MajesticLion
Veteran
To validate their ongoing value to the labels funding them/their next project(s), yes.
We can easily tell where that mindset has led since those days.
You are Not an A&R in the Music Industry, Stop Talking About Metrics
- Thread starter Low End Derrick
- Start date
To validate their ongoing value to the labels funding them/their next project(s), yes.
We can easily tell where that mindset has led since those days.
RickyDiBiase
aka Hash Brown Hands
The fukking gospel
I never understood why fans act like sales mean anything
I never understood why fans act like sales mean anything
Not sure what you're saying, but a change in production and rap styles, notwithstanding, Hip Hop has been talking about the same thing for ~50 years.
Hip Hop has always valorized and glamourized
- Consumerism
- Luxury Goods Consumption
- Violence
- Misogyny
- Reckless and negative behavior
Rappers, and fans, telling folks how many records have been sold, how many spins they get, how they sell out on tour - that's like the least "problematic" thing about a genre primarily built on braggadocio.
Now that we got a lot of old people, do gooders with platforms, and failed artists with zero fans - suddenly the genre is the problem?
*shrugs*
People look back on the past with rose tinted Cazal's
MajesticLion
Veteran
I'm speaking on the idea of metrics as a measure of "success" and the labels pushing artists to bicker with their own people...and lives have been lost because of it.
Your "recklessness and negative behavior" point.
The amount of tap dancing that that mindset has led to speaks for itself.
And I already mentioned the EPMD example. You can go through the classic era and find all types of rappers talking about ticket sales, selling out shows, record sales, radio spins...
And if you want to get conspiratorial with it, plenty of Label shenanigans ran with this stuff as well.
Some labels were notorious for sending street teams into physical record stores to buy multiple copies of a record for Sound Scan to boost numbers, because those boosted numbers help get radio play and mainstream press attention.
When I was coming up, Tupac and Biggie both got killed over some hip hop label BS.
That was 30 years ago.
It's always been like this.
The only difference is that old heads don't like current music.
This was always where it was gonna go.
There are plenty of undiscovered J. Coles and Coast Contras etc - making music that's not all murder, murder, murder and kill kill kill, or W.A.P - and most of the time, cats are not trying to hear it.
It is what it is.
And least be happy that the actual black community has been experiencing a downward trend in murder/crime and teenage pregnancy over the past 30 years.
It's always been fiction, just more and more of it.
I don't know any sector of life were people don't talk about the business behind the hobby. That's from watches to wrestling to fashion to sports.
BK The Great
Veteran
And that’s why it’s all fukked up now. Let it go back to the talent again.
Because numbers are objective and measurable. It’s one of the true ways to determine if a product is successful. Regardless of the media form.
Also fans are going to follow their favorite artists regardless. If the artists cares about numbers then fans for sure are going to start using the metric. Word to EPMD, Pac, Big, Jay, 50, Ye, Kendrick, Drake, Wayne etc
Also if your favorite mainstream artist isn't doing well commercially you're going to see and hear less of them.
Tommy Gibbs
Superstar
It's the dumbest shyt ever. I've never bought an album simply because it sold a lot. If that's the case, I would have been buying Nsynce and Backstreet boys records in the 90s.
