

How the Internet Affected Carly Rae Jepsen - jseliger
http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/10/22/carly-rae-jepsen-kiss

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tisme
(1) she's not dead

(2) she's not entitled to a success

(3) One hit wonders have always been a part of the music industry

~~~
FreeKill
The article isn't really arguing that one hit wonders are something new, or
that people are entitled to success. It's arguing that there is a new dynamic
in play. Due to the fact that she exploded so quickly as a meme from basically
obscurity, no one was invested in her as an artist. The argument is that as a
result of new media and technology, it's possible for a song to skyrocket
without anyone following the artist themselves.

If you read on, the author points out the album she put out could be a
contender for best pop album of the year, but not enough people care about her
as an artist enough to check it out.

I find that pretty interesting. It's almost like a new take on the 15 minutes
of fame idea, but now your 15 minutes, for whatever you did, make you famous
to EVERYONE, but that has no affect on you sticking around in people's minds
afterward....

~~~
tisme
There is no new dynamic in play, this has been happening to just about every
one hit wonder since recording was invented. Some stay, most go.

The idea here is that follow-through has to be made by everybody, artist,
label and so on to take an opportunity like this and to turn it into a
marketable brand.

I'm reminded of:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOu0DuxFAT0>

Which I'd never heard of before running into it on digg, it's musically
mediocre, has a fantastic video but ultimately failed to convince me to go out
and buy an album.

The internet can't be given credit for the success and it can't be given the
blame for subsequent failure, it is just a tool and how you use that tool is
up to you.

Caring about an artist means to go and visit their concerts, becoming a
successful artist means that you're going to have to slog through the
'building a loyal fan base' trough of sorrow somehow and as far as I know
outside of throwing huge marketing budgets after fan acquisition (talent
optional) there are no short-cuts there.

By the way, a similar issue faces websites, you may be able to get that front
page on HN with your new offering but that won't make much difference in the
long run, you'll still have to have the staying power and the determination to
see it through for a long period without being sure if it is going to work out
or not. And if you do the chances of it working out go up.

Overnight success is not a right, and if you've been handed a free head-start
you can't blame your tools if it subsequently does not pan out the way you
intended.

~~~
angrycoder
> There is no new dynamic in play, this has been happening to just about every
> one hit wonder since recording was invented. Some stay, most go.

The last 4 paragraphs of the article go on to describe exactly what the new
dynamic is. In addition to the normal bombardment of hearing the song all the
time, it is the additional flood of memes that the internet and social media
bring about. As the article says:

> In the past, the worst thing that could happen to the Song of the Summer was
> it being played to death. But in the digital age, the pitfalls are
> boundless. As “Call Me Maybe” is increasingly meme-ified, it runs the risk
> of becoming completely mummified.

and

> Simply put: when you think of “Somebody That I Used to Know,” you’re less
> likely to think of the man, Wally de Backer, but the meme.

Both of you arguing about something that isn't even the main point of the
article.

~~~
tisme
Yes, but it is the flood of memes that allowed this person to get most of the
exposure to begin with. The point I'm trying to - unsuccessfully it seems -
make is that exposure is not enough. If it were then one hit wonders would not
be one hit wonders.

You can't ride on a wave and then complain that others are trying to ride that
wave too, you _especially_ can't blame the wave.

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rhplus
_Kiss is the best pop album of the year, and nobody is listening._

The problem is not the artists or the songs, but the format that's being used
here as a measure of success. Her album didn't do well because her fans don't
buy _albums_. Her fans will buy songs, one at a time, at 69c a pop. The
article even states that it's a "singles driven market". All of the delivery
mechanisms (iTunes, Pandora, Last, YouTube, Facebook, Xbox) funnel listeners
into the on-demand or magic playlist style of listening. Songs are standalone
entities served up as a recommendation, a link or a search result. For this
generation the idea of listening to _an album_ is pretty much dead.

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illuminate
The self-proclaimed "tastemakers" hoped that the internet would make yet
another bland, awkard autotuned pop song, and adopt it for the same ironic
make-fun-of reasons Rebecca Black's "Friday" took off. It didn't happen, the
internet didn't care.

It didn't kill her career, her career didn't take off, no matter how much they
tried to force the song-meme. The "tastemakers" have little power over the
Internet at large, thankfully.

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prostoalex
>> Her debut, Kiss, has been out for more than a month — and is fantastic,
living up to all its inspirations and more — but as of Oct. 10, not even
100,000 people bought it.

Translation: I'm a self-proclaimed expert in music. When the public disagrees
with my assessment of specific music products, it should be lambasted.

~~~
guywithabike
I think you missed the entire point of the article. The author clearly
explains why she believes that the above statement is the case, why Carly was
so popular but failed to become a lasting commercial success. You can agree or
disagree on her reasoning, but leveling a Hacker News-style personal attack on
her adds nothing to the discussion.

~~~
prostoalex
The discussion of Ms Jepsen's singing talent is well-supported. The
description of single "Kiss" as "fantastic, living up to all its inspirations
and more" comes out of the blue.

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codeka
We live in a strange world where 100,000 people buying your album is
considered a flop.

Of course if you define "success" as "being in the Billboard top 100" then
almost nobody will be successful, and being successful _twice_ \- well that's
almost impossible!

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Axsuul
I agree... that her album is the best pop album this year. Even better than
Taylor Swift's new album Red. If there was ever a better definition of guilty
pleasure, this is it. I think Turn Me Up would've been a better single to go
with, however. 100,000 is still an impressive number. Seeing how she's on tour
with Cody Simpson and Justin Bieber, don't artists make most of their money
from concerts?

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stfu
The element-of-blame may shift, but one hit wonders were always part of the
music business. One has to consider, that artists usually work their whole
life to get that one break-through song - and after that get about 12 month to
deliver the next "hit". Relatively unsurprising the number of artists able to
do this might be similar to those who can pull off one successful start-up
after another.

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jschuur
I loved Called Me Maybe, went to check out the album to see if I wanted to buy
that too, and simply didn't like it, so I didn't. Stylistically, the rest of
her songs just weren't 'catchy' enough that I saw myself listening to them
much.

Maybe for a lot of people like me, Call Me Maybe was just enough pop? I didn't
need a whole album of her.

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aba_sababa
"there’s precious little being written outside K-pop circles about his other
music, of which there’s a decade’s worth."

Why is what's being written about you what matters? These blogs seem to have
forgotten that music blogs do not define culture - music defines culture (and
same for tech).

------
justatdotin
CF0

