Billboard magazine recently released its third annual “Maximum Exposure List” — better known as the top 100 ways to launch your music career.
At No. 23, we have “Integrated tour sponsorship with a leading mobile carrier” — it worked for Lady Gaga and Virgin Mobile.
Nos. 11 and 15? Pair your song with a Nike commercial (bonus when aired during major televised events).
In sixth place is the option of selling your single to “Glee.” (Regretfully, the harmless little show-choir-that-could is a vehicle for product placement).
If you’ve read this far, you can guess the recurring theme. I didn’t even have to open the magazine — corporate sponsorship (and a greasy, naked Bret Michaels) glared from the cover.
The largest hurdle aspiring artists face isn’t whether to have a big-business ally — it’s which company to choose. Wal-Mart or Best Buy? Amazon or iTunes? Decisions, decisions.
One of 2010’s biggest mergers was between Target and Taylor Swift. As soon as the pair announced their mutual marketing campaign, Swift made over her upcoming album cover wardrobe — from a purple to a red dress. Move over, Target bullseye dog.
A curious hunch led me to Swift’s Facebook page. Her latest post? A supposedly candid photo of her lucky number 13 on a coffeemaker in some undisclosed store. Funny — I happened across the same display in Target a week later.
I hate to tarnish her innocent image, but here’s the reality: Taylor Swift is a marketing machine people have bought into.
Of course Target would have you believe her Oct. 25 “Speak Now” CD will be the album of the year, while Swift touts their coffeemakers as top-of-the-line — it’s what good partners do.
When product placement reaches the point where we can’t tell who is sponsoring whom, consumers have a problem.
Corporate sponsorships now speak more for an artist than the traditionally revered critic’s evaluation of their work, virtually eliminating the need for movie or music reviewers — and just look at the result in the entertainment industry.
Talent has become irrelevant or at least secondary to money when it used to — and still should — be the means to the financial end.
Should critiques be taken as a potential buyer’s bible? Of course not — I rarely agree with their assessment, anyway.
But when commercial entities dominate our entertainment, we’re less likely to hear anything negative about the pet projects they adopt — and more prone to those “How did they ever get famous?” acts.
It doesn’t even matter if the No. 1 music career catapult is to perform at the Grammy Awards — not when the other 99 are chock-full of corporate shortcuts.
Award shows themselves have become four-hour infomercials. H&M clothing retailers funded the Video Music Awards, and in return MTV’s hosts gushed how fashionable they looked in — what else? — H&M garb.
It’s sad I never see my favorite stars — especially musicians — making appearances unless they have something new to promote. Once upon a time, talk shows invited guests just to talk. Crazy concept, right?
But this is the consumer culture we live in. We pretend to care about celebrities’ lives, though most of us don’t want to hear anything these people say unless they’re selling us something. Naturally, this is the approach they’ve taken.
Advertising may be indispensable to mass media, which is all the more reason to be aware of its presence. If you haven’t already noticed, my aim for this series of columns is to second-guess everything we’ve dismissed as “just entertainment.”
I doubt Socrates expected his principles to be applied to pop culture, but I’ll paraphrase him anyway: Is the unquestioned life worth living? I think not.
Pop culture is much more than the shallow gossip in the latest People issue. It’s the ultimate time capsule of our thoughts and values on everything from relationships to religion.
I’m a 21st-century woman. I love shopping, entertainment and controlling everything — including what I’m being sold. Shouldn’t everyone?
Kelly Hotard is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Picayune, Miss. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_khotard.
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Contact Kelly Hotard at [email protected]