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Post by roger on Jul 11, 2009 17:41:30 GMT
Hi Elliot, Although I don’t disagree with most of your views, many of them would be impractical or unlikely to happen for a number of reasons. Let’s look at them one by one: There's an official forum? Good grief! All the searches I did on Hayley and the only forum that turned up was this one… Yes. If you go to the front page of the official site, there is a button to their forum immediately beneath the site’s banner. The forum is a replacement for the one that was closed last year in line with all Universal’s forums. They had their reasons but I feel it was a huge mistake. The number of members and their activity levels is never likely to match those of their previous forum as many will be disillusioned to think their previous contributions have been virtually lost (although they are available to view only). Facebook is great for those who have Facebook, but without having an active MySpace and Bebo presence as well, Hayley is likely missing out on a lot of potential fans. You can probably throw Twitter in these days, as well. A lack of official presence on YouTube (And no, a label presence is not the same thing) is arguably even worse, of course. But that’s the point. There are so many of these networking site and more and more spring up all too often. There is no way that anyone could maintain them all. Hayley once laughed at the suggestion that she was running My Space, saying, “As if I would have the time”. That means one of two things. She would either need to employ a team of people to maintain them for her or she would need a dedicated team of trusted fans to do it for nothing. The former would be far too costly and the latter is still dependent upon someone (probably her management team) notifying countless people of all the news. That would be very time consuming, not easy to coordinate and extremely costly. Full songs on MySpace seems to be what the majority of other artists go for, so clearly most of them think it's a good idea. And I happen to agree with them. For Hayley especially, a lot of her songs are 'slow build' and thirty second clips really don't get the point across. Nor are her best songs on there in any way, shape or form. But that raises the issue of copyright infringement and illegal downloading. No matter how well protected those sites may be, it is always possible to download material with the right knowledge and software. I have neither but I guarantee, I could easily obtain a good quality recording of anything on the internet if I chose to do so. I don’t, but many would. Now, if it were properly controlled, for example, if no more than one song per album were ever available, it would probably be quite acceptable. Unfortunately, anyone can add anything to You Tube and, if you look around, you could probably find every track she has ever recorded. For it to be policed properly, bring us back to the costs involved which the artists, ultimately, would have to pay for. There is one thing I've noticed a lot of up and coming artists doing right now on YouTube, which is doing acoustic covers of famous songs. This obviously turns them up in search engines a lot more frequently (And YouTube searches), helps draw in new fans and displays their range. Assuming Hayley has the time, it's a thing she could do. But she doesn’t have the time. She rarely has a day off and, when she does, she is usually working on the next album, writing songs or whatever. The only way she could find the time would be by giving fewer public concerts but she is dependent on them to make a living. Generally speaking, I'm assuming she doesn't have a lot of time and that most work would be done by her management in promoting her online. No she doesn’t have time. And neither do her management team. There are only four of them and they have a number of artists to look after. They are constantly on the road and working extremely long hours. For them to do the promoting would require the staffing levels to increase significantly. And who has to pay for that? Hayley (and all their other artists). That being the case, there's still a lot that can be done: * Increased information sent out on Bebo/MySpace/Facebook/Twitter. Keep fans up to date weekly or monthly and you generate more interest. Make it look like the sites are unused and it's not good. NO fan should have to discover that she has a new album out in, say, Japan by chance. Even if they are not IN Japan, they have multiple ways to get it, after all. Actively advertising concerts would not be a bad thing, either. Don't forget, Hayley doesn't have to write all this stuff up herself. I agree that would be wonderful but who would do it? And who would pay them? Full songs on MySpace and similar sites. With links to iTunes for anyone who wants to get her stuff there and then. Yes, but as I said above, only if it could be guaranteed not to have the opposite effect by enabling fans to acquire significant parts of an album without payment. Official YouTube channel. With all official vids as well as concert footage. These things are made to be adverts. They're useless if they are not advertising. That would have to come out of Hayley’s budget that was agreed at the time of her contract with her record company. Every penny of that has been spent or earmarked for further promotion throughout the term of that contract. To include further promotion on You Tube or wherever would mean the contact has to be renegotiated and every penny would have to be paid back by Hayley. Prominent links on all official Hayley sites to all OTHER official Hayley sites. When the official site was redesigned, they invited anyone to submit links to fan sites. Their Links page currently lists about twenty of them. I know for a fact that several of them no longer exist but if their owners fail to notify them, how can they be expected to keep it updated? More and better pictures. Hayley is a very attractive young lady but pictures of her at a reasonable size are beyond rare. I'm not talking anything tacky, here, please note! She doesn't need that. But for any artist in any genre, the Look is as important a factor in selling one's talent as the actual talent (More so in many cases other than Hayley's, one might cynically add). Official sites usually add new photographs when each international album is released. It isn’t considered necessary or financially viable to add them more frequently. If people want more, they need to look for a fan site. I believe we have in excess of 10,000. Point is: any artist needs selling and the internet is the greatest promotional tool ever invented... I couldn’t agree more. That is why HWI exists! But we are dependent upon her management team feeding us with all information on a regular basis. They do their best but it isn't always possible due to their time restraints.  I hope my response doesn't appear negative. I am merely trying to point out the practicalities. I would also point out that a huge amount of time and money has been spent on her promotion over the past six years. If it hasn't been seen by enough people, or if it hasn't catapulted her to superstadom, then I seriously doubt the merit of spending her money at a faster rate. To do so would not necessarily be doing her any favours. Roger |
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jul 12, 2009 13:26:43 GMT
Roger, Thanks for your response. I'll try to address your points  Hi Elliot, Although I don’t disagree with most of your views, many of them would be impractical or unlikely to happen for a number of reasons. Let’s look at them one by one: Some, yes. Mainly the ones that require Hayley to commit significant time herself.. Others are simply a matter of a few more minutes on top of things that would be done anyway. I agree with you. Like you, I know how hard it is to get a forum running and - the truly hard part - KEEP it running. Any shutdown will cost members and memories, neither of which is good, and significantly damages the community. That's the thing: there are perhaps two major networking sites (Facebook & MySpace) and one that is major in the UK & Ireland (Bebo) that would be of interest to Hayley. The time consuming part is the setting up, but once that is done you simply create a general bulletin and post it on all three rather than picking one. The additional time required would be perhaps five to ten minutes. I think Hayley or her people could afford that much time once a month. I'm not talking about spending every waking hour answering personal questions from excited fans, here - just sending out a general heads-up on what Hayley is up to. If there is nothing whatsoever officially online from Hayley, do you think it would make the slightest difference to how easy it would be to pirate her stuff for anyone who wanted to? Like you, I don't pirate. I love far too many struggling artists to ever see piracy as anything but a bad thing. I wouldn't want to hurt them, nor anyone like them. They might stop making music, you see? (Plus I wouldn't want anyone pirating MY stuff. It's just wrong). But the fact is, record companies are onto a complete dead-end strategy by trying to keep everything offline. People who buy stuff will buy it anyway, regardless of how easily they could pirate it, but no-one can buy anything they haven't heard of. I don't know if you looked at Hayley's version of I Dreamed A Dream on YouTube after the recent Susan Boyle frenzy, but I'd bet more people discovered Hayley through Susan and via YouTube this year than by any other source. A lot of commentors said they were going to buy Hayley albums because they'd seen that clip. The power of YouTube. Yes. That's the major snag with anything Hayley would have to do herself. It's why the acoustic sessions idea was never going to fly. What I'm talking about doing here, realistically, is not going to take much time beyond the initial setup. As noted, they could do that anyway. I'd bet every person on this site could in a very short time find ways to illegally download Hayley's music. But we don't and neither do millions of others. YouTube is free to join. We're only talking time, here. Even if it's Hayley's Sister uploading vids on a Sunday afternoon, if the will is there, it's doable. Fan sites are uncontrollable. Official sites are fully controllable. HWI rules when it comes to Hayley pics, yes. Look at the size of the pics on her official site, though. You'd need a microscope for some of them. Oh, I know. For Hayley & her team to work themselves into the ground with litlle added benefit is pointless. But 'work smarter not harder' is what I am suggesting, here You are the soul of politeness, Sir, I assure you! The problem as I see it is that Hayley's record company still see promotion the way they did at the start of the 20th century and we're now in the 21st. It's honestly been a revelation to me how some of the younger artists use the web to mobilise their fans, to promote themselves and to generally get the word out there very cheaply about their music. As an example, I've been on MySpace since just before last Xmas and not a week has passed since then that I have not got multiple friend invites from singers and bands wanting me to check out their music. Even before that, the number of groups & singers I have discovered online and whose albums I have then (Legally!) obtained is rather large. It would take me some time to list them all. Granted, I actively seek new music and many (Perhaps most) don't. But the fact remains - if people do not hear you, they will not buy your music. All the record companies seem to see when they look at the web is a vast sea of pirates waiting to steal from them, so they ignore the opportunities. This, I feel, is a terrible mistake. It's not Britain's Got Talent that made Susan Boyle a household name around the world. It's YouTube. The power of the web |
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Post by milewalker on Jul 12, 2009 16:44:05 GMT
It's not Britain's Got Talent that made Susan Boyle a household name around the world. It's YouTube. The power of the web Hi Elliot, I believe there are several different effects which help a vehicle like YouTube to produce a Susan Boyle. The most important thing in my opinion is the backstory. It is my impression that sudden success stories of this nature usually have to do with much more than the music or the talent of the individual inovlved. . YouTibe certainly spread that backstory, along with the video of the performances which Susan gave I do not beleive that Susan would have gotten one tenth of the exposure she did without the other things about her which made her personallly interesting. Along with the potential which the internet offers lies a signficant drawback as well in that there are many thousands of artists all competing for simultaneous attention. I may personally feel that they are more or less talented but I do not believe there is a way to objectivfy this. There are a lot of pretty young girls out there who sing well enough for mass consumption. I could easily find dozens of them who have a higher level of internet exposure and less success than Hayley does right now. The ulimtate problem in my view is probably not easily soluble. Hayley - and many people would say this is to her credit - is all about the music. If she is good enough and inventive enoiugh she might be able to survive even in the world of modern music and marketinkg. But unless something changes, I dont think she will ever "thrive". There simply arent enough interesting things about her apart from her music to sustain a marketable backstory. Lacking that I think that all of these very good ideas are simply playing around with the edges Jon |
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jul 12, 2009 18:04:32 GMT
Jon... (Do you prefer Jon or Milewalker, BTW? I wouldn't want to seem rude...) I think there are four things that add up to Megastar, honestly. Talent is only one. The others are The Look (Not the same thing as being beautiful/handsome. Kiss had The Look), Personality (How well they come across in public) and Stage Presence/Charisma. If someone can walk onto a stage and everything else becomes a backdrop to them, they've got it. Freddie Mercury is the best example of this. All of that is what makes the star, but without Promotion they'll never make it, even if they have the rest in abundance. There is no way for a record company (Or anyone else) to manufacture any of the four qualities, but they CAN create promotion. And sometimes that can substitute pretty well for the main event... *** To return to my point of the younger stars seeing the web as an opportunity, Miley Cyrus just put an entire concert online on her MySpace to promote her latest Hannah Montana soundtrack. Now whatever you think about Miley, the girl is a superstar - and she clearly knows how to use the web for promotion. Put up only three days ago, it already has over 103,000 views. Miley has just over 855,000 friends on MySpace who get regular updates on when she has something new coming out. If even a 10th of those actually buy the new releases, that's a fair number of albums shifted. And word spreads out from there... Taylor Swift has nearly one and a half MILLION MySpace friends, which might help explain why she was the best selling artist across all genres in the US last year... She's even been described as 'the first genuine superstar of the MySpace generation'. She also proves something pretty vital to Hayley - that you don't need to be a 'bad girl' to attract interest. Granted, Miley & Taylor are exceptional individuals and both have all four 'megastar qualities', but the principle is certainly sound for all artists. Certainly, there is nothing to lose by increasing an artist's visibility. |
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Post by BenCMitchell on Jul 12, 2009 18:05:10 GMT
Hello to one and all
I am sure that this has already been suggested and discussed, but why should Radio 1 (UK) be limited to just broadcasting artists and bands focused around rock and indie rock and artists who are more concerned about their image? The music they broadcast is 'popular' music - so is Hayley's music - why do they not broadcast any of her music? Why should she be limited to Classic FM and Radio 4?
I think that if Chris Moyles and all the others at Radio 1 (I'm not an expert on this station) broadcast, even for just half an hour, other music in the 'popular' category, then Hayley would without a doubt feature. There is no limit to how Hayley's audience potential would multiply if her music was 'revealed' to the majority of youngsters today. There are major positives to be gained if this were to ever occur on Radio 1 - not only would her music be heard by many more, but she would provide a perfect role model to younger teens.
These are my views which I just want to share with you all
Cheers!
Ben
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Post by Jono on Jul 13, 2009 0:24:04 GMT
Hey elliotkane,
I think Miley and Taylor are in a completely different "Ball Park" to Hayley... the one which mostly seats the screaming 10-15 year old girls.
You make good points though. I think Hayley's facebook is there to achieve exactly what you described...for Hayley to update us on the latest "Hayley News". It is the largest networking site in the world. (I think Bebo is rubbish now...I had an account for years and finally deleted it).
As for youtube, I suddenly recall seeing artists doing similar updates, but rather "video updates"...sitting in front of a webcam telling fans what they've been up to. This could be beneficial to Hayley, but as always it comes down to available time.
Cheers
Jono
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Post by Libby on Jul 13, 2009 2:14:13 GMT
Facebook is great for those who have Facebook, but without having an active MySpace and Bebo presence as well, Hayley is likely missing out on a lot of potential fans. You can probably throw Twitter in these days, as well. Good grief, she can't do everything. I think we're lucky she's been writing on Facebook about every month. And she does write about what she's been "up to", so to me, you're asking her to do things she's already been doing. What Roger says makes it sound like she can't afford to promote herself. That's kind of sad. If she needs album sales to make money, then how is she going to get them if she's not promoted enough? |
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Post by roger on Jul 13, 2009 10:24:38 GMT
Hi Libby, What Roger says makes it sound like she can't afford to promote herself. That's kind of sad. If she needs album sales to make money, then how is she going to get them if she's not promoted enough? No, that's not quite what I mean. The point is, Hayley signed a contact worth whatever it was (sorry, I forget the figure). All promotion throughout the five-album deal must be paid for out of that sum of money. The record company, together with her management team have to budget very carefully and all the money, eventually, has to be paid back by Hayley. What I was saying, therefore, means she cannot afford to promote herself endlessly and not to the degree that some members think she should. Yes, if it were practical, it may well help but there are always constraints in terms of time and money. I think we also need to accept that the record company knows how to promote an artist far better than anyone outside the business. Roger |
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Post by Jono on Jul 13, 2009 11:09:19 GMT
Hey Roger, That's Brilliant! I think what you have said is very true, and is a very simple concept which I have not put much thought to in the past. From the Record Company's perspective, it is all about the perceived marginal benefit from every extra dollar spent on promotion. For instance, I doubt Decca Records could justify spending millions on a marketing campaign aimed at High Schools...because, quite simply, that would not be profitable. Also, it is very true that the Record Companies would know a whole lot more about promoting artists than anyone else...that is their purpose. All of the decisions they make are based on predictions, so of course they are not going to always be perfect. Their purpose for promotion is likely based on the "bottom line". Our reasons for promotion might be a lot different. I'm sure many of us care for Hayley's financial well being. But we probably more want the extra promotion for her incredible talent to be "shown to the world" (much like those who preach their religious beliefs). At the end of the day, there is no such thing as free promotion... everything takes time, and time is money. (even if this time is given free of charge by family, friends or fans). At the moment I can think of one thing (promotion wise) which I think can and (hopefully) will be improved in the future. "Promotion by Association". I'm going to steal two excellent examples which Libby believes strongly in to illustrate. 1) Hayley performing or recording songs with an artist with wide appeal such as Josh Groban. 2) Hayley recording a song for a major film, for instance alongside Peter Jackson in the upcoming "Hobbit" films. I think these kinds of opportunities would be great for Hayley's career and popularity, and I'm sure she wouldn't turn down the offers. (Libby is very intelligent when it comes to this type of thing!  ) Sorry this has been an incredibly long-winded post...I'm very interested in this kind of stuff!! Cheers Jono |
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jul 29, 2009 23:01:03 GMT
Hey elliotkane, I think Miley and Taylor are in a completely different "Ball Park" to Hayley... the one which mostly seats the screaming 10-15 year old girls. You make good points though. I think Hayley's facebook is there to achieve exactly what you described...for Hayley to update us on the latest "Hayley News". It is the largest networking site in the world. (I think Bebo is rubbish now...I had an account for years and finally deleted it). As for youtube, I suddenly recall seeing artists doing similar updates, but rather "video updates"...sitting in front of a webcam telling fans what they've been up to. This could be beneficial to Hayley, but as always it comes down to available time. Cheers Jono Getting word out to an audience is getting word out to an audience. It may be a lot easier in some ways for those who appeal to more mainstream markets, but the methods are not entirely dissimilar. You're right about the YouTube thing, of course Facebook is great for those who have Facebook, but without having an active MySpace and Bebo presence as well, Hayley is likely missing out on a lot of potential fans. You can probably throw Twitter in these days, as well. Good grief, she can't do everything. I think we're lucky she's been writing on Facebook about every month. And she does write about what she's been "up to", so to me, you're asking her to do things she's already been doing. Most particularly, I'm saying she could use copy/paste and share what she is already doing with a wider audience. Hardly adding more time at all, you see? *** Promotion is a catch 22, really, for any artist. You need to keep busy doing stuff else you don't eat, but you also need to make time somehow to reach out to new audiences else you will make no (Or very few) new fans. Getting the balance of that right is an art in itself, I think. |
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Post by Libby on Jul 30, 2009 22:52:44 GMT
Oh, so posting the same message on all those sites? Well, who is looking at those messages besides people who are already her fans?
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Jillian
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Post by Jillian on Nov 3, 2009 0:08:53 GMT
Hi Jon, I'm not sure that you are aware of Sir Terry's record in promoting female singers in the UK. His show is the most popular radio show in the country. It is largely thanks to him that Eva Cassidy became popular over here, he has supported other acts too such as the Corrs and Katie Melua, and a few plays from him could do wonders for Hayley. But I think his next push will be Camilla Kerslake, another fine singer. I'm not sure which total music market you are referring to, UK or worldwide, but airplay can hugely influence that anyway. Hayley's biggest struggle is to be heard. Once she is she can't fail, look what happened in Taiwan! I know we have talked about this before, but the reason Hayley is not the huge star she deserves to be is simply that nobody has heard of her. It is not a case of them hearing and not liking, they simply haven't heard. She would certainly get the music lovers on board. To some extent people have to be told what music to buy. Right now a certain young lady has a number one single and album in the UK. She is an attactive lady, and is a sexy dancer, but to my ears she CAN'T SING!!. But she gets herself onto prime time TV shows, and the image seems to matter more than the music. Good luck to her, but for me Hayley has more musical talent in her little finger than this girl has in her whole body. This is what we are up against. It seems that to most people, the image is more important than the sound. Not that there is anything wrong with Hayley's image, but I'm sure for her it is secondary to the music. This is what we are up against. Sorry mods, off topic again. Perhaps this rant and the few preceding posts should be moved to another more appropriate thread. Martin Hi Martind, I thought that I'd quote your post in this thread and reply here. I agree that there has been a bit of a struggle to get Hayley into the public conscience. Hayley goes above and beyond the call of duty in terms of touring -- but that doesn't seem to raise a ripple in the media. To do that, one needs to be "seen". Katherine Jenkins is the master of this -- she'll turn up to the opening of an envelope!  This can be seen in the catalogue of photos on Getty Images -- Katherine has 1, 980 photos of herself on there, whereas Hayley only has 582. This, I think, has something to do with Hayley not having a huge desire to go to these events or play the image game. However, I do suspect that things will be changing. The first thing I noticed with the photos of Hayley at the Poppy Launch was the completely new outfit from head to toe and the fact that she'd had her hair and make-up professionally done -- something usually only reserved for the Classical Brits each year and the odd special occasion. A real effort image wise was made for that occassion and Hayley looked like the spectacular star she is. So with that in mind, I'm going to hold my comments until the Winter Magic promo has been completed. I'm sure that Decca realise the sheer potential Hayley has and won't want to let that go to waste. Perhaps Hayley just needs to be gently nudged in the direction of a film premier or party occassionally so she can get that media exposure her music needs. But things like Hayley being active on Twitter will make a difference. I think things are looking good. |
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Post by Richard on Nov 3, 2009 10:07:03 GMT
Thanks Jillian! This is the complete discussion, which I've moved from the Poppy People thread as it was badly off-topic there: Well, I had another go at Sir Terence Wogan, after he sepent a minute or so talking about the poppy appeal launch, even jokingly mentioning how powerful Dame Vera's voice was for her age, but failing to mention our Hayley. I' m afraid that was too much. Of course like 99% of whatever I send to the BBC, it was ignored. Even though I put in a togworthy comment about Dame Vera throwing her voice!
I'm beginning to suspect a conspiracy. All those inferior singers they keep hyping. I suppose you have to grease the right palms....
Martin Maybe they have a filter Martin, I ask for tracks without mentioning Hayley.
Like The New World By James Horner, Track 13 Listen To The wind
or a track from the new recording of West Side Story (It just happens to feature Hayley)
Or Lascia Chia Piango From A New Journey By Celtic Woman. Yes, I tried CW too once, in a dicussion on the best ever version of Over the Rainbow, was it Judy Garland or Eva Cassidy, I threw in CW's version, with Hayley's stunning backing vocal. Ignored of course!
Martin Hi Martin.
I think 'Over the Rainbow' depends on the age you heard it, where, when and why. For me it can only ever be Judy Garland. Unaware of how old the film was when I saw it as a child, Judy was one of my first screen loves. Subsequently, the tragedy of her life is interwoven with my early childhood memories. It is why I have a great affinity for her daughter, Liza Minnelli, who was so utterly superb in 'Cabaret' that only Liza can sing that for me.
Peter S. I'm beginning to suspect a conspiracy. All those inferior singers they keep hyping. I suppose you have to grease the right palms.... Martin
From the point of view of supporting the appeal, I suspect that the host did his job - beyond that I think it is a bit strong calling his lack of mention of Hayley a conspiracy. Hayley's niche only accounts for about six percent (give or take by definition) of the total music market - and for good or ill she does very little to attract enough attention to herself to get very far beyond the music - at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned
I appreciate the fact that you would like Hayley to become a breakout star. I would enjoy that as well. Unfortunately, given the hand she currently is playing, it aint gonna happen
JonHi Jon,
I'm not sure that you are aware of Sir Terry's record in promoting female singers in the UK. His show is the most popular radio show in the country. It is largely thanks to him that Eva Cassidy became popular over here, he has supported other acts too such as the Corrs and Katie Melua, and a few plays from him could do wonders for Hayley. But I think his next push will be Camilla Kerslake, another fine singer.
I'm not sure which total music market you are referring to, UK or worldwide, but airplay can hugely influence that anyway. Hayley's biggest struggle is to be heard. Once she is she can't fail, look what happened in Taiwan!
I know we have talked about this before, but the reason Hayley is not the huge star she deserves to be is simply that nobody has heard of her. It is not a case of them hearing and not liking, they simply haven't heard. She would certainly get the music lovers on board.
To some extent people have to be told what music to buy. Right now a certain young lady has a number one single and album in the UK. She is an attactive lady, and is a sexy dancer, but to my ears she CAN'T SING!!. But she gets herself onto prime time TV shows, and the image seems to matter more than the music. Good luck to her, but for me Hayley has more musical talent in her little finger than this girl has in her whole body.
This is what we are up against. It seems that to most people, the image is more important than the sound. Not that there is anything wrong with Hayley's image, but I'm sure for her it is secondary to the music. This is what we are up against.
Sorry mods, off topic again. Perhaps this rant and the few preceding posts should be moved to another more appropriate thread.
Martin |
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Post by martindn on Nov 3, 2009 22:07:00 GMT
Thanks for that Richard. this is a much better place for this discussion.
Jillian, I find your comments fascinating; you are clearly someone who has a much better appreciation of the impact of image than I do. I am more like Hayley I think, wanting to believe that the music is all that matters. Surely, for a musician, it is all that should matter.
I am tempted to pour scorn on the artists who work in the field of music, when in fact they are much more visually than sonically oriented. But I cannot. In the end, people buy what they like. If they like visually oriented performances, and regard the sonic performance as secondary, that is up to them, and I shouldn't criticise because I differ.
Calling it music, rather than dance or whatever, is perhaps dishonest, but we have to live in the real world.
Hayley is a true musician, through and through, although she is also a beautiful girl and a beautiful person, through and though. I feel she wants her music to stand on its own merit, and I agree, that should be enough. But the problem is, too many people these days grow up on TV, on visual stimuli, and see the sound as inferior or secondary. For them, music alone, however good it is, is not enough.
Perhaps video really did kill the radio star. But for some people, those with musicians brains, those who are soncally oriented, Hayley is the best there is, perhaps the best there has ever been.
So her market is people like me. Those who love music for its own sake. Those who would far rather just listen to music than watch any film or TV program ever made. We might be in a minority these days, and I think it explains why many of Hayley's fans are much older than she is, they remember the age of radio and are more open to beautiful sound.
I remember Beatlemania. To me songs like "All With You" show that Hayley has a songwriting talent at least equal to The Beatles. Recent scenes in Taiwan remind me of those days very strongly. If only she could get the right sort of exposure, she could do that woldwide I am sure.
Hayley is the most exciting musical artist I have heard for many a long year, perhaps ever. You have to listen carefully, but she does things with her voice that I would defy anyone else on the planet to emulate. Perhaps in this visually oriented world most people don't notice, or don't understand what a wonderful talent she has. But I live in hope that that talent will one day be properly recognised and acknowledged.
Martuin
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Post by BenCMitchell on Nov 3, 2009 22:26:05 GMT
Surely, for a musician, it is all that should matter. I am tempted to pour scorn on the artists who work in the field of music, when in fact they are much more visually than sonically oriented. But I cannot. In the end, people buy what they like. If they like visually oriented performances, and regard the sonic performance as secondary, that is up to them, and I shouldn't criticise because I differ. Calling it music, rather than dance or whatever, is perhaps dishonest, but we have to live in the real world. I agree totally that it is dishonest. Artists that are more focused on image are actors, not musicians. There should be a new genre patented that is more focused on artists using their image to sell themselves. The word 'theatre' should be used in the term somewhere!  By the way Martin, don't be hesitant in your pouring scorn. I have done so by the gallon! I think that Hayley is the perfect musician. It is blindingly obviously that she is passionate about music, as she has sung so many different types of songs. This is the reason why there was some debate earlier on about labelling her strictly as 'classical crossover'. She takes songs that are close to her heart, like the folk songs that were sung to her a child, and she sings them from the heart. I envy her. Cheers, Ben |
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There's an official forum? Good grief! All the searches I did on Hayley and the only forum that turned up was this one…
