On the weekends The Sheconomist can sleep in quite a few hours which leaves me lots of quiet time. Okay sometimes that means Call of Duty time but more often than not I’m sitting in front of the computer and/or the TV.
I’m not ashamed to admit that a channel was running a marathon of Britney Spears music videos and I kept it running in the background for a good 45 minutes as I did other things. Yes, I watched some of them and even sang along. I was a teen when she got her start so like anyone else I thought she was smoking hot.
I knew her music well and listen to top 40 radio even today so she doesn’t have many songs I’m not familiar with. Today, like yesterday, they are mostly crap with decent beats and lots of money spent on production. Music like this makes it easy for me to concentrate on work tasks, I haven’t figured out why.
After spending 150 words explaining why I listen to Britney Spears, on to the point of my post. If you are like me, you wonder why Britney Spears is actually a star. She really isn’t all that pretty, her dancing is kind of bad considering all the training she’s had, and her singing is about as good as anyone with access to the best voice coaches. Why was she ever a star?
Money. Star power. Someone thought that with enough investment in her they could make a ton of money. But even vocal coaches, good producers and writers, and more ab workouts than the cast of Jersey Shore can muster can’t sell records. Star power is all about whether the investment in advertising pays off. And for Britney, this was the likely case. It has been for Rihanna. NPR has a breakdown of the cost to make a hit song, and over 90% of it is in marketing. The story has quotes from people who admit to being bought off and bribed (my words) to get certain stars extra air play.
It’s why you hear certain artists say “hey it’s Britney and you’re listening to 104.3, the…”. The station also gets free tickets to give away or CDs and in exchange the record labels get extra air play for their artists.
It’s a deceptive game that keeps the successful artists successful and the up and comers, up and coming for their entire careers. The value of a huge record label is in the marketing. Many artists break away from the labels that made them thinking that they will be just as successful. Unless it’s to another big label the chances of success fall considerably.
As someone who doesn’t buy music (radio and Pandora for me), I’m not too upset about the fact that certain artists are forced down our throats (Cee-Lo Green is terrible, I’m sorry). But for people that love pop stars they probably wouldn’t be too happy to learn their Beiber Fever was mostly made up of fabricated symptoms.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
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