Lily Space

2006 - Internet killed the Video Star?

Arctic Thom Boyz

Poor Sandi. Did anyone really watch her yelping out her fluffy pop from her Tooting flat? Do you know anyone that would admit to it? Do you know anyone that watched and then went and bought the song? If it were true and people really felt enough love for her to tune into to her webcasts that surely it would have translated into long term album sales and megastardom? The truth is that it was a wonderful piece of PR making the average ‘Joe’ (not ‘Joey’, no ‘Joey’ is average) think she was cool. The single was catchy enough for people to enjoy it for a little while.

The Result: A number one single after a blanket of publicity about a webcast no-one admits to watching. Unfortunately for Sandi the initial buzz soon became a whimper and she is not likely to sustain a pop career. She is probably destined to be a mere footnote in British pop music.

Now the Sheffield bandits, The Artic Monkeys, a band I really do not like. I never have, the first single annoys me. I dislike Alex Turner and his voice. However that doesn’t mean I don’t think they are good. They certainly do make interesting, catching and challenging songs.

They are a band ‘made popular on the internet’. That’s what the music press would like us to believe but in what sense is that true? The Artic Monkeys were not on Myspace for ages and claim to never use it. They may have raced to a million record sales in the UK in double quick time but this not really a result of the internet exposure. Most of the people that fell in love with them on the internet, rather than the radio, would not have been the people who actually went down to HMV and dropped £12.99 on the counter for monkey music.

By the time the album had come out most of it had been on the web for months and months. Those vaguely savvy enough to track it down were either bored, had moved on to the next fad or were happy to keep their elicit demo MP3 download by this point. Very few of the ‘early adopters’ will actually own a legitimate copy of the album.

The internet played its part in their rise but it more down to the ‘cool’ factor. Every supposed trend-setter jumped on the mysterious monkey train and told the masses this was ‘the next big thing’, ‘they are huge on the internet’, ‘Myspace made them’. Myspace did not make them. What made them was the myth that Myspace birthed them. In truth their hype probably made Myspace in the UK! The masses thought it was ‘cool’ and a people’s movement. They naively believed that the public discovered them, independent of the evil music industry and the internet support was pure and organic.

Of course not, they just became cool through hype and mystery. People like Jo ‘I don’t have a fucking clue’ Whiley built them up because they wanted to be ‘hip’ by association. The Arctic bandwagon snowballed and poor old average Joe who doesn’t know what a blog is or how to use Myspace was duped into believing the hype and buying the CD to be in the ‘it’ (not ‘IT’) crowd. Well done to the Monkeys, their label, PR and management. They, unlike Sandi will live through the ‘invisible viral storm’ because they are talented.


So onto the best new British artist of 2006: Lil Lil Allen. The hype created around her surrogate father (MySpace) and her D-list celebrity (biological) father was thankfully justified. Lily’s relationship with the internet was similar to that of the Monkeys but she seems to have embraced the internet more herself personally. The blogging community certainly seems to have helped create a healthy buzz for her in the USA. Unfortunately Lily and her record company wont have the bizarre draw of Kieth Allen to use over there.

In reality the internet didn’t kill the video star it just moved it onto youtube and beyond. People are spending more and more time on the web; either bored at work or through increased use of broadband. Its less appealing to watch the 47 MTV channels that are filled with synchronised Ad breaks and repetitive reality TV; its no wonder MTV are expanding into the web and mobile so much.

In 2007 Lily will release her debut album stateside including this wonderful Mark Ronson Remix of ‘Smile’ from his podcast.


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