Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe - Idolator Comments

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dabug — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:36:51 EDT

@maura: My theory was that she had just enough 'bloid exposure to sour her to Disney's audience, but they admittedly pushed "With Love" a bit before it eventually fell out of rotation. Still, her last two singles ("Wake Up" and "Beat of My Heart") were RD staples for well over a year. (Meaning, like, #1 for a bajillion weeks -- and you think Rihanna's been on top for a while...)

@heidiho: Yeah my post got screwed up. I personally think that "Bullseye" could be about as big as "Potential Breakup Song," esp. coming off Avril's success with "Girlfriend" (though "PBS" is probably more WTF noveltyish than "Bullseye"). I imagine RD is saving "Bullseye" for a proper introduction through their Mailbag feature, presumably in the next few weeks, but they basically stick Hollywood artist songs onto their countdown without them getting voted in like everything else. (Not sure if "Umbrella" was up for voting, but it's #10 on the countdown already and will likely rise to #1 quickly, just like "SOS.")

@GovernmentNames: Nope!

And DickMalone really OTM on the backstage wheelings and dealings. This is a significant development (total emphasis on cross-promotion/package deals; very few Hollywood artists have done very well without prior Disney success, Jonas Bros. being a huge exception but not nec. a trend), because it means that Disney is now in the position to relaunch what happened more by accident back in the first teen_pop wave c. 2000 w/ Britney/Xtina et. al, except now they have the production means to guide everyone's career individually from the NEW NEW Mickey Mouse Club to a solo career. They have no opposition from any comparable cross-platforming places (Nickelodeon has uniformly failed in launching cross-promotional music stars) and the latest "tween revolution" thinkpiece puts all the other majors' hopes with Paula DeAnda and the Naked Bros. Band = DUD DUD DUD. But Hannah Montana won't have much steam left in it after another OST or two (that'll take, what, eight months?) and they have nothing currently backing it up. (PS Disney HIRE ME NOW!)

dabug

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Al Shipley — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:32:19 EDT

Does anyone call teen pop "teenpop" (one word) besides like 8 rock critics on the internet?

Al Shipley

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Ned Raggett — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:53:39 EDT

Great post, great discussion, great great great. My one measly addition is to note this fine comment at the start:

by extension, the idea of whether anything in the current super-fragmented musical landscape can even be considered popular in the first place

I've been saying off and on that 'pop' (conflating quite a bit for now) right now is just another subculture. Its continued preeminence is being tied in with a sales/airplay/whatever system, one totally fraying around the edges and which was compromised to start with, that elevates it to a presumed position of sociological superiority.

Ned Raggett

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Mike Barthel — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:50:39 EDT

Honestly, I think the real lesson here is the way that the Disney system serves artists better than the major-label system, given that the reason the Brothers got screwed over is because their A&R guy got fired. That's how it works at big labels: aside from the three or four tentpole releases, each artist is a different person's individual project, and that artist's success is largely dependent by how much that individual can get the other departments to get behind their release. Whereas at Disney/Hollywood, a signing's a signing. There's no pretense to individualism like with the A&R system, just corporate strategy, and as soulless as that sounds, a committment from Disney means a hell of a lot more than a committment from any other label that employs more than 3 people. This all gets papered over by using terms like "assembly line" in place of an actual underderstanding of how the Disney system works. They focus on one particular genre (or demographic, at least), they know the hell out of their audience, and they don't waver. Would that any label could offer as much, or at least convince their A&R guys to drop their pissing contents and their presidents to stop releasing five things a week...

Mike Barthel

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

blobby — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:17:23 EDT

"Only" 62,000? Isn't that about what LCD Soundsystem's debut sold?

blobby

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dollywould — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:12:59 EDT

@maura: The Jonas Brothers debuted "Mandy" on TRL in March '06. Was it there? I know it also got play on Noggin/The N.

@dabug: Did something go missing from your post, or are you saying that "Bullseye" is the Aly & AJ song that will be bigger than "Potential Breakup Song?" I liked the little sassy "you already had my number" spoken part. "Like Whoa" was a fun song, too.

Fun fact: The Aly & AJ album's "breakup" songs are inspired by AJ's breakup with Joe Jonas. Ah, the tangled web of Disney stars...

dollywould

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Maura Johnston — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:08:18 EDT

@dabug: Also, that Hilary thing is just really weird. Do you have any suspicions as to why that might be the case? Too much time in the dirty Madden/MisShapes world? I really like the songs I've heard off Dignity so far.

Maura Johnston

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Maura Johnston — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:06:40 EDT

@dabug: Interesting points -- thanks for the clarification re: the Jonas Brothers' deal. I'm now trying to remember when I first saw the video for "Mandy," because a channel-flip was definitely my first exposure to it. Maybe it was on Noggin?

Maura Johnston

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dabug — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:02:38 EDT

Sorry if this is a double post...almost every track from A&A's new album is eligible for voting into Disney rotation via their Top 30 countdown, except, conspicuously, for their best song, "Bullseye," which they might be saving to introduce through their Mailbag feature (to make it look like it was "unanimously chose," which it will be).

dabug

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dabug — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:00:10 EDT

And also worth noting, just noticed this today, but nearly... which I think will be even bigger than "Potential Breakup" if given proper release. Wishful thinking, maybe. (It's possible that they're saving "Bullseye" for their Music Mailbag feature, to make it seem as if the track was "unanimously voted into rotation" by Disney callers...or maybe there were content issues but I highly highly doubt it.

dabug

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dabug — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:55:31 EDT

Or maybe "intuitive" is way too naive a word to use -- Nick Jonas was doing Disney crossovers before they even had a deal with Columbia (or maybe right at the start), and it's likely that the Jonas Bros. knew fairly early on to stick with the Disney labels and merely waited to be released from Columbia, who didn't know what the hell to do with them.

dabug

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dabug — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:52:56 EDT

Interesting stuff, but I think you (or maybe the people who wrote the articles...should, uh, probably read those) missed a couple of small but important points:

The Jonas Bros. failed on Columbia for mega-obvious reasons -- the label pushed their release date back until it was eventually released, without fanfare, several months after its expected date (sometime in August). The trio was dumped a couple weeks after the album debuted and Hollywood intuitively picked them up because of the success of a couple tracks on Radio Disney. None of the major labels outside of Disney seem willing to do the niche-marketing or cross-promotional advertising needed to win Disney's audiences -- in the past, Jive and other labels were more than eager to work with Disney, but now that Disney also controls production and distribution (usually through Hollywood Recs, who doesn't just make teenpop -- Plain White T's godawful single just scored Hollywood their first #1 on the Hot 100 charts), it's likely harder for outside labels to cooperate with the Disney machine.

It's not clear that Hilary had the opportunity to "stay with Disney" --though "With Love" did OK in RD airplay, her first and more crucial "comeback" single "Play with Fire" was never eligible for rotation on RD and didn't get a single spin there, despite the fact that she's still with Disney-owned Hollywood Recs. Disney is weird about content control (as always) and are likely denying Hilary huge exposure to her former audience. I doubt it was in Hilary's control to choose whether or not her first single would get airplay on Disney.

dabug

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

Dickdogfood — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:58:45 EDT

I hope the middle Jonas Brother is of age because I would totally go gay for him -- all over again!

Dickdogfood

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

xtianrut — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:15:25 EDT

Let's take back the word "pop." More posts about Flop!

xtianrut

Disney Masterminds Its Own Pop Universe

dollywould — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:11:14 EDT

As one who knows this tween audience well, I can assure anyone that the Jonas Brothers are huge. Like, 'N Sync in their prime huge. They should have signed to Hollywood in the first place. Columbia didn't know what to do with them.

If you were curious, just turn on the Disney Channel anytime of day. Odds are their video will play during the commercial break momentarily.

And oh my god, Sean Kingston is only 17? Jesus, I could have sworn he was waaaay older.

dollywould