Feature Article |
Is This Kid About to Be a Star?
By Jessica Pressler
RECORDS! THAT EVEN now most people still refer to “records” is an indication of how quickly everything has evolved — our speech hasn’t even caught up yet. Over the course of 40 years, companies have gone from selling discs of vinyl to eight-tracks to cassettes to CDs to what is now starting to feel more like vapor: percentages gained from digital downloads, licensing, cross-promotional opportunities, ringtones. Layer upon layer of things that can be sold.
Take the PhillyCars.com ad, which went on the air locally last December. Not only were you watching a commercial for the Inquirer’s new online car-sales site, and for Kevin Michael, but you were also watching a commercial for Kevin’s song “Philadelphia.” And the song wasn’t written because Kevin needed to express how he felt about “Phil! A!, Del! Phi! A!” or even specifically for the ad. It was just written as an ad, an “anthem” for Philadelphia that Downtown hoped would get used at sports games, during elections, wherever else royalties may be collected. Kevin admits he thinks the song, which he wrote in collaboration with a Downtown staff writer, is not his most authentic work. “It’s so cheesy,” he said, rolling his eyes back at the Jerk Hut. But, “The idea was, if you made an anthem for Philadelphia, it would work, because we have a lot of pride. If everything goes well, the ad will create a fan base in Philly for me. And once you have that Philly base, it’s with you forever. Like, Philly will always support Will Smith.”
Downtown may not dare to dream that Kevin Michael will become as big a powerhouse as Will Smith, but they are pulling out all the stops to ensure he is at least as ubiquitous and profitable as Gnarls Barkley — if not more so. With Kevin, Downtown has magnified the Gnarls marketing plan, starting with the music itself. Wary of the fact that they’re working with an unknown artist, and also wary of getting stuck with “The album isn’t as good as the single” again, they’ve created not so much an album as a collection of singles, with the newcomer buttressed by guest appearances from well-known talent like Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip and Lupe Fiasco, and produced by such hit-makers as Bloodshy & Avant, the Swedish duo responsible for Britney Spears’s “Toxic.”
Like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” the songs are designed to have “crossover” appeal, an industry euphemism meaning they contain elements expected to make them palatable to both black and white radio audiences, which have been divided and referred to as “pop” (meaning white) and “urban” (meaning black) by U.S. radio stations for years.
For good measure, they plan to “break” Kevin in Europe. “Europe is much more open to an artist like Kevin,” says Atlantic marketing exec Dane Venable — meaning Europeans have fewer hang-ups about race and genre — in hopes that success overseas will pave the way for Kevin to slide by the radio gatekeepers in the U.S. and onto both Top 40 and Urban charts, as Gnarls did.
Take the PhillyCars.com ad, which went on the air locally last December. Not only were you watching a commercial for the Inquirer’s new online car-sales site, and for Kevin Michael, but you were also watching a commercial for Kevin’s song “Philadelphia.” And the song wasn’t written because Kevin needed to express how he felt about “Phil! A!, Del! Phi! A!” or even specifically for the ad. It was just written as an ad, an “anthem” for Philadelphia that Downtown hoped would get used at sports games, during elections, wherever else royalties may be collected. Kevin admits he thinks the song, which he wrote in collaboration with a Downtown staff writer, is not his most authentic work. “It’s so cheesy,” he said, rolling his eyes back at the Jerk Hut. But, “The idea was, if you made an anthem for Philadelphia, it would work, because we have a lot of pride. If everything goes well, the ad will create a fan base in Philly for me. And once you have that Philly base, it’s with you forever. Like, Philly will always support Will Smith.”
Downtown may not dare to dream that Kevin Michael will become as big a powerhouse as Will Smith, but they are pulling out all the stops to ensure he is at least as ubiquitous and profitable as Gnarls Barkley — if not more so. With Kevin, Downtown has magnified the Gnarls marketing plan, starting with the music itself. Wary of the fact that they’re working with an unknown artist, and also wary of getting stuck with “The album isn’t as good as the single” again, they’ve created not so much an album as a collection of singles, with the newcomer buttressed by guest appearances from well-known talent like Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip and Lupe Fiasco, and produced by such hit-makers as Bloodshy & Avant, the Swedish duo responsible for Britney Spears’s “Toxic.”
Like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” the songs are designed to have “crossover” appeal, an industry euphemism meaning they contain elements expected to make them palatable to both black and white radio audiences, which have been divided and referred to as “pop” (meaning white) and “urban” (meaning black) by U.S. radio stations for years.
For good measure, they plan to “break” Kevin in Europe. “Europe is much more open to an artist like Kevin,” says Atlantic marketing exec Dane Venable — meaning Europeans have fewer hang-ups about race and genre — in hopes that success overseas will pave the way for Kevin to slide by the radio gatekeepers in the U.S. and onto both Top 40 and Urban charts, as Gnarls did.
 |
Change text size |
 |
Print |
 |
Email |
 |
Write a comment |
User comments
- No users have posted comments on this article.
