#the new artist with the most marketable popular music and the one who has the most views in edits will always win.

[depecherose]

I was watching the nominations over the years at Depeche Mode's Grammys, and in 2007 Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake has won instead of Suffer Well...

Well.....

[howlingmod]

LIQUID SUNSHINE

summary - valk x reader , reader's also an idol .. smiles .. more valk pining than anything sorry

wc - i dunno ...

misc - very based on spltoon i wont even lie you are the ian bgm to his squid sistrs (< incomprehensible)

-Valk liked to keep a good eye on the music scene, seeing what everyone else was doing or if there were any new groups on the rise in crossroads- it's just exciting to him! He likes seeing how people innovate on trends and the styles that different artists bring to the table, and, from a business perspective, it's just good to know how the music scene's doing for flipside's sake ...

-He usually just kept an ear out on social media to see who everyone's talking about, and that's how he learned about you.

-You were a part of a band from one of the other regions, and apparently you guys were pretty popular there! He hadn't heard of you before, but it seems like you were just a well-kept secret, a hidden gem.

-It didn't take long for him to make plans to visit, see just how much of an idol you really were. He just wanted to make sure he got the full perspective, is all! (And, admittedly, he was just a little intrigued by some of the photos he seen ... he has eyes! Get off his case!)

-Needless to say, he was not disappointed. He made sure to visit when your band was supposed to be performing and he was decently surprised by the crowd that had formed. It was a smaller concert than he was used to (it's not easy being known by the grand majority of the inpherno ...), but everyone there seemed totally enthralled and happy to be there. You guys definitely had a big reputation for yourselves here, he was honestly a little sad it'd taken this long for him to find out about you guys ...

-Once the show was over, he made sure to try and talk to you all. He had to be careful about it, keeping his head down and sticking to the edges of the room, but he managed to get close without being recognized. After he quietly thanked the Heights for it being a night show (he wouldn't have been able to see the stage before getting someone shouting his name if it was daytime), he made his way over to you.

-You all seemed to be about even in popularity, none of you seeming particularly shafted or overhyped by your fans, but you'd been the one he heard about the most. (Though, that probably wasn't true. He probably heard about all of you the same amount and just paid the most attention when you were being focused on. Woops.) So, he figured it was only fair he tried talking to you.

The diguise he hastily threw together felt just a little silly now. Sure, it'd worked pretty well so far, but he was really starting to doubt that it would work up close like this. I mean, it's not exactly easy to hide horns like his and his fake voice-persona-mix was really starting to fall apart.

"Where'd you say you're from?" Your voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Crossroads, I just wanted to see one of your guys' shows in person, they seemed pretty fun from everything I saw online," he answered honestly, smiling in a gesture you returned with your own. "Aw! I really hope you liked it then, I hope we were worth the travel..." "Oh, for sure! You guys are super talented! You've got such a unique style, I can definitely see how you pull such a big crowd." Ok, maybe he was laying it on thick, but he was being genuine! He was impressed! Whatever! You laughed at that, shifting in place and glancing off to the side, face feeling warm. "Thank you, I'm just glad people like our work, we put a lot of effort into it." He hummed in response, a mix between acknowledgement and shared opinion. Clearly, even if you two had very different scenes, you were still pretty alike, at least in how you viewed your work. A silence fell after that, just barely ebbing into uncomfortable before he shot up. "Oh, I totally forgot!" He started fumbling for something in his bag before hastily pushing over a vinyl he'd got before heading over here and a market he'd thrown in his bag only a little shamefully, "Would you mind?" You smiled at him, gingerly taking it from his hands, "Not at all, who should I make this out to?" He blanched, biting the inside of his lip hard. He hadn't thought of a name, at all. He stammered, glancing around the room quickly for some answer. Pen was so boring, Poster was obviously a lie, and he's not even entertaining Chair. You snickered, just barely failing to bite it back, "I'll just keep it general." His eyes shot back to you, silently letting out the breath he'd been holding, "Yeah, that works. Thanks." You waved your hand dismissively, "It's nothing, don't sweat it." You handed the vinyl back over to him, meeting his gaze again. There was a glimmer of something he couldn't quite name, perhaps because he was a little distracted by just how pretty you looked in this lighting. Sure, you'd been killer on stage, but it was different seeing you up close like this. Maybe he should've invested in closer seats ... Before he could think to bite his tongue, he was talking again, "You ever think about collabs?"

-He had a different kind of pep in his step when he got back to crossroads. He seemed to be in a constant state of distraction, always thinking about something or other enough to risk walking into walls a few times now. Sometimes he'd say it was music, some bar that he was stuck on. Othertimes, he'd just shake his head and say 'nothing,' before going back to staring off into space. Dom could see right through it, and while he couldn't read his mind, he figured it probably had to do with that person he kept seeing on his phone.

-Valk wasn't sure of where to go from here. He'd seen one of your concerts, he'd talked to you, even figured out you guys were open to working with other artists! Curiosity satiated, right? So then why were you still taking up so much space in his mind, often entirely seperated from your band and music?

-Should he have asked for your number? No, that would've been creepy. He knows more than well how fans can be about that sort of thing. Should he have just told you who he was, then? Ugh, that sounded so full of himself. Flipside might be famous, but that doesn't give him a free friendship card for everyone ever. He was pulling his hair out trying to figure out what he was missing here, what misstep he'd taken, by the time another concert came up.

-This one was different, rather than being a concert he and Dom performed at exclusively, this one had people from all around inpherno perform. It was a big deal, one that he was usually giddy about for weeks before. Seems like he really had been awfully distracted with how it slipped his mind ...

-He didn't have much time to mourn, however, when he noticed your band's name was on the list.

Before the show, there was a red carpet sort of ordeal. Musicians would show up dressed to the nines, flaunting their identity and background through their dresswear for everyone to see. It gave the public some nice photos to look at and some introductions to lesser-known artists with some of the impromptu interviews that cropped up with all the paparazzi. Plus, it now gave Valk an opportunity to talk to you again. It was hard to pull off his usually casual and relaxed demeanor whenever he'd pass photographers by, not wanting to deal with some big ordeal if he looked as nervous as he felt. Maybe you'd already walked? Where would you be then? Heights, what if you'd all pulled out last minute? Maybe you wouldn't even wanna talk to him anyway, did you think he was overhyped? Ugh, that was a whole new thing to worry about. What if he came off as pushy?- Just as he started to spiral, he'd caught a glimpse of familiar horns. Quickly turning to look, he'd seen you standing off in one of the staff-only areas, seemingly fixing up your outfit with all the fluffing and smoothing you were doing. He started over, minding his pace enough to not run over and freak you out. Whatever planned conversation starter he had on his tongue fell flat when you'd looked back at him. Your stage-wear had been perfectly translated to the event, dressed up enough to draw the eye but still retaining your usual sense of style enough to not come off as tryhardy. In shorter terms, you were a showstopper, a heartthrob- if his own heart's aching, fast beat was anything to go off of. "You look nice," he managed lamely. You took the weak compliment in stride, smiling as your hands finally left your top alone, "Thanks! You don't look half bad yourself." He smiled back at you, noticably relaxing, "Are you nervous at all?" "I mean, a little, but I think everyone gets a little bit of stage fright," you hummed, "it's always a little nerve-wracking, you just get better at managing it." "Huh, yeah, I can see that.." "What about you, are you nervous at all?" You shot him a look then, smile just a tinge more wry this time around. He straighted back up, subconsciously shifting in place as he laughed. "Ah, well, a little. It's different performing in front of a more diverse crowd, usually you just have to worry about people who already like your genre, but here you've gotta think about the variety of tastes in the audience," he hummed, steadily growing more comfortable as he talked. He might not be the best at talking to people he wants to impress (when did he start wanting to impress you?), but he considered himself pretty strong in his business sense. The greater mechanisms of being a musician came to him easier than making connections beyong shared interest. You gave a little noise of acknowledgement in response, falling quiet as you thought over his words. He could just barely hear the distant white noise of crowds chattering a room over the buzzing lights in here, fixing his gaze on some scuff on the ground for fear of staring. You suddenly shot up as the silence began to drag on a moment too long, turning your head back to him, "I almost forgot. You asked me about collabs at my concert," you started shuffling around your [ purse / pockets ], "I don't know if you were offering or anything, but if you were ..." you trailed off, holding out a small slip of paper to him. He didn't respond for a few seconds, staring blankly at the paper in surprise. Eventually, he rembered how to move his arms and speak, reaching out to take the slip from you, carefully unfolding it to reveal digits. "You uh... recognized me then, I'm guessing." "You have a pretty memorable face." He sucked in a breath through his teeth, pointedly ignoring the warmth crawling up the back of his neck, "Ah."

[sunsuns-babie]

XO (Only If You Say Yes) | NON IDOL!K.SUNOO x F!IDOL READER

💬: Certified Sunoo Haters Club 👺

Description of characters below ⬇️

SUNOO - Self proclaimed #1 Y/n from CUPETTES fan and runs the biggest Y/n fan account on Twitter ‘Strawberry Cake Y/n’s Hubby’. He does genuinely love her and is a bit delulu but not enough to be completely unhinged. He does know his boundaries as a fan of Y/n. He’s currently a college student just trying to graduate and doesn’t really want the spotlight on him, unlike his friends who have put themselves out there as public figures of sorts. Honestly Sunoo just wants to be in love with Y/n in peace and graduate from college with his degree in teaching.

HEESEUNG - A self sufficient Indie artist who’s on the rise with a bright future ahead of him. He’s been writing and producing his own music and is self taught at it. He is quite popular but hasn’t really broken in to the mainstream market yet. He funds all his music videos and helps directs them with some help from his friends. He even has his friends star in them with him, also with his dancer friend Niki helping him come up with some new choreographies for his new more mainstream “Kpop” era.

JAY - Is a pretty well known but still small YouTuber who’s known for his angelic covers and phenomenal guitar skills. He’s also Heeseung’s main music video director and does all the editing for him when it comes to his music promotional videos; whether that be the mvs, album track sample visualizers, concept films, etc. He also has a passion for fashion so he styles Heeseung a lot. Despite this though he himself is quite passionate about music and has been working on his own music projects, secretly for a while now. Oh, Jay also hates the comparison between himself Jay Park to the other Jay Park. Especially after his “fans” tried to say he was copying the other Jay Park, starting a smear campaign against him back in 2020.

JAKE - In the grand scheme of things at YouTube you could consider him a “small” YouTuber with only 2M+ subscribers but he is a popular streamer and gamer on both Twitch and YouTube. He has a devoted following that has opened many doors for him, making him successful in his field. Usually he does solo plays but a good half of the time he does gameplays with his friends Heeseung, Sunghoon, and Jungwon. Every once in a while Jay and Niki join in, while very rarely Sunoo agrees to join in.

SUNGHOON - A famous and even Olympic champion figure skater who’s started breaking into the typical celebrity world by guest starring in a few dramas and sometimes being a substitute MC for a few music shows, let’s not even get started on his modeling career. He has a very loyal fan base and is one of the youngest and most successful people of the current generation, making a name for himself through his hard work, dedication, and passion. His talent is great and unlimited, truly there’s nothing he can’t do.

JUNGWON - Is a college student alongside Sunoo and his best-BEST-friend since childhood. Because of their mutual friend Jake and his gaming streams Jungwon grew to like playing games and recording himself (since Jake filmed face cams of his friends when they played together all except Sunoo who wants to maintain his privacy). So Jungwon created his own Twitch channel where he streams random games here and there when he’s not swamped with college work. He mainly plays Minecraft and Roblox Dress to Impress though. Did I mention he’s openly gay and has a crush on Jay that only Sunoo and Niki know about?

NI-KI (RIKI) - The VERY youngest choreographer in the game, he is known as a dance prodigy, and works with many Kpop groups sometimes working as a backup dancer. He now mainly works with the girl group CUPETTES being credited as the choreographer for pretty much all of their choreographies. Not that his friends know that because he’s chosen to keep that fact to himself, mostly because in general he doesn’t talk about the celebrities he works with. He’s pretty famous himself with his own fanbase after going viral for his visuals in a fan cam for SHINee’s Key when he was a dancer for him and his choreographer in 2020.

masterlist | profiles (2)

taglist open 🏷️: @starlit-rin @onlyhyunjin @sol3chu @sugariricookies

[fushiglow]

Gojō Satoru and Ryōmen Sukuna: symbols of celebrity?

What does it say about Jujutsu Kaisen's influence and popularity that it could convince the two leading national newspapers in Japan — rivals and competitors — to run a joint marketing campaign where readers must buy both papers to complete the set?

The attention to detail is incredible, too! Asahi — Sukuna's paper — is one of the oldest in Japan. Meanwhile Yomiuri — Gojō's paper — has the largest newspaper circulation in the world. Such a brilliant way to illustrate "the strongest sorcerer in history vs the strongest sorcerer of today" in promotion of the new volume. Extra points for the fact that the two newspapers have opposing political leanings, too.

I'm really fascinated by this — so, some thoughts on celebrity and the fourth wall in Jujutsu Kaisen below the cut!

One of the things I love most about this series is how self-aware it is at times. I feel like Gege Akutami is quite purposeful is how he uses his characters to speak directly to the audience, especially in recent chapters. Along with the 'tickets' for Mei Mei's livestream and the promotional video that's reminiscent of a wrestling announcer bigging up the event, the entire campaign for the release of volume 25 feels like it's breaking the fourth wall in a way that's perfect for Jujutsu Kaisen.

It also makes me even more hopeful that 'The Battle of the Strongest' is going to be a film, if only for the meta effect of the audience 'purchasing tickets for the livestream'. Imagine if they market it so you feel like you're actually paying to watch this fight between two gods unfolding in real-time on the other side of the world? Considering how successful the first one was, I have no doubt the film would perform incredibly in the box office too, further adding to the meta effect.

The potential for hype is enormous and I actually feel like they won't disappoint, simply because Gojō is too much of a money-maker — look at the DVD sales drop off from the Hidden Inventory arc. I know I bang on about the chapter all the time, but this is spawning all kinds of additional thoughts to my analysis of Gojō in 236, especially regarding how he's written as this almost unknowable character.

I feel like Akutami's interest in the dark side of the entertainment industry actually shines through in Gojō the most out of all his characters, because he's practically a celebrity both in-universe and out — people made an actual shrine for this character when he died, as though he's the People's Princess or something!

Everyone knows who he is, but no one knows who he *really* is. He's beautiful and isolated and powerful and lonely, and it makes absolute sense that he sought understanding from Sukuna, because he's kind of like the blueprint for Gojō — a legend about whom everyone has a story, but no one really knows anything at all.

I promise I didn't make this post just to plug my fic, but it's a neat little coincidence that the precarious power dynamic between celebrities and the general public is a big theme in the most recent chapter of my idol fic, Over the Threshold. The reason I started writing a music AU in the first place is because this topic is something I have a personal and academic interest in, and the parallels between the 'strongest' and a music industry legend are simply too good to ignore.

Perhaps it's because it's on my mind as I'm writing the fic, but the marketing for the new volume got me thinking about the symbiotic relationship between artists and their fans, and I'm wondering if Gege is going to bring this into play somehow. Could it have something to do with the source of Sukuna's strength and therefore the key to beating him? Conversely, could it have something to do with the loss of Gojō's strength if he returns without it, making his death a symbolic death of celebrity instead?

I love the idea of the death of the 'strongest sorcerer' (the celebrity) bringing down the veil that separates him from the people around him (the public), allowing them to see Gojō Satoru for the very first time. No longer 'the strongest' or the Six Eyes or the one-man Gojō clan — not a symbol or a power ceiling or a weapon or anything like that — but simply a person, which is all he really is at the end of the day.

Am I coping by twisting myself into knots hoping that Jujutsu Kaisen is about the deconstruction of celebrity? Maybe, but at least I'm coping in a very smart and sexy way!

Just kidding, I'm still undecided about whether I think a Gojō comeback is likely. However, I completely disagree with people who say his character arc is finished or there's no space in the narrative for his return. I also disagree with those who say there's no evidence for it, because I think if it happened it would seem incredibly obvious in hindsight. It's a bit like Sukuna taking over Megumi — very few people saw it coming at the time, but when you look back, the clues were sprinkled all over the place.

Time will tell, but this story is really special to me whatever happens in the end. We all love to shit on Gege Akutami — and sure, he's not a perfect writer and I don't like a lot of his decisions — but when he gets it right, it's genius level stuff. Considering how overworked and commodified and exploited mangakas are, I think he deserves a lot more credit for the stories and characters he's weaving, and his art has never looked better if you ask me.

Anyway, I rambled a bit at the end, but here's my idol fic if you want to deconstruct Gojō as a celebrity some more. It's *so much* fun, I promise!! Did I make this post just to plug my fic after all? You can decide.

[bananaofswifts]

01 - Taylor Swift

No one in the music industry wielded more power over the past year than Taylor Swift, who made history at stadiums, movie theaters and on the Billboard charts, leaving even the most seasoned executives speechless. While they’d long celebrated her staggering popularity as a singer, songwriter and performer, her force as a strategic business leader suddenly came into sharper focus — and industry veterans took notes as they watched some of her bravest and most innovative business risks reap remarkable rewards.

At 34, she is one of the music industry’s most charismatic and influential leaders — and she rewrites the rules.

“The piece of advice I would give to the other executives on this list is that the best ideas are usually ones without industry precedent,” Swift tells Billboard. “The biggest crossroads moments of my career came down to sticking to my instincts when my ideas were looked at with skepticism. When someone says to me, ‘But that has never been done successfully before,’ it fires me up. We have to take strategic risks every day in this industry, but every once in a while, you have to really trust your gut and take a flying leap. My rerecordings are my favorite example of this, and I’m extremely grateful to my team and fans for taking that leap with me because it absolutely changed my life.”

Sage advice for an industry in which instinct has largely been supplanted by metrics and data analysis.

In December, Time named Swift its 2023 Person of the Year. In September, after encouraging her 279 million Instagram followers to vote and linking to vote.org, the nonpartisan nonprofit said it received over 35,000 registrations. She appears on the cover of this issue of Billboard and in the No. 1 spot of our annual Power 100 issue because her force across the business of music is now unparalleled — and because she models commitment to innovation that the rest of the business will need in order to tackle the big challenges ahead.

Swift’s gambles have paid off handsomely over the past year.

Her massive The Eras stadium tour, which began in March after she controversially put all the tickets on sale at once, crashing Ticketmaster and sparking mass hysteria, grossed an estimated $906.1 million in 2023 and is poised to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time before it wraps in December, according to Billboard.

The Golden Globe-nominated Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film, taped during her six-show run at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in August, has grossed over $261.6 million worldwide since its October opening, according to AMC Theatres Entertainment. In January, the publicly traded movie-house chain announced that the film’s box-office take made it the highest-grossing concert/documentary picture ever released, surpassing Michael Jackson’s 2009 This Is It. Once again blazing a new path, Swift made a groundbreaking distribution deal directly with AMC Theaters instead of linking with a film studio.

Swift has shaken up the catalog market, too. When Scooter Braun infuriated her by acquiring the master recordings of her first six albums through his Ithaca Holdings and then sold them to investment firm Shamrock Capital at a profit, Swift rerecorded the albums with loving precision and added bonus tracks to the new releases. They performed phenomenally well, as she deftly used her tour to promote them. When her latest rerecording (and 14th studio album overall), 1989 (Taylor’s Version), spent its fifth week at atop the Billboard 200 at the end of 2023, Swift beat Elvis Presley’s record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo artist. Her industry market share last year was 1.72%. If she were her own genre, she’d rank ninth for 2023 — bigger than jazz.

“She’s the smartest artist I’ve ever worked with,” says Messina Touring Group’s Louis Messina, who promotes Swift’s tours and has worked with her since 2005. “She outworks everybody and she has always had this vision. If you’re around her, you can’t help but believe in her.” —Melinda Newman

[mariacallous]

When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, annexing the Crimean Peninsula and bringing turmoil and destruction to Ukraine’s eastern regions, many people—both outside Ukraine and inside it—found it easier to ignore the violence unfolding in the country’s east than admit that war had returned to Europe. This included creative artists, who rarely mentioned the war in their works, not least because they feared scaring off the Russian fans who constituted much of their audience.

As Ukrainians all over the country woke up to explosions on Feb. 24, 2022, the truth could no longer be ignored: The “big war” had truly begun. Today, the country’s art is catching up to the truth of war.

Before 2022, few Ukrainian artists and entertainers openly mentioned the ongoing war in their works. In fact, many pop stars like Ivan Dorn or Luna continued to perform in Russia and created works aimed, first and foremost, at the Russian market and in the Russian language. When criticized for this by their Ukrainian fans, many dodged the subject, claimed to be “apolitical,” or explained their actions as “trying to build a bridge” between Russia and Ukraine.

“My music isn’t about politics, it’s about healing souls,” Luna said in a lengthy interview with Russian opposition journalist Xenia Sobchak in 2021. “That’s why I don’t pay attention to the critics back home trying to make me feel guilty for giving concerts in Russia.” Similarly, Dorn claimed that by interacting with Russian listeners he was “trying to capture as many people as possible with my music so that they would never attack my own country.”

But the main reasons were pragmatic ones: The large and relatively rich Russian market has long been attractive to Ukrainian performers, much like the American market for the English-speaking world. Making films or music built around a Ukrainian context could scare off Russian fans, so the overwhelming majority of content made in the 2000s and 2010s was tailored to sound and look as neutral as possible, devoid of any references to local events or personalities. There were, of course, notable exceptions.

Musicians, such as singer and veteran military paramedic Anastasiia Shevchenko, better known by her pseudonym СТАСІK, wrote songs openly referencing the war in their lyrics and music videos. Indie rapper Stas Koroliov released an entire album in 2021 of tracks inspired by the war and society’s apathy toward it. It contained lyrics like “I now understand that to become a messiah you just need to state the obvious: My homeland is at war with Russia.”

While mainstream comedies that wanted both Ukrainian and Russian box office sales steered clear of any references to recent domestic events, independent movies were more willing to process the violence taking place in Ukraine’s eastern regions and the loss of Crimea. Wartime dramas such as Tymur Yashchenko’s U311 Cherkasy (named after the naval mine sweeper blocked by Russian forces during the capture of Crimea) and Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike addressed specific events of the Russo-Ukrainian war, while Nariman Aliev’s 2019 drama Homeward was a meditation on what the loss of Crimea meant for its indigenous Tatar population. Other films, such as Volodymyr Tykhyi’s dramedy Our Kitties, tried to find humor amid the heartbreak and horrors faced by the Ukrainian soldiers stationed on the frontlines.

Everything changed in early 2022, when war—previously treated as a niche subject that was likely to scare off people looking for light entertainment—quickly became the only topic most Ukrainians were interested in. As missiles rained down, entertainers suddenly realized that they could not remain apolitical bystanders any longer.

Almost every popular musician spoke out against the invasion, with several (such as Dasha Astafieva and Vitaly Kozlovskiy) apologizing for performing in Russia and platforming their Russian colleagues in recent years. “I felt like a zombie while performing in Russia. I’d arrive, smile mechanically at everyone, do the set and return home. Russia has a lot of money but it’s a soulless place,” Astafieva wrote in a social media post shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion. Many artists—such as Antytila leader Taras Tolopya, singer Yarmak, and most of the lineup of cult Kharkiv-based hip-hop group TNMK—took up arms and joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while others took to volunteering by raising funds and sourcing equipment for Ukrainian soldiers, performing on the frontlines, or training as medics.

Some of their personal stories exemplified Ukraine’s modern civic identity, which has little to do with ethnicity or where you were born. Instead, for many, it’s a choice. Take Yulia Yurina: The Russian-born musician first came to Ukraine as a 18-year-old student in 2012 and soon joined forces with Ukrainian-born Stas Koroliov to form critically acclaimed pop-folk duo Yuko. Today, Yurina—still formally a Russian citizen despite publicly renouncing her citizenship and applying for a Ukrainian passport—is not only a beloved performer, whose recent album encapsulates much of the anger and grief felt by the average Ukrainian, but also a volunteer working tirelessly to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons and equipment. “I dance through the bullets as air raid sirens sing to me,” Yurina sings on one of the album’s tracks. “I am disgusted by what you’ve done here, you’re killing souls but you won’t be able to kill our dreams. We are not your friends, your family, or your lovers.”

During the first months of the war, a new subgenre of locally produced music arose. “Bayraktar-core” (the semi-ironic name came from how often these songs mentioned the Turkish drones used to great effect by Ukrainian forces in the early stages of the war) songs were simple, composed over a mere few weeks, catchy, and characterized by their aggressive optimism, constant references to recent events, local politicians, wartime memes, and foreign allies (Boris Johnson, then British prime minister, was mentioned often).

What these songs lacked in lyrical nuance and musical innovation they more than made up for by giving millions of Ukrainians a sense of unity and community amid the chaos and horror. “Occupiers came to Ukraine, wearing new uniforms and driving military vehicles,” go the lyrics of one of the most popular “Bayraktar-core” songs. “But their equipment was soon ruined by the Bayraktar!” Some, such as a viral mashup sampling a folk tune and a phrase spoken by Johnson, made the leap over to English-language social media.

While simple war-themed entertainment (or even anything vaguely patriotic and uplifting) might have been enough for listeners and viewers in the early months of the war, the artistic questions got sharper as the fight went on.

Did performers who left the country soon after the full-scale invasion have a right to make money off of songs mentioning the horrors others faced while staying in Ukraine? Could writers who hadn’t personally experienced life under Russian occupation use the devastation in say, Bucha or Mariupol, in their stories? And what if they conducted interviews with the people who had? Many of these questions lack definite answers, but the public response to various works inspired by the war have been noticeably different.

When writer Daria Gnatko announced in late 2022 that she would be publishing a novel set in Russian-occupied Bucha, many pointed out that not enough time had passed to properly process the events that had transpired in the town, and wondered whether writing a story like this without conducting in-depth interviews with the survivors of the occupation was a form of exploitation. The book, along with another upcoming work by Gnatko, a novel inspired by the destruction and occupation of Mariupol, was postponed indefinitely by the publisher after a wave of public criticism.

Likewise, popular writer Kateryna Babkina’s latest novel Mom, Do You Remember? was met with controversy after the author, who had spent much of the war abroad, announced that the plot would be inspired by the occupation of Bucha. Some reviewers were concerned that not enough time had passed since the liberation of Kyiv Oblast and that the subject was still too triggering for most readers, while others darkly suspected Babkina had only mentioned the tragically famous town when announcing the book to draw more attention to her work.

However, most of this criticism was limited to social media, while the reviews in local publications were much more enthusiastic about the novel—which is told from the perspective of a teenage girl narrowly escaping from Russian occupation with her infant half-sister and trying to build a life for them both abroad—and described it as a touching and delicate work full of compassion.

“If for some Ukrainians the book is therapeutic, for foreigners, in particular for Poles, who can already read Babkina’s story, it gives a more internal context about what war victims experience—who walk the same streets and visit the same shops as they do—actually go through. What challenges and problems they face, what they feel, why some do not learn the language and choose to return home despite the missile attacks, and what is happening in the hearts of millions of children who were forced to grow up one day when their world was destroyed by Russia,” wrote a reviewer for the Polish-Ukrainian outlet Sestry.

The truth is that when it comes to describing experiences as traumatic as an ongoing war, there isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all perspective or approach. Some readers find works written about or vaguely inspired by something they or their loved ones went through therapeutic, while others find them triggering or even offensive.

When it comes to film, meanwhile, the pre-2022 offerings were earnest but often unwatched. Reviewers treated these movies as important pieces of cinema, but ones that described horrors most Ukrainians preferred not to dwell on for too long. After the full-scale invasion, however, a dark realization dawned: The wartime dramas were now reflections of our own collective experience, and no romantic comedy or workplace drama was going to stop you from thinking about shrapnel and blood.

That was supplemented by the belief that Ukrainians had to bear witness. At a time when many civilians felt abandoned by human rights organizations’ failure to document Russian war crimes (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally called out the International Red Cross over its inaction after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, while Amnesty International found itself in hot water after publishing a much-criticized report accusing Ukraine of endangering its own civilians), filmmakers took this challenge upon themselves. Documentaries shot during the siege of Mariupol, after the liberation of Bucha, and during the near-constant shelling of Kharkiv became a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy, encouraging non-Ukrainians to support Ukraine, and an instrument to counter Russian propaganda and war fatigue in the West. Perhaps the best-known example is the Oscar-nominated documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol, which garnered universally positive reviews at home and abroad and offered viewers a unique glimpse into the horrors faced by the residents and defenders of the besieged city.

One unexpected wartime challenge is creating entertainment aimed at children. How do you keep kids of vastly different ages entertained while sitting in cold, poorly-lit bomb shelters for hours on end? How do you teach them the rules of wartime safety in an accessible and easy-to-remember format? How do you help them process the heartbreak of losing loved ones, having parents on the frontlines, or living in constant fear of missiles and drones? And perhaps most importantly, how do you begin to broach the topic that there are people who want these kids and their entire families dead? This is when Patron—a real-life sapper dog who became an unexpected celebrity among both kids and adults alike—came in handy.

The wildly popular Jack Russell Terrier, who works as a detection dog and mascot for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine first caught the public’s eye in early 2022, when the dog was awarded a medal for locating and helping defuse unexploded mines left behind by Russian forces after they were driven out of Chernihiv. A video of the bulletproof vest-wearing puppy went viral, and the newly famous dog was soon making charity appearances, visiting kids harmed by the war in hospitals across the country, and even got his own animated web show and book series. Content starring Patron is produced in partnership with UNICEF and aims to teach Ukrainian kids the importance of staying away from abandoned landmines, avoiding suspicious objects left behind by the invading army, and staying brave under difficult circumstances.

Undoubtedly, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to a heightened interest toward local art both among Ukrainians and foreigners, as well as provided an entire generation of artists with stories of sacrifice, courage, and defiance—stories that, despite their complexity, simply must be told, and that may well become modern classics at an international scale. When Penguin Press bought the rights to Ukrainian writer and soldier Oleksandr Mykhed’s autobiographical novel The Language of War, publishing director Casiana Ionita described the book as “a war book that will be read 10, 20, 50 years from now.” But it’s unclear if enough foreign publishers are ready to break their long-standing tradition of viewing events in Ukraine solely through the eyes of their Moscow-educated authors and allow Ukrainians on the frontlines to speak for themselves, like Mykhed, before the war claims them too.

[solarwynd]

I don't know if you have heard of the popstar academy docuseries on netflix but it's about the group katseye and how they debuted and stuff but anyways. their main goal is for them to find a global group that will essentially carry the company from now on like they want this group to be their next BTS but mostly focusing for success in the US. theres this girl there that was a trainee and she was very talented and had star quality but they weren't as interested in her because they felt she was not "the cool rebellious girl" US fans will love and that got me to think about jungkook and jimin. the tattoos, piercings, muscles, the pr smoking incident, him drinking on lives deleting his instagram vs jimin who only does lives at the company, doesn't even like to talk about alcohol in fans vicinity, timid, tries to keep a clean image, the goody two shoes (said lovingly)

now it makes sense to me as to why they push jk so hard especially in the US. he is much more marketable and what supposedly US fans want in male pop artists. they know that the rugged bad boy sells and jimin isn't that

Yea I did. I’ve been in eyekon business for a day or two now lol. I even started watching the show but I haven’t made it past the first episode. I’m really just privy to the Manon drama, but I have seen screenshots of Bang and his foolishness.

“Cool & rebellious” are interesting buzzwords. Two that I can’t exactly say aren’t popular because it sounds like aespa and blackpink. And kpop stans do love that. But what’s really popular right now is the newjeans aesthetic. Which is exactly what Touch was in “sound” and also why I’m confused on what they’re going for in the group’s image. It sounds like they don’t even know. The only thing for certain is that they wanted a multi ethnic group. I listened to their EP and it doesn’t seem like they’re gonna have a set sound and I don’t think that’s an issue. Their music is nice, most of the songs give real summery coming of age vibes. (I liked tonight I might, im pretty and my way) kinda wish they would’ve stuck with that throughout the album cause debut and touch seem like the odd ones out.

Back to the actual topic, Yes I think that cool and rebellious image has more of an advantage for a male popstar for obvious reasons. Jimin not fitting Hybe’s image has been discussed as a possibility as to one of the reasons he’s not getting pushed before but to actually see they confirmed what their ideal is let’s me know how shallow their vision of a true artist is. You’d think they see the results, hype and intrigue Jimin pulls just being him and see that ideal doesn’t hold that much weight as a standard but w/e ig lmao. JK didn’t even fit that stereotypical “bad boy” mold up until recently imo.

Anyway the way HYBE seems so intent on finding the next BTS and strictly speaking in business terms, I really do wonder how much longer BTS themselves are in this for cause to me, it seems like there’s a clock running and Katseye does not seem like the long term solution to me. I know it wouldn’t be smart to wait until BTS calls it quits to then try to build a new group, but they give new jeans. I believe that they’ll find success somewhere down the line, especially if HYBE starts pushing them. But might fizzle out after some time. Touch seems to be gaining some traction and they are building a fanbase. But if they want BTS level fame, it’s gonna have to be a devout one that actually moves for them and not one built of male gg stans that use them for a twitter layout and move out once they get bored. Fandom>>>GP

[heyftinally]

Swift is a Quanity Artist not a Quality Artist. She has high sales because of the Quanity of her albums not because of the Quality. Her fans are not ready for that conversation.

She has one song!! doing 2Billion streams on Spotify and she got that just recently. For a modern Artist who is active, it's a pathetic achievement. Abel's highest is 4Billion and there are other artists who got songs with higher streams.

Her fans constant comparsions with MJ make no sense, their output is completely different. Mj became a high selling artist with a relative small discography but big albums. Taylor Swifts output - when it comes to releasing albums- is more similar to Elvis or you would say (Prince) and I'm only talking about sales not talent ofc.

Her behaviour with her fame on top of that is completely different aswell. MJ was careful of not being overexposed during the heyday of the Thriller era. Apparently he even demanded only to be shown a few seconds during the Pepsi commercial in 84'. Barely gave any interviews, no tour ( Thriller), the album just sold on hid own. While Taylor Swift unintentionally or not, forces herself down on people. Her art itself cannot survive on it's own if she didn't do that heavy promo. The heavy Promotion also on Tiktok where, when you even watched a random video; her face would pop out in a small circle. This one of the worst thing she could have done to annoy the gp even more.

Many people who were once neutral about probably began to hate her, simply because of that. It's annoying. And it's also quite pathetic to have your new album play in over 800 radio stations! I mean, how insecure are you about your own art? Good music does not need that heavy Promotion.

It's the ignoring Celine Dion at the Grammys, annoucing an album at the Grammys. It is evident that they tried to make this moment a Taylor Swift moment in history of the Grammys, similar to MJ's back then. But it just ended up being embarrassing and awkward. Her putting her Grammy on boygenius' head. I couldn't even watch this, due to the second-hand embarrassment. She carefully forces everywhere to be always in the center of attention. And she does make it in a way where it seems like it is not her fault, so people getting mad shouldn't be blaming her. But that she supposedly has no say how her public persona is perceived is just laughable. She may cannot control the paparazzis and some articles they write. But she knows how to get attention.

And then this:

https://x.com/PopBase/status/1791100169347375609

Her fans are mad at this because it is a Coleen Hoover book and they feel that Swift deserves better than this. I quite honestly don't understand what they mean with better. But for my understanding Taylor owns her songs post Reputation, right? So she had to give her ok using one of her songs in this Film.

I also, unpopular opinion as an already huge artist find it cringe to have a song as a movie soundtrack. Like you are already popular enough. Give it a rest sometime.

She oversaturates the market just to always be on everyone's radar in the most obnoxious way. It's not just that her music is on 800 stations, it's that on any one station they'll play four of her songs for every one of anyone else! When I can hear the SAME Taylor Swift song 4+ times in >4 hours, that's excessive.

But she truly doesn't care, as long as she's the center of attention at all times to feed her ego. Just like when she snubbed Celine Deon. But she paints every and any criticism as an attack/"misogyny" (she wouldn't know the definition if it slapped her smug smirk off her face), and just further feeds her victim complex.

And, for the record, she does control the paparazzi, in a way. There's been reports of her staging outings with friends and having her team call the paps to get shots of her and her entourage. With Taylor always in the middle like Regina George, interestingly.

That said, Taylor doesn't deserve anything "better" than a Colleen Hoover movie adaptation oh please no someone say sike. Taylor can't write good music - might as well pair it with a trash book lol.

Depending on the artist, I think including them in a movie soundtrack can work. Bowling For Soup was in a fair amount of Phineas & Ferb. Hilary Duff had a thriving music career when she was in The Lizzie McGuire Movie and A Cinderella Story, and her music was in both. Same for Selina Gomez in Another Cinderella Story, and Aly Michalka in Phil of the Future on Disney Channel. In all of the above cases the singers had established careers in music, but their music still added something to the media they were in.

Now, that said, I don't think Taylor Swift's music will do the same. I already saw that back in Valentines Day, and her song "Today Was A Fairytale" felt excessively cheesy, childish, and almost Disney-ish for what was supposed to be an older teen/adult movie. And given how stagnant her "growth" as an artist has been since then, I can't see her current music having much benefit for *any* movie.

And yes, she has final say in what movies get her songs at this point, so she signed off on this somewhere. So if/when she cries and/or bitches and bashes the movie for whatever petty reason she decides to fabricate, I want everyone to remember that 1) I called it 2) she HAD to have given permission for her music to be included. *I* have to pay royalties just to use music for a group of 8 year olds to compete at a dance competition - Taylor Swift was ABSOLUTELY compensated after signing an agreement somewhere.

[usedpidemo]

What if there was a K-pop based game? Not a Just Dance K-pop edition, but an actual game? What would the gameplay be like? Would you play or buy it? And who should be the first cover idol?

This honestly shouldn't be something I put so much thought into, and it's only scratching the surface, but there's so much material and concepts you could do with a K-pop based game. Other suggestions have already been tackled and explained tactfully, such as gameplay and Career/Story Mode, so here's a list of things and ideas I would like to see in a hypothetical game:

Cover idol:

I think if it’s not BTS or Blackpink, especially for the first game, you’d cause a huge riot. They are far and away the two most popular and recognized K-pop groups of all time, and are basically most Westerners’ gateway to the genre. It makes sense why not them, they’re currently inactive (esp. since BTS are in the military), but I’d argue that you should easily make two cover versions of the game—one with BTS, the other Blackpink. If it has to be one active idol, you could go with many options: Wonyoung, Karina, An Yujin, Yeji, Chaewon, Winter, Seulgi, Sana, Miyeon. It would be cool to have a foreign idol, but it has to be a Korean first, and I’d personally go with Wonyoung. For the Legacy/Legend Editions, I’d pick IU.

MyGM:

You could go three ways with a MyGM mode. Group based, company based, and music show based. All three will have similar gameplay elements, but have different ways and strategies to go about managing a successful group, company or music show. 

MyIdol could be you as a singular group’s manager, scheduling comebacks, concerts, days-off, and so on during a calendar year. There’s a stamina/morale system to balance between working them for profit/popularity and resting them so that none of the members get disgruntled and leave or be sidelined. You’d also have to make decisions for the members’ solo opportunities, line distribution, and more.

MyCompany is larger in scale—you now run an entire company or sublabel (good luck if you’re running Cube or SM lmao). You have to manage every artist’s comebacks and schedules, or else they leave or demand a contract termination. An addition from MyIdol is the ability to sign other idols/artists/trainees on the free agent market and you can add them to existing groups or create new groups with your current roster. 

MyMusicShow would basically be WWE 2K’s MyGM. You’re in charge of a music show/Korean TV station like KBS’ Music Bank or SBS’ Inkigayo and you have to compete with other networks for the best ratings of the week throughout a calendar year. You can negotiate exclusive contracts with other agencies so that their groups can only appear on your programs, as well as managing set designs/TV booking (who wins on your show)/screentime for the artists on your show. 

Universe Mode:

What it says on the tin: you have control over the entire industry and decide who are the top dogs, create special collaborations, send groups on international stages, etc.

Showcase Mode:

Depends on who’s the cover idol: you basically replay some of their most iconic/legendary stages throughout their career. If it were someone like Wonyoung for example, it would include her Very Very Very performance from PD48, that one Love Dive baseball stage, K-Pop Flex 2022, her 2022 Melon Music Awards performance, and so on. You could also do one for whoever’s on the Legend/Legacy Edition cover.

Roster:

Depending on which companies are down for it, I expect all the current 4th/5th gen guys to be available from the start, while 3rd/2nd gen groups are labeled as Legends/Legacy and require some grinding to unlock (with few exceptions). Newer groups would probably be DLC or groups from prominent eras/releases (like 2018 TWICE or 2010 SNSD for example). TheLibrarian’s suggestion of having boy group/girl group only versions is also a possible option, but c’mon, if the NBA and WWE 2K games can include both their men and women’s rosters, I see no reason for the K-pop game not to do the same.

I put so much unnecessary thought into it for some reason, I even tried making concept covers of my own using my ideas and others (they're kinda bad XD). Sorry you had to read through all that.

[jewishbarbies]

Forgive me but I have so much I can say about this that it physically hurts that her fans believe this nonsense…

“she has always been on the frontlines of change in the industry and setting trends”

When?

“she literally changed the demographic of country music from just being for/about older women to teen girls”

There were female artists before that those “older women” listened to when they were teens. When Taylor’s fans are older women there will be a new singer that teens listen to. It’s how the music industry and freaking aging works. 

“she was one of the first people to really centralize social media in marketing”

She’s literally not. The singers that came up in the early 2000s are. They think 2006 is when the internet was being utilised for promoting singers because of Taylor. Google was invented in 1998. Social media & the internet was being used for almost a decade before. JLO is the reason google images was created for goodness sake.  

“she left RCA because she felt that even if they gave her a good deal they would diminish other writers on the label.”

Do they really think she’s the only so singer to leave or stand up to their label. Britney Spears stole her upcoming song from her label and released it to a radio station in 2004/05. 

“she unabashedly writes about her feelings as a young girl and a woman despite getting shit for it at every turn.”

Most female artists who came before her have struggled with this. Dolly Parton would win awards and get up on stage and not be allowed to speak because her MALE partner spoke for her. Even though Dolly was doing all the work. 

“she's one of the first artists to successfully transfer genres from country to pop.”

This is just false. It happens all the time. Not to mention it happens with different genres and artists all the time. 

“she stood up against streaming when literally no other artist did, got them to change some of their policies”

Because she’s the only one that is selfish enough to publicly pick a fight with someone and pretend it’s got nothing to do with her own bank account. Even when I was a fan of hers I knew she was doing it for herself. 

“yet now the exact thing she was worried about has happened.”

Because she was greedy and arrogant and didn’t buy the masters when they were offered to her because she thinks she better than everyone. 

“her move into pop music was completely different than the type of pop that was being made at the time and it influenced pop for years to come.”

Am I deaf? She stuck to the pop model created by those before her to make sure she was successful. Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Billie Eilish they all took risks with their music and careers to push the envelope and change the sound of pop. Not Taylor “stick to the formula” Swift. 

“all before the me too movement.”

The act TS did herself was admirable but this sentence. This belief that this Swiftie (and potentially other Swifties too) have is a slap in the face to what this movement initially represented and what it meant for women who had endured this. 

“her rerecording process is the first of its kind to be this successful and others are now following suit.”

Wtf does this sentence even mean. They don’t know sh*t about her recording process especially in comparison to other artist. Are they seriously so deluded to think no artist was successful before Taylor. How can they compare her to anyone if they believe this. This statement alone makes it sound like she is the reason music is successful. 

“the way she publicized her fight to own her masters”

Yes for public sympathy cause she’s a narcissist. 

“she also basically started the crop top set trend of the mid 2010s”

One quick google search and this is what I found. “Although the crop top first gained prominence in the fashion industry during the 1930s and 1940s - the latter in particular due to fabric rationing in World War II” I’m sure if I spent more time researching I could find more. But I also know it became very popular in the 1970s with men and carried in through to the 80s and 90s for men and women. Then the 2000s was when the trend reignited. 

“heavily influenced the twee fashion of early 2010s”

This is not the compliment they think it is. This fashion trend is layered with the issues. Her racist fans probably love it because it’s a style that is deemed acceptable by those Hampton holidaying rich white mothers and fathers that got sent to boarding school in England when they were young (I hope that analogy makes sense). It was also equated to thinness particularly at the time it was popularised. Not to mention you google Twee and the pictures you see are if Jess from New Girl, Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl (a character from a 2000s show) and Alexa Chung. 

Also such a bizarre way to end their long winded rant. 

They are all so blatantly ignorant and stupid. I wasn’t going to say stupid but it really is all it is at this point. They are stuck in this cult they can’t even make reasonable arguments anymore. It’s exhausting constantly being bombarded with them all in every facet of life. I see so many videos of Swifties singing her music in public settings like that video of them on the plane, if I was on that plane I’d have jumped out of it, and it’s just infuriating the lack of respect they have for the rest of the world. Yet they expect everyone to respect and worship their cult leader. It’s disgusting and exhausting. 

Sorry this was so long. I don’t have many followers and I know you’re a safe space for people who don’t like her. And I feel like this is something others might agree with. 

[fromtenthousandfeet]

https://www.tumblr.com/fromtenthousandfeet/762649366059204608/httpsxcom97901suestatus1837382052729311473?source=share

Yes seven and golden were definitely successful. The music that was chosen all have easy hooks and JK's by no means a bad performer. Also JK was extremely popular prior to his solo songs. And anon isn't wrong per se - I'd say JK is definitely the most known member of BTS right now. He should be shouldn't he? Comparing his activities to the only other two members who could've possibly competed - Jimin and Tae had a pretty limited rollout. They didn't go on extended radio legs in the west or otherwise, didn't perform at any big locations like times square or gcf or iheart, didn't have huge collabs with huge western artists, didn't get the Hybe / sb marketing team hounding every music critic, radio host or netting awards for them (imo VMAs are usually negotiated, I've said this before JK entered the picture so i wont be changing my opinion just because he won one - they wouldn't give it to some unknown but the fan voting is a formality). What I question is if goldens only purpose was to be successful for its own sake.

How well did JK really do? With Jimin we can see that his newer songs from muse did better than his older ones from face. Even though sgmb wasn't as popular with his fanbase or in English, it still did better than smf pt 2 and who obviously performed much better than like crazy. Jimin's success with face translated into more fans, more organized fbs and hence a better performance with muse even though he's enlisted and couldn't properly promote his album. I won't consider nlg a worthy comparison since it's just a fansong but let's compare SNTY to 3d or seven. That's fair enough right? JK only had a few weeks to promote it before he enlisted but I would still say better than being totally radio silent like Jimin for muse. Anyhow SNTY's success was very JK from BTS-esque coded. As in without all the marketing and hype, that songs success is what I would've initially expected from JK in the first place from chapter two before the insanity of seven. It did very well of course. But how is it that we went through such a huge hype cycle of the biggest global popstar who sang seven to rival western artists and BTS themselves, all that marketing and activities and then end up right back to the same situation with his music performance that he would've achieved with his popularity post-hiatus anyway. If Jimin is dependent on his fans for his chart performance then SNTY shows that JK is still dependent on armys but how are they both now in the same situation when one has industry plant level money behind him? (industry plant is just a factual moniker for me not an insult for example I love industry plants Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter). But where are all his new fans that he gained from seven and 3d?

If I invested so much money at JK only for his performance at the charts to revert back to the same level as it was before I did that, then I'd be questioning a lot. Of course scooter and his buddies probably still made a sick amount of money from seven and golden but as Hybe trying to make a new BTS, I'd be annoyed that my marketing budget for JK would have to stay huge to get the returns I want. He's no BTS - invest minimal budget and get huge returns. JK might still get the golden treatment once he's back - sunk cost theory is a thing after all. And while JK didn't quite become the next Justin Bieber like he was supposed to, he's still more successful than 95% of Hybe's other projects. Anyway I doubt people who aren't as deep into this as us can even tell his popularity isn't at the level it's supposed to be at. They'll just say JK is the most successful member from BTS because like you said marketing works. However JK in chapter two has shown me that unless he makes a serious breakthrough with his next projects - his merits as a solo artist are still inextricably tied into his groups fanbase. Which is fine since Armys are still huge and maybe that will be enough even though I feel he failed to net enough dedicated fans with his solo music. But I do wonder about the sustainability of this arrangement when the group returns or if the group decides to go on a more permanent hiatus. Will armys all convert to jjks? I guess we shall see.

Also sidenote I know Tae's music has never done as well as Jimin's and his popularity is more superficial than Jimin's but I still think he's more popular than the other members by far and he could've potentially gotten to Jimins level if he'd done a better debut solo album. Just clarifying since I bunched Tae and Jimin together here even though it's not 2022 anymore and Jimin has strided past Tae as a solo artist. Also they may have definitely not opted into whatever deal JK had - I doubt they were offered one but it's possible it was their choice too. I don't want to strip them of their agency. Tae and Jimin have seemed more wary of Hybe than JK I think

Thanks for sharing. Lots of good info here.

[savebylou]

The decisions he has made make him get two solo succesful albums, two world tours, 4 afhf festivals, his own clothing line, booking like 18 music festivals in different countries this year. - I’m sorry but no, Louis made so many terrible decisions and he lost a lot of fans because of that and the fact that he still can tour/the fact that his album was n.1 etc it’s all on the fans, not on Louis, and definitely not on his team. He’s winning despite his self-sabotage&his team incompetence and not because of that.

And no one’s asking for him to stop singing 1D songs but 1-2 songs are enough, not three songs in the 10 songs setlist when he has two solo albums+FITF was specifically promoted as an album for the live shows.

Hi anon. There is a lot of topics here so I did write a long response sorry in advanced.

Yes Louis had achieve many great things thanks to the support of the fans but this is not giving just because of his existance, he has getting support because he puts work behind it, he makes good albums, beautiful songs, his performance is amazing, his band is fantastic, he plans a great show to perfom in his tour with different elements between a good setlist, screen graphics, lights, pyro etc. And this is possible because of his team's work as well.

He makes livestreams, his own festival, his clothing line, he does so many interviews to promote his album, he does album signings and see sometimes fans after a show, he takes photos with fans even if he is tired. That is a lot of work and is important to remember it.

Fans wouldn't go to his shows or buy his music if he didn't have something special that they want to hear or see. The artist show who he is and shares his craft and then the fans support it.

About his terrible decisions and the self sabotage, that is very vague so I don't know how to respond to that with more details. Yes he has lost fans, but he still haves a lot of fans support otherwise he couldn't keep making this amazing things he has done over the years. And he has achieve those things thanks to his hard work and his team's work, they book the festivals, they plan the tour, etc.

His team work really hard and ultimately Louis is the boss, the team work for him, if you criticize his team your are criticizing Louis, they don't work without Louis' decision making. He knows what he wants, but he is dealing with a music industry that promotes pop music and artists with big labels, is a difficult market to navigate with when he is trying to go for a different genre of music and dealing with the lack of support on radio.

But I think this festival era is such a good move for him, he is showing his music to new audiences.

About the 3 songs of 1D I think fans are making a big deal out of this, he still sing a lot of important songs of his own and is a festival he needs to share popular songs as well as new songs so new people get interested. Is a smart move to sing 1D songs, Night Changes is the most stream song of 1D, at the time I check it has on spotify 1, 563,210,935 & Drag me down has 1,131,128,488, I don't know how many WDBHG but I imagine a lot.

I invite you to read the tags of this post that Ingrid made bacause explain why is so smart the setlist.

I just think sometimes the fact that Louis is so down to earth and sweet make fans think they have the right to say how he has to navigate his career and cross the line trying to reach his team & to delivered their unsolicited opinions like they did with Krystle or Matt Vines, which I think they are really awful comments and I don't even want to see the posts to read more of that.

What makes me sad is to think Louis could see those comments instead of the ones that are celebrating this huge achievement.

Is fine if you don't agree with his setlist but is his second festival of so many, I think we should focus on celebrating how happy he was performing even though he felt insecure at the beginning. Louis after this festival era will be even more confident and will bring more new fans along the way which is a wonderful thing.

I think anyone can disagree with Louis at some point, but is his life and his journey, we will never learn the reasons behind most of his decisions and I think to follow Louis and his journey we have to accept that there will be moments like that and that is ok. Just enjoy the things that you like and take distance from the things that you don't enjoy or disagree with, if you don't like that he performs the 1D songs just don't hear it and move on. He will do what he wants to do regardless of fans' opinions, is his show and this is how he wants his setlist to be.

He share so many of him with us, I'm just thankful we still have the festivals to look for, after the festivals we will have to wait for a while to see him perform again.

I hope you have a great day.

[iwanthermidnightz]

1) Taylor Swift

No one in the music industry wielded more power over the past year than Taylor Swift, who made history at stadiums, movie theaters and on the Billboard charts, leaving even the most seasoned executives speechless. While they’d long celebrated her staggering popularity as a singer, songwriter and performer, her force as a strategic business leader suddenly came into sharper focus — and industry veterans took notes as they watched some of her bravest and most innovative business risks reap remarkable rewards.

At 34, she is one of the music industry’s most charismatic and influential leaders — and she rewrites the rules.

“The piece of advice I would give to the other executives on this list is that the best ideas are usually ones without industry precedent,” Swift tells Billboard. “The biggest crossroads moments of my career came down to sticking to my instincts when my ideas were looked at with skepticism. When someone says to me, ‘But that has never been done successfully before,’ it fires me up. We have to take strategic risks every day in this industry, but every once in a while, you have to really trust your gut and take a flying leap. My rerecordings are my favorite example of this, and I’m extremely grateful to my team and fans for taking that leap with me because it absolutely changed my life.”

Sage advice for an industry in which instinct has largely been supplanted by metrics and data analysis.

In December, Time named Swift its 2023 Person of the Year. In September, after encouraging her 279 million Instagram followers to vote and linking to vote.org, the nonpartisan nonprofit said it received over 35,000 registrations. She appears on the cover of this issue of Billboard and in the No. 1 spot of our annual Power 100 issue because her force across the business of music is now unparalleled — and because she models commitment to innovation that the rest of the business will need in order to tackle the big challenges ahead.

Swift’s gambles have paid off handsomely over the past year.

Her massive The Eras stadium tour, which began in March after she controversially put all the tickets on sale at once, crashing Ticketmaster and sparking mass hysteria, grossed an estimated $906.1 million in 2023 and is poised to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time before it wraps in December, according to Billboard.

The Golden Globe-nominated Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film, taped during her six-show run at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in August, has grossed over $261.6 million worldwide since its October opening, according to AMC Theatres Entertainment. In January, the publicly traded movie-house chain announced that the film’s box-office take made it the highest-grossing concert/documentary picture ever released, surpassing Michael Jackson’s 2009 This Is It. Once again blazing a new path, Swift made a groundbreaking distribution deal directly with AMC Theaters instead of linking with a film studio.

Swift has shaken up the catalog market, too. When Scooter Braun infuriated her by acquiring the master recordings of her first six albums through his Ithaca Holdings and then sold them to investment firm Shamrock Capital at a profit, Swift rerecorded the albums with loving precision and added bonus tracks to the new releases. They performed phenomenally well, as she deftly used her tour to promote them. When her latest rerecording (and 14th studio album overall), 1989 (Taylor’s Version), spent its fifth week at atop the Billboard 200 at the end of 2023, Swift beat Elvis Presley’s record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo artist. Her industry market share last year was 1.72%. If she were her own genre, she’d rank ninth for 2023 — bigger than jazz.

“She’s the smartest artist I’ve ever worked with,” says Messina Touring Group’s Louis Messina, who promotes Swift’s tours and has worked with her since 2005. “She outworks everybody and she has always had this vision. If you’re around her, you can’t help but believe in her.” —Melinda Newman

[bijouxcarys]

Queen's Hot Space Era: A Deep Dive

Masterlist

I’ve been thinking over this album and era more than usual lately, and decided that I’d write this up. Perhaps as a way to extricate all the Queen knowledge from my head, and the era in question takes up quite a lot of RAM.

The Hot Space album, and era, is very controversial and to this day garners a polarising set of opinions amongst fans and critics alike. So I just thought what the hell, let’s let everyone know what the hell was going on with Queen in the early 80s.

The Hot Space album was the 10th studio album by Queen and was released on the 21st May 1982. It had elements of disco, funk, R&B, dance, and pop, which was very different to what Queen had been doing throughout previous albums. The dance elements of this album was supposedly inspired by the success of Another One Bites The Dust, released in 1980.

Another One Bites The Dust was extremely successful in the US and the UK, the two largest marketing countries in the Western world, at least at the time—and Queen aimed to prolong that success.

The band started recording for Hot Space in June of 1981, and spent a gruelling 10 months on the project before wrapping up the production element in March of 1982. Upon its release, fans and critics found it disappointing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said “the band that once proudly proclaimed not to use synthesisers on their albums now dramatically reversed course, dedicating the entire first side of the album to robotic, new wave dance pop, all driven by drum machines and coloured by keyboards with Brian May’s guitar coming in as flavour only on occasion.”

The fourth track on Hot Space, Body Language, has been dubbed the worst song in Queen’s discography by fans, and the whole album received no more than a 3-star rating overall.

Rolling Stone gave them a 3-star, whilst the Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave a 1-star… Yikes.

Hot Space is one of the more obscure Queen albums to those who are not currently, or have ever been, active within the fandom. So we’re going to break it down a little bit, and let’s just talk about the background and context of what the hell was going on with them.

So in 1981, Queen recorded Under Pressure with David Bowie, and it’s still considered one of Queen’s staple and most popular songs. It was recorded in Montreux, and was a completely separate project to Hot Space. The band had met up with Bowie and jammed together for a while, just to see if they could come up with something to lay down and master. Of course, as most people know, bassist John Deacon came up with the iconic Under Pressure bass riff, just before they all went out to get some pizza. And by the time they’d returned to the studio, he’d forgotten it! But luckily drummer Roger Taylor remembered it.

Now, this was the first time Queen weren’t working alone; they were used to working only with their producers, never having had anyone else’s input. The two artists merged as one for the song and it pointed in the direction of a potential new road for Queen—it was looking like an exciting one.

But what went wrong during the recording of Hot Space?

Brian May recalls that there was a total change of life for all of them. They travelled to Munich and according to Brian, that’s when things started to go downhill.

Let’s talk a little bit about the studio in which they recorded the album in Munich. It was situated in the basement of a hotel, and it was called Musicland Studios. It closed in the 90s due to some road issues, so it’s no longer open. But Brian remembers this place being grim and depressing.

The band’s mental health started to deteriorate after learning some unsettling details about the place. In Brian’s words:

“A lot of people used to jump off the top of the building and kill themselves off that particular building. We didn’t know that until we got there.”

The urge to finish recording grew, and they spent months at the hotel.

The aim was to create an album that focused more on the dance elements of music due to the success of Another One Bites The Dust, as I mentioned before. They seemed to be in luck, as Freddie Mercury’s entourage at the time was concentrated with dance influences in the form of Paul Prenter.

Now, who was Paul Prenter, you ask? If you’ve seen the film, you’ll kind of already know, but here’s a bit more of an in-depth look at him.

Paul Prenter was Freddie Mercury’s personal manager from 1977 to 1986. Despite their professional relationship, the two also engaged in intimate relations, and Prenter had a huge influence over Freddie’s life during the time he worked for him. He held partial responsibility for Freddie’s excessive involvement in drugs, alcohol, and his growing promiscuity. 

Freddie was known to have fired Prenter in 1986, and shortly after it was plastered all over the news. It turns out Paul Prenter had sold personal stories to the press about Freddie… What a dick.

After receiving money from multiple press outlets, he moved back to his hometown of Belfast and spent it all—smart. He then asked Freddie for more money! After all that, he went back and asked him for money! But it’s okay, he did succumb to complications from AIDS a few months before Freddie. So… Freddie got the last laugh, it seemed.

You’re probably wondering what Paul Prenter had to do with Hot Space. After all, he wasn’t part of the band, right?

Well, Freddie’s life was ruled by the New York-inspired gay lifestyle of the 80s, particularly engaging in extreme partying and extreme promiscuity. And at the time, Freddie had suggested to the band that the music on their new album should sound like that of which they’d play in a gay bar, but those words had initially come from Paul Prenter.

It’s said that Prenter despised guitars and relentlessly referred to Brian May as old-fashioned. Roger Taylor recalled that Prenter was a “very bad influence” on the band:

“He was a very, very bad influence upon Freddie, and hence on the band. He very much wanted our music to sound like you just walked in a gay club, and I didn’t.”

The strain and tension became inevitable with the four personalities—and we all know that John, Freddie, Brian, and Roger have massive personalities. Whilst they had always experienced bickering, as most bands do, they now with the added tension, the production of the album isn’t going to go as smoothly.

“Arguments would start off as creative, but slowly became personal.”

Brian recalls that less and less time was spent in the studio and more time was spent arguing.

To put it into perspective about what life was like for the 10 months they spent recording Hot Space in Munich…A regular day recording this album went a little bit like the following:

The entourage recall waking up at 3am, working for hours, having dinner, and then roadies would mix up cocktails and other things would pursue. The band got mixed up in cocaine and various other drugs. Random women, and relentless drinking, and as any sane person will tell you, that is not a good thing.

Roger described it as an exhausting cycle day after day. Imagine doing that for 9 whole months.

Brian remembers them getting into “deep trouble emotionally” in Munich, which possibly explains why their mental states deteriorated.

Now, the Hot Space era didn’t just end when the album came out. Obviously, when an album comes out, you have to do interviews to promote your album and after months and months of bad influences and arguments, the band’s relationship had kind of broken down. Things continued in quite a tense fashion. 

In fact, Freddie was left very unhappy and depressed after Hot Space wrapped up—it lasted a while, and he was completely immersed in places and habits that remained detrimental to his fate. Freddie became passive during interviews and defensive on certain questions concerning anything but current projects.

His attitude during the 1982 press conference in Europe was already standoffish and it was extremely obvious that he didn’t want to be there. The body language of the others, especially Brian, speaks volumes. The mood is low and they all seem exhausted.

Another nationwide interview the band gave in promotion for the album presented the group separated; Freddie was notably disinterested as the others spoke. There was even a moment where Freddie responds to the interviewer’s question with “let’s break up tomorrow” as a joke. But, watching it, you can’t help but feel there’s some truth to his words. Nobody laughed, even Roger looked uncomfortable by it!

One of the more well-known interviews from this era was with Brian and Roger, which displayed multiple moments of awkwardness with them both trying to make jokes and seem like they’re happy with what they’d produced, making up amateur excuses as to why they created something with a different sound. In my opinion, they just didn’t seem very happy. Do we even need to mention the “shut up” from Roger, and then the succeeding comment from Brian about Mack having the best drum sound?

Then, we have the iconic 1984 Freddie interview, where he left viewers stunned with his answers:

“I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you,” “I’m not an artist, I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”

The long-term effects of what happened behind the scenes of Hot Space were everlasting and turned the group into four completely different people than they were prior to 1982. 

As I’ve already mentioned, Hot Space wasn’t received well upon its release, and there are still very strong opinions about it today. Brian stated in 2014 that it isn’t the band’s worst album, but the timing of its release was just wrong. As time goes on, more people begin to accept the Hot Space album as just another reason why Queen is one of the most versatile groups of all time, with them branching out into very different styles to what they’d done earlier in their career, like Sheer Heart Attack, News Of The World, etc…

80s culture looked down upon disco and funk, so reception for Hot Space was bound to be less than amazing. However, today, all styles of music are simultaneously celebrated, and people enjoy the album more now than they did 40 years ago.

So in conclusion, recording Hot Space was a difficult period for Queen. It’s horrible to think about your idols going through the kind of thing they did in the early-mid 80s, influenced by not very nice people. But focusing on the album itself, it’s truly not a bad album at all. Granted, the timing of the release wasn’t the best for Queen, but it holds up as a fan favourite today.

If you haven’t heard any of the songs from Hot Space, besides Under Pressure, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s very different to what Queen usually did and I think it’s worth a listen.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Let me know if you liked this little… post, whatever the hell it is, and if I should do more posts like this. I enjoy throwing all my useless knowledge onto a page lol.

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #68: 2017

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Ed Sheeran, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, The Chainsmokers, Migos, The Chainsmokers, Sam Hunt, Imagine Dragons, Post Malone. End description]

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It's easier more than ever to see the effects of streaming on the pop charts. As electropop and club music become a distant memory, the pop music of the late 2010's works better with individual listening. As mentioned before, streaming works better for album listening, much more than the iTunes era which encouraged the purchasing of individual songs (which was great for singles artists, but not necessarily for albums). Some artists were able to hack this system. For example, Drake's Views (featured on the previous poll) was notable for having 20 songs on its tracklist -- which is a lot for a pop release. Unlike the iTunes era or even the CD era before, longer albums with shorter songs flourish more in the streaming landscape.

Streaming also helped to continue blurring the line between genres and audiences. Without going too much into it (because this is a topic I could ramble on about endlessly), genres were not handed down to us from Mount Olympus or something. Genre is a tool of marketing, and the lines drawn between them can have a variety of cultural, racial, economic, gender, religious, and other variables between them. These lines were more prominent in previous years before streaming made it easier to access just about every kind of music at once. This is when we start to see the rise of a concept known as the "monogenre". In order to cater to as wide an audience as possible, everything starts to sound like everything. A little rock, a little indie, a little trap, a little tropical house, a little festival EDM. There were also those who criticized the streaming era in how it promotes a more "passive" listening style, since playlists and algorithms could continue playing ad infinitum without the listener needing to seek out new music themselves. While I certainly see the evidence of that on the charts, I don't think this tells the complete story.

As a less cynical counter-argument, streaming has made it easier for listeners to find music that otherwise wouldn't have been marketed to them. I believe that this could be one of the factors behind reggaeton finding a growing audience among English speakers. Obviously reggaeton did not originate this year. The roots of the genre can be traced back to the 1980's in Panama where it would later grow an even larger audience in Puerto Rico. The genre would grow in popularity in the States as well, especially in the early 2000's. But if you weren't paying attention to Spanish language music (and you didn't grow up in the Southwest), it was easy for mainstream audiences to miss it. Reggaeton includes influences from dancehall and hip-hop, so it makes sense that the genre would find a mainstream English-speaking audience when those two genres were also shaping pop music. Because Despacito wasn't just big for a reggaeton song. It wasn't even big for a Latin pop song. Despacito led to Daddy Yankee becoming the sixth most listened-to artist on Spotify in 2017, and led to an influx of Latin and reggaeton artists who were able to cross over without English language remixes. Billboard magazine has an article here about the "Despacito Effect".

[rena-renata]

I know I haven't been very active here in a long time but I wanted to post this here since I don't know who else to tell… Last year at my job, as part of the marketing department, I had to post a video on tiktok and I used the trending audio at that time and it turned out to be 3D by Jungkook, and from that moment little by little I began to enter the world of BTS questioning why I had not done it before even though I knew some of their songs such as Butter, Dynamite and My Universe (the most popular basically) but nothing more. Since I became a baby ARMY I feel happier, better with myself and loved and I know it sounds cliché but that's how BTS makes me feel. Since One Direction broke up I had not felt that inexplicable emotion when an artist releases new content, whether it be a photo or a song, and BTS gave me back that experience and emotion at my 26 years old… I am very happy that I decided to listen to their music and watch their content that brighten my day (RUN BTS, Bon Voyage, etc). And even though they came into my life when they are in military service, I still feel welcome in this large fandom and community and I don't feel alone despite not having anyone to talk to about this topic, which is why I write this here.

This year is going to be my first FESTA (for which I feel very excited and expectant) and the last time I got excited for an event like this from an artist was with 1D Day in 2013, but as I mentioned since they broke up little by little I lost that emotion of celebrating their anniversary, new music, etc. But this year that emotion returned thanks to BTS and even though I have only been in this world for a few months I feel like it has been waiting for me for a few years, BTS arrived For me, when I was at a low point in my life, I felt alone and that I didn't deserve to be loved for who I am, but as cliché as it may sound, BTS managed to change that and thanks to them I feel loved and that I matter and that I have a purpose in this life, thanks to their music they motivate me every day to be better and to live my life in the best way and I am very grateful to them for these reasons.

I know that not many will read this post, but I just wanted to vent and capture this feeling somewhere since I have no one to talk to about this topic in person. That's all and I hope everyone has an excellent 2024 FESTA, which I am very eager to experience for the first time. 💜

PS: English is not my first language so sorry if there are some spelling mistakes 🤗