(ThyBlackMan.com) The minute I saw online that Adele would be having a new single out soon (Hello), I knew the pop world was going to be upside down. The song had yet to be released, but because of the new emphasis on streaming via record labels, it was going to be a blockbuster through advertising. Sure enough, Hello hit and was a success.
It was promoted that we had to listen to it not only via Apple Music and Spotify, but on tv, ads on various internet sites and of course the horrible parody videos that made its way onto Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The strategy worked like a charm; dominating the billboard Hot 100 for the fall of 2015. But geez, was the song really what made people 
flock toward it or was it the nonstop promotion? With today’s music state, it’s hard to tell which direction is responsible for a song’s success.
Music, for me, is my way to connect to my emotional side that I can admit I lack in. I connect more on album cuts than anything because in my opinion, those tracks show the true side of where the album is going and what’s going on inside the artist head (great example is Devil In A New Dress by Kanye West). But, with the lack of importance via the album, music singles by popular artists are now more events than anything. Honestly, when was the last time a popular artist released a single and it didn’t up automatically shoot to the top of the charts? Those type of feats were unheard of pre-Michael Jackson You Are Not Alone which was released in 1995.
Now? It’s commonplace thanks to the endless promotion being driven by record executives. Music in today’s society appears to be pushed onto us, so we have to like it, have to buy it. As much as I love Justin Timberlake, is Can’t Stop The Feeling really that good of a song that caused people to rush to Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and iTunes to listen to it? Well, we won’t know because the record is pushed out for marketing as soon as the record company send it out via retail. We don’t chose hits; with keen and precise marketing the hit chooses us.
In the end, record executives are clearly in survival mode due to the lack of album sales and the value of the album is close to dormant. It’s why Drake Views has stayed on top for so long; promotion and deals with Apple Music capitulated it to number one without much effort. Sadly, it’s the music world we live in now. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly was a classic because two days in critics told us. Which in turn I’m sure the record company told them it was too. Since when is music a classic two days after listening? Not sure, but it’s time we take control of the music we listen to before it’s too late.
Music Editor; Brad Washington
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