Hola mi amigos……..it’s your girl WestStyle Chronicles signing in!!!
Ok, it’s 8am and I’m doing the usual NASCAR race to work. Please understand I am NOT a morning person. I’m not perky and I’m not talkative. If you ask me I’ve been sleep for 6 to 7 hours! Hell, what can we possibly talk about early in the morning?!?
Anyway, as I’m driving to work, I felt for a moment that I was in some kind of bad dream. It was more than the normal “Monday” madness. It was more like I’d step into a dimension where every station I played had the same damn artist. It was like I couldn’t escape it!
Have you ever clicked through your radio stations and heard that same artist everywhere?? It’s like you’ve stepped into…………
What is this place you might ask? What is this evil that seems to haunt us every time we turn on the radio? Well my friends, I’ll tell you what it is. There is a plague taking over the music industry. It’s worse than the Black Plague, more fearsome than the Swine Flu and brings more funk than a dirty diaper at a Parliament and the Funkadelics concert. What I’m talking about is a dreadful disease called “Spotlight Addiction”. Yes, that’s right. Like Chris Rock’s ashy lips in “New Jack City”, this sickness looks bad and is taking over.
Now, this is serious people. So let me breakdown the two main components of this illness.
The Artist Stalker – this is the artist that not only has multiple singles released at one time but they got 45 different remixes, they’re on the “Label All-Star” album, and they’re on everybody else’s CD too. They may be on Lil Wayne’s post prison album, Tupac’s new Resurrection album, and part 82 of R. Kelly’s “In the Closet”. This type of stalking is like that girlfriend or boyfriend that won’t go away. You’re sick and tired of them but they keep coming back. Kind of like this following scenario:
Irritating, isn’t it! As an artist, stalking is never pretty. Promotion is good but stalking is evil!
The Artist Ambush – Simply put, this is the artist that sneaks up on you in a very bad way. I had this situation happen to me not too long ago. I’m in the car and I’m listening to this song for the first time with Usher’s vocals as the chorus. My head starts to nod and I’m about as hypnotized as a man at the strip club. I can’t remember if the track was produced by Polo The Don or Bryan Michael Cox but overall I’m feeling this cut. The first verse comes but then “it” happened. The “artist stalker” had “ambushed” my song! I will never listen to this song the same again. Everything was good, all was fine and then……
Now, please understand GFM family, I get the importance of proper promotions, marketing and PR. I also get the imperative need of having a social media presence in this viral music industry. But seriously, the moral of my rant lies in this simple question. Don’t you think it reaches a line of “too” much availability?
When you combine such promotions with reality shows that can be a blessing or a curse, multiple singles not properly timed for public release and guest appearance remixes that can easily over saturate the market, can’t it be too much? Within reason – especially in this social media age – it’s important to build that relationship with your fans. On the same note, the relationship can lose a certain magic and imagination when desire has limited space to grow – when an artist is always available. Reasonable distance – in my opinion- is just as important as “presence”. When these things are balanced, it can create a smoldering anticipation.
If an artist takes a break on a high note and gives their fans something they can’t find anywhere else, the anticipation for their return is almost inevitable. For example, it’s been 7 years since we’ve heard an album from Outkast but most of us are waiting for it like the second coming of Christ. Also, in the midst of the tragic earthquakes in Haiti, many fans are tweeting a reunion concert of the Fugees. We hadn’t seen the Fugees perform in about a minute. But overall, these groups don’t need to stalk and they’re still relevant. To my new artists, promote but not to the point of oversaturation. Pause for a moment to give people a chance to love you. Give the people what they want but always leave them wanting more.
Hope West is a music enthusiast and music photographer who has captured artists like B.B. King, Janet Jackson, Teddy Riley and many others. A life long lover of music, Hope is a graduate of Full Sail University where she studied music engineering. She’s also a proud “Florida Girl” born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. and currently resides in Atlanta, GA as a “Georgia Peach”. Hope is known for her creativity, sense of humor and quirky perfectionism. Artist(s) that make her freak out as a music fan: Sheila E., Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Quincy Jones.
