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I like a lot of her songs well-enough, but I suspect that what makes those songs eminently listenable has more to do with the co-writers/producers who bring hooks on top of hooks.
Without a doubt, Max Martin has been the most significant figure in popular music in this century, to date. He has the ability to layers hooks on top of hooks on top of hooks, and slyly work rock influences into pop songs, in a way that gets people to say "Damn, I usually can't stand this sort of music, but this song is great." We Are Never Ever... and Shake It Off both sound like the sort of songs that Martin could have handed off to any one of a half-dozen singers and produced a number one hit. With some Taylor Swift songs, I get the impression that she comes in with lyrics and a bare-bones melody, and the co-writer/producer does the heavy lifting.
The Weeknd would be headlining theaters and ballrooms if it wasn't for two Max Martin songs.
Antonoff isn't quite at Martin's level, but he's pretty good with hooks himself, as Cruel Summer demonstrates.
this is an incredibly dismissive take on the songwriting abilities of Taylor Swift. if you know anything about her you know how deeply personal she takes songwriting especially in terms of the artist owning their work, hence the re-records and TVs. i hate to say it but it's coming off as "oh surely SHE can't be that good without the help of a man". anyway, not that you will, but there are plenty of documentaries and interviews where she goes through her songwriting process if you'd like to change your perspective on that matter.
it's also incredibly dismissive of The Weeknd who is a damn stadium act and was headlining festivals before these "two Max Martin songs". he hasn't done theaters and ballrooms in 10 years.
Last Edit: Nov 4, 2023 17:28:43 GMT -5 by pj - Back to Top
But his two massive hits that everyone knows and which took his career to a whole new level were both Max Martin productions.
you have no idea what you’re talking about
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you don't pay much attention to The Weeknd, you still know Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face because they were such huge hits and completely prevalent in a way that none of his other songs became among people who don't go out of their way to listen to his music.
Both songs were co-written and co-produced by Max Martin...something that can be said about 25 Billboard #1 singles since the late 90's and countless more big hits.
As for his input into the creative process, here's what he said:
"I want to be part of every note, every single moment going on in the studio. I want nothing forgotten, I want nothing missed. I'm a perfectionist. The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like–all of it, the why, when and how." – LA Times, 6/05/00
Some film directors sit back and let actors do their thing while others micromanage line readings and gestures. The same applies to music producers. Artists work with Max Martin precisely because of the degree of his involvement in the creative process, the quality of the finished work, and the commercial success.
As I mentioned in a previous post, when successful artists choose to work with Max Martin, it's precisely because they want his high level of involvement and creative input/control. They want songs that will become timeless hits not only known by people who identify as their fans, but by everybody. So, why deny that artists work with him for the quality of the work he does and the sort of turbocharged career boost that can kick your career up a notch from theater to arena, arena to ballpark, ballpark to football stadium, and then to multiple nights in an NFL stadium? Unless you're talking about the sort of one-man band records that Stevie Wonder and Prince made, sometimes the other people in the room had every bit as much to do with the quality of the music and its success as the person whose name is on the sleeve, from Max Martin to the Funk Brothers to the Wrecking Crew to Holland-Dozier-Holland and many more.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you don't pay much attention to The Weeknd, you still know Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face because they were such huge hits and completely prevalent in a way that none of his other songs became among people who don't go out of their way to listen to his music.
Both songs were co-written and co-produced by Max Martin...something that can be said about 25 Billboard #1 singles since the late 90's and countless more big hits.
As for his input into the creative process, here's what he said:
"I want to be part of every note, every single moment going on in the studio. I want nothing forgotten, I want nothing missed. I'm a perfectionist. The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like–all of it, the why, when and how." – LA Times, 6/05/00
Some film directors sit back and let actors do their thing while others micromanage line readings and gestures. The same applies to music producers. Artists work with Max Martin precisely because of the degree of his involvement in the creative process, the quality of the finished work, and the commercial success.
As I mentioned in a previous post, when successful artists choose to work with Max Martin, it's precisely because they want his high level of involvement and creative input/control. They want songs that will become timeless hits not only known by people who identify as their fans, but by everybody. So, why deny that artists work with him for the quality of the work he does and the sort of turbocharged career boost that can kick your career up a notch from theater to arena, arena to ballpark, ballpark to football stadium, and then to multiple nights in an NFL stadium? Unless you're talking about the sort of one-man band records that Stevie Wonder and Prince made, sometimes the other people in the room had every bit as much to do with the quality of the music and its success as the person whose name is on the sleeve, from Max Martin to the Funk Brothers to the Wrecking Crew to Holland-Dozier-Holland and many more.
are you Max Martin himself or something? this is such a bizarre thing to go on about. what started this whole convo was Taylor Swift, and she hasn't worked with Max Martin since Reputation. she's won a grammy since then. and Folklore is such a wild swing in the opposite direction of anything Max Martin produced.
I can confirm the Fugees and Lauryn Hill did play last night.
I got to Crypto at around 10:10 in time to catch the last half of Lauryn Hill's set. Her voice is still feeling the effects of whatever forced her to call off those shows in the last week or so, but she was in an upbeat frame of mind, even bringing out her mother and daughters onstage one day after her mother's birthday.
Fugees went on at 10:50, 10 minutes after Hill's set wrapped, and played until about midnight when curfew was seemingly called. It was delightfully ramshackle, seemingly calling out remixes and other changes on the fly. It was exactly what I wanted to see since the Fugees have held near-mythic status since I heard and read about them getting cut off at the 1996 KROQ Weenie Roast.
Considering I won tickets from the Grammy Museum, it was a fun couple hours after work, especially since I was moved down to the floor because the 300-level section I was slated to sit in was curtained off.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you don't pay much attention to The Weeknd, you still know Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face because they were such huge hits and completely prevalent in a way that none of his other songs became among people who don't go out of their way to listen to his music.
”because I don’t know anything about The Weeknd I actually know more than you” I’m sorry what
Blinding Lights and Can’t Feel My Face are 5th and 10th on his Spotify popularity list rn. Starboy is at the top. Die For You & Save Your Tears are gigantic hits as well.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you don't pay much attention to The Weeknd, you still know Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face because they were such huge hits and completely prevalent in a way that none of his other songs became among people who don't go out of their way to listen to his music.
Both songs were co-written and co-produced by Max Martin...something that can be said about 25 Billboard #1 singles since the late 90's and countless more big hits.
As for his input into the creative process, here's what he said:
"I want to be part of every note, every single moment going on in the studio. I want nothing forgotten, I want nothing missed. I'm a perfectionist. The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like–all of it, the why, when and how." – LA Times, 6/05/00
Some film directors sit back and let actors do their thing while others micromanage line readings and gestures. The same applies to music producers. Artists work with Max Martin precisely because of the degree of his involvement in the creative process, the quality of the finished work, and the commercial success.
As I mentioned in a previous post, when successful artists choose to work with Max Martin, it's precisely because they want his high level of involvement and creative input/control. They want songs that will become timeless hits not only known by people who identify as their fans, but by everybody. So, why deny that artists work with him for the quality of the work he does and the sort of turbocharged career boost that can kick your career up a notch from theater to arena, arena to ballpark, ballpark to football stadium, and then to multiple nights in an NFL stadium? Unless you're talking about the sort of one-man band records that Stevie Wonder and Prince made, sometimes the other people in the room had every bit as much to do with the quality of the music and its success as the person whose name is on the sleeve, from Max Martin to the Funk Brothers to the Wrecking Crew to Holland-Dozier-Holland and many more.
are you Max Martin himself or something? this is such a bizarre thing to go on about. what started this whole convo was Taylor Swift, and she hasn't worked with Max Martin since Reputation. she's won a grammy since then. and Folklore is such a wild swing in the opposite direction of anything Max Martin produced.
This has always been her process, though, with the exception of Speak Now. She works extensively with co-writers, who are often also the producers, and the finished product is more or less as influenced by her collaborators as by her own input. There's nothing wrong with that, but acknowledge that she willfully does not take the role of auteur of her own work and prefers a more collaborative model, which means that sometimes what's great about one song or recording might have come from someone else other than her.
What she does is halfway between the two polar extreme models of how recording artists making conventional pop, rock, soul, and country songs work. On one end of the spectrum, you have singers who literally do nothing other than sing the songs that they're given, with no involvement in writing, arrangement, production, mixing, videos, packaging, etc. At the other end, you have albums like Controversy and Nebraska where at least 98% of the writing, playing, and singing is done by one person in a home studio. (Most artists aren't exactly in the middle between those two poles, but tilt in one direction or another.)
When you think about bands like The Beatles, Stones, R.E.M, and U2, it's a given that what's great about the music is a function of collaboration and not one person's vision. Despite the fact that Taylor Swift puts her own name on the album covers, her music-making process is actually very close to that of a collaborative band. The difference is that the other people she's working with change over time.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you don't pay much attention to The Weeknd, you still know Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face because they were such huge hits and completely prevalent in a way that none of his other songs became among people who don't go out of their way to listen to his music.
”because I don’t know anything about The Weeknd I actually know more than you” I’m sorry what
I don't know more about The Weeknd than someone who pays a lot of attention to his music, but I'm a better judge of which of his songs are well-known by people who pay little attention to his music precisely because I don't pay much attention to his music. It's people who don't pay much attention to an artist who can tell you which songs of theirs are truly massive hits because the fact that they know these songs well means that those songs escaped the fandom bubble and became ubiquitously popular.
When something under the general headings of art, entertainment, or popular culture becomes well-known to people who don't seek it out, that's when you know that a tipping point was reached and that a song, TV show, social influencer, or whatever has become massively popular.
Blinding Lights and Can’t Feel My Face are 5th and 10th on his Spotify popularity list rn. Starboy is at the top. Die For You & Save Your Tears are gigantic hits as well.
Spotify is just one of many ways that people listen to music, and each platform has its own demographics. You'd have to crunch the numbers from terrestrial radio, satellite radio, the various streaming music and streaming video sites, along with sales of vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and digital downloads to get a take on that.
But that still won't always accurately reflect what's popular by an artist among the general public, compared to people who proactively seek out that artist's work. I can't tell you which White Stripes song is most played, purchased, or beloved by people whose level of involvement with the music includes having bought their albums or tickets to see them or Jack White live over the years. But no song of theirs is remotely as well-known as Seven Nation Army, because it's been adopted by sports fans as an in-stadium singalong.
Who are the biggest stars in the NBA today? Ask your grandmother who hasn't watched an NBA game in 30 years. The two or three players who've shown up on her radar despite her never paying attention to the NBA or sports talk TV and radio are the biggest stars. They may not actually be the best players at the current moment or sell the most tickets when their team visits your town, but what's best known by the general public and what's most popular among self-identified fans are often two different things.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2023 11:59:01 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top
”because I don’t know anything about The Weeknd I actually know more than you” I’m sorry what
I don't know more about The Weeknd than someone who pays a lot of attention to his music, but I'm a better judge of which of his songs are well-known by people who pay little attention to his music precisely because I don't pay much attention to his music. It's people who don't pay much attention to an artist who can tell you which songs of theirs are truly massive hits because the fact that they know these songs well means that those songs escaped the fandom bubble and became ubiquitously popular.
When something under the general headings of art, entertainment, or popular culture becomes well-known to people who don't seek it out, that's when you know that a tipping point was reached and that a song, TV show, social influencer, or whatever has become massively popular.
No, you're continuing to make ignorant observations about a subject that you can't be bothered to learn more about even after people tell you what you're saying is incorrect.
The Weeknd would be headlining theaters and ballrooms if it wasn't for two Max Martin songs.
The Weeknd came onto the scene in 2011 and spent 4 years straight touring, making the club to theater to arena jump in that time. He was a de facto Coachella headliner in 2015, closing the Main Stage after Jack White, 2 months before Can't Feel My Face came out. He didn't even play it in his set, while he did play the at the time unreleased The Hills, which is arguably more popular than Can't Feel My Face. He went on to headline every festival under the sun through the second half of the 2010's.
Some film directors sit back and let actors do their thing while others micromanage line readings and gestures. The same applies to music producers. Artists work with Max Martin precisely because of the degree of his involvement in the creative process, the quality of the finished work, and the commercial success.
The Weeknd is known for being a pain to work with, like when he got rid of the director for The Idol 80% into completion because he didn't like the direction it was going in.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you are paying little attention to a subject you are inherently out of touch, and there is no substitution for not gaining the context of the situation. I wouldn't even call myself a fan of the Weeknd, I skipped his performance at Coachella last year for a merch line, but I don't go around talking about shit I don't know anything about.
I can confirm the Fugees and Lauryn Hill did play last night.
I got to Crypto at around 10:10 in time to catch the last half of Lauryn Hill's set. Her voice is still feeling the effects of whatever forced her to call off those shows in the last week or so, but she was in an upbeat frame of mind, even bringing out her mother and daughters onstage one day after her mother's birthday.
Fugees went on at 10:50, 10 minutes after Hill's set wrapped, and played until about midnight when curfew was seemingly called. It was delightfully ramshackle, seemingly calling out remixes and other changes on the fly. It was exactly what I wanted to see since the Fugees have held near-mythic status since I heard and read about them getting cut off at the 1996 KROQ Weenie Roast.
Considering I won tickets from the Grammy Museum, it was a fun couple hours after work, especially since I was moved down to the floor because the 300-level section I was slated to sit in was curtained off.
That undersold up there? So Lauryn went on at 9 then.
I can confirm the Fugees and Lauryn Hill did play last night.
I got to Crypto at around 10:10 in time to catch the last half of Lauryn Hill's set. Her voice is still feeling the effects of whatever forced her to call off those shows in the last week or so, but she was in an upbeat frame of mind, even bringing out her mother and daughters onstage one day after her mother's birthday.
Fugees went on at 10:50, 10 minutes after Hill's set wrapped, and played until about midnight when curfew was seemingly called. It was delightfully ramshackle, seemingly calling out remixes and other changes on the fly. It was exactly what I wanted to see since the Fugees have held near-mythic status since I heard and read about them getting cut off at the 1996 KROQ Weenie Roast.
Considering I won tickets from the Grammy Museum, it was a fun couple hours after work, especially since I was moved down to the floor because the 300-level section I was slated to sit in was curtained off.
That undersold up there? So Lauryn went on at 9 then.
The first show was sold out. The second added show was way undersold.
I don't know more about The Weeknd than someone who pays a lot of attention to his music, but I'm a better judge of which of his songs are well-known by people who pay little attention to his music precisely because I don't pay much attention to his music. It's people who don't pay much attention to an artist who can tell you which songs of theirs are truly massive hits because the fact that they know these songs well means that those songs escaped the fandom bubble and became ubiquitously popular.
When something under the general headings of art, entertainment, or popular culture becomes well-known to people who don't seek it out, that's when you know that a tipping point was reached and that a song, TV show, social influencer, or whatever has become massively popular.
No, you're continuing to make ignorant observations about a subject that you can't be bothered to learn more about even after people tell you what you're saying is incorrect.
The Weeknd would be headlining theaters and ballrooms if it wasn't for two Max Martin songs.
The Weeknd came onto the scene in 2011 and spent 4 years straight touring, making the club to theater to arena jump in that time. He was a de facto Coachella headliner in 2015, closing the Main Stage after Jack White, 2 months before Can't Feel My Face came out. He didn't even play it in his set, while he did play the at the time unreleased The Hills, which is arguably more popular than Can't Feel My Face. He went on to headline every festival under the sun through the second half of the 2010's.
Some film directors sit back and let actors do their thing while others micromanage line readings and gestures. The same applies to music producers. Artists work with Max Martin precisely because of the degree of his involvement in the creative process, the quality of the finished work, and the commercial success.
The Weeknd is known for being a pain to work with, like when he got rid of the director for The Idol 80% into completion because he didn't like the direction it was going in.
Actually, I do, precisely because I don't pay a lot of attention to The Weeknd. Diehard fans of an artist have a distorted take on which songs have become part of the broader cultural language because they inevitably overestimate the cultural prevalence of a particular song or album.
If you are paying little attention to a subject you are inherently out of touch, and there is no substitution for not gaining the context of the situation. I wouldn't even call myself a fan of the Weeknd, I skipped his performance at Coachella last year for a merch line, but I don't go around talking about shit I don't know anything about.
BS. It's precisely the people who barely pay attention to something who are the best judges of when that thing becomes common currency within popular culture in such a big way that most everybody knows that thing...precisely because it's shown up on their radar. It's the idea of the canary in the coal mine in reverse. That something got through the deluge of popular culture and captured your attention when you weren't seeing it out, amidst the immense wealth of content available, is the telltale sign that someone or something is huge. The number of different ways we consume art and the amount of art available are so huge that it's a miracle when something breaks through to a point where pretty much everybody between the ages of 8 and 80 knows it. And you can be way too close to the subject matter to have an accurate read on whether an artist, a song, a TV show, etc. has reached that level of general public awareness, because it's something that you've been paying attention to for a while.
I couldn't begin to tell you what the level of general public consciousness around Elvis Costello or Wilco or Guided By Voices is, because, including solo projects, I've seen them live around 60-65 times combined. I can make educated guesses about which songs, albums, and periods of their careers made the biggest impressions upon casual listeners and what the average person knows or thinks about them, but they're only guesses because I'm too close to the subject matter.
What so difficult to understand about the concept that when people who have little to no interest in a particular thing within popular culture become familiar with that thing, that's the best indicator that something has become culturally prevalent?
No, you're continuing to make ignorant observations about a subject that you can't be bothered to learn more about even after people tell you what you're saying is incorrect.
The Weeknd came onto the scene in 2011 and spent 4 years straight touring, making the club to theater to arena jump in that time. He was a de facto Coachella headliner in 2015, closing the Main Stage after Jack White, 2 months before Can't Feel My Face came out. He didn't even play it in his set, while he did play the at the time unreleased The Hills, which is arguably more popular than Can't Feel My Face. He went on to headline every festival under the sun through the second half of the 2010's.
The Weeknd is known for being a pain to work with, like when he got rid of the director for The Idol 80% into completion because he didn't like the direction it was going in.
If you are paying little attention to a subject you are inherently out of touch, and there is no substitution for not gaining the context of the situation. I wouldn't even call myself a fan of the Weeknd, I skipped his performance at Coachella last year for a merch line, but I don't go around talking about shit I don't know anything about.
BS. It's precisely the people who barely pay attention to something who are the best judges of when that thing becomes common currency within popular culture in such a big way that most everybody knows that thing...precisely because it's shown up on their radar. It's the idea of the canary in the coal mine in reverse. That something got through the deluge of popular culture and captured your attention when you weren't seeing it out, amidst the immense wealth of content available, is the telltale sign that someone or something is huge. The number of different ways we consume art and the amount of art available are so huge that it's a miracle when something breaks through to a point where pretty much everybody between the ages of 8 and 80 knows it. And you can be way too close to the subject matter to have an accurate read on whether an artist, a song, a TV show, etc. has reached that level of general public awareness, because it's something that you've been paying attention to for a while.
I couldn't begin to tell you what the level of general public consciousness around Elvis Costello or Wilco or Guided By Voices is, because, including solo projects, I've seen them live around 60-65 times combined. I can make educated guesses about which songs, albums, and periods of their careers made the biggest impressions upon casual listeners and what the average person knows or thinks about them, but they're only guesses because I'm too close to the subject matter.
What so difficult to understand about the concept that when people who have little to no interest in a particular thing within popular culture become familiar with that thing, that's the best indicator that something has become culturally prevalent?
no, I think you're just wrong about basic, provable facts
BS. It's precisely the people who barely pay attention to something who are the best judges of when that thing becomes common currency within popular culture in such a big way that most everybody knows that thing...precisely because it's shown up on their radar. It's the idea of the canary in the coal mine in reverse. That something got through the deluge of popular culture and captured your attention when you weren't seeing it out, amidst the immense wealth of content available, is the telltale sign that someone or something is huge. The number of different ways we consume art and the amount of art available are so huge that it's a miracle when something breaks through to a point where pretty much everybody between the ages of 8 and 80 knows it. And you can be way too close to the subject matter to have an accurate read on whether an artist, a song, a TV show, etc. has reached that level of general public awareness, because it's something that you've been paying attention to for a while.
I couldn't begin to tell you what the level of general public consciousness around Elvis Costello or Wilco or Guided By Voices is, because, including solo projects, I've seen them live around 60-65 times combined. I can make educated guesses about which songs, albums, and periods of their careers made the biggest impressions upon casual listeners and what the average person knows or thinks about them, but they're only guesses because I'm too close to the subject matter.
What so difficult to understand about the concept that when people who have little to no interest in a particular thing within popular culture become familiar with that thing, that's the best indicator that something has become culturally prevalent?
It's not that I don't understand your argument, I just think it's a terrible argument.
BS. It's precisely the people who barely pay attention to something who are the best judges of when that thing becomes common currency within popular culture in such a big way that most everybody knows that thing...precisely because it's shown up on their radar. It's the idea of the canary in the coal mine in reverse. That something got through the deluge of popular culture and captured your attention when you weren't seeing it out, amidst the immense wealth of content available, is the telltale sign that someone or something is huge. The number of different ways we consume art and the amount of art available are so huge that it's a miracle when something breaks through to a point where pretty much everybody between the ages of 8 and 80 knows it. And you can be way too close to the subject matter to have an accurate read on whether an artist, a song, a TV show, etc. has reached that level of general public awareness, because it's something that you've been paying attention to for a while.
I couldn't begin to tell you what the level of general public consciousness around Elvis Costello or Wilco or Guided By Voices is, because, including solo projects, I've seen them live around 60-65 times combined. I can make educated guesses about which songs, albums, and periods of their careers made the biggest impressions upon casual listeners and what the average person knows or thinks about them, but they're only guesses because I'm too close to the subject matter.
What so difficult to understand about the concept that when people who have little to no interest in a particular thing within popular culture become familiar with that thing, that's the best indicator that something has become culturally prevalent?
It's not that I don't understand your argument, I just think it's a terrible argument.
Ever get a market research survey commissioned by a consumer-facing business in particular industry? Usually, one of the first questions asked consists of a long list of things -- chain restaurants, brands of beer, streaming TV shows, etc. -- and you're asked to rate your familiarity with each one on the list. Getting known in the marketplace is huge, especially given the competition in any overcrowded field.
If that general public awareness wasn't considered a key benchmark of popularity, it wouldn't be among the first questions asked by professionals whose job it is to ascertain public knowledge and sentiment around a person, place, or thing.
It's not that I don't understand your argument, I just think it's a terrible argument.
Ever get a market research survey commissioned by a consumer-facing business in particular industry? Usually, one of the first questions asked consists of a long list of things -- chain restaurants, brands of beer, streaming TV shows, etc. -- and you're asked to rate your familiarity with each one on the list. Getting known in the marketplace is huge, especially given the competition in any overcrowded field.
If that general public awareness wasn't considered a key benchmark of popularity, it wouldn't be among the first questions asked by professionals whose job it is to ascertain public knowledge and sentiment around a person, place, or thing.
Ever get a market research survey commissioned by a consumer-facing business in particular industry? Usually, one of the first questions asked consists of a long list of things -- chain restaurants, brands of beer, streaming TV shows, etc. -- and you're asked to rate your familiarity with each one on the list. Getting known in the marketplace is huge, especially given the competition in any overcrowded field.
If that general public awareness wasn't considered a key benchmark of popularity, it wouldn't be among the first questions asked by professionals whose job it is to ascertain public knowledge and sentiment around a person, place, or thing.
have you ever listened to the Weekend?
Yes, Blinding Lights and I Can't Feel My Face; the two songs which showed up on my radar, despite being someone who pays little attention to The Weeknd.
The key difference between today's media landscape and what I grew up with is that there used to be town squares for the arts, so to speak, where everyone was exposed to everything. The importance of The Ed Sullivan Show to popular culture can't be overstated. Appearances by Elvis Presley and The Beatles literally launched them into superstardom overnight, and because everyone from little kids to seniors gathered around the TV to watch it, there was greater familiarity among the mainstream public with everyone from The Doors to Tony Bennett. Meanwhile, there were a bunch of prime-time variety shows hosted by the likes of The Smothers Brothers, Johnny Cash, and Sonny & Cher, among others, who also had large audiences and those shows also had a major impact upon greater public familiarity with most every even moderately successful recording artist. Top 40 radio was everywhere and played every genre.
Now, the music industry is filled with huge cult artists, who have very large audiences, yet who are genuinely unknown to most people. I pay a lot more attention to all types of popular music than most people my age, yet I still see people booking arena tours and I've literally never heard of them. If someone in their mid-60's who's on Inforoo, attends their large local music festival every year, and follows Brooklyn Vegan on social media has never heard of an artist, it's safe to assume that a lot of people haven't heard of them. There are two kinds of huge in music today -- huge to a devoted audience, yet who can walk down a crowded street unrecognized by everyone except their fans, and those whom are well-known to everyone. That first category is larger than it's ever been and that second category is similarly smaller than ever.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2023 21:15:47 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top