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[Blog] Money, Money, Money

Thu, August 09, 2012

A blog about big stars and their even bigger wallets.

I think we all know why we listen to, sing along with and try to play music, for the love, for the passion and for the emotion of it. We do all of these things because of the way they make us feel, whether it’s happy or sad, alone or with friends they conjure up feelings that we all know, love and can rely on.

The question is though, why do they world’s biggest stars do it? Every time you see a pop superstar pick up an award their speeches are always pretty similar, “I’d like to thank the fans, you’re the reason we do it, and we owe it all to you” and so on. The feeling you get from having thousands of people singing along to your songs must be incredible and with the news that Sir Paul McCartney performed the Olympic opening ceremony for just £1 shows there’s a lot the rich and famous will do for pride and their fans so they might be telling the truth.

But, someone recently said that Bruce Springsteen has only ever done one show, it just seems to have lasted for 30 years and has moved from place to place. So can you still perform songs you wrote 30 or 40 years ago with the same passion and feeling that you did when you first released them? Radiohead famously didn’t play their crowd pleaser Creep for decades because they were bored of performing it so it must take it’s toll, so does there come a point where an artist stops enjoying what they do and simply does it for the money and just hides it on stage very well?

I think a few at the top of the money pile might be in that situation but lets take a look at them and you can decide for yourself.

5. Number 5 on music’s rich list is Michael Buble who in 2011 earned himself a cool $70 million. Now Michael hasn’t been around for as long as some so perhaps he isn’t as jaded as many out there and it looks like he’s still got the love for it from this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6TKpkY4WcM

4. Lady Gaga is sitting at number 4 with a nice $70 million from 2011. She also a new kid on the block in the grand scheme of things and the fact that she speaks so highly of all of her “little Monsters” I think she might just still be having a hell of a lot of fun or maybe she was just born this way?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTWoTR2a7JM

3. Now we’re getting to the veterans. Elton John earned $100 million last year and he’s always smiling! We’re not sure if that’s the music, the $100m or the sheer amount of flowers he buys, but we’re not going to hold that against him. After all he’s Elton John!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNNl3C0qvKg

2. Next up we’ve got Bon Jovi, a couple of guys who’ve travelled the world with a very similar set of songs for decades now. I’ve never been in a position to claim that you can get bored of millions of women screaming your name, but surely they must be by now? Living on a prayer? Perhaps, if they’re praying for $125 million that is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk

1. The highest earners of 2011 were the grandfathers of inoffensive rock, U2, with $195 million earned. Now I think we can tell these guys are bored with what they do, Bono keeps on running off to work with Bob Geldof and fighting court cases to win back his old hats. I get the feeling they’re so bored they’re not even concentrating on their lyrics any more, “uno, dos, tres, quatorze” I’m pretty sure that translates as 1, 2, 3, 14. And that isn’t right in any language. Still, I’m sure they haven’t got any problems counting to 195,000,000 no have they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaV5UCMsW-8