On point and 100% true. There is nothing to make a connection with artists nowadays due to there being so little physical media, which is why vinyl sales are exploding now. Even if back in the day it was gimmick you still had some type of connection to the artists. Labels would package the music with pics, liner notes, and sometimes lyrics. You not only followed the rappers but the engineers, the mixers, and the actual musicians who played the instruments. Created a whole space and appreciation for music and the art as a whole.
Too Many Songs, Not Enough Hits: Music Is Struggling to Create New Stars
- Thread starter dora_da_destroyer
- Start date
Facts. Ice T was SHOCKED when I brought him the Home Invasion Physical to sign when I went to his show..
I met a lot of producers, engineers, guitarists, etc just off liner notes. Met Hurt M Badd whom worked on Makaveli. I wouldn't knew who the fukk he was if it wasn't for liner notes.
Social media gives us more access to who these people are far more than a physical album booklet. At times it's to an artist's detriment. It pulled the mystic and allure off of artists.You nikkas love trying to be contrarian thinking you have something to argue about and sound this stupid as a result. Basically what I'm saying is you have no true identity of who the artist is these days and streaming turned music like fast food purchasing ..Folks just drop music and it's forgotten in days because they have no true connection to the audience like that.
Physical media gave you a insight of who the artist is. Fron the artwork, booklets, sampling(which helped me educate me about who did the production, the liner notes, even the lyrics in the booklet. It's why Griselda makes a killing off physical media and why they have a cult following.
at you bringing up social media like that means shyt. Tell that to Boosie who had 10 million followers but only sold 5k of his last album. You nikkas funny as shyt.
Instead of going through the booklet, fans can go on YouTube and look at a plethora of tutorials for the production process and breakdowns for songs and producers. When an album comes out, artist's do interviews, they drop mini-documentaries, they put out short films... in between releases, they are on social media, posting about current events, sharing their lives etc lol.
The information available now trump's the shyt you're referring back to ten fold. The reason it's harder to make a connection with an artist now isn't because everything is digital. It's harder now because of the increase in options that us as consumers have daily... Which is what the article is saying.
So the argument is that because the ways and avenues people consume music on has expanded people who were once mid-tier and higher stars can't get the shine they used to? When I was a kid it was MTV, BET, VH1 and radio and that was about it so if a label pushed someone on there it was efficient as the audience had to notice. Now there are so many ways to get music it's difficult to create a new star with just a label push. I would argue stars are created more organically. There's people I've never listened to like NBA Youngboy who are stars from social media. Maybe around the time Justin Bieber came about this started.
They've always done interviews, radio, print, TV appearances, in-store. There was an entire promo run...in addition to doing small venues and chillin with fans after.
Social media is not real - they only show you a glimpse of a cropped version of a moment in their lives. How do you get more from that than reading line notes, seeing them personally thank everyone along their process? How do you get more from that than meeting with them for 20-30mins, having a drink or smoke with them, chopping it up.
LiveFromLondon
Superstar
I mean i don't find Sean Carter or Nasir Jones all that charismatic outside of the booth but look where they're compared to naturally charismatic guys like Busta and Redman. Cole, Kendrick and even Drake are dull as dish water but are the biggest of this generation with the charisma of a door knob between them.
ISO
Pass me the rock nikka
Summer Walker is not a good example.
Over It is one of the legit classic albums with legs that resonated heavily from the last 5 years. It’s also better than Amerie’s album from 02 lol.
I'd say Summer Walker, in terms of status is like what Amerie was in '02. That album had legs going into 2003 even though it came out in '02. '02 Amerie/Tweet is pretty much the ceiling of the reach that today's "star" has. They had some sizable hits, but they weren't necessarily crossover star/superstar status.
You get more because it's literally direct to consumer now. Artists still do small venues and chill with fans. The examples y'all have are not better than what I've seen artists do today in terms of fan engagement.
How about when an artist goes on live and plays fans snippets of unreleased music up to get live feedback? Does this not count? That's not real? How about AMAs with artists?
Playaz Eyez
Veteran
I know more about Summer Walker’s baby daddy situation and questionable hygiene takes than her actual music. Social media truly has killed off artist mystique.
IIVI
Superstar
You got to stand back and look at all this from gen-z's perspective and what's driving them and the rate they consume.
If kids lose their minds for shyt like this, they going to lose their minds over anything else and move to the next thing fast af because there's really nothing there.
No quality product to really be a fan of and stick around when the next in-the-now thing pops up. Everything is vaporware:
Original tweet that got deleted was referring to the video on the right. Group of teenage girls losing their minds for basically nothing at all.
All this shyt got zero staying power. Zero quality. Zero value.
Again, then when there is musical quality somebody simply copies it the next week in their DAWs and starts dropping similar songs straight up sasturating the market.
There is some validity to the whole album artwork, album books, etc. because you can't outright go out there and copy that so quickly, although maybe now you can with A.I generating art.
That's where this shyt is going: A.I going to generate music and visual art.
shyt is a smooth wrap.
If kids lose their minds for shyt like this, they going to lose their minds over anything else and move to the next thing fast af because there's really nothing there.
No quality product to really be a fan of and stick around when the next in-the-now thing pops up. Everything is vaporware:
Original tweet that got deleted was referring to the video on the right. Group of teenage girls losing their minds for basically nothing at all.
All this shyt got zero staying power. Zero quality. Zero value.
Again, then when there is musical quality somebody simply copies it the next week in their DAWs and starts dropping similar songs straight up sasturating the market.
There is some validity to the whole album artwork, album books, etc. because you can't outright go out there and copy that so quickly, although maybe now you can with A.I generating art.
That's where this shyt is going: A.I going to generate music and visual art.
shyt is a smooth wrap.
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Renegade47
Superstar
ISO
Pass me the rock nikka
Summer Walker isn’t a crossover superstar but she is a star and is much bigger than Amerie was.
That Amerie album didn’t even make it past Gold.
Summer Walker is about on par with a 2002 Amerie in terms of success.
Gold in 2002 is far different than gold in 2022. There's really no way to compare the two because Amerie's gold meant at least 500K shipped to retailers. Summer Walker's plaques are a matter of converting the streams into actual sales/shipments. It ain't the same.