from the 12/21 ny press:
Because the Arctic Monkeys are the newest indie darling since The Strokes emerged from Arlene’s Grocery, chances are that they’re eventually going to be stung with the same “Fuck The Strokes” backlash that surrounded their initial hype-tsunami.
With both bands, their early successes were fueled largely by fans, sans marketing budget or affiliation with a clever PR firm, an on-the-cheap formula that the record industry would kill to perfect if it could. (Of course, the Strokes were aided by the presence of ranks of beautiful women who flocked to their shows as their lead singer Julian Casablancas is the son of the head of Elite Models.)
Regardless, The Man has co-opted an impressive list of cultural offerings throughout history, and he’s done some of his finest poaching from the realm of music. For every Pearl Jam and Nirvana, there were 50 Seven Mary Threes and Silverchairs who rode the “right sound” and titanic marketing blitzes to gold and platinum records. The end results are clear. Ten years after the release of Seven Mary Three’s American Standard, a gold record to commemorate the album’s success can be had on EBay for $349, less than the cost of a 60-GB iPod, the centerpiece of the our latest cultural co-option, digital music.
Just as the music industry crept forward and finally started to get a handle on how to best exploit the digital frontier to drive record sales for marketing-driven musical acts, along came MySpace.com. With its “MySpace Music” section, it allows unknown bands to act as their own PR firm, with a streaming jukebox, tour dates, and announcements. Yet, now ranking as one of the Internet’s most viewed sites, Rupert Murdoch snatched it up in July and made it a part of his NewsCorp portfolio.
But, even before Murdoch’s acquisition, record labels realized that they had a way to reach some millions of MySpace users (currently 37 million and counting), many of whom are of the key teenage demographic, and began to promote through the site.
Billy Corgan has over a million “friends” on MySpace. Neil Diamond recently streamed his new album via his profile. Madonna did the same with her latest “gem,” Confessions on a Dancefloor, and even graced us with her very own insightful audio confessions (“When I sleep at night, I sleep with my bra on.”)
Chances are that Madonna’s only vaguely aware of what MySpace is, other than another tool in her PR arsenal. Even The Arctic Monkeys, in a recent interview with Prefix Magazine, claimed to have few Internet skills, not “even know(ing) what MySpace is,” even though much of their fan base grew from trading of their demos via mp3s. For many bands, it’s been a key component in their growth as a band, and they’re well aware of it.
Joel Bravo, guitarist for the New York band Bravo Silva, mentioned that MySpace is a completely open forum that allowed them to connect with both fans and other bands. When they set up their page on the site earlier this summer, they received kudos from Atlanta’s Snowden, which, in turn, led to a spot on The Gothamist’s Movable Hype showcase.
This has since led to a steady string of shows throughout New York and an increased fan base. A label signing looms on the horizon, and it’s all happened in less than a year, a pace that probably likely has toiling bands like Soul Asylum rolling in their graves.
Still, band sites with mp3s and streaming audio are nothing new. MySpace simply condenses all these sites into one area and allows for easier networking between bands, creating music scenes unrestricted by geographical boundaries. In November, MySpace took this idea and shaped it into MySpace Records Vol 1, featuring teen-fave mainstays such as Weezer and Dashboard Confessional alongside a host of lesser-known bands. The true test will be to see if by MySpace Records Vol 5, the site becomes the next MTV, telling its teen audience who to listen to. If that becomes the case, there’ll likely be a new battle cry: Fuck MySpace.
| MYSPACE KILLED THE VIDEO STAR How MySpace is revolutionizing the record biz. |
With both bands, their early successes were fueled largely by fans, sans marketing budget or affiliation with a clever PR firm, an on-the-cheap formula that the record industry would kill to perfect if it could. (Of course, the Strokes were aided by the presence of ranks of beautiful women who flocked to their shows as their lead singer Julian Casablancas is the son of the head of Elite Models.)
Regardless, The Man has co-opted an impressive list of cultural offerings throughout history, and he’s done some of his finest poaching from the realm of music. For every Pearl Jam and Nirvana, there were 50 Seven Mary Threes and Silverchairs who rode the “right sound” and titanic marketing blitzes to gold and platinum records. The end results are clear. Ten years after the release of Seven Mary Three’s American Standard, a gold record to commemorate the album’s success can be had on EBay for $349, less than the cost of a 60-GB iPod, the centerpiece of the our latest cultural co-option, digital music.
Just as the music industry crept forward and finally started to get a handle on how to best exploit the digital frontier to drive record sales for marketing-driven musical acts, along came MySpace.com. With its “MySpace Music” section, it allows unknown bands to act as their own PR firm, with a streaming jukebox, tour dates, and announcements. Yet, now ranking as one of the Internet’s most viewed sites, Rupert Murdoch snatched it up in July and made it a part of his NewsCorp portfolio.
But, even before Murdoch’s acquisition, record labels realized that they had a way to reach some millions of MySpace users (currently 37 million and counting), many of whom are of the key teenage demographic, and began to promote through the site.
Billy Corgan has over a million “friends” on MySpace. Neil Diamond recently streamed his new album via his profile. Madonna did the same with her latest “gem,” Confessions on a Dancefloor, and even graced us with her very own insightful audio confessions (“When I sleep at night, I sleep with my bra on.”)
Chances are that Madonna’s only vaguely aware of what MySpace is, other than another tool in her PR arsenal. Even The Arctic Monkeys, in a recent interview with Prefix Magazine, claimed to have few Internet skills, not “even know(ing) what MySpace is,” even though much of their fan base grew from trading of their demos via mp3s. For many bands, it’s been a key component in their growth as a band, and they’re well aware of it.
Joel Bravo, guitarist for the New York band Bravo Silva, mentioned that MySpace is a completely open forum that allowed them to connect with both fans and other bands. When they set up their page on the site earlier this summer, they received kudos from Atlanta’s Snowden, which, in turn, led to a spot on The Gothamist’s Movable Hype showcase.
This has since led to a steady string of shows throughout New York and an increased fan base. A label signing looms on the horizon, and it’s all happened in less than a year, a pace that probably likely has toiling bands like Soul Asylum rolling in their graves.
Still, band sites with mp3s and streaming audio are nothing new. MySpace simply condenses all these sites into one area and allows for easier networking between bands, creating music scenes unrestricted by geographical boundaries. In November, MySpace took this idea and shaped it into MySpace Records Vol 1, featuring teen-fave mainstays such as Weezer and Dashboard Confessional alongside a host of lesser-known bands. The true test will be to see if by MySpace Records Vol 5, the site becomes the next MTV, telling its teen audience who to listen to. If that becomes the case, there’ll likely be a new battle cry: Fuck MySpace.
posted by parowpyro at 12:04 PM
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