Twitter is a strange thing. On one hand, it can be used to keep up on the
news. On another, it can be used to
shamelessly project personal information to an uncaring public. On a third (imagine that we’re some sort of three-armed
mutant here), it can be used by various nobodies in a desperate attempt to
generate publicity. I know, I’m sounding
like a bit of a hypocrite here (being a nobody myself), but I find their
attempts to be… intriguing, to say the least.
It seems to be a concrete formula:
let’s say you form a band, but no one seems to be interested. What you do from then on is simple: find a
popular band with a similar sound. What
I see a lot with these unsigned artists is they form a YouTube account, upload
a few of their songs, and then leave a ton of comments on videos of songs from
that band saying that people who like them should check you out. An alternative YouTube strategy is to look at
the comments on the video and private message those commenters and beg them to
check your band out. This makes you look
kind of desperate, though, and perhaps a little pathetic.
These strategies are often rather
flawed for a rather basic reason: Let’s say I’m listening to an Alter Bridge
song. I’m listening to that song because
I like Alter Bridge, not some other band.
Clicking on your channel from there is going to make me subconsciously
compare whatever you make to Alter Bridge, and considering my mindset (that I
like/want to listen to Alter Bridge), your band is almost certainly going seen in a negative fashion by me (because
I’ll just say, “This sounds like Alter Bridge but not quite, so why am I not
listening to Alter Bridge?”). Also,
there a good number of people who look upon people who beg them to give their
band a listen with disdain and deliberately ignore their pleas just to be
contrary. And I totally see where they’re
coming from. I do understand that
generating publicity is difficult, but I also understand that many people have
the mindset of “if your music’s good, then you shouldn't have to advertise so
desperately”.
So, there seems to be a new
strategy in place, with a very similar style (and similar problems) as the
YouTube solution, but it’s on Twitter instead.
Being a relative newb to the whole Twitter culture myself, I’m not
entirely sure how it goes down, but I have an idea. The formula is similar: find a band similar to
you (or at least one of the same genre) and check out all of their Twitter
followers. Just go on ahead and follow
all of those people, as that will bring out your band’s name in their
notification box and they might become curious and check your band out. You can make it easier for them by posting
videos on YouTube and your account.
Of course, the problems with
subconscious comparison is still there, but is much less likely than with the
YouTube method. The people you followed
could be following fifty bands, they have no idea which one you followed them
for. In addition, they’re not actively
seeing out that other band’s music when they see your band’s name, so there’s
an advantage there. The people also feel
more like they have a choice when they look into your band, so yay.
However, this creates a new problem: this creates a direct continuous link from the band to the person, and the person might find it strange, especially
when the person knows that the band's only following them because they want their attention. Almost makes the band seem more desperate, like if a salesperson followed you home and continually knocked on your window to try to get you to buy something that you really aren't interested in.
When I decided to make a blog
discussing music, I thought that it might be interesting to cover some of these
Twitter bands. Looking deeply into
obscure bands can really unearth some interesting stuff… however, considering
how these guys are desperately trying to make me pay attention to them, I’m
probably going to be a bit harsh. Oh,
well. They’re trying to tailor their
music to my tastes, so maybe I’ll discover something awesome. Or not…
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