2 albums have NOT sold like a rock star's!  Sales, sales, sales!  I'm going to get the "rock is about more than that dude" crowd, but NOT WHEN YOU WANT MAINSTREAM ACCEPTANCE!  Not unless you're IGGY POP, and your iconic status was NEVER based on record sales, typically therein you defined a genre of some kind.  Lenny Kravitz NEVER defined a genre, he made his name instead on borrowing from every one of rock's.  Now, let me also state on the outset of this rant that I AM A FAN of Lenny's, even up through his 1998 release, "5".   That record was the beginnning of Lenny's commercial downfall, because the record was out a full year before it went platinum, which finally happened based on the hit �Butterfly', which Virgin Records spent a ton of money promoting at radio and video.  Thereafter, he released a Greatest Hits album that had a single on it entitled �Again', which achieved moderate radio success but didn't propell the hits collection to platinum status.  That happened via an endless barrage of promotion from the label, almost forcing Lenny's hits down listeners consumers throats.  The album went platinum, a respectable showing for a hits collection, but not quite up to par with the icon status Kravitz would like to enjoy at this point in his career. 

Part of the success of Lenny Kravitz's magic in the old days, when he actually sold records was that it was largely accidental, he created hit records without any identifiable regard for radio.  They were written from the heart, usually about love the loss thereof, and usually his biggest hits were broken as 2nd or 3rd singles, case in point including �It Ain't Over Till Its Over' written about the fallout from his relationship with wife Lisa Bonet, and �I Can't Get You Off My Mind', about the death of his mother, actress Roxy Roker.  Lenny Kravitz as a musician is emmensely talented, but as a songwriter he often struggles for imagination (and is critically cited) for his habit of strongly borrowing from his artistic derivatives.  When he let those derivatives naturally blend into and influence his own sound, Lenny Kravitz came up with some remarkably original variations and innovations of the various styles and sounds which compose his influences, examples being songs like �Let Love Rule' and �Stand By My Woman'.  Still, when he attempts to be equally as anthematic based on obvious hits past, he falls flat on his face, prominent examples being the retarded �Rock N Roll is Dead' and �Don't Go And Put A Bullet In Your Head!'.  

Perhaps Lenny's most relaxed and successful effort is 1993's "Are you Gonna Go My Way", the lead single (and also the album's most successful) is largely comprised of a  riff that repeats itself over and over throughout the song over Lenny's simplistic but infectious chorus �Are You Gonna Go My Way?'  Fans did, to the tune of 3 million records sold.  His follow-up, "Circus", failed to even go Gold at the time of its initial life of project, although it eventually did through catalog sales.  Fans just didn't get Lenny on that one, how could someone who borrowed so greatly from Rock n' Roll to secure his own place in its annals be in a position of any legitimate authority to declare its demise?  Was this because Lenny had run out of influences to rip off?  Perhaps he was attempting to kill off the impression that he was incapable of orginality in the hopes of laying groundwork for his own legacy with the irony of the song's title?  Who knows?  The point is, in the end, FANS DID NOT RESPOND, and the only ironic thing about Lenny's lead single was that he essentially hammered the nails into his own commercial coffin.  And anybody who knows anything substantial about Lenny Kravitz's sound is that was NOT HIS INTENTION!  Otherwise, he would not have attempted something so radically different on 1998's "5" in an attempt to jumpstart his stalled career.  Then there was the ANNOYING �American Woman' cover from 1999's "Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me", which was arguably the most overplayed song of that year.  That Kravitz had to resort to a cover to keep his rekindled fire going only re-enforces the fact that he lacked one of rock's most basic essentials for longevity, originality.  His reliance on derivative rock styles would make this naturally impossible.

On Lenny Kravitz's latest album, he is at his most contrived and sadly commercial, a case in point being the lead single �Where Are We Running?', where Kravitz is pictured trafficing back and forth between trashed hotel rooms, slutty models, and crowds packed well beyond Kravitz's live draw power in modern day.  In the latest attempt to force him upon us as something artistically relevant, Kravitz principally fails to do so by trying as commercially as he does to convince us he belongs there.  His previous album, "Lenny", released in 2001, suffered miserably at retail, failing to go even platinum.  That Kravitz is attempting to reinvent himself as an icon on this release is equally as sad, and the sales of his latest effort are the best reflection of the latter- after debuting at a respectable #14 on the Billboard Album Chart, the record plunged to #44 in its second week, and has been selling so poorly that Virgin Records reportedly has halted CD pressing for the time being. Lenny has lasted this long on borrowed sounds, and it is time that he begin to invent his own.  He is a multi-instrumentalist with a platinum voice, who has shown that he has the ability on occasion in inspired moments to write original material that arguably could have only come out of his musical soul as a songwriter.  It seems the place he was writing from on the albums "Let Love Rule" and "Mama Said" was more honest or heartfelt based on the love and then heartache he was going through in his own life- if nothing else, he was certainly more inspired, consistent and appealing.  In that way, as a fan, I love Lenny for who he was, not who he has become.  Within the context of this article, my main point is that Rock N' Roll is most enjoyable when its not forced, and therein, Lenny needs to relax, let his hair down, and start not caring again about being relevant as he writes and records, whereafter he will almost surely be re-embraced by the core fans he has lost.
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About the author: Jake Brown is owner/operator of Nashville-based Versailles Records and a biographer who has published several books. Click here to more details.