Weblog
09/22/01 10:26 PM: Radio hits
You know what is interesting?
This is of course way off any topic that I had been previously discussing, but hey.
The way that “hits” are basically manufactured by the record industry and the radio/tv networks. This is probabally obvious to most people, but it is still interesting. For example, when U2’s new album, “All that you can’t leave behind” came out, the first hit was Beautiful Day. This was released first, and hyped like crazy. When I bought the CD, I listened to the whole thing and predicted that “Stuck in a moment,” “Walk On,” and “Elevation” would later become hits (some already were, but still the point remains). Wow, sure enough I called that one. It happens so systematically. The album comes out with one hit, a few weeks later, they start hyping up another track. If they are lucky they can do this a couple times, with 3-4 different songs on the album. I was listening to the radio and they start playing “Stuck in a moment” and call it a “new hit from U2.” This happens all the time. Sometimes, they will take songs that everyone says are bad when the album first comes out, but if they play it enough and they make a video for it, it will also become a hit. Strange.
Sort of like Radiohead’s Amnesiac. The day it came out, I bought it and gave it a listen. I’ll be honest, I was sort of unimpressed when I first heard Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box. However, I don’t know what happened, but now I love the album. Same with Kid A. I don’t understand it.
Oh well.
I have some things that need attending to. This scares the hell out of me.
