Why does the mainstream industry only want a select few to be popular?

~~Soulflower~~ · 09-20-2014, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

19 (Adele album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many accolades had, nominations for Grammys and such, etc.

You don't have to be identical to what's on the market to be pop friendly. You just have to make extremely accessible music that's not too complicated for the casual listener's musical IQ of 15.

Lol!!!

Okay, I did not see her at any award shows, I did not see her win any Grammy's or being excessively talked about. Despite her sells, she was not really commercialized or heavily marketed at least in the states anyway.

When I insisted her music was not pop friendly I was speaking in the traditional sense that her music was/is not trendy or catchy. She also does not have a pop friendly "image." Do you understand what I mean when I say that?

**Frownland** · 09-20-2014, 11:24 PM

Well not having trendy or catchy (I would say otherwise on catchy, I heard people humming Rolling in the Deep all the time when it came out) or not being based on sexualization is a bit different than not being pop friendly, at least in terms of music. Her popularity is a testament to how pop friendly she was.

Urban Hat€monger ? · 09-20-2014, 11:37 PM

She wasn't marketed as a pop act, she was marketed as someone to appeal to women older than the usual pop demographic, like I said, the kind of album you buy your mum for Christmas.

And just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it didn't happen. I saw the whole Adele thing right from the start. She was heavily promoted everywhere right from the start because of the success Amy Winehouse had with that demographic & audience. She was all over daytime TV in appearances and adverts for her album, a time when TV is traditionally aimed at women. Hell she was even called the Sound of 2008 by the BBC before she even released anything. Her first ever US appearance was on Saturday Night Live, how many other non American artists get given that kind of start to break them in the US?
She might not sound the same but then neither did All Saints sound like the Spice Girls and they were signed directly because of the Spice Girls success, the same as Boyzone sounded nothing like Take That but were created to cash in off their fame, the same as The Vines getting signed because of The White Stripes success, it happens over and over again.

Not saying she doesn't have talent but she wouldn't have made 30 million sales without huge amounts of promotion.

~~Soulflower~~ · 09-20-2014, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Well not having trendy or catchy (I would say otherwise on catchy, I heard people humming Rolling in the Deep all the time when it came out) or not being based on sexualization is a bit different than not being pop friendly, at least in terms of music. Her popularity is a testament to how pop friendly she was.

I disagree.

How do you define pop friendly?

Because when I think of a song that is pop friendly, I think of a song that reflects the trends, subject matter and production patterns that is popular at the time. Objectively, Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" does not reflect current pop trends or music that would be typically defined as pop friendly in today's market

She did not become a superstar by making "pop friendly" music.

Urban Hat€monger ? · 09-20-2014, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soulflower

She is not.... which is partially why she became so popular because people were tired of the same pop stars the industry was marketing. They wanted some new blood.

I know for a fact if the industry marketed an artist like Janelle Monae she would be just as popular.

There some dices being rolled behind the scenes and I don't like it.

Quote:

The Electric Lady debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 47,000 copies, making it Monáe's highest debut-week sales so far. The album fell to number twenty-three the following week, selling 15,000 copies. In its third week, it dropped to number forty-seven with 9,000 copies sold. The Electric Lady entered the UK Albums Chart at number fourteen, selling 5,498 copies in its first week.

There's your answer right there, respectable sales but she's not exactly setting the world alight.

Critic acclaim + Talent doesn't equal sales
They're marketing it to people who need to know about it, I see her advertised in magazines, on websites, on the radio, they're clearly doing their job.
You clearly think she deserves to be in the top elite of artists, if they felt like she had that appeal they would market her to be that but obviously they don't, and I agree with them. How do you advertise the concept of a woman who thinks she's an android to housewives & people who week of musical excitement comes from watching people perform bad covers on X Factor?

**Frownland** · 09-21-2014, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soulflower

I disagree.

How do you define pop friendly?

Because when I think of a song that is pop friendly, I think of a song that reflects the trends, subject matter and production patterns that is popular at the time. Objectively, Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" does not reflect current pop trends or music that would be typically defined as pop friendly in today's market

She did not become a superstar by making "pop friendly" music.

I define pop friendly music as music that would be very palatable to the casual music listener. It's also pretty easy to call something pop friendly when millions of people eat it up.

~~Soulflower~~ · 09-21-2014, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

There's your answer right there, respectable sales but she's not exactly setting the world alight.

Critic acclaim + Talent doesn't equal sales
They're marketing it to people who need to know about it, I see her advertised in magazines, on websites, on the radio, they're clearly doing their job.
You clearly think she deserves to be in the top elite of artists, if they felt like she had that appeal they would market her to be that but obviously they don't, and I agree with them. How do you advertise the concept of a woman who thinks she's an android to housewives & people who week of musical excitement comes from watching people perform bad covers on X Factor?

Lol

I want to ask you this before I answer this question because I don't want to misinterpret your post.

Are you saying she is too talented and interesting for the casual music listener OR are you saying her music is not that good?

~~Soulflower~~ · 09-21-2014, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

I define pop friendly music as music that would be very palatable to the casual music listener. It's also pretty easy to call something pop friendly when millions of people eat it up.

There are popular songs that are not necessarily typical pop friendly songs.

Just because a song is popular does not necessarily make it a traditional pop friendly song as in a song that reflects current pop trends.

"Rolling in the Deep" does not sound like any of Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga, Katy Perry songs which is trendy and popular right now and she does not look like them either.

~~Soulflower~~ · 09-21-2014, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

She wasn't marketed as a pop act, she was marketed as someone to appeal to women older than the usual pop demographic, like I said, the kind of album you buy your mum for Christmas.

And just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it didn't happen. I saw the whole Adele thing right from the start. She was heavily promoted everywhere right from the start because of the success Amy Winehouse had with that demographic & audience. She was all over daytime TV in appearances and adverts for her album, a time when TV is traditionally aimed at women. Hell she was even called the Sound of 2008 by the BBC before she even released anything. Her first ever US appearance was on Saturday Night Live, how many other non American artists get given that kind of start to break them in the US?
She might not sound the same but then neither did All Saints sound like the Spice Girls and they were signed directly because of the Spice Girls success, the same as Boyzone sounded nothing like Take That but were created to cash in off their fame, the same as The Vines getting signed because of The White Stripes success, it happens over and over again.

Not saying she doesn't have talent but she wouldn't have made 30 million sales without huge amounts of promotion.

I agree with this post. I was not trying to say she did not get any promotion.I just was saying initially in the states she was not heavily marketed as someone like Rihanna or Beyonce and she still was more successful than them and then the promotion eventually took off.

**Frownland** · 09-21-2014, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soulflower

There are popular songs that are not necessarily typical pop friendly songs.

Just because a song is popular does not necessarily make it a traditional pop friendly song as in a song that reflects current pop trends.

"Rolling in the Deep" does not sound like any of Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga, Katy Perry songs which is trendy and popular right now and she does not look like them either.

I guess we just define what pop(ular) friendly music is differently then. If extremely popular songs weren't pop(ular) friendly, how would they get so popular?

09-20-2014, 11:24 PM	#182 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Well not having trendy or catchy (I would say otherwise on catchy, I heard people humming Rolling in the Deep all the time when it came out) or not being based on sexualization is a bit different than not being pop friendly, at least in terms of music. Her popularity is a testament to how pop friendly she was. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

09-20-2014, 11:37 PM	#183 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	She wasn't marketed as a pop act, she was marketed as someone to appeal to women older than the usual pop demographic, like I said, the kind of album you buy your mum for Christmas. And just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it didn't happen. I saw the whole Adele thing right from the start. She was heavily promoted everywhere right from the start because of the success Amy Winehouse had with that demographic & audience. She was all over daytime TV in appearances and adverts for her album, a time when TV is traditionally aimed at women. Hell she was even called the Sound of 2008 by the BBC before she even released anything. Her first ever US appearance was on Saturday Night Live, how many other non American artists get given that kind of start to break them in the US? She might not sound the same but then neither did All Saints sound like the Spice Girls and they were signed directly because of the Spice Girls success, the same as Boyzone sounded nothing like Take That but were created to cash in off their fame, the same as The Vines getting signed because of The White Stripes success, it happens over and over again. Not saying she doesn't have talent but she wouldn't have made 30 million sales without huge amounts of promotion. __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.