DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME?
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| Music industry update | Maryland, USA | Indie artist, Berchie |
What was the
first R&B song you ever heard? Where did you hear it? What were you doing? What did it make you feel? And why? If you are like any of the
487 million music fans out there in the world today, you probably don’t even remember. And yes, there is an actual number for the number of new school music fans our there in the world - the ones that don't primarily
listen to music on cassette tapes, CDs and vinyl at least. Well, not an actual number but a pretty good estimate. It’s a lot easier to measure now with the existence of music streaming services. That’s one of the
good things services like Spotify brought to the music industry – instant stats. But good for who? Because fans certainly don’t give a damn about stats. Well, great for the artists but even more exciting for record labels – find out who is listening to what and clone the artist and all their songs to get those same people listening again. It’s why you probably can’t remember your first R&B song – you’re a millennial, you’ve been listening to clones all your life, he-he-he. If you're not a millennial, then you're just really old, need to stop smoking too much of that stuff, or haven't heard that Sudoku sharpens your mind and memory 😁. I’m not too much of a millennial myself but I feel for you. I remember the very first R&B song I heard because artists didn’t sound like each other back in the day. When you
heard a song on the radio you remembered it, whether you knew the title or not. The first R&B song I ever heard was “You Make Me Wanna” by Usher. I remember I was in high school back then and was quickly falling in love with any young lady whose breasts spoke to me. Good God it was a tough time fighting and hiding all those boners on a daily basis. Phew! I remember, a new kid had just transferred from America and he brought Usher’s second album “My Way” and told us that was what everyone was listening to over there. It was the best thing I ever heard and I still haven’t heard anything like it till this day. To be honest, I doubt that I ever will. No one knew if the gorgeous bastard had herpes at the time, news didn’t travel that fast. But that could explain why I am constantly getting ear infections. Well, either that or I’ve got to stop letting my new Latin friend stick her tongue in my ear whenever we listen to R. Kelly. What the hell is wrong with her? That’s so disgusting. Wait, who am I kidding? I'll never stop her, it feels so amazing.
But anyway, now that we’ve established that I’m a more superior and more highly sophisticated R&B music fan than you are; let’s get right down to this hot new R&B artist who is doing well to make fans remember him – one of the hardest things for any new artist today obviously, since there are more than 20 million indie artists in the world right now; over 50 million tracks on Spotify and more than 50 new mainstream artists competing for Billboard’s number one spot every single month in addition to the thousands of new faces and voices there are already. He is doing it by being authentic, being unique and being himself – three amazing qualities upon which any self-respecting music career is built. This week on the Music Discovery XO Auditions, we had the great pleasure of streaming his new song “Queen” and exploring his compact but impactful repertoire. Voting is still open. [
Vote here]
