soulstyler wrote:
salmahclone wrote:I really want to be on your side and say that its going to be hit, but at the risk of being a wet blanket, it's not. I had that same gut feeling about WOTWTC, just becos of its really infectious tune, theme, message and cool video. Sure, it was a hit, but not on the massive scale it deserved. I almost placed a bet with a fellow Mayer fan that it would it hit #1 on the BB Hot 100. But then we all know what happened. It flopped around the Top 20 and refused to crack the Top 10. I believe it peaked at #13 or #14. It sold massively on iTunes and other digital music stores, exceeding 1.1 million tracks in the U.S. alone, it was performed on American Idol, Oprah (two shows with huge sales effects), Live Earth and so many other variety, music award and talk shows, and used as background music in TV shows, advertisements. Of course, it won a Grammy, and after all that, radio played it reluctantly like it was the athem of the plague. As a big fan of Mayer and the song, it was extremely frustrating.
Mark my words. This WILL be a hit.
I love SAY, but looking at the criteria of recent "hits" in the US, Say doesn't quite meet any of them. It doesn't have swear words, one or more rappers like T-Pain (5-6 tracks on the iTunes 100 has him) or Akon, a hook-ho, a message about sex or demeaning women, an annoying Timbaland 2-sec hook on repeat mode, vocoder-fied vocals, a thumping dance/techno beat, and I'm pretty sure, an accompanying music video set in a bar or dance club with half-naked men and women sliding off of each other. :-) And, I really can't remember the last film theme song after My Heart Will Go On that was a true bonafide hit, let alone a song by John Mayer. Really sad, isn't it?
Well, I love John Mayer and his albums. Drop dead fan. But, with the exception of Bigger Than My Body, I've never really been pleased with any of his
single choices in the past. They've always been good songs, but I never deemed them super friendly radio hits in my mind. Some did well on the radio.
Others didn't. But this is the first time I'm gung ho about the choice.
I'm not even going to pretend I understand what any of the Billboard numbers or iTune placements mean. In this day and age, with all of the options for
music sales, who the hell is to say what is and isn't a hit? Intuitively, I measure success by the amount of radio play, how much buzz there is about the
song (in life, on the internet, in the press, etc.), potential for attracting advertising revenue, how much it increases the value of the artist's
"brand" and of course, awards/accolades. Although WOTWTC IS a great song and really fit the social/political environment at the time it came out,
musically speaking, it wasn't my personal top choice for a single. But I think it met some of the success it did because it met all of these other targets.
I truly think Say not only an incredible choice musically/artistically, but with the triple threat exposure (through the high profile film, a potential video
and radio airplay), it has the potential to really soar. Who am I to say? I'm no record exec. But I'm willing to place a cyber bet on it with you
)
