| rss2email.ru |
 Яблокофоноблог  |  Советы Блогеру. Конкурсы с призами  |
 |  Music: Music blog | guardian.co.ukArticles published by guardian.co.uk Music about: Music blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog рекомендовать друзьям >> |
- Lady Gaga's Born This Way: first review
The Gaga has released a new song online and the internet is still working. Is this a failure? No, it's another storming pop tune
It's one of the most tweeted, blogged and hyped pop singles in recent memory. The title was announced more than six months ago, with the lyrics leaked piecemeal by the lady herself. Elton John has claimed it's "the new gay anthem", Justin Bieber and James Blunt tried to predict what it would sound like, while others have criticised the racial terminology in the lyrics. It was due to premiere on US radio at 6am EST, but has since been shoved online by Perez Hilton.
So what does it sound like? Well, a lot like Madonna's Express Yourself, so much so that those two words are currently trending on Twitter. There's also some spoken-word bits a la the Material Girl (as no one calls her any more), but it doesn't sound copycat, more a knowing nod and a cute wink.
Born This Way is a thumping, almost disco anthem that stomps along until the chorus crashes in with the weight of a discarded meat dress. Lyrically, it's all love yourself whoever you are and "don't be a drag, just be a queen". Within the ridiculously camp musical context, the lyrics sound a lot less heavy-handed than it would suggest. One suspects it will probably shift a few copies.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Behind the music: Can you really teach A&R?
A new course offers students a chance to learn A&R. But can instinct and passion be taught in a classroom?
A couple of weeks ago, Hartwig Masuch, the CEO of music publisher BMG Rights, told the audience of a panel at the Midem music industry conference that the days of A&R are numbered. It appears Brighton Institute of Modern Music (Bimm) and EMI didn't get his memo, as they're about to launch their first ever A&R music business apprenticeship. My first response to this news was: can you teach someone passion, gut instinct, courage of conviction and the ability to spot genuine talent?
Miles Leonard, president of the EMI label Parlophone – home to artists including Kylie, Coldplay, Tinie Tempah and Sigur Rós – agrees you either have these attributes or you don't. However, Leonard believes you can teach someone what to do once you've found that talent. "All the good A&R people I've come to know during my 20 years in the business have come through on pure belief and passion," he says. "But they don't just sign and develop the artist and let them move on. They also guide the artist through all the other departments, telling the other people at the labels what their vision is and why they signed them."
Leonard himself left school with no qualifications. He wanted to work in the music business, but found it a daunting task to get his foot in the door. All he had was a passion for new music. He wrote numerous letters to labels offering to work for them for a year for nothing, but received no replies. "I felt that if I could put myself in an office then it would be down to me that they wouldn't let me go after six months," he says.
His first job involved visiting stores to buy records before returning them to the depot for redistribution to the shops – all in an effort to improve the records' chart ranking (this was known as "the strike-force"). He soon realised that it wasn't the job of which he had been dreaming. It did, however, teach him about record companies and what they did. Through much persistence, he eventually landed a job as an A&R scout for another label, Chrysalis. He'd spend most of his time on the road, checking out bands, going to rehearsal rooms and talking to managers around the country. He says things are different now due to technology, as it's possible to get a sense of what an artist is about simply by using the internet.
Leonard believes it's important an artist has some sort of online presence when approaching the label. "It shows that they want to do it anyway, whether they're signed to a label or not. It shows passion and belief, and those are the things you want to see in an artist," he says. "I don't want to work with an artist who's recorded a few tracks and is sitting there waiting for a record deal and, once they get it, says: 'Over to you guys. Go and make me famous'."
So why would an ambitious artist need a label? These days, anyone can make a record on their own and make it available on iTunes. "There's more to it than that," says Leonard. "We invest a lot of money in tour support, enabling an artist to build a following."
Traditionally, the labels wouldn't ask for anything in return for that investment, as they were making so much money from record sales. Now, however, they take a cut of revenue once the tours start making money.
"We can still give great sound advice when it comes to recording an album," Leonard says. "We'll make good enough videos to get global traction. There's a digital department that will be able to make your music available on all different services around the globe. What a label does is exaggerate what an artist does themselves, but on a global scale. And artists need investment. Money doesn't buy you creativity, but it can allow you to leave your job and spend all your time writing and being an artist. Besides, once you start touring you can't hold down a job."
Leonard says Parlophone has never been about "spread betting" (signing 10 artists in the hope one of them succeeds), choosing instead to sign three or four artists a year and focus on breaking them. Plummeting record sales have forced EMI to become a global rights company; according to Leonard, if you rely solely on record sales and digital downloads you won't be around in two years' time. EMI also have to provide merchandise, brand and synch opportunities, and today's A&Rs have to think of all those aspects when signing an artist. "Now you have to think: 'Will this artist and their identity or brand bring revenue to the company?'" If an artist is only interested in selling records, the label won't be able to offer as big a deal as they could have done a few years ago, or as they would to an artist willing to collaborate on other income streams.
EMI employs 50 people globally in its brands department. They aim to match artists with brands in a way that won't alienate the audience. They paired Tinie Tempah with BlackBerry and Gorillaz with Microsoft. Leonard says branding can even broaden an artist's audience, as radio is becoming more of a closed shop. He uses Bat for Lashes' recording of a Depeche Mode cover for a Gucci ad as an example. He also cites Eliza Doolittle, who didn't have much of a fanbase initially, limiting her radio opportunities (they tend to want to play artists who already have momentum). Placing her music on some adverts helped.
Another part of the label's global multi-rights strategy was to buy Loud, one of the biggest merchandising companies in the world. "We are a service company," says Leonard. "There's been a shift. Before, there was a real control element to what record companies were. We don't have control now – the public is telling us what they want. They're not being dictated to, and I love that. We are the conduit between the artist and the wider audience. We don't break artists – we give them the opportunity to break themselves. The way the business is now, it needs to be a partnership."
The label does a lot of consumer research on the music, the artist and the visuals, though Leonard says you can't rely solely on that. "You can use it as a tool, but you still have to base your final decision on gut instinct." He points out that all radio stations' playlists are based on research, which makes it useful to know what kind of research they're looking at.
Leonard maintains the relationship between an artist and the A&R should be a collaboration – an understanding of each other's needs and a trust when it comes to what you're both looking for. The A&R's job is to help the artist achieve their vision. They're the artist's companion within the label.
The Bimm A&R course is there to teach the mechanics of the industry, something Leonard says it took him two years to get the hang of when he started out. But applicants should ask themselves if they have a genuine passion for music. EMI has worked closely with Bimm to put the course together, making sure to include elements that are most important to a career in A&R. Some employees will do masterclasses, spending time with students to see who has "that spark", in the hope of eventually bringing them into the company.
A close look at the apprenticeship contents suggests the subjects taught would provide the exact knowledge needed for an aspiring artist manager. Though technology has made the recording and distribution of music a lot cheaper and accessible, the one thing that hasn't changed is the importance of having someone who feels as passionate about your music as you do; someone willing to champion it and battle for it, whether they've learned their skills on a course or not.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Readers recommend: children's songs
Which records are most likely to inspire, amaze and entertain younger listeners (without annoying adults)?
Bands used to talk earnestly about doing it for "the kids". But they didn't really mean kids, they meant teenagers or young people. What about pre-teenage children? Who's making records for them?
Well, lots of people, actually. It's just that records for smaller kids rarely get critical assessment, or celebrated at all. But like any other music, there are good songs and bad.
So which records are most likely to inspire, amaze and entertain younger listeners? Which songs make nascent music fans stop what they're doing and listen? You don't have to have children yourself – what about the songs that you enjoyed when you were a nipper?
Extra brownie points, kudos and respect will be awarded for songs that parents can tolerate when hearing for the umpteenth time.
We're not looking for songs about children (we've done that). Or songs featuring children (we haven't done that, but let's leave it for another time). Send us your suggestions for records that children enjoy.
The toolbox:
* This week's collaborative Spotify playlist
* The RR archive
* The Marconium (blog containing a wealth of data on RR)
* The 'Spill (blog for the RR community)
Please do:
* Post your nominations before midday on Tuesday if you wish them to be considered.
* Write a few lines attempting to justify your choices.
But please don't:
* Post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
* Dump lists of nominations. If you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Here are the results of last week's Readers recommend: discordant songs.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness
The Strokes are back! And for all the talk of a band on the brink, their first new single in five years is a corker
When guitarist Nick Valensi was interviewed recently he had this to say about the making of Angles, the fourth album from the Strokes: "Maybe everyone needed money or something. We gotta pay our mortgage so we may as well get this going again." To the fans who had been patiently waiting for a new album since 2006, it was hardly an encouraging statement of unity.
Perhaps he was brandishing some of that famed Strokes sense of humour and really they're all one big happy family. Ahem. Either way, their first new single in five years is a corker, all dry-as-a-bone guitar riffs, stop-start drums and Casablancas's mumbled croon sounding reassuringly familiar.
It's more Room On Fire than First Impressions of Earth – an insistent groove but no fondness for hair-metal guitar. It also features not one but two brilliant choruses, a great line about how "everyone's been singing the same song for 10 years" and some additional backing vocals on the chorus (see, they can do versatile). This will sound amazing in a sun-dappled field come festival season.
You can download Under Cover of Darkness for free from the band's website for a limited timeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
| rss2email.ru | отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=90855&u=756462&r=477547156 управление подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp |
