In the guide’s weekly solution! column, we look at an important pop-culture question you’ve been burning it up to know the answer to — and solve it
Whatever you think of Kanye West, he remains hip-hop’s greatest salesman. Their three pre-release stadium listening parties ensured that Donda, their third sub-par album, began with an unwanted bang. But even his frenzied self-promotion doesn’t land him at the top table in promotional history.
The origin of the word lies in crime. In the 1920s, a promotion was one that petrified customers. In the music business of the 60s, publicity meant chart positions through shady means. Now the term is generally applied to legal activity but it should still describe the difference between hype and reality: the phrase “lives up to the hype” is oxymoronic. If propaganda delivers on its promises, it is no longer propaganda; This is just great marketing. Take Michael Jackson in the 90s. He may have been guilty of astonishing pride when his team demanded that he be referred to as the “King of Pop” and that a 10-metre-high statue of MJ be carried down the Thames, but his hit collection history remains the most. Became the double selling album of all time. work done.
Genuine propaganda should end in failure and embarrassment, as The Notorious Case of Suffolk Rock Band Brinsley Schwarz. In 1970, their aptly named managers Famepushers Ltd paid a fortune to blow up scores of British journalists for an iconic show in New York. But the jet had to make an emergency landing in Ireland, leaving Hack stuck in a free bar. They were either hungry or still drunk when they reached the venue at the last minute. The stunt guaranteed a sour reception for the show and debut album; The band had paid off their record label debt 34 years ago.
In Hollywood, the peak (or nadir) of hype remains 1998 godzilla movie. Forbes reported that TriStar Pictures spent $50 million on marketing and its commercial partners, including Taco Bell, and $150 million, thus exceeding the film’s entire production budget. Between a saturated billboard campaign (“Size does Matter”) and 3,000 branded products, from pizza to batteries, there was no escape. The (terrible) film made a profit, but not enough to justify a sequel or replace the action figures, and is remembered as a colossal waste of time and money.
The cash-drunk period just before the dotcom crash (the result of the hype itself) was filled with costly disappointments, from Be Here Now to The Phantom Menace to the massacre of Woodstock 99, but even they turned out to be multi-billion. Let’s look at the benign—now generated by tech companies—dollar hype: At this point, the most serious of the hype should be one that associates showbusiness with Silicon Valley snake oil, thus rendering the term somewhat devious in its original definition. Restores form – something with the victims.
Enter the 2017 Fair Festival, an era-defining scam Inspired by the hot air of Instagram influencers and tech-bro bullshit. A once-in-a-lifetime experience for all the wrong reasons, it failed to deliver tolerable food and accommodation, let alone music, and jailed blowhard promoter Billy McFarland for wire fraud. There are people who enjoyed Godzilla, or had fun at Woodstock 99, but not a single soul who has had a great time at the Faire. Brinsley Schwarz is lightly out.