Matthew Levinson

The single's life

Published on 09/07/05
by matt

Noone buys them anymore, except on vinyl. But a lot of thought still goes into choosing them. They’re important for radio airplay, video shows and even TV ads. So the decisions get made with whoever’s most important – in Australia, indie bands will submit their album to Triple J, the national youth radio station, who then suggest which song should be the lead single. They’re brutal about it too, they’ll play hardball for shorter edits of the song if they think it’s too long. Here in Japan it’s even harder, a band simply won’t get into the charts without a TV ad tie-in, so it’s all about linking up with an ad agency (of course they make the decisions). Bands need the airplay to sell the album, promote tours, promote themselves.
But the thing is, most bands are fairly eclectic. Well many are. They have three dimensions, rather than the one or two they’re painted in press releases and the following articles. And the choice of single has a big impact on the shape of that painted picture in the press and in their listener’s minds.
So bands assume people will dig through the singles and find whatever gold is in the albums. Which they sometimes do. But mostly minds are made up by that time. That first flush defines the band.
I was watching the Cocktails last night at Shibuya O-Nest and it struck me that whatever song that band released on single would define virtually a different band. The Herd had a similar problem, their sound is pretty diverse, but their first single Scallops – chosen by Triple J – just about ruled them out for a lot of people. Despite the power of many of their other songs.
I guess some of this could change as niche radio and communities make it easier to have a whole picture of an artist. For some reason I think it’s unlikely these fundamentals will shift, especially with such numbers of acts competing for attention.
But maybe it’s no bad thing. Kinda like the difference between seeing a band live and hearing them on record can be totally different as they reconstruct songs outside of the studio, perhaps the single stream is just another slant on a band?

That's it. What Next?

Please leave your comment so we know what you think about this article. Trackback URL: The single's life.