Tuesday, May 6, 2008

When did collaborating become the new norm?

Way back in the 1980's when Michael Jackson released a single with Paul McCartney that was a very big deal. Back then artists didn't perform together as much as they do today and collaborating was something everybody would be talking about. But nowadays it seems like that's absolutely normal and it might even be strange not to have at least one collaboration on an album. (Of course there are those artists that stick strictly to themselves.) I was inspired to write about this topic when I was writing my last post about Madonna's new music video. Notice how Timbaland and Justin Timberlake were featured?


'Say Somethin', one of Mariah
Carey's singles from The Emancipation
of Mimi, featured Snoop Dogg.
Photo Credit: Mariah Daily Journal
Looking back at Mariah Carey's last album, The Emancipation
of Mimi, I couldn't help but notice that 7 out of 20 songs featured other artists! What makes an artist want to collaborate with others? Sure it's fun and it'll definitely sell a lot better (which probably gave Mariah that extra boost to make her huge comeback). But what about individuality? Or has it become so common that artists have to join forces to get on the top charts?

Don't get me wrong here, I have no problem with collaborations nor am I against Mariah Carey's last album (I actually love it), but sometimes I feel that artists are depending more on others to get more popularity. Has the competition to get to the top gotten this fierce? Even Darkchild, record-producer/ songwriter/ musician, helps out artists like Destiny's Child and Britney Spears to promote their music to a larger fan base.

Maybe I'm just overanalyzing this, but I know for a fact that collaborating has gotten more and more popular, almost normal compared to a few decades ago. Up until now I didn't realize how many artists were doing this. When I reflect on the past, I feel like everything's changed and the funny thing is, I never really noticed. Music will always be changing, not just the sound, but the way we produce and market it. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but now I wonder how much the music industry is going to change in the next few decades.

13 comments:

Lil Midget said...

Hmmm...That is a good question..

Some say they might be getting in new ideas and stuff...
But...maybe they're running out of ideas of their own..people are getting bored with their sounds or their album isn't doing too well that they need to add a little bit of spice..

Mind you, some spice isn't too good...

but yeh..cool post!

Hunters Glory said...

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Mónica said...

that's a very interesting question... I guess it will change a lot, they must do something about the internet illegal dowloads or music industry will be ruined!

Unknown said...

ew.
i dont like mariah!
haha.

but interesting post.

Sarah Mendelsohn said...

thank you! id love to do a link exchange with you, great site as well.

María Emilia said...

Hi !

Elizabeth said...

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I just added you!

Lauren said...

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K said...

yes i would love to exchange links with you, i shall add you to my blog list now :)

yeah, i noticed a few months ago that everyone was collaborating with everyone (especially timbaland!). i don't know why really, are bands not good enough by themselves anymore?

Danz said...

Yeah Timbaland definitely gets around. All his songs begin to sound the same after a while.

the assistant said...

I really like your blo0g too i already did the exchange and thanks for asking!!!

Jen (MahaloFashion) said...

I'm still getting over the shock she got married...slowly.

Anonymous said...

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