VALE BOB WELCH

The untimely passing of highly respected American singer-songwriter Bob Welch has come as a shock to his many fans around the globe.

Welch, who took his own life in his Nashville home on 7 June, was rumoured to have been suffering from a series of undisclosed medical problems. His body was discovered by his wife, and it is alleged that Welch left a note at the scene of his passing.

It is often overlooked that Bob Welch was a contributing member of Fleetwood Mac in the 1^st half of the 1970’s, and his departure saw the recruitment of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks assist in taking the British-American band to enormous success, primarily on the back of 1977’s multi-platinum LP “Rumours”.

Whilst Welch may be viewed as having missed out on the financial rewards of Fleetwood Mac’s stellar commercial years, he himself enjoyed critical & commercial solo success in the late 1970’s. His 1977 LP “French Kiss” achieved platinum sales in the USA, and the singles “Ebony Eyes” and “Sentimental Lady” were both Top Ten chart hits. In fact, “Sentimental Lady” was a Fleetwood Mac album track from the early 1970’s. The 1977 version featured musical contributions from most of the “golden era” Fleetwood Mac group members, and is widely recognised as his finest work.

As is all too common in the entertainment world, Welch’s life took a downwards turn when the adulation died down in the 1980’s, with some well publicised substance abuse problems interrupting his creative output. Welch wasn’t invited to partake in any of the lucrative Fleetwood Mac reunion tours from the late 1980’s onwards, thus one can only assume that he may have felt that his departure from the band was a career-changing mistake.

It goes without saying that Bob Welch will be missed. It can never be denied that he was an extremely talented songwriter and guitarist, and his body of work will live on.

THE WIGGLES VERSION 2.0 – A SENSIBLE STRATEGY

The recent media announcement of The Wiggles’ member change at the end of 2012 has the doomsayers talking about “poor career choices”, however this may just be a very sensible strategy for Australia’s most lucrative children’s entertainment brand.

Come 2013, Jeff Fatt [the purple “Wiggle”], Murray Cook [red] and Greg Page [yellow] will step away from playing a public role in the group, and Emma Watkins, Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie will join founding member Anthony Field as the ongoing faces of The Wiggles. Fatt and Cook will maintain their equity in The Wiggles corporation [allegedly worth tens of millions of dollars], whilst Page will join the aforementioned Fatt and Cook and continue with song writing and production duties for the supergroup.

So, why is the personnel change in The Wiggles a sensible strategy?

Age – let’s face it; the original members of The Wiggles are all on the cloudy side of 40 years old, and being a Wiggle is a very draining vocation. The group tours the world for 9 months of the year, whilst the balance of time is spent “being creative” – writing and recording news songs, designing new stage sets, et al. Greg Page and Jeff Fatt have both experienced very public health problems in recent years, and Murray Cook simply wishes to spend more time with his family. Anthony Field is passionate about The Wiggles; he focuses on maintaining peak physical & mental fitness in order to fulfil his ambitions for the group.

New faces – the unique factor of The Wiggles’ “brand” revolves around their ever-changing fan base. Once a child reaches 5 years of age and begins to lose interest in the group’s appeal, there is a steady supply of new fans being born to replace them! Whilst it is important to maintain some continuity by way of Anthony Field, the attraction of 3 new personalities [including a first time female Wiggle] will be a breath of fresh air for the group’s audience.

Public Relations – the replacement of recent yellow Wiggle Sam Moran by founding member Greg Page in early 2012 was terribly handled, and the media pounced upon the apparent “disharmony” within the Group. Further reports about The Wiggles’ financial losses in the past 2 years did nothing to quell the storm of controversy about the group’s future. In short, “something different” was required in order for The Wiggles to regain public favour.

Whilst the announcement of the personnel changes may appear to be contrived and rather hasty on the back of the early 2012 “controversy”, the change in strategy is most likely to prolong The Wiggles’ brand. Time will tell as to whether the group will remain as popular as the world-famous quartet of Field, Page/ Moran, Fatt & Cook; I’m supportive of their progression.

JUSTIN BIEBER – CAREER ENHANCEMENT BY VIRTUE OF MARKETING

Justin Bieber is a big boy now; there is no room in his busy schedule to be singing songs solely for the pre-teen female market. One would assume that Bieber’s management will strategically leverage off the “mentorship” of superstar Usher, and the world will see the young Canadian transform into an R & B artist.

Thus far, we have witnessed snippets of this much-anticipated “transformation”. Bieber’s 2011 CD release “Under The Mistletoe” featured some songs in the talk-rap vein, and Justin has subtly changed his clothing & famous hairstyle to resemble a successful [and wealthy] young adult decked out in the latest “funky” gear.

The “music” and the “look” are progressing well, but what about the “music video”?

The enormous popularity of YouTube has made the concept of the music video very, very important once again. We have essentially gone full circle back to the 1st half of the 1980’s, to the extent that the quality/ aura of an accompanying music video can make-or-break the success of a song. With this event in mind, why has Bieber’s latest single “Boyfriend” been released without an accompanying music video?

It’s all in the timing of the release of the music video…

The release of “Boyfriend” is essentially the most important step in the successful transformation of Justin Bieber’s career. The accompanying music video needs to be seen as an “event”, in order for Bieber’s audience to expand. This is a risky approach to take, however the concept of “playing safe” spells career death.

“Boyfriend” peaked at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100 sans music video, however the song progressively dropped to Number Five after the initial rush of Bieber’s loyal fan base ceased buying the single. Bieber’s recent appearance on the US version of “The Voice” gave him the opportunity to reveal a “sneek-peek” of the “Boyfriend” video to a massive television audience [predominantly 18-49 years age group] in order to build the hype around the video’s full release.

The video has finally been released to MTV, and “Girlfriend” has moved back up to Number Four on the Hot 100 singles chart. This is the power of marketing.

At this time, it’s all about Justin Bieber finding [and keeping] a new audience. We all know about the horror stories of Leif Garrett and [to an extent] Britney Spears, and the extreme difficulties at play in recreating a child music star into an adult entertainer. I’m particularly interested to watch as to how Bieber’s management handle the situation.

GOTYE – AUSTRALIA’S MOST UNLIKELY GLOBAL CHART-TOPPER

Belgium-born and Australian citizen Gotye [real name: Wally De Bakker] reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 last week with his single “Somebody That I Used To Know” [featuring New Zealand solo artist Kimbra]. Gotye is now part of a select club of Australian artists [Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton-John, Rick Springfield, Men At Work, INXS and Savage Garden] who can proudly claim to have held the Number One single in the USA for at least 1 week.

This is an incredible feat; let’s have a look at some of the compelling statistics generated by Gotye’s seminal song:

• The single sold 500,000 copies in the USA alone last week
• Sales of the single have now reached 5,000,000 worldwide
• Asides from the USA, the single has reached the Number One position in another 32 countries
• The accompanying CD “Making Mirrors” is presently sitting in the USA Top Ten CD Chart
• “Making Mirrors” has sold 1,000,000 units worldwide.

“Somebody That I Used To Know” is a catchy pop song [albeit sounding very much like Peter Gabriel], however the most interesting aspect of the single’s global success revolves around why it has been so successful. The accompanying music video is quite unique, with records indicating that it is one of the most viewed music videos on You Tube at this time. One feels that the concept of this music video has been the catalyst for Goyte’s massive popularity presently in play. In a sense, Goyte’s success in Australia [the song was Number One for 8 weeks during 2011] has “gone viral” and spread to the rest of the world.

Goyte’s European heritage has also been of benefit in helping break the song in the United Kingdom and the Continent, where it has enjoyed much success. This being said, all roads lead to the USA, and “Somebody That I Used To Know” made steady progress up the USA Charts during the initial months of 2012 to reach the Top Ten in early April. On the back of some strategic marketing moves [the song was recently featured in an episode of “Glee” and Goyte performed the song on “Saturday Night Live” earlier this month], Australia is now enjoying the success of its most unlikely global music superstar.

So where to now for Goyte? His music can be described as “experimental” pop at best, thus we may be looking at another One Hit Wonder. Let’s hope that Goyte enjoys the financial benefit of writing & performing a monster hit single, whilst being allowed to progress as a musician on his own terms.

ADELE CONTINUES TO BREAK RECORDS & CHANGE MUSIC HISTORY

In January 2012, Adele’s “21” surpassed UK album sales of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” [4.11 million units] and in turn became the 7th highest selling UK album of all time. At 4.14 million units, it will soon move past Dire Straits’ “Brothers In Arms”, albeit it still has some way to go before it catches the seemingly unbeatable UK bestseller of all time “Queen’s Greatest Hits” [5.83 million units and counting].

“21” was released less than 2 years ago. “Dark Side Of The Moon” was released in 1973, “Brothers In Arms” in 1985 and “Queen’s Greatest Hits” in 1981, thus the size and speed at which “21” has sold in the UK is incredible, especially at a time when CD sales are steady declining.

In 2011, “21” sold more than 18 million units worldwide; the last CD to sell at such a pace was “The Eminem Show” in 2002 [14 million units].

Adele is single-handedly reversing global CD sales trends, and leading the way for UK artists’ presence in the USA. Asides from Adele, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay & Florence And The Machine were major contributors to British acts accounting for more than 10% of all CDs sold in the USA in 2011; again a record statistic.

Adele may never outsell “21” with her future CDs, however nobody can deny that she is now an indelible part of music history.

THE HUNGER GAMES: A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN SOUNDTRACK SALES

The Wall Street Journal has recently reported on the highly anticipated theatrical release of the teen-genre movie “The Hunger Games”, and its accompanying soundtrack release “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond”. With the soundtrack featuring tracks from big name artists such as Taylor Swift, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists, we are about to witness a real life experiment which may change the sagging fortunes of movie soundtrack sales figures.

In order to provide an explanation, let’s go back into time…

From as far back in time as “The Sound Of Music”, a theatrical movie and its soundtrack album were correlating pieces in the success of the movie itself. Granted that “The Sound Of Music” was a musical first and foremost, the concept of dual success from one movie was etched in stone.

Our next significant forward step in the history of soundtrack album sales was in 1977, when “Saturday Night Fever” took the disco genre to heights never expected and made global stars out of John Travolta [the lead male star of the movie] and The Bee Gees [who wrote and performed the majority of the songs featured on the accompanying soundtrack album].

The 1980’s saw the greatest concentration of soundtrack album success, to the extent that it was a major coup to land a song on a soundtrack album. The movie business was booming; if your song was featured in a released movie and/ or on its accompanying soundtrack, you were effectively tripling your chances of attaining a hit record. History reveals that we saw successful “vanity projects” [1980’s “The Jazz Singer” for Neil Diamond and 1984’s “Purple Rain” for Prince] and low-budget movies which captured the hearts of a massive audience [1987’s “Dirty Dancing”], however it would be the 1990’s providing the greatest success and turning point in soundtrack album trends.

1992’s “The Bodyguard” [starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston] remains the biggest selling soundtrack album in history, with 17 million sales and counting, chiefly on the back of Houston’s immortal version of “I Will Always Love You”. 1994’s “Forrest Gump” made clever use of popular songs from the various decades of music, and bundled them all up as a “greatest hits” soundtrack. In the United States, sales of soundtrack albums peaked in 1999 at 60 million units however it has steadily declined to a figure of only 13 million units as at 2011.

Why has this occurred?

In one word: Internet.

As the world becomes more in tune with the power of the Internet and its influence on the manner in which we listen to and purchase music, the attraction of the “soundtrack album” has reduced to the point of extinction. No longer must we purchase an album or CD in order to listen to our favourite tracks; the Internet enables us to listen to and purchase only our favourite tracks. The public has greater power over its choice with respect to soundtrack albums.

Whilst the people behind the marketing of “The Hunger Games” have been savvy in securing original music from some of today’s biggest music stars to accompany their vehicle, one has to question as to whether these ingredients alone will provide the necessary staying power required to decelerate the decline in soundtrack album sales.

History has shown that you need at least 3 monster single releases from a soundtrack album in order to shift multi-million sales of the product. Taylor Swift’s “Safe & Sound” [the 1st single from “The Hunger Games” soundtrack] has sold well, however it is not a “Love Story” size mega-hit. Let’s see where the present takes us…

COUNTRY MUSIC – WHERE TO NOW?

A recent study by Eddison Research in the USA indicates that 20% of country music fans don’t listen to country music radio stations. This means that 1 in 5 lovers of the genre will appreciate their music via websites, personal collections stored/ played on other media, or other genre-playing radio stations. Further to this, the remaining 80% of fans surveyed overwhelmingly prefer to hear “classic” country songs from the 1960’s and 1970’s, as opposed to “new” country songs. In addition, “new” country songs which feature a singer with a “twang” in their voice are more likely to alienate a potential audience than an artist who fits into the pop-country or rock-country genre.

What has happened to country music?

As a child growing up in the 1970’s, I was most likely spoiled by the rich abundance of “classic” country artists on offer, who were able to attain a cross-over audience with the general listening public. Our family music room regularly featured albums from the likes of Glenn Campbell, Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers et al. These artists all came from small country towns, and their songs told stories well beyond simple love songs. This is the essence of country music.

When did country music reach its “country peak”?

The enormous commercial success of The Eagles in the mid-1970’s may have been the zenith of the genre in its purest sense. At this point in time, anybody could don a cowboy hat, pick up an acoustic guitar and state that they were a working musician. Ironically, John Travolta [the king of the subsequent music genre craze – disco] turned “country” when he starred in 1980’s long-forgotten movie, “Urban Cowboy”.

Why did country music change?

There are two simple explanations to this question; synthesised music and MTV. Country music is based around acoustic and amplified instruments played live. The increasing popularity of heavily produced, synthesised recording techniques in the 1980’s operated at polar ends to the traditional “country” sound. The introduction of the concept of a music video and MTV also detracted from “classic” country music. Now, the music audience was absorbed in the “visual” aspect of the song, and the emphasis on the lyrical story of the song became less important. Artists with a country background, such as Garth Brooks and Shania Twain, attained superstardom thanks to MTV, however their respective music was more rock and pop, hence their “cross over” appeal.

Country music – where to now?

Like all things in life, the country music genre has changed forever. There will still be “traditional” or “roots” country artists, however their audience will be limited to devotees of the genre. Artists such as Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum most certainly have a “country” sound, however their public image is cleverly controlled by management and record label strategies. Counter to these claims is Willie Nelson, who is unique in every aspect of his craft. Whilst he has cleverly modified his career by covering popular songs of the day, his unforgettable voice and guitar playing make him “country” through and through.

When Willie retires from music, the genre of country music will have changed forever.