Singles and Videos

This thread is to discuss how an artist's choice of singles from their album, as well as the music video to go along with it, can affect the artist, their image, and your own personal perception of their music, as well as abuse of singles (especially overuse).


I'll give a few examples.

First, a positive one.
I really liked Gorrillaz' Demon Dayz, and listened to it all the time. One song on the album, "Dare" was one of the better ones, IMO, and it was one of my favorite songs on the album. However, it wasn't in my head or anything, and i would often glaze over it to go to songs i liked better.
Last night, i saw the premeir on MTV2 of the music video for "Dare." Even though the video was freaky, the fact that they chose a good song and that it was singled out, played on TV, with a music video made me like it like 20x better. I've had it stuck in my head all day. (lol, singing as i write this, *you've got to press it on you....*)
I guess sub-conciously, the idea that the band agreed with me that the song was a really good one made it even better in my mind.
Weird.


OK, now a huge negative.
Gwen Friggin A. Stefani.
I've been a big No Doubt fan for years, and naturally i got Gwen Stefani's album, LAMB, because i liked the first single and was generally curious.
I got it and liked it and got into it, until something very bad happened: OVERKILL.
First, "What you waiting for" started getting into the Radio rotation once every two hours. Then when Rich Girl came out (one of my favorite songs) it got the same painful overuse, and quickly drove me crazy. Then, *oh god*, she did Hollaback Girl. Now, the first time i heard this song, i almost got in trouble for saying ***** with her too much. I thought it was great and innovative. I swear to god, they played that song once every 30 min at one point on the local radio station. I hate her more everytime i hear that song.


Ok, that was long, but.....

RESPOND!!!

Most artists don't choose there singles, the label does.

But anyhoo, a good case is Metallica with "The Unnamed Feeling". The greatest song ever, too bad it recieved bad air time.

A bad case is, System of a Down with "Question", the song sucks. The band rocks though.

Originally Posted by DarKnite'92

Most artists don't choose there singles, the label does.

Yeah, sorry that's what i meant to say.

Though the artist does have a fair amount of say about it.

Yeah.... a very positive single/video was made in 1994/5. In 1994, Edwyn Collins released a single called 'A Girl Like You' from his album 'Gorgeous George'. The single was in the rockbottom of the charts, around the 30s and 40s and didn't chart in America (though that's typical of non-American artists, much like American artists coming into British charts, though that's less typical now). A Belgian DJ played the song a lot (because he liked it), it became No1 in the Belgian charts (if I recall). The song spread like wildfire through Europe, and then charting in America (again, a rare thing), even topping the Cantonese charts (which is no mean feat). The single/video was used (because of its popularity) in a shampoo advertising campaign, and made the single (while not No1 in all charts it entered) extremely successful.

However, the ironic thing was, as popular as 'A Girl Like You' was, unjustifiably, no major record labels offered Edwyn another contract for another album, leaving Edwyn to stay on independent label Setanta Records and went on in cult-dom.

When in a discussion of radiosingles, one band comes to mind.... Green Day. More specifically, the American Idiot album.

Naturally, the song, "American Idiot" was the perfect first single for the album. It was a song that I was comfortable hearing when I was in the mood for Green Day. However, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was truly a shock for me when I heard it on the radio. But to this day, it is probably their biggest hit. "Holiday" to American Idiot was the same way as "Basket Case" was to Dookie. It was destined to be a single as soon as it was written in my opinion (even though I have grown quite sick of "Holiday"). However, "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was another unexpected move, however, the video told such a story, no other song could have fit it better. I would have been happy if "St. Jimmy" or "Letterbomb" were singles, but that's their choice I guess.

Originally Posted by Jordan L

Yeah.... a very positive single/video was made in 1994/5. In 1994, Edwyn Collins released a single called 'A Girl Like You' from his album 'Gorgeous George'. The single was in the rockbottom of the charts, around the 30s and 40s and didn't chart in America (though that's typical of non-American artists, much like American artists coming into British charts, though that's less typical now). A Belgian DJ played the song a lot (because he liked it), it became No1 in the Belgian charts (if I recall). The song spread like wildfire through Europe, and then charting in America (again, a rare thing), even topping the Cantonese charts (which is no mean feat). The single/video was used (because of its popularity) in a shampoo advertising campaign, and made the single (while not No1 in all charts it entered) extremely successful.

However, the ironic thing was, as popular as 'A Girl Like You' was, unjustifiably, no major record labels offered Edwyn another contract for another album, leaving Edwyn to stay on independent label Setanta Records and went on in cult-dom.

Hah! I just saw that story on the greatest One hit wonders on VH1.
Yeah, that is an interesting story.
Isn't Edwyn Collins in your avy?

And yes, Trinexx, i thought Green Day's latest video/single was an odd choice, but i loved the vid nonethe less.

Originally Posted by Trinexx

When in a discussion of radiosingles, one band comes to mind.... Green Day. More specifically, the American Idiot album.

Naturally, the song, "American Idiot" was the perfect first single for the album. It was a song that I was comfortable hearing when I was in the mood for Green Day. However, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was truly a shock for me when I heard it on the radio. But to this day, it is probably their biggest hit. "Holiday" to American Idiot was the same way as "Basket Case" was to Dookie. It was destined to be a single as soon as it was written in my opinion (even though I have grown quite sick of "Holiday"). However, "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was another unexpected move, however, the video told such a story, no other song could have fit it better. I would have been happy if "St. Jimmy" or "Letterbomb" were singles, but that's their choice I guess.

Obviously you know nothing of album sales. "Boulevard" sold around 2 million copies of ''Idiot" while "holiday" did around 400,000.

Originally Posted by Kaze-One

Hah! I just saw that story on the greatest One hit wonders on VH1.
Yeah, that is an interesting story.
Isn't Edwyn Collins in your avy?

Yeah, it is him in my avy (and sig). Back cover of the inlay from 'Gorgeous George'. And I wouldn't call him a one hit wonder He's a cult hero

As DarKnight said, a lot of the time it's up to the label to choose the single, at least the first one. Depending on how valuable the band is, they can either say no or be forced to do it. Less Than Jake had to do with "She's Gonna Break Soon" on Anthem, and even when they chose "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" for the second single, they still edited out a lot of the horn parts.

As for videos, once again a lot of it is up the record companies. The directors will send in their treatments for the videos, then the label will decide what they think is best for selling the band and their music. Mostly everything depends on how nice the label representative is and how good the management for the band is in getting them creative rights.

Sometimes, the managers and record companies make poor choices for the singles, but do an overall good job on plucking out the best in an album...unless it's Gwen Stefani, and you can't fdo right!