SnowGhost Music

Back when I used to read Rolling Stone cover to cover and clean my top of the line Denon cassette deck with a top of the line head cleaner once a week, I read the charts. The Billboard top 100, or at least the top 25 or so, was always in the back of the magazine, so that after reading all about what was going on in the world of music, I got to see the list of who was really selling albums. This was of course in a time where people actually went to stores and bought tapes, CDs if they were on the cutting edge, and singles in either format. Back then, being number one was a pretty big deal. It meant you were definitely getting airplay, being cranked up in someone's Camaro, and being stolen by wayward youth. When all was said and done, you'd get one of those silver or gold records that you could frame and hang on your rockstar wall, and for that special occasion, you could take it down and do lines on it with your favorite groupies.

Times have changed, but the charts are still there. I remember when they started listing CD sales from specific record stores throughout the country and putting them next to the Billboard charts so you could see how Hyde and Zeke's customers in Gainesville compared with the rest of the country. You could tell when they'd pick an independent college-town retailer because the albums on the indie list would be completely different from the mainstream. Back when I was in college, a time when I actually had a word processor that needed erasing tape, I was listening to college music. I was going to cheap shows at local venues and seeing everything from crowds that moshed to crowds that shoe gazed. It was the mid-nineties, and one band that really struck me was Modest Mouse. I heard they really liked the Pixies, who had only recently broken up, and they just had that unique sound that could either be incredibly irritating and irresistible all at once. They were selling at the local record store, but you'd never see them on the Hot 100.

So you can imagine my surprise when I recently took a stroll through the charts and found out that the Mouse's latest album was not only enjoying a comfortable stay in the Hotel 100, it had even been to the penthouse. Naturally, I've bought the album, I've played it repeatedly, and it has made the huge leap to number one on my personal charts. It's a fine album. Very polished, very upbeat. The guy from the Shins sings backups here and there. The guitarist from the Smiths is in the band, as is the original Modest Mouse drummer. It's the solid album I always knew they would make, and what separates it from past albums is that there is not a single song on it that isn't good. And apparently, the rest of America agrees with me.

Or does it? For one, people don't buy albums like they used to, so being number one today would certainly not measure up to hit albums of the past in terms of sales. But on the other hand, it's all realtive, right? You can only compare musical success within the terms of eras, just like you can say that the '82 Celtics were the greatest team ever despite being fully aware that the crappy 2006 Celtic team would annihilate them if they were to travel through time and challenge them. Okay, well, there's a lot more movement on the charts these days, as well as a lot more variety, so obviously it's easier to be number one in a saturated market, just like being employee of the month is a lot easier to do with a master's degree at McDonald's than it is to be top dog at Apple. But again, that's like arguing that the '82 Celtics could beat Lance Armstrong. The only way we know how well an album is doing is to measure sales. And that's what Billboard does, give or take a little bribery and/or cheating here and there. And Modest Mouse, albeit briefly, had the number one album in America.

Maybe that particular week was the same week when mothers and fathers all across the land strictly forbade any of their 14-year-old daughters to buy any music. Or maybe the truckers responsible for providing Best Buy with Young Jeezy were on strike. Or maybe Ted won the lottery and in an attempt to influence mainstream America, he personally bought enough Modest Mouse albums to goose the charts. Or maybe I should stop being so pessimistic. Being number one is still a big deal, especially when you're actually making music that isn't produced to include a business plan. And as corny as it sounds, it is a sign of hope, even in the sunset of the record industry, that making music that is true to your heart and not a demographic can still bring success. It certainly doesn't hurt to make an album that totally kicks ass.