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| The cover of angles, created from a work by Belgian artist Guy DOLLS |
It happened something strange last week. Let me explain:
- Wednesday 9, the Strokes have released Under Cover of Darkness their first song in five years, and nothing has filtered down there on the Internet, apart from an excerpt of a few seconds uploaded "by mistake" a few days earlier. The most advanced music blogs have hailed the "return to form" and Under Cover of Darkness is still # 1 ranking Hype Machine ;
- Friday 11, Lady Gaga unveiled Born This Way first single from her upcoming album due in May. Similarly, no extract was circulated on the Internet, except for an a cappella version the refrain sung at the MTV VMAs in September. On sale for download from 15h, Born This Way became head of iTunes sales in 21 countries.
It does not strike you? Two major musical events at two day intervals, based on the same principles of secrecy and waiting. Two events that appear to have relearned (temporarily) the patience to Twittersphere and blogosphere.
I remember the hype that the radios were still not so long ago, when Madonna releases a new single. For American Life (launched in April 2003 ... I was in second aha), two leaders of Europe had expected, febrile, exactly midnight to disseminate the official song! In recent years, such a situation is just unimaginable. The first excerpts of disk fuitent several months in advance to be on all the good music blogs, and full albums are downloadable in file. rar in excellent quality before they are on iTunes!
In this respect, the parallel outputs of the singles of The Strokes and Lady Gaga appear as anachronisms. How do these artists have been able to impose an embargo on their music? And most importantly, how the Internet, this kid is turbulent, he could play the game?
Intuitively, I would say first that this is not just any artists. Needless to present Lady Gaga, appearance pop extolled by both the general public that the most critical snobs, to designers and marketers. Needless also to present the Strokes, aka "the the coolest group of the world ", whereby (or because of which) we are all still wear skinny jeans so far. They are artists who have a rare cultural weight, allowing them to impose their conditions on the online music community.
But it is not enough to be crowned hype to be respected by twittos, quite the contrary. The hype is created and talks. That's what has worked to Julian Casablancas on his Twitter account by revealing in dribs and drabs of information about an album constantly pushed for three years ... while taking care to cover their tracks by posting false pockets of Disk also likely that foul when you know the taste for kitsch Strokes (see the real cover above).
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga has spent the last few months to raise the sauce on her second album, billed as "the best of the decade" (quiet). Moreover, "Mother monster" mastered the mechanics of buzz on Twitter pushing the creation of hashtags in his glory or that of his single. Above all, it took everyone by advancing to the short release date of the piece, which was to be revealed at the Grammy Awards, two days. Sufficient to create a sense of urgency and drive a little more and Twitter, a fortiori, any fan of pop culture.
This shows that imposing conditions on its website is not given to everyone, and you need to know to do it ... But we see most astonishingly, it is still possible!
I feel like repeating myself but it's a fact: the web has completed changed our relationship to traditional sources of legitimacy. The artists, whether musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, etc.. no longer control the dissemination of their own works. Marks may at any time to lose control of their image and be subject to lynchings 2.0, as BP (misappropriation of pub, a Twitter account) or Gap (parody logos). The governments themselves can not manage to claim 100% their communication with the rise of Wikileaks model.
Yet the example of The Strokes and Lady Gaga shows a traditional source of legitimacy may yet take hold of the web, provided this is done well. Enough to give hope to those who lament the destructive effect sometimes (I prefer to say "deconstructive" but good) for Internet communication, and give rise to some concern among advocates of "full open". A unless it of epiphenomena, exceptions that prove the rule ...
What do you think?
PS: In the kind "I am a mégamarque and I know standing up to social networks," this example is also very interesting.
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