So as you know, I am preparing to go to London. I’m excited to continue studying the music industry, especially exploring the role of publicity in this dynamic area. When I was in London last year, I focused on the differences in publicity between the United States and United Kingdom. I mostly researched what made a band or artist popular in one country and not another. Doing this comparison, I created four publicity tactics that would work in either country, and then included country-specific recommendations.
This year, as I said, I want to stick with analyzing publicity. However, I now want to focus on negative publicity in the music industry. I plan on understanding the relationship between music journalism and publicity, because music journalism needs artists and record labels to survive. I want to know if there is ever a conflict of interest, for example, if a band gets into trouble and a label wants that band to stay out of the press. Music journalism needs artists and labels to survive, almost more now than ever before.
I plan to interview professionals in both music journalism and in record label publicity. I have already arranged an interview with Steve Knopper, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and the author of Appetite for Destruction. I think his experience writing for Rolling Stone while also doing research for his own book will make him a valuable resource in coming to an understanding of this topic. I am also currently talking to a former Spin editor about an interview in the same vein. I would like to interview a local journalist as well, just because I think that would add an important perspective.
I am excited to begin this research. My first interview is today at 12:15, and I think that that will help me in creating a foundation for the rest of this project. Maybe we’ll finally know if there is no such thing as bad publicity!