Before this, people were certainly downloading, but “Chasing Cars” is noted for the way its astronomical digital sales revealed the true impact of the internet on the music industry. Snow Patrol’s 2006 song “Chasing Cars” brought them to the forefront of the mainstream in an era of pop otherwise dominated by Rihanna and Pink, and their emergence as an “alternative rock” band coincided with a time when the internet was becoming the final frontier for music. In 2013, you gotta make sure you appeal to the kids whose taste runs deeper, the kids who pride themselves on their knowledge of classic rock and independent labels.Ī perfect example of the band’s new direction is “Something Great,” which was co-written by Snow Patrol lead vocalist Gary Lightbody and frequent Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee (who has produced albums for Weezer, R.E.M., Bloc Party and many others). And that’s what works now, because the mainstream uppercrust machinery is no longer strong enough to turn a few cute boys into an international sensation. The One Direction boys are beloved by their fandom for the references they make to more “obscure” bands: they wear Joy Division shirts and I’m pretty sure one of them has a Pink Floyd tattoo. have brought indie-folk-whatever-rock to pop radio and Avicii made a #1 album of electronic dance bangers featuring a bunch of country singers.
Listening to songs like “Something Great,” “Story of My Life” and “Through the Dark,” it’s obvious that One Direction is completely aware of what’s poppin’ right now in the Billboard Top 100 Gotye and fun. Instead of the overt drum machine sounds and saccharine harmonies that glued their first hits to the insides of our skulls, they’ve crept into a more alternative-leaning realm of pop.
The interesting part is the subtle transformation of One Direction’s music itself. It’s got a bunch of songs with catchy hooks and intense production, sung by dreamy boys with British accents. And that, my friends, is why their new album Midnight Memories is so interesting.Ĭlearly, Midnight Memories is a pop album. This is common knowledge, and bands like One Direction are now specifically engineered to appeal to the type of people who are prone to falling in love with cute, singing boys.
#One direction midnight memories download#
In an era in which I can (theoretically!) download this One Direction album for free, like, two weeks before it’s even released, musicians must rely on the sale of their merchandise/show tickets/image/souls to make the millions, and it’s the stans who are spending. That is the goal.Īn awareness of the music industry leads one to assume that amassing a colossal, unconditional-love type of fandom is the objective of creating pop music. I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of these weird-but-kinda-awesome obsessions myself every time another person tags me in their tattoo of my face or lyrics, I say a silent prayer to the gods of pop music that one day I too will have a Twitter account dedicated to reporting my GPS coordinates. Another friend introduced me to a Twitter account that constantly posts GPS coordinates of One Direction’s location. One Pink Floyd stan friend of mine peed her pants at a Roger Waters show because she didn’t want to miss anything by going to the bathroom. Many of my friends “stan” (it’s a noun and a verb!) for various pop stars, and it is endlessly amusing. In the song, “Stan” is an unstable superfan who is constantly trying to get Eminem to respond to his letters.) (“Stan” is a name that members of popular fandoms have adopted for themselves, originating from the Eminem song of the same title. Since then, I have realized that fixating on some kind of heartthrob would have been much more fulfilling, and recently I’ve developed a fangirl obsession of my own… I am currently CAPTIVATED by fangirls themselves, whom I will henceforth affectionately refer to as “stans” because fuck gender-exclusive terms. Sadly, my interest in the fangirl lifestyle withered over the course of elementary school, and by the time I started middle school at age ten I had no interest in wasting time on the pursuit of rock stars. (I know what you’re thinking: “A.J.? Really? The one with the weird goatee?” To that, I have no explanation other than my taste in men has always been completely baffling, and remains so to this day.)
My first taste of true love hit me around age six when the Backstreet Boys released “Larger than Life.” I spent hopeless hours within earshot of the television, waiting patiently for a glimpse of A.J. In my (relatively) short lifetime of cultural awareness, I’ve witnessed a (relatively) massive evolution of pop music.
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