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

Monday, 14 December 2015

WEB 2.0 Ed's sheer art attack post-internet?

A mention in one Guardian article does not make for an established neologism* (post-internet), and the term strikes me as clumsily broad, but I expect some term will gain currency to describe the abandonment of social media by some artists. *neologism = a new word

That word SOME is important - we're not yet seeing any mass scale downing of virtual tools, and Indie or unsigned acts largely continue to find it a fairly vital tool, while global acts with tentpole level global distribution also continue to see it as a central marketing and branding strand.

I recommend reading Elberse's Blockbusters for informative studies of how Jay-Z and Gaga pushed social media interaction alongside a range of deals to get their albums sold in networks such as Starbucks.

The story here is that Ed Sheeran has announced he's taking a break from social media, which by most accounts made him a star in the first place, so there's some loyalty to his audience!
Sadly, he's not taking a break from making tedious music, the idea is to focus on his music and the experience of tours.

If Led Zeppelin could go to a Welsh farm to produce a classic album, and Peter Gabriel produce perfect pop in another rural studio, then surely Sheeran ... will produce more stadium filling tedium. And you'll just have to rely on the mainstream media to hear about it. Apart from the fans and their UGC and their tour pics and clips... I'm already getting an 'eadache thinking about it...
 

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