Internet played key role in Lorde's rise - NZ On Air man
Royals started life as free download. PLUS: US magazine reveals Lorde's working class existence.
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The head of New Zealand On Air music says Kiwi teen sensation Lorde has highlighted the important role that the internet played in her rise to the top.
Lorde’s (her real name is Ella Yelich O’Connor) hit single “Royals” started off as a free internet download and now transformed into a U.S Billboard number one hit.
New Zealand on Air music manager Brendan Smyth said the internet has provided a new platform to launch a music career.
“What has changed in the music business is the number of tools that are available if you like in the tool kit for connecting songs with the people and creating the kind of buzz and word of mouth and that is the value and what the internet has brought to music,” said Mr Smyth.
Although the internet has changed the pathway for musicians to reach the top of the charts, he says the one thing that will never change is the fact that a good song is the number one pre-requisite for a successful hit.
“Well lots has changed in the music business as a result of the internet that’s a given, some things haven’t changed though and its worth just pausing to talk about what hasn’t changed, and what hasn’t changed is that it is all about a great song, that has never changed, and Ella and Joel Little the collaborator have delivered a great song,” said Mr Smyth.
Mean streets
Meanwhile, Elle has revealed the 16-year-old singer's material is partly informed by the mean streets of Mt Eden Village (part of ACT leader John Banks' Epsom electorate).
A profile in the US magazine's latest issue says:
Her favored topic is her working class existence in the Auckland, New Zealand, suburb of Mt Eden a place that, as confessed in her breakout single Royals - which quickly sold more than 85,000 copies in the US - incites "no post code envy".
Well, maybe a little Grammar Zone envy.
NBR staff
Sun, 06 Oct 2013
Sun, 06 Oct 2013
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Internet played key role in Lorde's rise - NZ On Air man
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