tamarisk
January 31st, 2004, 12:11 AM
by Omar Cutajar
Friday, January 30, 2004
This new year is bound to feature a very busy music calendar with a host of high profile concerts scheduled within the upcoming twelve months. Last year, the music scenario was graced with the releases of breakthrough albums as well as career albums containing the greatest hits that propelled the interested bands and artists to success. The greatest hits albums of REM and Red Hot Chili Peppers are just a couple amongst a larger foray of career albums released last year.
Greatest Hits albums are usually compiled when high flying bands decide to call it a day. Nevertheless this is not always the rule, considering how a number of artists release greatest hits albums sometimes in a half-baked attempt to revamp their otherwise stultified career path.
Sometimes, such a contrived career booster might really work their way but as other occasions have amply proved it might simply backfire since the wider public deems the whole charade a curtain puller on the last act of the show. Whatever the market contraption behind the release of Greatest Hits albums, it is evident that this is becoming an ever more popular resort due to the suffocating competition holding up the entire international music scenario.
Undoubtedly, it is becoming ever more imperative for artists to assert themselves continuously on the media by securing their space and consequently, that degree of exposure fundamental for infusing self-awareness whilst boosting their market profile. At the end of the day, anything is justified as long as the ultimate aim of securing one's own media niche is attained. Admittedly, such a utilitarian strategy can easily degenerate into tactics that do not refrain from tapping controversial matters as long as the band or singer in question enjoys the media limelight. The overriding point is that exposure has to be achieved at whatever the moral cost.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that more conventional methods are no longer used or that such methods have been completely discarded. Rather, nowadays the music scene is more volatile and yet also substantially versatile enough to tap new marketing techniques without letting go of more traditional ideas. Consequently, concerts remain indefatigable fixtures loyal to their original raison d'etre and important cornerstones in artists' careers. Concerts are not simply a media platform but also a profitable way of maintaining that vital contact with at least with the loyal core fans.
Concerts require a lot of hardous work because of tight schedules and the need to gauge the right location for holding the concert in terms of organisational work, media interest and profit returns in ticket sales. Admittedly, emerging bands usually await their baptism of fire before engaging on exhaustive continent-wide if not world tours in pursuit of long-term renown.
Fame is maintained by securing a loyal fan base and this is nowhere more important when it comes to upcoming artists who need to spread their catchall net as far as possible. In our time and age, distance is steadily acquiring a more salient interpretation considering how thanks to the internet and modern technology, physical disctance is becoming an ephemeral concept giving way instead to virtual distance where direct contact is increasingly retreating from the everyday music parlance.
Meanwhile, Red Hot Chili Peppers who had released their Greatest Hits album at the end of 2003 featuring a compilation of their 20-year career are the first band to announce their 2004 round of concerts. Their live gigs fixtures will start off in the UK precisely with a concert at the 85,000 capacity Hyde Park to be also broadcast live on BBC Radio 1. This kick-off concert will be quickly followed up by a string of other concerts with so far definite venues and dates being the following: Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on June 13 and the City of Manchester Stadium on June 18.
Friday, January 30, 2004
This new year is bound to feature a very busy music calendar with a host of high profile concerts scheduled within the upcoming twelve months. Last year, the music scenario was graced with the releases of breakthrough albums as well as career albums containing the greatest hits that propelled the interested bands and artists to success. The greatest hits albums of REM and Red Hot Chili Peppers are just a couple amongst a larger foray of career albums released last year.
Greatest Hits albums are usually compiled when high flying bands decide to call it a day. Nevertheless this is not always the rule, considering how a number of artists release greatest hits albums sometimes in a half-baked attempt to revamp their otherwise stultified career path.
Sometimes, such a contrived career booster might really work their way but as other occasions have amply proved it might simply backfire since the wider public deems the whole charade a curtain puller on the last act of the show. Whatever the market contraption behind the release of Greatest Hits albums, it is evident that this is becoming an ever more popular resort due to the suffocating competition holding up the entire international music scenario.
Undoubtedly, it is becoming ever more imperative for artists to assert themselves continuously on the media by securing their space and consequently, that degree of exposure fundamental for infusing self-awareness whilst boosting their market profile. At the end of the day, anything is justified as long as the ultimate aim of securing one's own media niche is attained. Admittedly, such a utilitarian strategy can easily degenerate into tactics that do not refrain from tapping controversial matters as long as the band or singer in question enjoys the media limelight. The overriding point is that exposure has to be achieved at whatever the moral cost.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that more conventional methods are no longer used or that such methods have been completely discarded. Rather, nowadays the music scene is more volatile and yet also substantially versatile enough to tap new marketing techniques without letting go of more traditional ideas. Consequently, concerts remain indefatigable fixtures loyal to their original raison d'etre and important cornerstones in artists' careers. Concerts are not simply a media platform but also a profitable way of maintaining that vital contact with at least with the loyal core fans.
Concerts require a lot of hardous work because of tight schedules and the need to gauge the right location for holding the concert in terms of organisational work, media interest and profit returns in ticket sales. Admittedly, emerging bands usually await their baptism of fire before engaging on exhaustive continent-wide if not world tours in pursuit of long-term renown.
Fame is maintained by securing a loyal fan base and this is nowhere more important when it comes to upcoming artists who need to spread their catchall net as far as possible. In our time and age, distance is steadily acquiring a more salient interpretation considering how thanks to the internet and modern technology, physical disctance is becoming an ephemeral concept giving way instead to virtual distance where direct contact is increasingly retreating from the everyday music parlance.
Meanwhile, Red Hot Chili Peppers who had released their Greatest Hits album at the end of 2003 featuring a compilation of their 20-year career are the first band to announce their 2004 round of concerts. Their live gigs fixtures will start off in the UK precisely with a concert at the 85,000 capacity Hyde Park to be also broadcast live on BBC Radio 1. This kick-off concert will be quickly followed up by a string of other concerts with so far definite venues and dates being the following: Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on June 13 and the City of Manchester Stadium on June 18.