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Going Gaga Over The Lady
December 4, 2009
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I feel that if I can show my demise artistically to the public, I can somehow cure my own legend. I can show you so you're not looking for it. I'm dying for you on domestic television-here's what it looks like, so no one has to wonder.
-- Lady GaGa, In ELLE magazine"I feel that if I can show my demise artistically to the public, I can somehow cure my own legend. I can show you so you're not looking for it. I'm dying for you on domestic television-here's what it looks like, so no one has to wonder." -- Lady GaGa, In ELLE magazine
This Lady is no tramp. She's become a music superstar in what appears to be a short time.
Not true, her debut album "The Fame" was released in August 2008.
The "quirky pop singer Lady Gaga became a search sensation the world over." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/yhk92nk )
The first four singles from "The Fame" all went to #1. That's the first time any artist has done that in almost four decades. (i.e., four #1s from a debut album) The amount of awards and recognition Lady GaGa has received in the past year-and-a-half just keep piling up. (One of those awards was the MTV "Best New Artist" award)
"The Fame"' has sold in excess of four million albums worldwide, and to date, she has sold over 20 million digital singles.
This week, Lady GaGa accomplished another feat, the kind usually reserved for bonafide superstars. This week, she has two albums in the Top-10 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart. Her new mini-album, 'The Fame Monster' debuts at #5, and "The Fame" album is #6. (If one totals the combined sales for both albums, she is actually the #2 best selling artist this past week at retail.) But she's not stopping there. On December 15th, she will release the "Super Deluxe Fame Monster Pack," which will include a lock of hair from one of her wigs, exclusive photos and a pair of 3D glasses she promises will come in handy "for things that will happen soon."
As of this moment, the total views for her new single, "Bad Romance," are in excess of 35 million. (Yes, 35 million!) If ever there was a barometer for measuring just how hot an artist is, in my opinion, it's YouTube. The song is already a chart success and also on it's way to #1. But it had already generated millions of views before it received massive radio play here and around the globe.
She's so hot that NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) was going to consider a rule change to make her eligible for the Best New Artist category at the 2010 Grammys, even though Gaga's "Just Dance" was nominated for Best Dance Recording in 2009. Unfortunately, A Grammys rep told Rolling Stone Gaga is still ineligible for that honor.
I've been a fan of Lady GaGa since early on, but it was her playing "Poker Face" on the piano, alone, on several TV shows (you can watch them all on YouTube) that made me realize there was a whole lot more to this artist than her incredible videos. Her voice has the kind of quality that strikes an immediate nerve in the audience. It's passion. Plain and simple. If you saw her performance of another new song on the American Music Awards, "Speechless," and weren't moved, then I guess you don't get Lady GaGa. It moved me enough to replay the performance several times. It moved me enough to want to get the new album ASAP.
It's incredibly exciting to see new talent rise to the top of the charts and be so well-received by the audience at large. Whether it's Taylor Swift or Lady GaGa, it's good to see extremely talented young artists cut through the abundance of mediocrity currently on radio and MTV.
Both Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift have something in common. They work very hard at creating their music, and then delivering it to their audiences in the best shows possible when they perform live. Yes, other artists do the same. But right now, it seems that Ms. Swift and Lady GaGa are dynamos and are working non-stop. If there are others working this hard around the clock, I'm not aware of it at this moment.
What Lady GaGa has done is engage music consumers here and abroad. She's done it by a total commitment to her art (which she said in many places, is all she cares about at this point in her life), and her belief that her fans deserve the best videos, songs and performances he can deliver. It's not an easy job to write great songs, conceptualize and choreograph great videos, ensure that your wardrobe is as uniquely fashionable as can be created, and then work real hard to wrap it all up and put it together on a daily basis. It's a lot of work to do what Lady GaGa has done. And (again) without the REAL talent, it wouldn't make much difference.
And when something like this happens to an artist, it's good for the entire industry. The music of Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift might be on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they both are driving people into retail and online to BUY their music. And that's a good thing no matter how you look at it.
I can't wait to see the next Lady GaGa video, and the next performance. I tried to buy tickets to her show here in Las Vegas at the Palms Hotel. But, of course, it sold out in a matter of minutes.
I guess I'll have to keep watching those new video posts on YouTube.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
GRAMMY NOMS
Beyonce leads the Grammy nominations this year, Taylor Swift, The Black Eyed Peas, and Lady GaGa are all in there as well.
You can check out the entire list at: http://www.grammy.com/
And Now For Some News ...
Sony Prepping iTunes Rival
From BusinessweekSony just announced plans to launch an online store selling music, movies and books as well as other downloadable applications for mobile products. Sony's top execs didn't specify when the Internet store, tentatively called Sony Online Service, would go live or what it would look like. But the storefront is likely to bear some similarities to Apple's iTunes store, according to BusinessWeek, and would be Sony's most ambitious attempt to link its products to its own library of digital content.
Analysts say that creating software to sell an array of online services and content is Sony's best hope of improving its fortunes. "Sony has been too focused on hardware," Tokai Tokyo Research Center analyst Osamu Hirose tells BusinessWeek. "It has to focus on networked products [and] delivering digital entertainment to consumers."
Read more about it by clicking here.
Live Nation Makes Deal With iTunes For Concert Film Downloads
From ReutersiTunes will start offering full-length concert films for $7.99 after they make a deal with Live Nation.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Are CD Players On The Way Out?
From Cnet.comLinn Products, based in Glasgow, Scotland, burst onto the audiophile scene in the early 1970s with its LP-12 turntable. When the CD was introduced in the early 1980s, Linn was a massive digital basher. The company spearheaded an anti-CD movement in the audiophile community. It wasn't just Linn; a sizable percentage of audiophiles worldwide didn't buy CD players through most of the 1980s.
Now, they're calling it quits.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Video Online: Hulu's Traffic Is Exploding, 4Q Nearly Sold Out
Silicon Valley Insider/Ad AgeTraffic to the video site backed by NBC, ABC and Fox spiked nearly 47% in October from the prior month, the biggest single-month percentage gain of the past year. And the rise is fueled by the fall TV season and new ABC shows being added to its library.
Hulu served 856 million video streams during the month, up from 583 million in September, according to comScore Video Metrix. Unique visitors were also up nearly 10% to 42.5 million, from 38.7 million in September.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Sirius Gets Serious About New Howard Stern Deal
ReutersFive years ago, Sirius lured shock jock Howard Stern to satellite radio with an astounding $500 million contract. The contract is up and Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, facing financial challenges, has to decide if the self-proclaimed King of All Media is worth the money.
Stern is one of the biggest draws of Sirius XM's satellite radio service, which counts 18.5 million subscribers. His decision to exit FM radio for Sirius in 2004 is credited with establishing satellite radio as an established form of media. But some analysts claim high-priced contracts like Stern's contributed to financial woes that pushed Sirius to the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Sony's Plans For Recovery
From Cnet.com/NY TIMESThe company says it will create an online network that pipes its films, music, games and other content to its TVs, Walkmans and PlayStation game machines.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Top 5 Best MP3 Players
From Cnet.comThe company says it will create an online network that pipes its films, music, games and other content to its TVs, Walkmans and PlayStation game machines. There's no one-size-fits-all MP3 player that's perfect for everybody. Some people need a small MP3 player for the gym, while others need tablet-size players with wide-screen video playback. Whatever your interests are, these five MP3 players broadly represent our current favorite portable music gadgets.
If you're looking for your first MP3 player and you want to start at square one, then take a look at CNET's MP3 player buying guide.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Black Friday Sales Were Up ... But Not Much
From MediaPost.comThe final sales tally for Black Friday weekend may not be what retailers hoped for, but parts of it set new records. Overall, ShopperTrak is reporting that weekend retail sales increased 1.6%, while shopper traffic actually declined 1.1% in the three-day period.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Celebs, Social Nets & Savings Reign In '09
GoogleblogFrom Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga to Facebook and its Spanish counterpart Tuenti, 2009 was a year dominated by celebrity and social media, according to Google's annual Zeitgeist report. The report draws a direct correlation between consumer searches and cultural prominence around the globe.
"It's because of curious searchers like you and the billions of searches you do throughout the year, that our annual Zeitgeist has become an insightful look into a global mindset," said Marissa Mayer, VP/Search Products and User Experience at Google. In the U.S. specifically, 2009 also saw many people express their thrifty consciousness in response to the sour economy.
Read more about it by clicking here.
JACKSON DOCUMENTARY BEING READIED FOR JANUARY DVD RELEASE
"This Is It," the Michael Jackson concert film, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on Jan. 26, 2010.
PEAS ROLL IN 2010
The Black-Eyed Peas have announced a 100-date tour starting on February 4th in Atlanta, and ending on April 11th in Vancouver, B.C.
PERRY GIVES TO GRAMMY
SanDisk Corp. has teamed up with Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry in a philanthropic effort for the Grammy Foundation's Grammy in the Schools music education program. For every slotRadio card sold between now and Jan. 31st, SanDisk will donate $1 to the Grammy Foundation.
CHASING THE iPHONE
Fremont, Calif.-based HipLogic has developed a mobile application that promises to provide a more iPhone-like experience on other phones. The platform offers cell users a more user-friendly interface providing Web access, content, social networking and apps. It also optimizes data traffic on cellular networks.
WOOD ARRESTED
Rolling Stones' guitarist Ron Wood, 62, was arrested in England this week after he allegedly assaulted his 21-year-old girlfriend.
CHER DOES 100
This week, Cher celebrated her 100th show at Caesar's palace in Las Vegas. The Pussycat Dolls entertained Cher and crew at an after-show party to commemorate the occasion.
WELL, THAT EXPLAINS IT
ExploreMusic.com reports that the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan "seems to have uncovered why he can be such a moody guy. He blames lead and mercury poisoning for some of his mood problems."
QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK
Is Steven Tyler going to stay in Aerosmith or not? Is the band going to wait for him to get his act together?
Quotes of the week
"My album covers are not sexual at all, which was an issue at my record label. I fought for months, and I cried at meetings. They didn't think the photos were commercial enough ...The last thing a young woman needs is another picture of a sexy pop star writhing in sand, covered in grease, touching herself."
-- Lady GaGa in ELLE magazine"I don't like vampires. I don't like the wolf that pops out of the screen when I'm watching my TV at night. I don't like it. I don't want anything to do with it. I don't like the shirts. I don't like any of it."
-- Miley Cyrus, taking a bite out of the New Moon Soundtrack"We're talking about Mariah Carey. Of course she loves to hear herself."
-- Nick Cannon, on listening to his wife's music at home."We are still trying to figure it out. Steven has made it pretty clear; he wants to go off and do what he wants to do. But the band isn't going to wait around. Aerosmith is too good a band to sit around and twiddle their thumbs."
-- Areosmith's Joe Perry talking about the band's frontman, Steven Tyler, in Rolling Stone.""Steven Tyler is one of the most talented artists that I ever worked with. It's possible that he'd be successful doing something else, but I think the big success would always be with Aerosmith. Twenty years ago, Mick Jagger tried this and it was a disaster, and he's one of the biggest stars of all time. It just doesn't work that way. Lou Gram, Steve Perry, all of these incredibly talented singers ... a band is a certain unique entity that people want to go see pay their money for and love their music."
-- Former Aerosmith A&R man, John Kalodner in Rolling Stone. Amen to that, John.
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners
WASHINGTON-Amid continued reports detailing the CIA's use of loud music to torture detainees at Guantánamo Bay, pop-culture elitists from across the country gathered in the nation's capital Monday to protest the uninspired song selections employed in the brutal treatment of inmates.
"To remain silent about the abhorrent methods used to interrogate alleged enemy combatants would be a betrayal of the ideals we hold most dear," said New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, a spokesperson for the loose coalition of music snobs. "I mean, 'Enter Sandman,' from Metallica's 1991 self-titled album? Really? Not to say there isn't some classic stuff on the torture playlist, but even my 12-year-old nephew would choose something a little more unexpected than Nine Inch Nails to shatter an utterly demoralized man's already tenuous grip on reality."
Read the rest here and laugh: http://tinyurl.com/yesfb9u.
THE RADIO INTERVIEW on 'THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE' - From newsblaze.com
"Steve Meyer is on the front line of global music sales and distribution which he expects will soar to pocket-bursting levels. What's more, he shares his insight and ingenuity with us. Steve gives us both historical perspective and futuristic vision as he chats with Judy about the love of his work, trends of the business and his personal points of view about success, happiness and blending life with the lust for life. Steve joins Judy and helps us discover the thrill of having it all with a sense of balance and purpose. "
You can listen to an interview I did with Judy Piazza of 'The American Perspective' by clicking here: (It runs about 15 minutes)
http://www.thesop.org/index.php?id=10306.
The Blogs
Check out Jerry Del Colliano's (the founder of INSIDE RADIO) daily blog, by clicking here: http://www.insidemusicmedia.blogspot.comWebsite
Check out attorney Ray Beckerman's website at: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com where he prints news about the RIAA's ongoing activities
TinyURL
Check out www.tinyurl.com where you can make a smaller URL that will work for any webpage you wish to link to or reference. (As you can see, I'm using it in my news stories above!)
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