Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Tuesday 2 February 2016

INDUSTRY Can we judge a hit anymore? Rihanna's Anti


Huge amount you can glean from this:
  • very precise info on how the US industry officially calculates what streams are worth as notional sales
  • an analysis of the confusion over whether Rihanna's new album is a smash hit or a serious flop
  • a range of (often hyperlinked) examples of large-scale tie-ins that's seen Samsung especially pay to distribute 1m copies of various albums (including Anti) - not forgetting the controversial U2/Apple case
  • a new twist on the use of websites as a promotional tool (Rihanna's bewildering recent effort)
  • her full-on use of social media to tease and trail the album ... then delays ... then confusion between streaming company Tidal (she's a major stakeholder) and record label Universal...

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