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How the Internet Killed Carly Rae Jepsen

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Mr_Appleby said:
I do! there's a really interesting argument about how the length of albums has increased purely to fill the available space on a CD and some people think that's been detrimental to the medium (of albums) overall as more mediocre tracks make the cut purely to fill space.
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Maybe on rap CD's. Indie stuff and most rock releases that I buy are anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes.
 
Kusagari said:
Of the three artists that dominated this year - fun., Carly and Gotye - it seems like only fun. will actually stick around as a mainstay on the radio.
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I don't like that I like Fun, but all 3 of the singles actually sound different and fuck if they aren't really listenable music. I'm listening to Carry On right now.
 
Kusagari said:
Of the three artists that dominated this year - fun., Carly and Gotye - it seems like only fun. will actually stick around as a mainstay on the radio.
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Gotye was winning awards worldwide back almost 6 years and has released 3 albums.

That song that made him "famous" is, like, a year and a half old. America is just behind the ball when it comes to music made anywhere outside of North America or England.
 
She killed herself. focused too much on call me maybe, plus took way too long for her album. we've all moved on to gangnam style.

albums are dead anyway. people only care about singles.
 
One hit wonders are nothing new - I don't think her being memefied had too much impact on her success or lack of.

AlexMeloche said:
The album was released waaaay too late after Call Me Baby. A few months sooner and it would have been a hit.
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She was on a world tour after one successful single. That's pretty lame, turning up around the world to pimp 3 minutes of audio. If you have what you suspect is a hit, sit on it for a while until you can back it up with some more releases and build momentum up.

Korey said:
Who buys albums these days?
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I listen to albums thanks to streaming subscriptions.
 
Quick said:
I think this is the problem. If she had a more mature sound, I think people would like her more.

On another note, Bucket is a good song by her, quite catchy.
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Yeah before this Call Me Maybe shit, she actually used to be kinda more of a poppy singer songwriter style with real instruments, now she's synth and autotuned like hell to fit the current trends
 
NYR said:
Gotye was winning awards worldwide back almost 6 years and has released 3 albums.

That song that made him "famous" is, like, a year and a half old. America is just behind the ball when it comes to music made anywhere outside of North America or England.
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And? I know that.

None of his songs, besides Somebody I Used to Know, ever topped any charts before. That was the point.
 
NYR said:
Gotye was winning awards worldwide back almost 6 years and has released 3 albums.

That song that made him "famous" is, like, a year and a half old. America is just behind the ball when it comes to music made anywhere outside of North America or England.
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Yep, he's an indie artist, not 'manufactured'. I still don't understand how Somebody got so big (especially considering that Heart's a Mess is miles better).
 
I can't wait for her to go away. I like This Kiss but her music is unremarkable and generic tbh.
Still jam to Good Time tho.
 
Supermanisdead said:
Tie between these 2 masterpieces:

Born to Die - Lana Del Rey
Devotion - Jessie Ware
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Wuthering_Heights said:
The correct answer.

So freakin' good.
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eE1Th.gif
 
Sometimes one hit wonders are remembered more fondly than one or two album wonders. I assume people will look back on Carly Rae Jepsen the same way they do Donna Lewis, and that's just fine.
 
Antiochus said:
http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/10/22/carly-rae-jepsen-kiss

Long story short, how and why we consume popular music in the last decade has drastically and radically compared to even 15-20 years ago. Whatever semblances of personal, intellectual, or even spiritual investment we may have had with a particular song are now blow to the ether, either replaced within a rampant, viral meme making machinery or an utilitarian context where we merely enjoy a single as a passing fancy that anchors part of working lives without nary a thought, attachment, or curiosity.
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maybe this is true when you're limiting yourself to top 40 tunes but it's definitely possible to form true connection to a song nowadays if you listen to anything even slightly out of the mainstream. actually no, it's even possible to form connection to mainstream songs. just because not everyone does doesn't mean that current marketing strategies and the modern pop star system absolutely preclude that.
As a personal addendum, the dirty little secret is that both media and industry insiders do not actually want to have a sustainable model that nurtures and builds genuine pop artists of talent. What can be quickly acquired, extracted, and spun off are what's preferred.
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this is dirty but not a secret.
Her debut, Kiss, has been out for more than a month — and is fantastic, living up to all its inspirations and more — but as of Oct. 10, not even 100,000 people bought it.
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its quality is debatable for one, but more importantly album sales reflecting only a fraction of single popularity is not a new thing as far as I know
But the meme’s not about Jepsen; it’s about her song, and she is secondary. The past few years alone have plenty of examples of artists who, once memed, later on get maimed. They’re people like Kreayshawn, who thanks to a pair of Minnie Mouse ears and a songful of catchphrases, had $1 million thrown at an album whose title, Somethin’ Bout Kreay, didn’t even seem to convince itself, let alone buyers, and whose low sales are currently being pilloried everywhere. Or, right now, like Korean rapper Psy; though the “Gangnam Style” craze has produced entire libraries’ worth of Gangnam style guides, and field reports of every D-list celebrity who could be convinced to be televised dancing like a horse, and now Halloween costumes, there’s precious little being written outside K-pop circles about his other music, of which there’s a decade’s worth.
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none of this is new either. so many artists have been secondary to their songs, and so many world music hits have not parlayed themselves into importing the entire genre to other areas. not how things work.
Kiss is the best pop album of the year, and nobody is listening. It didn’t have to be this good, or good at all. It’d have been easy to dress Jepsen up in some secondhand Dr. Luke tracks and rush an album. But improbably, miraculously, everyone involved in Kiss went in not trying to cash in on “Call Me Maybe” but replicate it. [...] It’s quite the feat: she’s made an album equally embraceable by crushed-out preteens and those who merely remember those days. There’s nothing guilty about its pleasures except their obscurity, which is crazy. Kiss is wonderful; hear it maybe.
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once again: this is debatable. good review, makes the album sound good, sure. but the fact that this reviewer thinks this album is good does not mean that the pop music system is completely broken. quality and popularity have never ever ever correlated in a single medium ever ever.

in summary: a bunch of sky-is-falling short-sighted remarks with a decent review of an album that may or may not actually be worth hearing in the last paragraph. (I should give it a spin though)
LeBrick James said:
What is the best pop album of the year?

I'm curious.
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top 40s or including indie pop? because to butt in, personally this year I've enjoyed work from: Jessie Ware, Alt-J, AlunaGeorge, Chairlift, Charli XCX, Grimes, Hot Chip, MNDR, Passion Pit, Purity Ring and Summer Camp. Some of those are farther outside pop boundaries, others are pretty solidly in it (like Summer Camp). All are way worth listening to.
krameriffic said:
I don't like that I like Fun, but all 3 of the singles actually sound different and fuck if they aren't really listenable music. I'm listening to Carry On right now.
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Do me and yourself a favor and listen to their first album. 100x better than the over-processed bricolage of Some Nights. straight-up chamber pop with excellent lyrics and insane listenability.
pmj said:
It's unfortunately not up to me what we listen to.
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you are forbidden by your work from buying an ipod and headphones?
ThanksVision said:
Love a few tracks off both of these but they were extremely inconsistent in my opinion.
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Agree on both, but I think Ware's album delivers a lot more on its promises than LDR's disappointment of a record.
 
Quick said:
I think this is the problem. If she had a more mature sound, I think people would like her more.

On another note, Bucket is a good song by her, quite catchy.
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Wow, great tune! She's a beauty too. I'll have to check out her other material. Maybe I just have a thing for this girl, hah.
 
big ander said:
Do me and yourself a favor and listen to their first album. 100x better than the over-processed bricolage of Some Nights. straight-up chamber pop with excellent lyrics and insane listenability.
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I definitely agree with this. I don't hate Some Nights, but Aim and Ignite is just so much better it's absurd.
 
I don't think the internet can be blamed for this. I feel like there was a LOT more one-hit-wonders before the internet really took off.

I'm remembering Baja Men with "Who Let the Dogs Out", Afro Man with "Cause I Got High", that Chumbawumba "I get knocked down" song, "How Bizzarre" in the 90's, Crazy Town's stupid "Butterfly" song, etc.
 
ReturnOfTheRAT said:
Maybe on rap CD's. Indie stuff and most rock releases that I buy are anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes.
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yeah it's just an argument and mostly put forth by people used to LP length records. I don't really agree with it myself, just putting it out as an earlier example of "the sky is falling", much like the article in the OP
 
Antiochus said:
As a personal addendum, the dirty little secret is that both media and industry insiders do not actually want to have a sustainable model that nurtures and builds genuine pop artists of talent. What can be quickly acquired, extracted, and spun off are what's preferred.
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I dont get this. Why wouldn't the industry want to keep artists that can be build up and sell more as they are known and their careers age?

Most of the pop acts that are out right now have been in the game for years, it was only the first half of 2012 that was full of unknowns.
 
big ander said:
Agree on both, but I think Ware's album delivers a lot more on its promises than LDR's disappointment of a record.
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Definitely. Good call on the AlunaGeorge mention as well, that thing has front-runner 2013 AOTY contender written all over it.


Speaking of quality POP, whatever this song ends up coming from will be AOTF.
 
Artemisia said:
oops, still wrong

Fiona-Apple-The-Idler-Wheel.jpg
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The album is a lyrical retread, adding no thematic weight to her oeuvre. It's a good album with some spectacular songs (Left Alone and Hot Knife were immediate standouts to me), but the album is inferior to its immediate predecessors and doesn't really prove to me that Fiona has grown as a songwriter or as a person in the past decade and a half. She's still wailing away about adolescent love.
 
I would have thought Kiss being a completely disposable album without any great songs outside of Call Me Maybe would be what killed Carly Rae Jepsen.
 
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