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A New Model for Music: Big Bands, Big Brands [SXSW]


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Posted

Saw this come across my fb timeline and found it an interesting read and figured I'd share. Small exchange between writer Andy Langer, Sharon Chapman editor for Austin-American Statesman and Erin Walter the freelance writer. Below is link for Carr article in NYT.

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For South by Southwest, Lady Gaga filmed something of an infomercial for Doritos, urging people to use the hashtag #boldstage and submit a video of themselves doing something “bold†to compete for access to her performance. (In fact, any journalist covering the event was required to do the same thing, which explains why I — and my colleague Jon Pareles — were not there. If we had done so, we would have consented to “give sponsor a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive license†to use our social media efforts to sell corn chips.)

We missed quite a spectacle, from what I can see in video clips and news reports. Lady Gaga was smeared in barbecue sauce and mock-roasted like a pig and then, with the ink on the check from Doritos barely dry — and with millions destined for her charity — she bit the tortilla chip that fed her. “I won’t play by your†— insert street-cred adjective — “rules,†she said.

She then wagged a crooked finger at her fans who were shooting pictures on their phone and had tweeted their way in at her instruction: “When you leave this earth, no one is going to care what you tweeted. Don’t let the machine and don’t let technology take you from this earth.â€

And in a move that might seem redundant given the irony that she had already coated herself with, Lady Gaga invited the performance artist Millie Brown on stage to drink a bottle of neon green liquid and vomit all over her. Her actions — to happily shill for Doritos, then deliver a lecture on the importance of independent thought — perfectly encapsulate the conflicted state of the industry.

(You could say it was a new low, but last year, I saw Public Enemy, musical heroes of my youth, perform “Fight the Power†inside a mock Doritos vending machine.)

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/business/media/a-new-model-for-music-big-bands-big-brands.html?ref=business

Posted

Thanks Sean. I wasn't even considering gaga when I posted. Just the corporate shilling required for journalists. I honestly read the "millions in donations' comment in Carr's article and briefly considered not posting as I didn't want to come across as bashing a charitable gig.

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