It's not uncommon for music by pop superstars to appear in commercials, but these days they come with a side of fries.
Recent months have seen a string of stars from the music world entering into partnerships with fast food chains that sell burgers and help sell the musicians to a wider audience.
McDonald's has had a string of successes with its "Famous Orders" program, collaborating with Travis Scott, J Balvin and, most recently, international superstar Korean pop group BTS. The fast food giant names a meal after the pop artist that gets promoted on social media.
These promotions transcend boundaries to reach new audiences, according to Richard T. Rodriguez, who is an associate professor of media and cultural studies at UC Riverside with lots of students who listen to BTS.
"It has a different kind of reach that a toy in a Happy Meal doesn't," he said in a phone interview.
The promotions are energizing, according to Mark Rosati, culinary director of Shake Shack, who a few weeks ago found himself in a restaurant kitchen making burgers with record producer and musician Benny Blanco.
Rosati, who is a friend of Blanco's, teamed with the recording artist on a special nacho burger to celebrate the release of Blanco's album "Friends Keep Secrets 2."
The burger was available one day in late March at one location, a Shake Shack in West Hollywood, and Blanco and Rosati were there to promote it.
"We connected and bonded over the world of hamburgers and food in general. Benny knows so much about all these different types of cuisine. He has friends in the industry. His passions are so powerful," Rosati said in a phone interview.
Taylor Swift's Shake It Off: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Music Video - CINEMABLEND
Ever get some music in your mind saying it's going to be alright? If so, the singer behind it might be Ms. Taylor Swift . The record-breaking artist has been getting in our heads a lot more lately thanks to her decision to re-record her first six albums after her original masters were sold to Scooter Braun. Swift recently released a rerecording of 2008's Fearless and fans believe her next album will be her 2014 record, 1989 . The album was a key turning point for the singer because it became her first full-fledged turn to pop music. The era all started with the Taylor Swift song "Shake It Off." In the spirit of this, let's get into some behind-the-scenes facts for the track's famed music video.
All of Swift's music has a personal element to them, but "Shake It Off' is among the singer's work that is aimed at sharing a message she wants to put out into the world. And she definitely does that with her viral music video.
"Shake It Off" was directed by Mark Romanek , who is a legend in the world of music videos. Taylor Swift thought of him while researching music videos with minimalist iconography to the visuals of songs. Romenek famously directed Michael and Janet Jackson for their 1995 "Scream" music video, Fiona Apple's "Criminal" video, along with working with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash and Madonna. So yeah, like everyone.
At the time of "Shake It Off," Romanek had switched gears to feature films with One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go , but Swift took a chance and asked the filmmaker if he'd be interested in working with her. He was up for it based on her concept and he's since gone back to more music videos for Beyoncé's Lemonade album and Jay-Z.
The music video was produced at a time when the public had no idea she had a new record underway and Taylor Swift wanted to keep it that way until she made the surprise announcement. But "Shake It Off" would implement six groups of dancers that hail from different styles of dance including cheerleading, ballet, twerkers, modern, animators and ribbon dancers, plus 100 fans. This made the music video a rather large production that needed to be kept under wraps in creative ways.
According to Mark Romanek to Vulture , keeping "Shake It Off" a secret successfully without leaks included having the cast and crew signing NDAS, having them leave their cell phones at the door of the set and even setting up boom boxes on the perimeter of the sound stage that would blast heavy metal music just to make sure the song couldn't be faintly heard by passersby. And no leaks went through!
When watching the music video, one might not imagine it took much effort from Taylor Swift in comparison to all the choreography and grace going on with the dancers behind her. However, the video was shot over three days in a row and Swift had to be in every shot of the video doing her dances. She had to do the most heavy-lifting on "Shake It Off" in terms of stamina and energy. Check out the music video below:
To train for the video, Taylor Swift shared that she did a ton of running beforehand. She had been given the heads up from the director to get ready for it and it certainly paid off. When you think about it, it is crazy how much work went into the four minute video!
Taylor Swift got exposed to a ton of different dance styles during the making of the music video and managed to have a blast with all of them without knowing what she was doing when dancing with them. Though, Swift did admit to having a favorite group to dance with on set. She really loved being a ballerina. Swift explained why in a behind the scenes interview :
After a Viral Love Song, Girl in Red Debuts Her New Album - WSJ
Girl in Red, the Norwegian alternative musician whose debut album arrives on Friday, is drawing a growing Gen Z audience thanks to her yearning songs about infatuation, heartbreak and mental health.
The new album, "If I Could Make It Go Quiet," comes three years after the rising artist, whose real name is Marie Ulven, wrote a song about unrequited love, "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend," that went viral on YouTube in 2018. Since then, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter and producer, who is gay, has gained close to 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify and collaborated with Billie Eilish's brother and producer, Finneas O'Connell . On TikTok, the question "Do you listen to girl in red?" has emerged as a way for teen girls to feel out someone's sexuality.
"Gen Z as a whole is really gravitating toward her," says Ned Monahan, Spotify's head of global hits, who oversees playlists like "Today's Top Hits" and "New Music Friday." "She is defining a style and a genre kind of unto herself."
Among this group, Ms. Ulven has emerged as a gay symbol, placing her among a new generation of queer pop musicians who are making LGBTQ art more mainstream. Historically, the music industry has been inhospitable to openly gay, lesbian and bisexual artists. In recent years, that's shifted as acts like Frank Ocean , Brandi Carlile and Lil Nas X have pushed the envelope. Ms. Ulven knows LGBTQ musicians still face challenges, but she doesn't want to be exclusively defined by it.
Meet a Musician: Nicholas Rich makes his home in several musical worlds | Entertainment |
Nicholas Rich said: "My dad, especially, was a big influence. He was a bass player and a guitar player and really was my hero when I was a kid. He introduced me to a lot of music. So it was there right from the beginning. It was kind of inevitable."
In one, he may be putting 19th century Shaker poetry to music. In another, he may be toying around with algorithms to generate some electronic pieces.
Rich, who plays guitar and mandolin for progressive folk group Winterbirds, also dabbles in classical, chamber and experimental music. One piece of his, "There's Always Something There to Rewind Me," draws inspiration from and manipulates 1980s pop tunes. In "This is a Picture Of," he incorporated some lighting elements and addresses issues of accessibility.
In a recent interview, he spoke about his various musical styles, the programming language he uses in composing some of his works, and reconnecting with his bandmates for a new album.
Music was in my family. My parents played music. My grandparents were in a bluegrass band. My aunts and uncles did folk and country and folk rock.
I got my first guitar when I was 10 or 11, but didn't really start practicing until I was 13. By the time I was in high school, I was practicing guitar pretty seriously.
In the songwriting world, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, The Beatles, of course. In the classical world, Stravinsky is a big influence.
I'm in different musical worlds at different times. I have a folk band called Winterbirds. With that group, we do progressive folk, but (it's) music that's recognizably folk music, influenced by the history of bluegrass, New Grass Revival, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and so on.
Advanced BTS: CSU Northridge to host scholarly online conference focusing on Korean boy band
An ARMY plans to assemble on Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2 – one that carries no weapons, requires no minimum enlistment period and marches to a decidedly pop-music beat.
California State University, Northridge will host an online conference about all things BTS, the megapopular Korean boy band, this weekend.
Fans, who call themselves “ARMY” or Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth, will turn out in droves for the conference with more than 900 attendees expected, according to event organizer Professor Frances Gateward.
BTS, an acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan or Bulletproof Boy Scouts, debuted in 2013 and consists of seven members. While primarily gaining fame in Korea and other parts of Asia early on in their career, BTS garnered a worldwide following, performing in places ranging from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to King Fadh International Stadium in Riyadah, Saudi Arabia. The group has won dozens of awards and was the top-grossing touring group of 2019 according to Billboard, earning $196 million from Nov. 1, 2018 to Oct. 31, 2019.
Despite their worldwide popularity, there are many people who still consider the group just an average boy band, but fans of BTS aren’t of the same opinion.
“People are surprised to find out that the median age of a BTS fan is 30 to 40,” Gateward said. “It’s not 12-year-old girls.”
Other groups play socially conscious music and perform charity work as well, but BTS has gained fans at a rate unlike many other groups in the world. The band has more than 30 million followers on Twitter, and sold out one performance at the Rose Bowl in 90 minutes.
“They present the image of accessibility,” said Analisa Venolia, a member of the ARMY who plans on attending the conference. “They interact with fans in a way that I’m not used to seeing from a lot of American artists so that makes them really unique and you feel like you get to know the members.”
Venolia pointed to Weverse, a Korean social media app designed to facilitate interactions between fans and their favorite artists, as one way in which the band connects with its ARMY. Each member of the group has their own Weverse account, so fans can interact with them more individually than as a group. Members of the ARMY begin to get a sense of their individual personas further outside the context of the band than seen on more mainstream apps like Twitter and Instagram.
BRIT Awards winners to get two trophies, one for sharing | Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Winners at next month's BRIT Awards will receive two different trophies, encouraged to share one as a way to embrace the community spirit and kindness seen during COVID-19 lockdowns, organisers of Britain's pop music honours said on Wednesday.
Artists Es Devlin and Yinka Ilori designed the statuettes, which will be handed out in pairs at the May 11 ceremony held at London's O2 arena.
"Each recipient is invited to award the second trophy to someone they consider worthy - it might be recognition - or it might be someone that does something entirely unrelated to music," Devlin said.
Devlin and Ilori follow in the footsteps of designer Vivienne Westwood, milliner Philip Treacy and Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor, who all designed BRIT trophies in the past.
This year, a colourful larger statuette was inspired by Ilori's Nigerian heritage, while Devlin said the smaller trophy was "engraved with the maze pattern that celebrates the paths many of those working within the creative industries have had to tread in order to progress through this challenging year".
The ceremony will be part of the UK government's Events Research Programme, looking at whether major events can take place in closed environments without social distancing.
More than half of the audience, 2,500 people, will be key workers with tickets gifted through a ballot.
Iconic Pop Artist, Gigi Vega's New Single, "Watchu Tryna Do?
'Girls5eva' Adds Vanessa Williams to the Peacock Series as a Music Manager
Ahead of Girls5eva ’s debut on Peacock in May, ET can exclusively reveal that Vanessa Williams is joining the series created by Meredith Scardino and executive produced by Tina Fey , Jeff Richmond, Robert Carlock, David Miner and Eric Gurian.
Starring Sara Bareilles , Renée Elise Goldsberry , Paula Pell and Busy Philipps , the series follows the titular ‘90s one-hit-wonder girl group who reunite to give their dreams of stardom one more shot after their song is sampled by a young rapper. No longer as young as they once were, the group is now balancing spouses, kids, financial debts and body pains.
In the eight-episode first season, Williams plays Nance Trace, mega-manager to pop music’s biggest acts. According to Peacock, “Nance is the inverse of Girls5eva’s toxic former manager, Larry Plumb, and the women make it their mission to wow her at a radio conference.”
The show is about the fact that “these were initially five women that were just thrown together and full strangers by this opportunistic sort of Lou Pearlman type,” Scardino told reporters this spring during Peacock's CTAM virtual press tour, referring to Plumb. “He was just trying to create the next Spice Girls, and it was a few years, and it was a big blip, and then it was over as fast as it started. Then they all went their separate ways.”
And what makes their reunion and attempt at stardom again special is that even though “they didn’t choose each other back then, when they come back now, they’d choose each other now,” Scardino continues. “I think that’s significant and cool to see them make the choices to be like, ‘We actually want to be together and see where things go.’”
Williams’ role on the series marks her return to TV after making notable appearances in episodes of Broad City , Difficult People , First Wives Club and most recently, Twenties . She also appeared in the Hulu horror satire Bad Hair .
Meanwhile, Girls5eva , which is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, is Peacock ’s latest must-see original comedy, following Rutherford Falls and Saved by the Bell as well as the late-night talk show, The Amber Ruffin Show .
WATCH:Tiffany Woys Channels Faith, Shania and Taylor in New Video
Tiffany Woys ' "Do Ya" music video nods to a few of country music's leading ladies: Faith Hill , Shania Twain and Taylor Swift . The clip is premiering exclusively on The Boot; press play above to watch.
Directed by Robert Chavers, Woys' "Do Ya" music video finds the singer paying homage to Hill's "The Way You Love Me" music video, Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" clip and Swift's "Our Song" video. Woys opted for this particular video treatment -- which she says "surpassed my wildest dreams" -- after noticing that her song reminded her of songs by some of the women she grew up admiring.
Anthony Smith, Nathan Chapman and Sara Haze co-wrote "Do Ya," which Woys released as a single in 2020. The Sacramento, Calif., native loved performing as a child but decided to seriously pursue a music career at the age of 20. She moved to Nashville in early 2018.
Boosting His Defamation Action Against Kesha, Appeals Court Rules Music Producer 'Dr.
Coca-Cola's Diversity Initiative: 'Taking a Pause for Now,' Says New GC, Addressing the Legal Team for the First Time
The authors discuss their opinion that with the ever-increasing use of inter vivos trusts, the time has come for EPTL 3-3.5 to be amended to include safe harbor provisions that apply to both wills and trusts.
The Second Circuit cautioned judges in such cases against trying to "assume the role of art critic" by seeking to ascertain the intention or meaning of the works at issue.
Rudy Giuliani, while a practicing lawyer, wore "different hats" when it came to private business and consulting, said one former federal prosecutor. Those roles promise to complicate the handling of uncovered evidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment