Many perceive the internet as having had a detrimental effect on the music industry. Thanks to the web, music piracy has managed to reach a larger scale than it ever could with CDs, cassettes and vinyl. Despite claims from the music industry that the internet has ‘ruined’ music forever, without it we may never have discovered the remarkable artists such as those below.
Arctic Monkeys
It’s almost undeniable that the Arctic Monkeys have had a lot of global popularity with a sold out show at the high profile Madison Square Garden in New York under their belts, amongst a number of other sold out tour dates. They are renowned for finding fame thanks to a MySpace page set up by their fans, which they insist they had no idea existed.
Their popularity soared after eager fans were swapping and sharing any ‘tracks’ they could get their hands on, many being recorded at gigs by fans themselves. All of this hype came before they had even been signed to their eventual home of Domino Records. Now one of the most popular indie-rock bands around, and with many YouTube stars on the rise, the unusual discovery of these four lads from Sheffield is almost forgotten.
Adele
Adele attended the BRIT School, a performing arts and technology school well known in producing a number of familiar artists in the music industry, such as Amy Winehouse, Jessie J, The Kooks and Rizzle Kicks. Again, MySpace played a huge role in Adele getting signed after she uploaded three demo tracks onto her page, captivating the attention of independent record label, XL Recordings.
One of these demos was ‘Hometown Glory’ which went on to be her first single from her debut album 19. From her anticipated return on the X Factor Final last year, to her problematic performance at the Grammys on Monday, her performances are often the talk of the Internet as Adele is held so highly in the entire music industry.
Susan Boyle
Although Susan Boyle was initially talked about after appearing on the show Britain’s Got Talent, it wasn’t until someone uploaded her audition onto YouTube and it went viral, that she found fame. With her unlikely attire and appearance, the audience expected her to be terrible, but when she started to sing the opening lines of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, the viewers were left in shock.
The video received nearly 2.5 million views in the first 72 hours. Despite steering away from touring, her name is still widely recognised and her popularity is clear with over 1.5 million likes on Facebook.
Whilst many people maintain it’s harder for musicians and artists to break into the music industry now, these three British artists show that you can be successful. Although this list is only some of the British artists that have earned global popularity, once you take into account artists from other countries (hello Psy and Justin Bieber?!) the list becomes huge.
With effective use and manipulation of the internet, artists can, and do, reach more people than ever, for little cost, with success. And how thankful we are to receive these discoveries the internet provides us with.
What do you think? How has the internet influenced the success of artists? Have your say in the comments section below.
