An album is released, singles are promoted on the radio, and an extensive tour starts and ends. After all the chaos comes time for the artist(s) to rest, recharge, and reinvent themselves. They want to be better than they were before. They want to release the new music that shares the new experiences, influences, and inspirations they have found.
Time is absolutely crucial in the industry for everyone. If you are the artist, you’re trying to please your fans by releasing new music. If you are the person at the record label, you’re trying to keep the momentum of releases going. If you are a concert promoter, you’re focusing on all the events that are planned and could be planned. Everyone works hard and it all becomes a cycle, but what happens to an artist’s career when their time away from the scene is too long?
I want to highlight a word I used in my introduction: REINVENT. Artists are always releasing content that is different from their previous efforts. Some explore outside of their comfort zone. Some use new tactics to market themselves. Some have unexpected releases to create impactful surprises. Having time to work on all of this is great, but taking too much time could negatively impact the career of the artist.
I want to use the example of Kesha (popularly known as Ke$ha). The early 2010s were full of hits for her. Her accomplishments are impressive. She had the first #1 album of the 2010s era, her debut single, “Tik Tok,” is one of the best-selling digital singles of all time, and she has sold over 33 million records (albums, tracks, and ringtones) in the United States and 60 million records worldwide as of 2013. In addition, she brought auto-tune out of the shadows and used it to her advantage to be distinguished from her peers. For many years, alternating vocals has had a bad reputation because it is said to make artists lose talent. But for her, it all worked. The numbers were great and no stopping was in sight. Then she took time off to focus on her personal problems and the legal battles started to pour in. At one point, her lawsuit stated that “her window as a viable pop star shrinks with each month she’s unable to release new music.” People are forgetting her and with more time passing by, the bigger the struggle it is going to be for her to come back into the spotlight.
Another example this year is JoJo. Her recent release, Mad Love., is golden. Personally speaking, it is one of the best albums of the year because of the great talent she delivers and the diversity that she showcases from beginning to end. The various messages and meanings make this sonically-ple
asing record personal and relatable. Its debut on the Billboard 200 was not as strong as I had liked, but it still managed to debut at #6. I was not surprised at all, but what came after enraged me. On its second week out, it had dropped from #6 to #111 and on the third week, it was completely off the charts. In this situation, I blame the long 10 years between her 2006 release, The High Road, and this one. She unsuccessfully stayed active in between by releasing mixtapes that came and went in the blink of an eye. Other than that, there was no presence.
If you’re not a follower of the music industry, I hope this post will break it all down to make it easy to understand. Nowadays, people listen to whatever they come across. There is an abundance of music because of how accessible music has become thanks to technology (YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes Music, etc.). This causes for us to easily forget about artists and their music. We’re always looking for the next big thing and once found, we move on to do it all over again. This is why time is crucial for artists. They must stay active either through social media or partnerships to retain your attention. If not, the challenge will be big for everyone in an artist’s team when future releases are planned. The artist’s team must find the right song, the right way to promote it, and heavily promote the music that the artist is about to release in order to create the buzz that will lead to the vital word-of-mouth marketing. Music professionals cannot depend on the once-established popularity of an artist and expect it to last forever. If a long break is experienced, the establishment of an artist must be developed once again from the bottom up.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesha
http://shepherdexpress.com/article-28298-concert-review-kesha-and-the-creepies-a-the-rave.html
Power In The Music 