Is THIS how a song becomes a hit? (1 Viewer)

[MichaelBryant]

I guess I would call myself a casual music fan because I would never even consider doing the following.

I've seen this on several pop artist websites so I'm not just singling out this one performer. Today I went to a fan site for an artist who has a CD coming out tomorrow. The opening message says to "make sure and go out and buy numerous copies of her Cd tomorrow for family and friends so the CD will go to number one". Who would be so crazy and self centered as to buy mass copies of an album then hand them out to family and friends in order to make that CD move more copies and have a higher chart stat?

The fan site also has a message board where fans are calling US radio stations from other states and even from other countries (like Germany) to make sure her song makes it big on U.S. radio. The German fan (in particular) was bragging about how large his long distance bill was from calling U.S. radio stations day after day requesting this song. He isn't even going to hear it so what is the point?

Is this why I can never find anyone who actually likes most of the songs played on pop radio. Is it just a small group of lunatic fans harrassing DJ's all day into playing music no one wants to hear?

What kind of person can spend 24/7 doing this type of stuff? It just seems so pointless and dishonest.

 

[Van Patton]

I'm guessing you're referring to Madonna. Surprisingly, the new Allman Brothers album has been getting air time on our crappy local radio here!! I have heard cuts from it on a classic rock station, college station, and bumper music on talk radio. Pretty good I should say for the Bros!

 

[Karl_Luph]

It's amazing how some people are so spoiled rotten that they don't have to work for a living and have nothing better to do with their time than to waste it away.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

At least it's fans being fanatical. That has to have a little more merit than a song becoming a hit because the record label made a deal with ClearChannel.

 

[Tony-B]

Stuff becomes popular because the teens and popular people will listen to ANYTHING just so long as it is popular. Stuff becomes popular because it is force-fed to them by MTV and Clear Channel. The force-feeding is a result of the record companies paying whoever plays it. Another force-feeding factor is whether or not the artist is "hot". Popular artists are generally considered "hot" by the popular people. Just take a look at Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Nsync, or any of those other types of artists. I think that is how it happens. Feel free to disagree or agree with me.

 

[MichaelBryant]

What is Clear channel?

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

What is Clear Channel? There's a better than 50% chance you're soaking in it every time you turn on the radio. http://www.clearchannel.com/radio

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The fan site also has a message board where fans are calling US radio stations from other states and even from other countries (like Germany) to make sure her song makes it big on U.S. radio.

Do radio stations still take call-in requests for songs? With the growth of centralized corporate programming from companies like Clear Channel, I would have thought this was a thing of the past.