Seemingly Intractable Questions In Pop, No.1 in a Series

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

How do you make pop work on TV?

Comments

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Exactly. 'Unsigned artist' was a bad choice of words, but your comment was "what if I'm not a Fergie fan yet?" The point I was trying to make is that if you want to see artists you've never heard of, mainstream pop TV is not the answer, because they fill their airtime with artists people have heard of and want to hear again i.e. successful ones. A segment on Evil Twin Silver Springs dressed as pineapples is pointless. How do you find out about an act that you're not already a fan of? I imagine that the answer is very rarely "on pop TV" unless you basically ignore all radio, TV, print media for a year and then watch some pop TV.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

> they fill their airtime with artists people have heard of and want to hear again

Perhaps that's where mainstream pop TV is going wrong!

But I see what you're getting at. However just because I've heard of Fergie doesn't mean I'm a fan of hers. I might have ignored all previous reference to her and her music. Then whilst waiting for my favourite established artists Silver Springs to come on screen dressed as pineapples, I catch a glimpse of Fergie being interviewed about her love of small dogs wearing hats. I realise I was wrong to dismiss her without giving her a chance & go and seek out her album...

I realise that not everyone's opinions on popstars can change so wildly as mine can, and this is probably the actual reason music telly doesn't work.