Here’s your music fiasco for this week… Most of the biggest pop music success stories of the last year — loosely the quarantine era in the United States — owe at least some of their success to TikTok, the social video app that’s become the most seamless and effective promotional mechanism in the music business. It is also necessitating changes in how songs get made. In some cases, performers are trying out ideas on the platform to see if they catch on. In other cases, major labels are signing new artists with suddenly viral hits and adding superstars to remixes in hopes of boosting their profile. Twitter: @nytimes
Quite a lot has been going on:
Addison Rae on Her Pop Reinvention and Debut Single ‘Obsessed’ | Vogue Debut singles are the musical equivalent of an introduction. The great ones— ‘Baby One More Time’ , ‘Royals’, ‘Crazy in Love’—can put an artist’s full potential on display while foreshadowing all that’s yet to come. These milestones often occur when the performer is completely unknown or launching a solo act, but what happens when a star who’s already well-known in one medium makes the jump into pop? The question is one Addison Rae has been considering. Rae’s foray into music may come as a surprise to some, but she’s been hard at work on her new tracks since last year. Involved in each part of the process, she’s thrown herself into songwriting and recording. “From the beginning, I wanted to make sure that I was writing my own music,” she says. “I remember jotting down lyrics when I was little and trying to figure out how to make them a song, [now] I’m learning every detail and from amazing songwriters.” From Publisher: Vogue
All The Best New Pop Music From This Week This week in the best new pop music saw some exciting endeavors. Selena Gomez dropped her first Spanish-language project, Nick Jonas returned with another solo LP, and Blackpink ‘s Rosé kicked off her solo career. Selena Gomez’s anticipated Spanish-language EP Revelación debuted this week, and with it came the playful tune “Dámelo To” with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. Over subdued-yet-bouncy beat, Gomez passionately delivers lines about the joy of saying her lover’s name. logo From Publisher: UPROXX
The Power of Céline Dion and how Falling into You Changed Pop Music Forever | Following the opening montage, Dion ran out onstage, embraced Winfrey warmly, and launched into a performance of her Oscar-nominated song. Minimal backing production spotlighted the stratospheric heights of Dion’s voice at centre stage. The camera panned to Winfrey, hand firmly pressed to her cheek. She rocked back and forth in her seat, singing along, her eyes misty, the emotional reaction reflective of Dion’s capacity to pierce the softest, most vulnerable parts of the heart. It’s heartwarming watch, but, more than anything, the episode stands as a portrait of Dion during a pivotal moment in her career, bridging her years of hard work as a young Francophone singer with her rise to prominence as one of pop music’s most accomplished vocalists. From Publisher: Elle Canada
Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’: How It Changed Pop | Billboard Testimony from Skrillex, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Alison Wonderland and more Daft Punk acolytes guides Billboard’s analysis of the many ways their 2001 sophomore album changed the course of popular music over the 20 years since. They sporadically released game-changing music and spent the rest of their time in the shadows. Each of their four studio albums was a Rosetta Stone tossed into the primordial soup, rippling outward, sending aftershock after aftershock through popular music and culture. From Publisher: Billboard
Top 10 Video Game Soundtracks With The Best Usage of Licensed Pop Music The 2021 Grammy Awards was a rousing success despite being held somewhat less traditionally this year due to the pandemic.
