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POPGAF |OT9| Too much shade can burn you...

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cory64

Member
JoJo is amazing and her new album needs to come out already.

She was looking snatched to the heavens today
1DrkrXn.jpg
 

Grizzo

Member
Oh I was drunk alright. :)

But not enough to make me like everything. We Can't Stop from Miley came on, and I was just reminded how utterly depressing and undynamic this "party song" is. But then Come And Get It came on, and fuuuuu.....


We Can't Stop is a great party song, but it's better in Before-Parties or After-Parties, when things are more mellow, and people are getting into the groove of the night
or when they are high as a kite
 

Dr. Malik

FlatAss_
Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?

Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you're reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it's just coming alive.

There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently.

In recent years, you've probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.

Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.

Arrows Through the Heart
In mentioning album sales, I'd like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them. They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone. It isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us.

There are always going to be those artists who break through on an emotional level and end up in people's lives forever. The way I see it, fans view music the way they view their relationships. Some music is just for fun, a passing fling (the ones they dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they will soon forget they ever danced to). Some songs and albums represent seasons of our lives, like relationships that we hold dear in our memories but had their time and place in the past.

However, some artists will be like finding "the one." We will cherish every album they put out until they retire and we will play their music for our children and grandchildren. As an artist, this is the dream bond we hope to establish with our fans. I think the future still holds the possibility for this kind of bond, the one my father has with the Beach Boys and the one my mother has with Carly Simon.

I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise." I believe couples can stay in love for decades if they just continue to surprise each other, so why can't this love affair exist between an artist and their fans?

In the YouTube generation we live in, I walked out onstage every night of my stadium tour last year knowing almost every fan had already seen the show online. To continue to show them something they had never seen before, I brought out dozens of special guest performers to sing their hits with me. My generation was raised being able to flip channels if we got bored, and we read the last page of the book when we got impatient. We want to be caught off guard, delighted, left in awe. I hope the next generation's artists will continue to think of inventive ways of keeping their audiences on their toes, as challenging as that might be.

There are a few things I have witnessed becoming obsolete in the past few years, the first being autographs. I haven't been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento "kids these days" want is a selfie. It's part of the new currency, which seems to be "how may followers you have on Instagram."

Fan Power
A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry. For me, this dates back to 2005 when I walked into my first record-label meetings, explaining to them that I had been communicating directly with my fans on this new site called Myspace. In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around.

Another theme I see fading into the gray is genre distinction. These days, nothing great you hear on the radio seems to come from just one musical influence. The wild, unpredictable fun in making music today is that anything goes. Pop sounds like hip hop; country sounds like rock; rock sounds like soul; and folk sounds like country—and to me, that's incredible progress. I want to make music that reflects all of my influences, and I think that in the coming decades the idea of genres will become less of a career-defining path and more of an organizational tool.

This moment in music is so exciting because the creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless. In this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only accepted…it is celebrated. The only real risk is being too afraid to take a risk at all.

Celebrity Spotlight
I predict that some things will never change. There will always be an increasing fixation on the private lives of musicians, especially the younger ones. Artists who were at their commercial peak in the '70s, '80s and '90s tell me, "It was never this crazy for us back then!" And I suspect I'll be saying that same thing to younger artists someday (God help them). There continues to be a bad girl vs. good girl/clean-cut vs. sexy debate, and for as long as those labels exist, I just hope there will be contenders on both sides. Everyone needs someone to relate to.

And as for me? I'll just be sitting back and growing old, watching all of this happen or not happen, all the while trying to maintain a life rooted in this same optimism.

And I'd also like a nice garden.

- Taylor Swift
 

Grizzo

Member
Wait a minute I thought it was the other way around, Azealia couldn't be bothered going to that Festival and cancelled 4 hours before te start of her gig?
 

Peru

Member
But why is she not acknowledging that she's like the only person on Earth who can even sell 5 copies?

Obv hard to write an optimistic piece about the industry when you're one of the few absurdly profitable artists out there and not sound a bit silly at times but that's pretty good and she's got some decent points in there, especially in regards to the positive outlook on genre border meltdown, setting your own price and devoted fans making it work. Because that's basically how things are already shaping up to be with artists who are not as big her. Entering the industry the way she did her perspective is worth something.
 
In mentioning album sales, I'd like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them. They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone. It isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us.

- Taylor Swift

You want 4 4x platinum albums? You betta work, bitch!
 
Only Taylor could write such an elegant discourse on the state of the music industry. She's everything I ever wanted in a pop star, so marvellous.

My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.

Crying rn

Benevolent ICON

Indie girl power ICON Charli XCXsus is apparently appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC in Amurricah, she Tweeted about making a big live announcement (alberm?) and then deleted it so idk. At least she'll be performing Boom Clap live.
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
Mau ®;119945299 said:
Azaealia Banks is playing a festival in my city in September.

If the tickets are cheap I'll consider it.

Remember to boo and throw an empty water bottle to the stage.
 
Non album releasing Azealia Banks has more listenable songs than all these other so called rap strumpets combined.

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BBD alone!

I spend it when they get that, oooh
Fine, feminine, I whip that woop
Dram- drama and n
igga
s get that deuce
Rambamalam flip that loot
Gam champ - her jiggy jam on loop
Damn, 'fam, what's your man gon' do?
I get it when whip that woop
I spend it when they spend that loot
Wilding with my b
itche
s
I be styling with my b
itche
s
Pretty eyes and long extensions - they smiling in all them pictures
I be rising with my b
itche
s
Riding with my b
itche
s
We the finest of them b
itche
s
We diamonds, it's diamond district
Get that ice, n
igg
a, ice, n
igg
a
B
itc
h want to freeze like white winter
She need the G's, that price went up
She need to see that bright shimmer
He want to see that nice
Want to fit that slice, want to see that spice simmer
She want it with that white n
igg
a
Peachy-pinky-piped n
igg
a
Be's what it be's, little breeze by the sea -AZ been about that life, n
igg
a
T
it
s out with your wife, n
igg
a
I'm bringing out the d
yk
e in her
XOXO fine, scissor sister, 69 whip that

I get it when I get that
I spend it when I whip that

iccCq9HLkabDB.gif
 

royalan

Member
I don't like Kiesza's voice
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I agree somewhat. I think that, of all the parts that make her music what it is, her voice is the least interesting.

People make a big to-do about her vocal range, but outside of how high she sings there's absolutely nothing else of note about it. No real emotive quality whatsoever.

One thing I will say, though, is that she's got a good grasp on her identity. Is that she knows herself, musically, in a way I haven't heard from a Pop girl in a while. I feel she's making the exact type of music she should be making with that voice, and all the parts come together well. I really like her stuff so far.
 

Mumei

Member
Her voice has matured so immaculately. She didn't go for those high notes when she used to when she was younger, though, but her voice has developed this really lovely fullness to it. I can't believe she was thirteen when she first came out and she was slaying everyone vocally even then.

Yeah, she's a bit tighter up top last time I checked but it doesn't bother me much. I prefer the richness of her voice now.

Have you been baptized by the holy spirit of Glory yet?

when will anyone tbh

Of course! I was stanning that day one.
 
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