USA Today:

In the 52 weeks ending Jan. 2, album sales fell 13% to 326.2 million units, and digital track sales managed only a 1% gain, to 1.17 billion. That hefty consumption of downloads helped offset overall music losses, which fell only 2.4%. 

Piracy, vanishing record shops and decreasing shelf space in big-box stores continue to depress album sales, and the digital boom has been flattening. Only 13 albums sold more than 1 million copies in 2010, down from 22 in 2009. 

Labels remain optimistic about digital’s future. More than one-fourth of albums sold last year were downloads. 

What boomed in 2010? Vinyl. The throwback format grew 13%, with The Beatles‘ Abbey Road leading the charge. Consumers bought more vinyl albums in 2010 than any other year in SoundScan history. Fans bought 71% of vinyl albums in independent record stores.

Read the full article here, and then combine that news with this news:

Gross revenues and total ticket sales from concert tours were down considerably in 2010 as the faltering economy and a glut of overpriced shows shunned by fans cast doubt on the music industry’s last sure bet.

Pollstar year-end numbers show overall grosses for the top 50 tours worldwide fell 12 percent to $2.93 billion and ticket sales dropped 15 percent or about 7 million from 2009’s 45.3 million.

Estimates from the touring industry trade magazine show Bon Jovi pulled in more than $201 million worldwide to land 2010’s top tour. AC/DC was next ($177 million), followed by U2 ($160 million), Lady Gaga ($133 million) and Metallica ($110 million) rounded out the top five.

You can certainly blame the economy and over-pricing on lagging ticket sales, but four of the top five concert grossers represent groups that were in their prime decades ago. 

Did Napster cause this? The Internet? A lack of new talent? The nihilistic trend in popular music?

Thee will always be a music industry of some kind in America, but to put this in some kind of perspective, if what was happening today happened in 1985, the biggest arena stars would’ve been Bill Haley, The Monkees, Ray Charles, The 4 Seasons, Roy Orbison, Chubby Checker, Ricky Nelson, The Shirelles, and Connie Francis.

As a veteran of the film industry for more than 30 years, Robert Davi has become one of the most iconic and instantly recognizable faces and voices of American cinema.  So if you haven’t heard him sing, you’ll probably be as surprised as I was to find that Mr. Davi is not quite so gravelly when he picks up a tune.  In fact, he’s an effortless crooner, classically trained and ready for the stage.

In 2010, he performed three sold-out concerts in New York, solo performances wherein he covered the works of Frank Sinatra.  Sinatra, and the works of the early 20th Century known as the “Great American Songbook,” are more than just a passing interest to Davi.  He feels that these are an essential piece of American history and culture that deserve a closer look in order to understand who we are.

Hearing a few snippets of his upcoming album of Sinatra covers, I truly marveled at the rich quality he was able to belt out of  these songs, exuding classy charm, freewheeling fun, and timeless romance.  But you don’t have to take my word for it.  Ervin Drake, one of the only surviving contributors to the Great American Songbook (among his other accomplishments, he wrote the Sinatra hit “It Was a Very Good Year”), attended Davi’s opening night in New York.  Aside from seeing the show again on closing night, Drake’s compliments included this personal message to Davi:

Robert Davi would make a worthy successor to the incomparable Frank Sinatra, whether in the fields of Stage, Screen or Television. And having been chosen years ago by the Master himself, to act in a film side by side with him, this is not a vain pronouncement.

Continuing his pursuits, Davi is wrapping up work on his album with famed producer Phil Ramone, who has worked with Sinatra himself, and on January 15th, Davi is performing a concert with expanded orchestral arrangements entitled “Davi Sings Sinatra: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra, the Great American Songbook, and America,” at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles.

Despite his rigorous rehearsal schedule, Mr. Davi was able to take some time to answer a few questions about the upcoming show.

Big Hollywood:  What about the world of musical performance appeals to you compared to the acting world?

Robert Davi:  In music, I’m able to express much more of myself.  While it’s fun doing films and playing different characters, one is limited by the part you are playing.  With singing, each song is like a 3-act play, and you use much more of yourself.  I think it was Schopenhauer who said, “The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.”

BH:  As you mentioned being limited in acting by the characters you play, have there been times in your career when you have felt typecast and frustrated by that?

RD:  Of course, and it is the nature of the beast.  When I did my first film at age 20 (which, ironically, starred Frank Sinatra), I was cast as a gangster.  From that, nobody gets the impression that I was classically trained, nobody thinks about the depth you may have as a person.  They see a film and judge you by it, and if you’re good at convincing them, that’s who they think you are.

I remember Stella Adler, one of my mentors, telling me, “They will typecast you, but always know who you are and fight against it ” I did that in my own way by trying not to repeat myself, taking on different parts.  Now, this has its own drawbacks, because people then may have difficulty identifying you.  They only know one or two particular things you may have done, but if they looked at the whole body of your work, that’s where a clearer picture emerges of who that performer is.  Perhaps I came out West a little early; had I stayed in New York and done more plays, I would have built up a different perception of myself, though the way I look tended to put me in a certain light regardless. Everyone has their own prejudices, and because I had a rugged complexion I was immediately profiled during casting. There have been fans over the years that didn’t just see me as a bad guy, and I proved them right when I did a TV series called The Profiler.  Being accepted as a leading man on network television– that show had a huge fan base, and I was voted 3 years in a row on the Internet as their favorite leading man by over 500,000 women– that sort of vindicated me.

BH:  By taking on the roles of singer and film director, do you feel a sense of greater control over your public persona?

RD:  Of course; it brings to mind the saying, “You cannot judge a book by its cover.”  By directing and now singing, it lets me open that book up to everyone and express much more of who I am.

BH:  What sets apart the music of Sinatra’s day, and specifically the man’s own work, from the music of today? What difference do you notice in the values expressed by it?

RD:  To me, The Great American Songbook is the Shakespeare of America.  Those beautiful lyrics are like sonnets put to music, like heartbreaking monologues from tremendous characters. These composers and lyricists were giants, and they were able, through poetry and music, to capture the essence of the human heart and soul.  Whether it was an upbeat swing or a heartbreaking ballad or even a saloon song, each one had a universal appeal, and I believe that made the world fall in love with America.

Frank Sinatra is the premiere interpreter of these songs.  Don’t get me wrong; there are many others who do it justice and are terrific– for instance, we are still lucky to have Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Barbra Streisand, my friend Frank Sinatra Jr. who stays true to the tradition, as well as other great singers– but for me, Sinatra and his body of work is absolutely staggering.  He applied the bel canto principles of singing to popular music, and the depth of his sound is unparalleled.  He was the first “method singer,” so to speak.  He embodied a song with a total sense of self.  He started with his tremendous influences, and he took from them and worked tirelessly to come up with his sound.

The values expressed in the music was much more romantic than what we hear today.  These songs seduced with their eloquence; they were not crass.  They were designed to lift the human spirit, not denigrate it. I think a great resurgence of this music is about to happen.  The youth of today must be exposed to it, because when they are, they fall in love with it.  It’s something that should be taught in schools.  A course on Sinatra would be fascinating.

BH:  How did you first connect with Phil Ramone?  Which one of you initiated the collaboration that resulted in your upcoming album?

RD: Phil was at Capitol finishing an album he was working on.  I was also at Capitol Records at the time and was introduced to him by Paula Salvatore, who runs the label.  She told Phil what I was doing and she made the initial introduction.  Phil is someone I had always wanted to meet and work with.  He is a legend.  I am so grateful for how things have turned out; he is brilliant– has an amazing spirit and is a very deep and lovely human being. And I hope for a very long collaboration with him.  We had another legend, Al Schmitt, do the mix, and the great Dan Wallin was our engineer.

BH:  How did you feel going to rehearsals knowing that a full 30-piece orchestra was there exclusively for you?

RD:  That was actually for my first shows in New York and also for the recording sessions we did at Capitol.  It was absolutely mind-boggling and excitingly terrifying.  For the show in Thousand Oaks on January 15th, we will have 50 pieces.  I had the composer Nic Tenbroek make all new arrangements for the expanded orchestra (Nic was also the composer for my film The Dukes).

BH:  Which songs of Sinatra’s do you feel you perform with a noticeably different interpretation or tone?  If you’ve seen him live in concert, how did that experience affect the planning that went into your own concert?

RD:  I put my own mark on all the songs, as I am not doing an impression of Sinatra in any way.  But I am staying true to the principals of great singing that he is the benchmark for.  That is one of the reasons I refer to it as the Shakespeare of America. Seeing Sinatra live was an amazing experience.  What he was able to communicate through song directly to the audiences’ hearts was so exquisitely moving. It was transcendent; you were watching and listening to the greatest interpreter of music ever.  He performed for 6 decades, and looking over that entire time, it is impossible not to be affected by his work. He would continually put nuance and new interpretations to songs he had done as a young man throughout his life.  He would bring all that he lived through to each performance.

One of the things Phil Ramone told me was when he brought the idea for Duets to Sinatra, and Frank asked why should he do the album– he had sung these songs for years and years– and Phil said,  “But you are  singing them differently now, and people deserve to hear how you interpret them today.”  It’s like seeing Al Pacino in a play he had done years ago, and you see him do it with all that he’s since gone through.  Or, if you saw Clint Eastwood bring all his history to a part such as Walt in Gran Torino– it’s a fascinating journey that the artist takes over time.

BH:  What kinds of reactions have you received from friends, peers, and fans who have never seen this side of you as a performer?

RD:  They are mostly surprised and say, “Why haven’t you done this sooner?”   I only wish I could go back in time and tutor with the jazz and big band greats that Sinatra was able to work with, to learn and grow from them.  I fear this music is becoming a lost art form, and we as a society must not let this happen. We must give it a risorgimento.

BH:  Finally, if this venture is successful, will we no longer see Robert Davi on the screen but on the stage? Or will there be more projects, like The Dukes, that will integrate your two passions?

RD:  I will continue to act in film but will now make singing a major part of my career, while at the same time passionately pursuing my musical skills.  I work daily with Maestro Catona and his brilliant vocal technique; it is what I had been searching for for years. And yes, I will integrate the two.  I have written a new script that explores this era of music in a touching and exciting way, and I hope to film it later next year.

For those who live in Los Angeles (or are planning to travel), you can purchase tickets for the show by emailing boxoffice@toaks.org or calling (805) 449-2787, or from Ticketmaster online or by calling (800) 745-3000.  More information can be found at DaviSingsSinatra.com.

Davi’s peers have given considerable praise, such as esteemed vocal trainer Gary Catona:

“Unlike other singers who are doing the American songbook, Robert truly has ‘the voice,’ a rich, masculine tone and beauty, with a sensitive, artistic heart to match. In this sense, he resembles Sinatra, but does not sound like him. His uniquely colorful baritone voice has a flair for the dramatic that he expresses thoughtfully in his interpretation. All in all, Robert Davi could easily wrestle the Sinatra mantle away from all would-be contenders.”

Also, Shelly Berg, Dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, lauded Davi’s multi-generational appeal:

“Everyone knew Robert Davi would be great as Lucky Luciano in the new, Phil Ramone-produced musical Lanza, but what blew the crowd away was Robert singing Sinatra as the encore! In a performance for 600 college students, they leapt to their feet and screamed with delight. The same result was achieved the next night with the ‘adult’ audience. Very few people can sing Sinatra with the voice, authority and phrasing of Robert Davi.”

For many, The Global Warming debate has been a similar exercise in hypocrisy. Al Gore has been a big violator. The man who wants to limit our ability to fly coach, needs a private plane when he travels to Hollywood to pick up a trophy he didn’t even win (and a masseuse he couldn’t seduce).

I recently pointed out a similar flaw in the character of Sheryl Crow. While she went around preaching the merits of CFL light bulbs, she prefers the warm glow of incandescents and halogens in her own home. I thought perhaps that Sheryl had grown up a little; the same way a college vegan gets out into the real world, admits that she’s been sneaking meat when nobody was looking, and switches to a less fastidious diet.

For Sheryl’s sake I had also hoped that the one square of toilet paper idea really was a joke, that there wasn’t a guilty fixation every time she closed the door to do what people on high fiber vegan diets do more often than the rest of us.

Sadly, no. In her recently published contract rider on the Smoking Gun, we learn that Sheryl is still fussy about toilet paper. The rider is loaded with pretentious demands that make brown M&Ms seem reasonable. She isn’t satisfied to just keep her disease to herself; she wants everyone around her to share her pathology, instructing concert promoters how to be green, and recommending brands.

Most remarkably she demands that all traditional light bulbs replaced with CFLs, a restriction she doesn’t even place on herself. She also demands that all her snacks be locally grown.

Of course this doesn’t pertain to her liquor. While she is perfectly willing to sample local produce on her veggie tray, she insists that her wine comes from Napa Valley (Stags Leap), her tequila comes from Mexico (Patron), and her Vodka comes from the Netherlands (Ketel One). When mommy needs to check out for a few hours, she gets a little picky. Damn the environment, Sheryl has expensive taste!

It is doubly ironic, that Crow herself is not local product. Why is it okay to import an entertainer from the other side of the country, when the food she eats must come from the region? It would make more sense to use a locally grown talent. (Or at least require Sheryl to pack her own lunch).

The reason, of course is the heart of a free trade economy. North Dakota has lots of oil, but no cheese. Wisconsin has  lots of cheese, but no oil. With a little bit of trucking, residents of Wisconsin and North Dakota have both. Likewise Des Moines, Iowa has lots of pork, and New York has Sheryl Crow. Through the magic of free trade, Governor Paterson gets to eat bacon, and the Iowa State Fair gets another exhibit. (August 21).

Even Las Vegas gets a Sheryl Crow concert (September 11). Unfortunately, Sheryl is going to have to eat onions. potatoes, and hay while she is there, because there aren’t many other local vegan crops in Nevada.

I don’t know how long she can continue to eat local, since she is booked in Amsterdam (October 20). Not only will it be difficult to get the bio-diesel tour buses over the ocean, there isn’t a lot of produce still growing in Amsterdam on the last week of October. There might be a few things grown in hothouses, but is there really an environmental benefit, to heating and lighting a glass house in the middle of a Northern European Autumn?

Of course, there is one kind of locally grown produce that Amsterdam is famous for, and I speculate that Sheryl enjoys more of that, than we can imagine. At least the vodka will meet the local requirement on that day.

When he died of an apparent drug overdose just shy of his 50th birthday on June 25, while rehearsing for an intense 50-show engagement in London, it seemed that this conundrum would never be solved and that his life and legacy would be forever shadowed. Then word emerged that concert promoter AEG had decided to sell extensive footage it shot of the show’s rehearsals and put it up for bidding war, which Sony Pictures won for $60 million. Debate raged throughout Hollywood and the business world about whether this was an appropriate outcome, or if it reeked of exploitation. 

Viewers can now decide for themselves, as the resulting documentary, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” comes out today. Packing dozens of hours of rehearsal footage into a 100-minute running time, the film offers both expected and unexpected insights into the creative process of one of the ultimate creative visionaries ever to walk the planet. 

On the one hand, audiences expect to see Jackson tearing it up as a dancer and possessing an insanely high-pitched vocal range. But they also might expect him to be a demanding diva, or to be too frail to work due to the massive array of drug addictions that allegedly killed him. Yet time and again, even on the final night of his life, his command of the stage is thrilling to watch and he’s fully friendly and engaging with all those around him. 

But there are far more compelling reasons to watch “This Is It” than the mere car-crash curiosity of seeing how obvious his afflictions preyed on Jackson. They lie in the jaw-dropping moments of creative invention and joy to be found in song after song after song in this film, as Jackson supervises and then unveils a super-suped-up 3D version of “Thriller” where he eventually bursts out of the onstage screen and into real-life action on the boards. 

There’s a goosebump-inducing, near-acapella rendition of his underrated ballad “Human Nature” that shows the self-proclaimed King of Pop was still in perfect voice, as well. Another segment shows Jackson directing CGI effects wizards on how to turn 10 onstage dancers into an onscreen field of 1000 dancers in military gear for a rousing rendition of his defiant “HIStory” song “They Don’t Care About Us.” 

But the biggest showstopper comes with “Smooth Criminal,” in which Jackson and his tour director/choreographer Kenny Ortega insert footage of Jackson jumping and running and sliding down bannisters into a Humphrey Bogart movie. As Bogie pumps a machine-gun full of lead into Jackson while the Gloved One explodes through a window for his getaway, it is impossible to keep from bursting into applause, as the audience of jaded critics did at Los Angeles’ historic Chinese Theater. 

Throughout it all, there is only one slight weak spot; when Jackson’s voice-over discusses the planet’s environmental problems in a way that’s simultaneously childlike and heavy-handed. Audiences are subjected to sticky-sweet footage of a young girl running through CGI footage of a rain-forest, surrounded by butterflies as the turgid ballad “Earth Song” plays. Yet, even here, the film is revealing a little-known side of Jackson as a social activist. 

Ultimately, director Kenny Ortega, who would have been the live concerts’ choreographer, has done a valuable service to Jackson’s legacy and for all those who are curious about the creative process of pop music’s apparent last great visionary. It was not exploitative to make this film, but rather an absolute necessity, as it strips away the horrid memories of Jackson’s alleged dark side and leaves us with him pointing us all towards the light of joy through sheer entertainment.