Post by Inside Australian Idol on Mar 13, 2004 0:42:40 GMT 10
The sale of the sensitive
March 13, 2004
What about him: Condo's own Shannon Noll tops the charts with his debut album.
Related:
Noll's idol thoughts
media.f2.com.au/?rid=13326&site=smh
How did a couple of likeable blokes find themselves at the top of the pop charts? Patrick Donovan investigates the rise of the boys next door.
Glance over this week's music charts and among the usual array of glossy young stars you'll find a couple of rugged, older, sensitive, everyday-looking blokes. The debut album from Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll, That's What I'm Talking About, tops the charts, followed by Pete Murray's Feeler at No. 2.
Both album covers sport the artists wearing tight-fitting, plain black T-shirts - Murray is walking down the street barefoot holding his boots - and the lyrics are highly emotive.
So you can rule out flashy haircuts and rock-star habits; these earnest fellows are more likely to spend their money on a new Holden or a house for their mum than splurge on fast cars and expensive women. Or that's what their record companies would like you to think, because the sensitive singer-songwriter is back.
Just as punk music was a reaction to overblown stadium rock in 1977, the rootsy artist is an antidote to a '90s market saturated with over-produced, manufactured boy and girl pop groups.
Murray dictated how he wanted his record company, Sony Music, to sell him. "I sat down with Sony and they asked me, 'How do you see yourself being marketed?' I told them what I thought and we've pretty much stuck to that," he says.
"They really listened to where I was going. I said to them, 'If you try to take this in another direction, try and make me a pop act, which I'm not, you'll completely screw it up.' There was minimal production on the album, and that's what I'm about - minimal everything."
Yet while his projected image is raw authenticity, Murray is hardly a backyard production; he and Noll are still carefully styled and marketed by two of the biggest companies in the game: respectively Sony Music and the Channel Ten/BMG Records behemoth, Australian Idol. Video clips, glossy press releases and promotional campaigns don't come cheaply, no matter what the talent looks like.
However, you don't need a big budget to be a part of this roots revival. An independent roots scene has been bubbling away here and in the US over the past five years. John Butler wrote the blueprint on how independent artists could survive and prosper in Australia.
Through electrifying live shows, a punishing tour schedule and canny marketing (such as mail-out lists), Butler has proved that you don't need a major label to get mainstream airplay or a position in the charts. His 2001 album, Three, sold an astonishing 120,000 albums, while his 2003 live album, Living 2001-2002, has just gone platinum (70,000), and holds down the No. 45 position in the charts.
Butler believes it is far better to build up a loyal fan base slowly. That way, if the bubble bursts, you have something to fall back on.
"The best approach is for a slow and long career, with its own natural progression," he says. "It can't be contrived, and you have to take the time. Your fans are going to be open to seeing you grow and change and take time off, rather than be stuck down people's throats. People forget about you too quickly these days, and when things are sold at you really quickly, you feel like just the next phase of marketing."
Butler's success has been so groundbreaking that Sony even called his manager, Phil Stevens, for advice on marketing Murray.
"They weren't sure how to market Pete Murray," Stevens says. "I never pursued it and they didn't really follow it up, but a year-and-a-half on, you can tell they're doing something right. It's good to see labels like Sony with Murray, and EMI with [Latino hip-hop act] the Cat Empire, working with local bands and having success."
Stevens believes the roots revival seeds were sown when Californian surfers started listening to "sensitive" singer/songwriters such as Ben Harper and then Jack Johnson, both surfers themselves.
"Ben Harper started the movement as the surfers got out of the hard punk scene and got into sensitive music ... And then I think September 11 played a part in people's consciousness. People wanted to be pacified and listen to emotional music that gave you hope. They wanted a bit of realness back in their lives."
Stevens also believes that having a national youth radio station that pushes independent acts - a service almost exclusive to Australia - has helped propel the movement.
Triple J program director Richard Kingsmill agrees that the tide has turned. "Pete [Murray] is of a time and place now, and people connect with artists who are real. People want something they can believe in, something that's there, and something that isn't dressed up too much."
Murray, as a late starter - he picked up a guitar for the first time at 23, started writing songs at 27 and was signed at 32 - didn't think too long when Sony offered a contract. Before he signed, he says, his outlook veered between wanting to throw in the towel and a goal of selling 5000 records. "I'm surprised how it's taken off, and it doesn't look like slowing down," he says.
Butler, who owns his label and calls the shots, is weighing up a dilemma as he prepares to launch his assault on the US. "It's just about sharing the music, and it doesn't have to be independent. If I can do that with a record company that I can ethically agree with, and I like the way they do business for me, then I will be happy to do that."
Now that Murray has attracted a following, he hopes to forge a career as a musician. For Noll, the dream may be over as quickly as it began.
"Shannon Noll won't be around this time next year," predicts the managing director of Festival Mushroom Records, Michael Parisi. "When Australian Idol 2 starts, it's all over for him and Guy Sebastian. Next year, there will be half-a-dozen Pete Murrays and John Butlers and a new trend will come through."
Stevens also knows that the wind will change, the cycle will continue to churn - but hopefully not before his artists have established themselves in the mainstream. "There's obviously a wave of acoustic music happening at the moment. I hope it continues, but I feel that there's another wave around the corner. Maybe reggae will come back," he laughs.
Shannon Noll's That's What I'm Talking About and Pete Murray's Feeler are both out now.
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/12/1078594555191.html
March 13, 2004
What about him: Condo's own Shannon Noll tops the charts with his debut album.
Related:
Noll's idol thoughts
media.f2.com.au/?rid=13326&site=smh
How did a couple of likeable blokes find themselves at the top of the pop charts? Patrick Donovan investigates the rise of the boys next door.
Glance over this week's music charts and among the usual array of glossy young stars you'll find a couple of rugged, older, sensitive, everyday-looking blokes. The debut album from Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll, That's What I'm Talking About, tops the charts, followed by Pete Murray's Feeler at No. 2.
Both album covers sport the artists wearing tight-fitting, plain black T-shirts - Murray is walking down the street barefoot holding his boots - and the lyrics are highly emotive.
So you can rule out flashy haircuts and rock-star habits; these earnest fellows are more likely to spend their money on a new Holden or a house for their mum than splurge on fast cars and expensive women. Or that's what their record companies would like you to think, because the sensitive singer-songwriter is back.
Just as punk music was a reaction to overblown stadium rock in 1977, the rootsy artist is an antidote to a '90s market saturated with over-produced, manufactured boy and girl pop groups.
Murray dictated how he wanted his record company, Sony Music, to sell him. "I sat down with Sony and they asked me, 'How do you see yourself being marketed?' I told them what I thought and we've pretty much stuck to that," he says.
"They really listened to where I was going. I said to them, 'If you try to take this in another direction, try and make me a pop act, which I'm not, you'll completely screw it up.' There was minimal production on the album, and that's what I'm about - minimal everything."
Yet while his projected image is raw authenticity, Murray is hardly a backyard production; he and Noll are still carefully styled and marketed by two of the biggest companies in the game: respectively Sony Music and the Channel Ten/BMG Records behemoth, Australian Idol. Video clips, glossy press releases and promotional campaigns don't come cheaply, no matter what the talent looks like.
However, you don't need a big budget to be a part of this roots revival. An independent roots scene has been bubbling away here and in the US over the past five years. John Butler wrote the blueprint on how independent artists could survive and prosper in Australia.
Through electrifying live shows, a punishing tour schedule and canny marketing (such as mail-out lists), Butler has proved that you don't need a major label to get mainstream airplay or a position in the charts. His 2001 album, Three, sold an astonishing 120,000 albums, while his 2003 live album, Living 2001-2002, has just gone platinum (70,000), and holds down the No. 45 position in the charts.
Butler believes it is far better to build up a loyal fan base slowly. That way, if the bubble bursts, you have something to fall back on.
"The best approach is for a slow and long career, with its own natural progression," he says. "It can't be contrived, and you have to take the time. Your fans are going to be open to seeing you grow and change and take time off, rather than be stuck down people's throats. People forget about you too quickly these days, and when things are sold at you really quickly, you feel like just the next phase of marketing."
Butler's success has been so groundbreaking that Sony even called his manager, Phil Stevens, for advice on marketing Murray.
"They weren't sure how to market Pete Murray," Stevens says. "I never pursued it and they didn't really follow it up, but a year-and-a-half on, you can tell they're doing something right. It's good to see labels like Sony with Murray, and EMI with [Latino hip-hop act] the Cat Empire, working with local bands and having success."
Stevens believes the roots revival seeds were sown when Californian surfers started listening to "sensitive" singer/songwriters such as Ben Harper and then Jack Johnson, both surfers themselves.
"Ben Harper started the movement as the surfers got out of the hard punk scene and got into sensitive music ... And then I think September 11 played a part in people's consciousness. People wanted to be pacified and listen to emotional music that gave you hope. They wanted a bit of realness back in their lives."
Stevens also believes that having a national youth radio station that pushes independent acts - a service almost exclusive to Australia - has helped propel the movement.
Triple J program director Richard Kingsmill agrees that the tide has turned. "Pete [Murray] is of a time and place now, and people connect with artists who are real. People want something they can believe in, something that's there, and something that isn't dressed up too much."
Murray, as a late starter - he picked up a guitar for the first time at 23, started writing songs at 27 and was signed at 32 - didn't think too long when Sony offered a contract. Before he signed, he says, his outlook veered between wanting to throw in the towel and a goal of selling 5000 records. "I'm surprised how it's taken off, and it doesn't look like slowing down," he says.
Butler, who owns his label and calls the shots, is weighing up a dilemma as he prepares to launch his assault on the US. "It's just about sharing the music, and it doesn't have to be independent. If I can do that with a record company that I can ethically agree with, and I like the way they do business for me, then I will be happy to do that."
Now that Murray has attracted a following, he hopes to forge a career as a musician. For Noll, the dream may be over as quickly as it began.
"Shannon Noll won't be around this time next year," predicts the managing director of Festival Mushroom Records, Michael Parisi. "When Australian Idol 2 starts, it's all over for him and Guy Sebastian. Next year, there will be half-a-dozen Pete Murrays and John Butlers and a new trend will come through."
Stevens also knows that the wind will change, the cycle will continue to churn - but hopefully not before his artists have established themselves in the mainstream. "There's obviously a wave of acoustic music happening at the moment. I hope it continues, but I feel that there's another wave around the corner. Maybe reggae will come back," he laughs.
Shannon Noll's That's What I'm Talking About and Pete Murray's Feeler are both out now.
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/12/1078594555191.html
