Who’s hotter: José or Teddy? You decide.

I’ve been blessed to see some amazing concerts in ‘07 (The White Stripes at Madison Square Garden, La Mala at S.O.B.’s, MIA at Terminal 5 and Ojos de Brujo at Highline Ballroom are a few highlights), but there have been terrible ones, too. One of them, oddly enough, came courtesy of Mr. Teddy Penderazdoun himself, T-Pain. He played S.O.B.’s back in May, when “Buy You a Drank” was at its peak and artists were just starting to jump on the vocoder bandwagon (these days, even Snoop’s using it). It wasn’t a bad performance per se–T-Pain knows how to ham it up on stage–but I was struck by the fact a couple hundred people showed up for it, and those who had were mostly friends of the label and venue, which added up to a jaded, all-around lame vibe. After seeing this scenario play out with other Top 40 artists a few times since then, I’ve wondered: why doesn’t a hit single (or two, or three for that matter) translate into ticket sales, and which one is a bigger indicator of an artist’s success, anyway?

Last night, I went to a show that forced me to reconsider this question. I spent about an hour standing on my tiptoes (I arrived just as the show was starting), straining over a crowd of at least a couple thousand heads at Webster Hall in order to get a glimpse of an amazing acoustic set by 29-year old José Gonzaléz, the singer-songwriter who was born and raised in Sweden by his Argentine parents. José is fluent Spanish and Swedish, but has picked up enough English to record not one but two critically acclaimed albums that are beloved by folk purists who compare him to artists like Nick Drake and Paul Simon. His latest, In Our Nature, was released in late September and has elevated Jose’s already-certified star status in his native country. Here’s a sampling of Jose playing one of his more popular tunes, “Down The Line,” which he actually performed a few weeks ago (pre-writer’s strike) on Late Night with Conan O’Brien:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EFW9o8ayE[/youtube]

Beautiful? Absolutely. Catchy? Sure. But if you put T-Pain and José next to one another and asked the average person to predict which artist is more likely to sell out a show, I’d love for you to find me one person who would pick José, much less know who he is at first glance! Which made it all the more impressive that this powerfully subtle solo set was just another notch under the belt for José, who tours nonstop and has already played in NYC a couple of times since his new album dropped.

What’s my point? Basically, that the music business is more splintered than it ever was, to the point where the one artist who almost singlehandedly defined the sound of pop and R&B this year doesn’t have many fans who are loyal enough to buy a ticket to see him in concert (unless, of course, he’s playing a 10-minute set sandwiched between a dozen other pop stars at a Jingle Ball show). Meanwhile, an artist who doesn’t make very many waves on the mainstream charts is commanding crowds in the couple of thousands for concerts all over the world. Is a musician better served catering to the ringtone-downloader or to the concertgoer? Either route seems lucrative, but at this juncture, they’re pretty much mutually exclusive, and the artists who manage to succeed at both are fewer and further between.

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