Hollywood Lies Again! Also Just In: Birds Fly, Fish Swim.
Have we learned nothing from the sham that is LonelyGirl15 on MySpace?
If not, don’t miss this story in The Wall Street Journal today about a 24-year-old guitar-strumming singer named Marié Digby, whose fans on YouTube thought her an authentic, bubble-up amateur.
Uh-oh, she has turned out to be more of a creation of a Hollywood recording company–specifically, Hollywood Records.
The Disney label, for example, pretended it had just signed her last week and called her a “Breakthrough YouTube Phenomenon,” even though that happened in 2005. Since then, Hollywood Records has been phenoming her secretly, conducting what amounts to a duplicitous, though successful, viral online marketing campaign.
In what is about the most astonishing–OK, appalling–quote, Digby tells the Journal’s Ethan Smith and Peter Lattman that she neglected to mention her big record deal, because “I didn’t feel like it was something that was going to make people like me.”
Actually, I don’t like her much at all after hearing that, although she sings an acoustic version of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” pretty well (see video below).
But, of course, such behavior is going to become normal as more Hollywood entertainment conglomerates latch onto the fast-moving, link-loving nature of the Web for marketing, especially when dealing with Web-savvy young people.
Well, not as savvy as all that, as it is sure easy to trick them or anyone else.
I guess it is pointless to get all righteous about this. But in this Voices text and video post, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule is asking the right questions about how to create and distribute music in the digital age (and she is actually authentic and honest and has had label deals).
And I am not entirely clear why a lot of this can’t happen on the up and up, given that both Digby and LonelyGirl15 are quite entertaining and having a Hollywood deal is not fatally uncool like wearing gaucho pants.
And speaking of viral phenoms, this is not a new thing for the Web. Recall back in the day, such digital winners as “I Kiss You” Mahir Çağrı (pictured above) or, my all-time favorite, the Dancing Baby (also see below, but only if you want to be happy forever).
Oh, how I loved the time when it was all as innocent as Baby Cha-Cha and as brilliant.
Take note, Digby.
Comments
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article was wrong about Marié Digby. To anyone who followed her videos, it’s obvious that Marié Digby has always been herself.
The article stated:
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“Ms. Digby’s MySpace and YouTube pages don’t mention Hollywood Records. Until last week, a box marked “Type of Label” on her MySpace Music page said, “None.”
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However, she had joined MySpace in 2004, roughly 2 years before she was signed, and she merely didn’t bother to update a setting, and she’d probably forgotten that setting even existed. I signed up for a MySpace music page, and it could even be missed when first signing up. And, since months after she recorded her CD, there was no indication it was ever going to be released, I wouldn’t expect that it would even cross her mind to change her status to signed, even if she was still aware of that setting. Note, her CD didn’t come out until approximately 2 years after she was signed, and approximately 4 years after she joined MySpace.
The article went on to state:
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“After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, the entry was changed to “Major,” though the label still is not named.”
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Makes sense to me. There is no point in naming a record label when there is no indication they are going to release your CD. And, given that, who she was signed with has just as little relevance as that she was signed. (Note, the CD, titled “Unfold” finally came out on April 8, 2008. Buy it, it’s wonderful).
The Wall Street Journal article also contained:
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‘Most of Ms. Digby’s new fans seem pleased to believe that they discovered an underground sensation.
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In fact, the vast majority of the posts were about her music, and not about “discovering” her. For most of us viewers, a huge number of people had already seen her videos when we found her, which were posted long before the WSJ article, so we could hardly claim to have ‘discovered her.’
The term “feigning amateur status”, used in the WSJ article is completely ridiculous. Marié Digby posted music videos, and expressed enthusiasm, and hope. She was largely unknown outside of Los Angeles.
Marié Digby has posted that a Wall Street reporter talked to Marié Digby for about an hour, but they never asked the questions that would have cleared this up. Instead, they took one response, which merely meant that her signed status wasn’t relevant to her goals (and frankly, would have seemed ridiculous in the videos), as meaning she was hiding it.
There were radio station interviews, before the WSJ article, where she mentioned being signed. If she were hiding it, she would have hid it there too.
I gather Marié Digby’s family is rather well off. She never mentioned that in her videos either. I wouldn’t say she was, “feigning middle class status,” but I’m sure some people would! Sad!
Posted by Bill Hallahan at July 25th, 2008 at 2:51 pm