More and more people are recording country music artists in concerts, and posting those videos on YouTube. Some of these video are quite well done. Like this one of Miranda Lambert. The person taking the video is so close that at one point you can her Miranda stomping her boots on the floor.
This leads to a key question for country music artists - should they allow the videos remain on YouTube, or order them taken down. Copyright laws allow country artists to demand YouTube remove the bootleg videos. Artists may feel that the bootleg videos cut into their concert ticket or video sales. After all why pay for what you can get free.
However, an artist should think why the person who made the video put it up in the first place. Most videos are uploaded by enthusiastic fans eager to promote their favorite artist, and show how good they are in concert. This kind of enthusiasm spreads, and can lead to more people going to that artists concert, and buying the artist’s music. It is the core, enthusiastic fans that carry an artist career. Alienate those fans, and the artist is done.
I have notice most country artists are leaving the videos up. Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift seem to the most popular country artists for fans to post videos of. Here is a Carrie Underwood one I think is pretty good.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Lack of Good Country Artists Biographies
A while back I posted a bio of Alan Jackson, because I thought there was a lack of a truly comprehensive Alan Jackson bio on the Web. Many country artists have bio on their official Web sites, and on their label’s Web site. They are usually the exact same bios on each site, and they almost always focus on the artist’s latest album.
I’m sure some label person thinks that is a great market tool, but it really tells us nothing about the artist’s past. Wikipedia.com and allmusic.com also have bios of country artists. Allmusic.com is an offshoot of the reference book All Music. Like all reference books, it is only as up to date as the year it was written. On their Web site it’s just a copy of what is in the book with maybe a line or two update on the artists recent album. Often the bios are not extensive and sadly some are not much more than a few paragraphs
Then there is Wikipedia. I checked out the bios of Alan Jackson, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, Vince Gill, and some of new artists as well. Some bios were pretty good, some are not. Some have incorrect information in them. Some seem to be more PR pages written by fans trying to make them look good. Some have extensive tables showing the artists album and single chart success. Some list awards the artist has won. Some have everything, some have little or nothing.
In graduate school, I studied Wikipedia and its effect on our society. When you have a collective effort there will always some good and some bad. The problem with collective efforts like this is getting the people with knowledge involved in the project.
For instances, I could write some real good biographies on some of the artists I have listed. I have read numerous magazine, newspaper, and reference articles about these artists. I have listened to numerous interviews with these artists. I know a lot about them. However, I have to list my sources in any bio I put on Wikipedia. If I have no sources, my work would be called into question. The problem is I don’t have the time, or want to put forth the effort to create such things.
This leads to a lack of true and comprehensive biographies of country music artists. That in turn can lead to people making up whatever they want about the artist and this misinformation spreading across the Internet.
Artists should take more responsibility for making their complete biographies available on-line. For if they don’t they may find themselves representative incorrectly.
I’m sure some label person thinks that is a great market tool, but it really tells us nothing about the artist’s past. Wikipedia.com and allmusic.com also have bios of country artists. Allmusic.com is an offshoot of the reference book All Music. Like all reference books, it is only as up to date as the year it was written. On their Web site it’s just a copy of what is in the book with maybe a line or two update on the artists recent album. Often the bios are not extensive and sadly some are not much more than a few paragraphs
Then there is Wikipedia. I checked out the bios of Alan Jackson, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, Vince Gill, and some of new artists as well. Some bios were pretty good, some are not. Some have incorrect information in them. Some seem to be more PR pages written by fans trying to make them look good. Some have extensive tables showing the artists album and single chart success. Some list awards the artist has won. Some have everything, some have little or nothing.
In graduate school, I studied Wikipedia and its effect on our society. When you have a collective effort there will always some good and some bad. The problem with collective efforts like this is getting the people with knowledge involved in the project.
For instances, I could write some real good biographies on some of the artists I have listed. I have read numerous magazine, newspaper, and reference articles about these artists. I have listened to numerous interviews with these artists. I know a lot about them. However, I have to list my sources in any bio I put on Wikipedia. If I have no sources, my work would be called into question. The problem is I don’t have the time, or want to put forth the effort to create such things.
This leads to a lack of true and comprehensive biographies of country music artists. That in turn can lead to people making up whatever they want about the artist and this misinformation spreading across the Internet.
Artists should take more responsibility for making their complete biographies available on-line. For if they don’t they may find themselves representative incorrectly.
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