> You realize very quickly it’s not really about the marketing. People get to decide what music they like, and do.
I am not convinced. And it isn't about a conspiracy. These are sort of emergent phenomena and statistics. It doesn't mean every single pop song marketed in the same way will be a success. But I guarantee that there is correlation between major studios and their marketing and the average success of their songs. There's also other aspects such as paid advertising occurring in a song's lyrics and music videos, and this happens in movies as well. See: https://www.mic.com/articles/118974/pop-music-is-more-about-.... And that was several years ago. I imagine that's even worse these days. It certainly is for movies, but I don't listen to enough popular music to know.
A lot of this is about catching waves of sentiment and taste. The same thing happens in other industries, like fashion or furniture. For example, right now, you'll find a lot of furniture items coming in this sort of dusty rose pink. It feels like it came out of nowhere. So there's a snowball effect to how tastes change but then who can ride that and market towards where it's headed. I think that is as much as a part of a song's success than it's songwriting. Then there's a self-sustaining aspect of it, like that found in Max Martin's work. He's the goto guy, so artists go to him, so then people listen to his music, and then he remains the goto guy. His main talent, more so than his songwriting and production skills, is his ability to ride these waves of sentiment I mentioned. Couple that with the self-sustaining aspect, and you get his career.
I have watched several interviews of Kpop producers, many of which are western. They explicitly state that the songs they sell to the Kpop industry would not get bought and marketed in the U.S. by studios and artists. Yet, there are plenty of people who love Kpop music, and when people are introduced to it, they love it. So I believe those songs could be liked in the U.S. by western artists, but they aren't marketed.
It takes a lot of work to find good music that you like, and it almost never is on the figurative radio.
I am not convinced. And it isn't about a conspiracy. These are sort of emergent phenomena and statistics. It doesn't mean every single pop song marketed in the same way will be a success. But I guarantee that there is correlation between major studios and their marketing and the average success of their songs. There's also other aspects such as paid advertising occurring in a song's lyrics and music videos, and this happens in movies as well. See: https://www.mic.com/articles/118974/pop-music-is-more-about-.... And that was several years ago. I imagine that's even worse these days. It certainly is for movies, but I don't listen to enough popular music to know.
A lot of this is about catching waves of sentiment and taste. The same thing happens in other industries, like fashion or furniture. For example, right now, you'll find a lot of furniture items coming in this sort of dusty rose pink. It feels like it came out of nowhere. So there's a snowball effect to how tastes change but then who can ride that and market towards where it's headed. I think that is as much as a part of a song's success than it's songwriting. Then there's a self-sustaining aspect of it, like that found in Max Martin's work. He's the goto guy, so artists go to him, so then people listen to his music, and then he remains the goto guy. His main talent, more so than his songwriting and production skills, is his ability to ride these waves of sentiment I mentioned. Couple that with the self-sustaining aspect, and you get his career.
I have watched several interviews of Kpop producers, many of which are western. They explicitly state that the songs they sell to the Kpop industry would not get bought and marketed in the U.S. by studios and artists. Yet, there are plenty of people who love Kpop music, and when people are introduced to it, they love it. So I believe those songs could be liked in the U.S. by western artists, but they aren't marketed.
It takes a lot of work to find good music that you like, and it almost never is on the figurative radio.