After Jimmy Iovine Offends Women in Generational Faux Pas, Rush Explains How to Talk to Ladies

RUSH: Jimmy Iovine, who used to be at Beats Music with Dr. Dre, personal friend of Mr. Snerdley's, Apple Music, Apple Incorporated, purchased Beats and now they've got Apple Music and Iovine is one of the brains behind it. I guess they put together a really appreciated TV commercial for Apple Music that debuted at, I guess, the Grammys or the Emmys or some such thing and they replayed it on CBS This Morning yesterday, I think. And then they had Iovine on there with Mary J. Blige, and Iovine said some things about women and their inability to find music, to explain why Apple had set Apple Music up the way they have, and that got Iovine into big, big trouble.

He's had to apologize for insulting women and their supposed inability to find music, to search for and find music. Wait 'til you hear what he said. Folks, it's purely generational. The guy's not a sexist or a misogynist. It's just generational. When you hear this it will be perfectly understandable and clear what the poor guy was trying to say. Here I am defending Iovine, he's probably -- well, I don't know. I don't know anything about him other than his reputation in the music business.

Here's audio sound bite number one, and it is CBS This Morning, I guess it's yesterday morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yesterday morning this happened, and it's Iovine and Mary J. Blige being interviewed by Gayle King. And it's about this TV commercial. It's her and Kerry Washington.

RUSH: Kerry Washington is in this commercial with Taraji P. Henson of Empire and Mary J. Blige. The commercial is three friends and they're trying to find music to listen to while they're in their kitchen. Kerry Washington finds a great song and they all start dancing and jiving and loving it and so forth, and that's the commercial. It's over, they come back to Iovine and Mary J. Blige talking about the commercial, the concept behind it, who put it together. Gayle King said, "What was your thinking behind the ad, Mr. Iovine, what was the story you were trying to tell?" This is where he stepped in it.

IOVINE: Women find it very difficult at times -- some women -- to find music, and this helps make it easier with playlists. Theyâ€™re curated by real people.

IOVINE: I just thought of a problem, you know, girls are sitting around, you know, talking about boys, or complaining about boys --

IOVINE: -- they're heartbroken or whatever. And they need music for that, right? So it's hard to find the right music, you know. Not everybody has, you know, the right lists, or knows a DJ or something.

RUSH: Okay, so there he is. Now, Iovine is at least 50 years old, I'm guessing 45, 50. (interruption) I knew it, see, I knew it, I knew it. Snerdley says, "What's so what's so bad about this? What's so wrong?" I'm just telling you that women, at least the women in the Drive-By Media, are outraged over what he said. I don't know how many real women are upset by it but the story is that women all over the world who heard it are outraged. Iovine's already done a mea culpa. He's already apologized.

What he said was: women find it very difficult at times, some women, to find music, and Apple music helps make it easier with playlists. They're curated by real people. And then Gayle King says, "But your creative concept, Jimmy, was what, how did it start?" He said, "Well, I just thought of a problem, you know, girls are sitting around talking about boys or complaining about boys. And Gayle says, "Yeah, that too." And Iovine, "Girls, you know, when they're heartbroken or whatever, and they need music for that, right? So it's hard to find the right music." I mean, where do you search heartbreak music? What do you search for here? Not everybody has the ability to search for that, but we at Apple do.

So the sexism is that Iovine believes that girls sit around and do nothing but talk about boys. Well, depending on the age you're talking about, he's pretty right. And then when they're talking about boys, they're usually complaining about 'em, are they not? Okay. They're heartbroken or what have you. So the sexism is that this is a guy, he's an adult now, 45, 50, and to him women are so singularly focused and so one-dimensional that all they do is care about boys, talk about boys, whine about boys and run around heartbroken.

Jimmy Iovine is 62. That's his impression so he's saying what they've done is they've set up a system at Apple Music where your average girl, heartbroken, whining and moaning about boys, can go find music that fits the mood. And there was outrage and he had to apologize for it. I think what Iovine missed, and most men miss this. I have become an expert in this. Let me ask you guys a question. You're sitting wherever you're sitting, and you're not doing anything. You're watching television, you're reading, you're not bothering anybody and you haven't said anything to upset anybody and all of a sudden your wife, spouse, girlfriend walks in and starts complaining, not you, starts complaining about something. Or just starts talking about something. Let's add complaining to it.

Most guys make the mistake of thinking that they've gotta fix it, that they have to offer a solution or advice, and that is the absolute wrong thing to do because women in that circumstance are not looking for solutions. They're not looking for advice. They just want to talk. They just want to share whatever it is that's upset them or ticked them off and if you fire back -- (interruption) A kiss, fine. But if you at all respond in any way that says, "Well, here's what you should do," then you've blown it, and she's gonna storm out on you because she's not telling you she's incompetent. She's not telling you she's helpless. She's just talking. So the thing to do is sit there and listen.

Now, Iovine needs to incorporate that kind of philosophy into his heartbroken playlist suggestions into his curation and algorithm and so forth. The solutions are not -- well, sometimes maybe. But women just want to come in, they just want to talk about, they just want to share this stuff. They're not looking for fixes or solutions, and if you treat it, if you offer one, you're essentially saying, "Okay, you idiot, well, here's what you ought to do to fix it."

Now, most guys screw it up unintentionally. They're trying to be helpful. It's one of these Mars-Venus things. They're trying to be helpful but that's not what the woman's looking for. She just wants to bitch, to complain about whatever it is. It could be some driver that cut her off. It could be somebody that stole something out of the shopping cart at the grocery. Does anybody go to the grocery store anymore or do they have deliveries?

So, anyway, Iovine -- (interruption) Well, that's true. That's a good example, "I just lost the pictures of my phone and, my God!" Don't say, "Are you backed up?" Don't say, "Have you turned on --" Don't say anything that's gonna be interpreted as you think she's a fool. You just listen, guys, just listen. That's all. I am an expert. Yes siree.

Agree with you, Ray. Rush's discussion of this topic was so bad .... singers I don't follow, Apple Records, I had to turn it off even before he started talking about Venus-Mars. Usually I only turn him off when he rambles about 1)golf, 2)cigars, and 3)football.

Mrs. M-D

But what fun is that! Tell she’s a bimbo and here is how to fix it....

So he’s saying that Iovine needs to have a sound recorder, not a music player, that women and whine into, like with an Obama bobble head...maybe 128 gig?

It was confusing. I’m s girl, so I’m just going to say. But I took it to mean women don’t know how to choose good blues tunes

I’ve heard men- blues players- say they use blues to complain because no one wants to hear complaining. Maybe Iovine was saying men are more tuned into that where women just talk Men know they put on Stevie Ray Vaughan. What do women do? An hour of Adele ? That’s just torture.

I don’t know. A lot of women I know don’t really know where to go for good music. A lot do. We grew up around and in the time of good radio music. During a time when Jimmy Iovine was on the liner notes of a majority of albums. Even liner notes are gone

Wasn’t sure what either meant but I’d like to know

There certainly ISa difference between how men and how women listen to music.

So the sexism is that Iovine believes that girls sit around and do nothing but talk about boys.

Wrong point.

These days they sit around and think about other GIRLS!

This is what is getting him in trouble!

Doesn't he know that we're SO modern now?

62...

...old coot oughta go Soylent Green; and leave the world for the young folks who have been trained correctly.

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