Thread by @sweetbtstea

How BTS Dodged A Massive Bullet By Remaining Album Artists And Rejecting The Ongoing Singles Artist Trap: Part 2

[BY THREAD POLL]

First of all, if you haven't read Part 1, PLEASE do that before digging into this thread. It lays some groundwork that allows me to go forward with the points made in this part.

https://twitter.com/sweetbtstea/status/1134652201459171333

TO REITERATE:

In Part 1, I talked a little bit about how singles artists aren't anything new, and how in a way we've pretty much come full circle. Although today's music singles market isn't dictated by radio as much as it streaming and social media platforms.

That means that, increasingly the world's largest music industry increasingly at the mercy of stream-based revenue (and questionable playlist practices) and the "meme-worthy" nature of mainstream music singles.

PART IV. MEME FOR YOUR LIFE

As much as the music industry might mock Lil Nas X for his calculated approach to making "Old Town Road" a hit, it's not like there aren't a number of people in the industry trying to pin down his exact method so that they can replicate it themselves with future pop releases.

For his part, Lil Nas X was pretty straight forward about how he deliberately turned "Old Town Road." This NY Times article all but chronicles the methods behind the OTR madness.

nytimes.com/2019/05/10/art…

Lil Nas X did get a label behind him eventually, but before that, he was just a very savvy Gen-Zer who understood the social media game and how best to use it to make himself wealthy. It helped that social media has existed for the majority of his lifespan. He grew up on it.

LNX is just one of many teens in this situation. Meanwhile, much older, grizzled industry execs and are desperately (and cynically) to play catch up with an entire generation that has no respect for coloring inside the lines and separating genres into neat, predictable packages.

While Lil Nas X was savvy about how his approach, corporations have all the grace and nuance of a drunken elephant in a tutu reinterpreting "The Nutcracker."

That is to say...not much. 😬

It didn't dawn on me what potential perils lay ahead until, of all things, I watched the documentary on the disastrous Fyre Festival. (No, not the Netflix one, the Hulu one.)

There was a segment of the Fyre documentary that talked about their viral media campaign and how they used a blank orange space to trigger massive FOMO (or fear of missing out).

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ritual…

They explained how the trick was necessary because "sameness" is such a problem on sites like Instagram that you have to go above and beyond to stand out, even for a millisecond, if you ever want a chance of getting the attention of potential customers.

thefashionlaw.com/home/one-aspec…

I don't think this issue is limited to images on Instagram. Thanks to the playlist format of Spotify and people casually consuming music as background noise to their daily lives. And so it takes something spectacular to get their attention.

The solution for breaking the monotony on social media, more often than not, is an emphasis on memes.

Be it an image, gif, video clip w/ audio, or hilarious quote, it has to be instantly memorable and very shareable. Now, this "solution" is bleeding over to the music market.

It's possible that if mainstream music goes in this direction (and as cynical as the industry can get, I wouldn't be surprised), ironically, it would be even HARDER for pop stars to hold onto fledgling fame as their ability to make an impression gets reduced to a hashtag or meme.

Personally, I'd like to believe that things wouldn't be allowed to get that bad, but with album bundles a shameless standard, I have very little hope. Adding to my concerns, the very real possibility that the bottom is about to drop out from under the music industry very soon.

PART V. POWDER KEG

After badly handling the fall of the CD in the early 2000s, I'm not confident that the music industry could handle the demise of (or at the very least, the weakening of) major music streaming sites. This is significant as an economic crisis may be afoot.

vox.com/policy-and-pol…

There's a lot of fuss that a bad recession might be ahead within the next couple of years. Others naysay away. But what's for certain is that an economic downturn would not be good news for the music industry.

Tough times inspire Americans to tighten purse strings and close wallets, saving money however they can. And that includes shamelessly pirating movies, tv shows...and yes, music.

And it's not so much I'm making a prediction as this is what happened during the previous recession:

telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/la…

This shift away from legal music consumption could unintentionally cause major upheaval throughout an industry that is still battle-scarred from the free fall of the CD and the PR nightmare that followed attempts to sue teens and grandmothers.

mtv.com/news/1479303/r…

There's already a simmering undercurrent of anger, confusion, and resentment. You can feel it in Nicki's rant at getting blocked from getting #1 by merch bundles & the cut to commercial during Drake's Grammy speech.

The negative emotions simmering just beneath the surface are a virtual powder keg, and a serious economic downturn where earnings suddenly become noticeably scarce could provide the match stick that triggers a brand new music industry crisis and upends careers overnight.

PART V. IF IT AIN'T BROKE...

Now, reading about all these perilous situations and possibilities, you might be very relieved that BH/BTS avoided getting caught up in the singles artist trap and that they're not struggling to string together hit singles even as observers fear impending doom.

BTS are sitting very VERY pretty right now and will be for a VERY long time thanks to the moves made between their 2017 American debut and now. By staying true to a formula that works, BTS has a massive advantage over many of today's popular artists...

...AND we'll talk about it in Part 3!

*runs away*

THANKS FOR READING MY THREAD! SEE YOU NEXT WEEK (IF THE POLL VOTES AGREE...!)

BLOG VERSION:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1137782…