Since I’ve become addicted to VH1, I’ve started noticing this bizarre “logic” behind the popularity of a musician–sometimes, a band will be not popular, a household name, or not even a music video mainstay, but then they release an album (that’s not particularly better than anything else they ever did) and they’re popular as hell! The best recent examples of this are Blink-182 (with Enema of the State) and Tori Amos (Choirgirl Hotel–I only knew one fan of hers before that album came out, and now everyone’s obsessed with her). What causes this? Why does a band all of a sudden become popular for no real reason?
It’s those “special” contracts with the infernal regions. Sign up and you’re guaranteed at least one hit. More if you can recruit others.
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Simple answer: A catchy tune with lots of airplay.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
Why a record company decides to work a particular single, the choice of radio format or formats for it, what stations get serviced (that is, get a copy of the single) and the mysteries of callout and demographic research and the timing of singles are all hideously complicated. But the end result of this very expensive process is that you will hear “Livin’ La Vida Loca” 10,000 times before you die. Kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile.
Catrandom
Something I read a little while back: To promote new pop/rock artists, the record companies have been * buying * airtime on the radio, basicly forcing the artist down our throats and hoping that if we hear them enough we’ll eventually like them. I think the concept in of itself is pretty horrifying, but that’s another thread.
There are ways that a record company can promote a hit without resorting to out-and-out payola. Radio stations (and video television stations too, I’m sure) will bend over backwards to keep on the good side of a major record company. If a record company rep contacts the program director of a readio station and tells them about some “hot, new album” by so-and-so, the program director knows that they’d better play along.
You see, record companies provide radio stations with not just one, but several copies of current albums that they can give away. Free promotional material is something radio stations are always on the look-out for. Also, good relations with a record company can mean pre-release copies of upcoming hits, which a station can use to present themselves as the most-current station in the market.
The record companies don’t have to do this with every station (though even the smallest of stations generally get some free copies). If they can get enough of the major stations in line, the rest will follow or risk being left behind.
There are trade magazines that stations subscribe to to see what is the hottest songs on the playlists of major stations all over the country. The most influential is probably R&R Magazine. (Billboard is too strongly influenced by record sales. This fact makes their information too late to be useful to program directors.)
The thing to remember is that the overwhelming majority of the popular music audience are sheep. Lacking any taste or personal opinion, they will jump on any band wagon that presents itself. The record companies know this, and so do the program directors of radio stations. With enough hype, literally any piece of shit will be a hit. (Think “Achy Breaky Heart”.) They are the ones that make the decisions of what will be popular and successful; the quality of the song is strictly secondary.
Mr. K’s Link of the Month:
Well, Achy Breaky got popular because, for reasons unknown, people actually bought the damned thing.
Another pocket of popularity is copying a hot trend. Who here doesn’t recognize Christina Aguilera as a cheap attempt to capitalize on the Britney Spears popularity wave? (looks for hands) I thought so. What’s most nauseating about it is how BLATANT it is. CA panders to such an extent that she even recorded a different, non-suggestive version of her lame-ass song so that the Disney Channel would play it. As if promoting her felonious sexuality wasn’t the original point. Yeesh.
Payola (paying for airplay) is still illegal; in fact, some L.A. Spanish-language stations just got nailed for it a couple of months ago. But, as Mr. KnowItAll says, there are a lot of practices, largely having to do with promotions, that amount to pretty much the same thing. Free records, concert co-promotions, artist appearances; there are all kinds of goodies available for stations that provide a nice out-of-the-box add (an add on the announced add date) and lots of airplay.
Not that that will keep a station playing a record that its listeners hate; if the song doesn’t get good research, it’s out of there regardless. There is just a wee bit of tension between the radio and the record industries these days.
Catrandom
Radio stations that get service from the recording industry are stations that can provide service back…by being reporting stations to the trades.
If your station reports to R&R and Billboard (and to some extent Gavin) you will be serviced. You will get weekly phone calls from all the people paid to push the product. You will be offered product. And every now and then someone from the regional office may even drop by your town and buy you a dinner.
If your station does not report to the trades you’ll never see those people. And you will probably subscribe to a service that provides the current hits (TM in Dallas provides such a weekly service).
So should you be a reporting station? It’s a mixed bag. To get the free service you have to put up with the weekly phone calls (and there are a lot of them) and give up some control of your playlist.
This is a common misconception, and one that allows the record companies to continue their practices. Once again, radio stations don’t play records because they’re selling well, records sell well because the radio stations are playing them.
Now don’t get defensive. Individually, people usually don’t think of themselves as being easily led by the media. Individually, they usually aren’t. But this happens at a much broader scale where trends are much more important than individual preferences. Who cares if everyone you talk too thinks Billy Ray Cyrus bites the big one? If the radio plays the snot out of his record, if a choreographer is brought in to design a new dance step and teach to people for the video before the album is even released, if that dance craze is encouraged to grow in country dance clubs (remember club DJs are just like radio DJs on a smaller scale), in short if the hype is big enough, the public en masse will believe that the song really is popular, even though many of them may not have even heard it yet.
BTW, I used to work at a local country station, and we were very active in the BRC hype. This was mainly because he grew up here, performed at bars locally, and was on good terms with our program director. The scenerio described above is very much like what happened.
I sum up: Cause and effect, when applied to how music (and TV shows, movies, etc.) become popular, is nearly always reverse of what most people think it is. The media blitz is planned, executed, and then you see rising popularity (record sales, etc.).
Mr. K’s Link of the Month:
Then there are songs like “I Can Help” by Billy Schwan (did I even get his last name spelled right?)
No PD wanted to play that thing. That one really was a public affair.
Has anyone seen Columbia push anything from him since?
Respectful disclaimer: It was 20 years ago. And even the Beatles introduction to the U.S. was planned out.
Decided to read the other posts.
Catrandom is right. What I described is for a new artist, or an artist making a comeback. If the numbers say no one really likes this artist, the radio station will drop them regardless. This is where the playlist of other stations in R&R comes in.
*MaxTorque makes a good point about copycat artists. Personally, my belief is that the record companies don’t expect the copiers to last, they just want a piece of the pie. Record company A knows Britney Spears is under a fairly lucrative (though no doubt short term) contract with record company B. Recognizing that her popularity is probably not going to last long enough to go the the trouble of luring her away, they go to their talent scouts. “Find us a Britney Spears!” The scout finds someone close enough that she can be molded into a Spears, give her some Spears-type songs to sing, and send some video clips to MTV. Aguilera may never measure up to Spears’ popularity, but if she can get enough of it to earn the record company some cash, they’re happy. Next year, they’ll both be yesterday’s news and the companies will be playing “Simon Sez” with a new act.
Mr. K’s Link of the Month: