Royals

It just went to number one.

Yes, Katy Perry boxed on the VMAs. Miley Cyrus showed everything but her box. But the woman with the most infectious track, who neither looks like a model nor acts like one, who has not taken off her clothes, who has not worked with the producers du jour, has trumped them both.

Credit the Internet. Now a sixteen year old in New Zealand can become a worldwide smash just as easily as a denizen of L.A. The action online motivated Jason Flom to fly down and sign her. But it was the song, the record, and not manipulation. There's been none.

This is even more impressive than Alanis Morissette's debut in the nineties. She was helped by a ton of video airplay. Ditto with Nirvana. Morissette was overwhelmed by her success and never equaled it. Kurt Cobain offed himself as a result. It's not only a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll, it's hard to stay there, it's even hard to stay alive, just ask Bon Scott.

Will Lorde be able to follow it up?

That's to be seen. The video era is ripe with acts who were one and done, whether it be the "Macarena" boys or Jimmy Ray or... On the Internet, novelty disappears, can you say PSY? But if for some reason you've got some talent, and you're willing to continue to play, we're all ears.

Yes, the Internet is the radio of the twenty first century. And instead of programmers, it's surfers who are in control. We are the ones who make the hits. Almost always, radio is last. Oh, radio's a rocket fuel that can propel that which is already successful into the stratosphere, but instead of breaking records, it gets on board.

Furthermore, the Lorde track has all the elements all the wannabes pooh-pooh.. It's instantly catchy, with hooks, and she can sing. If you're boring us, we're never ever gonna get to the chorus, we're too busy looking for new gems online.

Also, "Royals" doesn't sound like anything else. That's the recipe for instant success, doing it different and well. We can't even name the winners of the TV singing competitions, never mind the fact that they don't have hits. Meanwhile, something from left field surfaces, because everybody gets to play today, there are no barriers to entry.

And the end result is clutter. Which means if you're not good enough, your music will be lost, never heard, you can put it up on iTunes and it won't sell. But if you're truly great...we've got people surfing the Internet 24/7 looking for you, masses eager to spread the word, you can go from nowhere to somewhere overnight.

So yes, lament the manufactured crap.

But know that now is truly your time. If you're new and different, innovative and catchy.

Stay at home and hone your chops as opposed to tweeting and facebooking. Lorde herself didn't sell the track, the music did!

Note: Lorde's "Royals" is number one on the iTunes singles chart. It's number two on Spotify. It's number 10 on the Top Forty Mediabase chart. That's radio, one step behind! More than ever, it's about the moment, what's happening now. And you find that out online.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --