New Paramore Hulu Channel Reaches Brand New Eyes

Ryan Van Etten — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:00:34 +0000

Paramore + Hulu = Awesomeness.
A hi-fi artist channel that rocks.
hulu.com/paramore

Paramore outperforms both on and off the stage.

Why do I like Paramore? They are kick-ass live performers. But I’ve never seen them in person. Hulu delivered them to me last year when I saw them perform Ignorance on Conan O’Brien. I knew of them before via Andrew Kendall’s photos, but seeing them on Conan is what engaged me to find out more. I searched “paramore live” on YouTube. I was impressed with their energetic live show and fan-driven website, which I wrote about highlighting their fan community and presence in the social web. Paramore fans go the distance because Paramore does the same for them.

Live music trumps studio recordings.

The best music is live music. Right now I think live video footage is the next best thing—whether it’s live-as-in-streaming or recorded live events. I don’t have a cable television. But if I’m looking for home entertainment I go straight to Hulu. As far as TV goes, if it’s not on Hulu, then I don’t watch it. In today’s music industry putting out video content is a must, especially live video content. In fact I think that’s where über-commercial Vevo has it wrong—lacking rawness and intimacy. I’d rather watch bands on Hulu. The concert videos already on Paramore’s channel come from their live album The Final Riot! In my opinion, Paramore’s best videos are the live ones, and on top of the stellar performances the videos have stellar production. But even bands without access to top production can still produce video content by being creative, sourcing their fans to record or produce live videos, and distributing them with free tools like YouTube and Ustream.

Paramore tells a story.

In addition to music videos, Paramore’s Hulu channel contains a 30-min documentary on the making of their latest album Brand New Eyes. They attract fans not only because of their music, but also because they have a story to tell that their fans can relate too. Their story is about growing up—as a band, but also as people, and their fans can relate to that. The album’s theme is seeing people through brand new eyes—you have to accept the past to move on. Paramore has an intimate connection with the Internet Generation. The new channel enriches their existing fan community and exposes them to a wider audience—brand new eyes—on Hulu.

Timeline: Bands on Hulu.

In November 2009 Hulu partnered with EMI and launched a Norah Jones channel. The next month Hulu partnered with Warner Music Group launching the Muse channel in December, the Jason Mraz channel in January, and the Paramore channel yesterday. Hulu’s music content is hi-fidelity and free. Now what more can you ask for besides, well, more Hulu artist channels and frequent content, right?

Fans Take The Power Back—RATM’s Facebook-Induced No. 1

Ryan Van Etten — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:36:48 +0000

Rage gets some air on stage during their encore at Lollapalooza 2008 in Chicago.
Image: flickr/revolute

“Killing In The Name” was the lead-off single from Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 self-titled debut album. The track became a major US hit, and RATM became an icon of 90s alternative music—their one-of-a-kind fusion of rap, rock, metal, and funk with rebellious explicit lyrics was addictive ear candy. I was in high school in the mid 90s, and Rage Against The Machine was a staple—you heard them everywhere. Killing In The Name reached no. 25 on the UK Singles Chart in 1992.

Fast-forward 17 years. 2009. Two RATM fans, Jon and Tracy Morter, decide that it’s time for X-Factor’s dominating influence on the Christmas UK Single to end. They launch a Facebook group and page dubbed ratm4xmas and amass half a million fans in a matter of weeks with a simple agenda: “Fed up of Simon Cowell’s latest karaoke act being Christmas No.1? Purchase Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ on Christmas Week as a protest.” They pull it off. Killing In The Name hits the no. 1 spot and it sets a record as being the first song to hit no. 1 through downloads alone. Compare back to 1992 when the single only hit no. 25 and realize that in today’s music world, the fans want to take the power back.

Bill Burton: “Sometimes we limit ourselves by what we believe we can do. We don’t even start. We don’t even try.” Burton delivered this powerful point in his TEDx talk last week, called How To Have A Christmas Number One Single, where, citing RATM’s rise to UK Xmas no. 1, he exemplified the boundless force of social media, and, through a storytelling memorization activity, he demonstrated the limitless—but often unrealized—potential of the human mind. Nothing is impossible.

Dec. ’09 Press

More than half a million people downloaded the band’s famously anti-authoritarian and expletive laden track “Killing in the Name” in what was seen as a broad protest against the increasing influence of manufactured pop music. It is the first time a non-X-Factor song has made it to Christmas number one for four years and represents a major snub to the show’s creator Cowell who angrily described the campaign to deny him another number one slot as “very Scrooge”. (The Independent)

Personally, I’d love RATM to get to No 1, not because I think it would be a victory for “proper” rock. I actually think a RATM victory would be a triumph for pop. The song might be old, but having a fan-powered campaign propel it to the chart summit against the might of an entertainment powerhouse like SyCo would tell you more about the democratised, downloadable and downright free-for-all nature of the pop charts in 2009 than anything else. (The Guardian)

MusicVita Interviews Jon Morter (excerpt)

MusicVita: This may be an obvious question, but why did you choose RATM as the song? Did you feel that the Xfactor is “the system,” and you “won’t do what they tell you?”

Jon Morter: There were a few reasons why I chose Rage. The main reason was that the tune ROCKS! And I felt how brilliant it would be not only to have the X-Factor single reach No.2, but to have it beaten by a song of this nature. When was the last time we had a furious rap/metal track at No.1? Limp Bizkit pulled it off in 2001…and Iron Maiden managed to knock off Sir Cliff’s seasonal chart-topper back in 1991…but generally this is the exception. The track itself has a fantastic defiant edge to it as well which helped. Many saw it as a rallying cry against ‘the machine’ of X-Factor domination, so yes ‘Killing In The Name’ was a great choice if I may say so myself!

MusicVita: What do you think RATM being Xmas Number One meant to the music industry?

Jon Morter: I think it woke a lot of them up. It showed that a large portion of music fans in the UK were fed up with being fed that particular musical diet. It also meant that social networking, if done properly, can really create waves that can’t be ignored. I’m hoping it will kick-start some other artists/labels to release things at Christmas again and to give the X-Factor a damn good challenge…David CAN beat Goliath, it’s just that nobody was expecting it to be us!

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