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Celeb News: "Radio won't play Royals": Universal Music execs
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 9/3/2012
Posts: 29,405
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"Radio won't play Royals": Universal Music execs
excerpt from Lorde's "Rolling Stone" interview
Quote:
Maclachlan, Ella's manager, took "Royals" to the promotion department, who told him radio would never play the song. "And if you don't have radio support, you're ****ed," he says. "That's the problem with record companies. So either we had to go on bended knee to try to convince them, or **** it, we put it out for free. Ella and I both have a punk attitude." (He recently left Universal to work full-time as Lorde's manager.)
Even as "Royals" was conquering the charts, Lorde hewed her own path. The label wanted her to make a lyric video. "I was like, 'We're not doing that. No. None of the musicians I like make lyric videos.'"
Instead, she conceived the "Royals" video as a reflection on teen boredom, using friends from Auckland instead of actors, and appeared only in it briefly. When the U.S. label saw the clip, "they ****ing hated it," Maclachlan recalls. "They said, 'She's only in it for 10 seconds.' I was like, 'That's the genius of it!'"
Label executives who specialize in social-media marketing told Ella to use a lot of hashtags and hype her music to followers. "An I was like, 'I can't explain it to you, but if I did that, everyone my age would hate me.' The stuff that worked a few years ago isn't going to work now." Whenever she dismissed grown-ups' ideas as "corny" or "uncool," they buckled; no one wants to be uncool in the eyes of a 17-year-old. "It's like Kryptonite," she says with a laugh.
In a recent Reddit AMA, she wrote that by starting in the music business at 12, "I learnt early on how things worked and that gave me a good understanding of what could be ****ed with/which rules were dumb and shouldn't have to be followed. Plus, I can sit down with basically the most intimidating people in the industry and not flinch, and maybe even make them flinch. Or cry. Heh."
To book Lorde's concerts, Maclachlan hired a midsize agency in Chicago that specializes in credible, hip acts, including Yeasayer, Girl Talk and Lo-Fang (whom Ella picked as the opening act for her March tour). When the deal was announced, Maclachlan got a stern phone call from an executive at CAA, the L.A.-based talent powerhouse, "who said to me, 'You're making a mistake.'" You can probably guess Maclachlan's reply: "**** you."
Wary of anything she (or her cohorts) would thing corny or uncool, Ella has turned down lucrative offers and opportunities, including sums of money "that would make grown men weep," says Maclachlan. her dad works with an accountant to oversee Ella's finances, which she ignores to a degree that she seems to be in denial about her wealth. "It's a lot of money, and I try very hard to not thing about it," she says. "Am I going to make a good record having thought about how much money I have? Probably not." Why would she need lots of money? She still lives at home.
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Joke's on you, Universal.
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Banned
Member Since: 12/22/2011
Posts: 1,749
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She seems stupid.You just can't talk about things like this when you are not an established artist.
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 9,153
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True to her artistry and not the fame and cash.
It's a shame other ARTists can't do the same.
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 9,153
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shamser
She seems stupid.You just can't talk about things like this when you are not an established artist.
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She's successful. Why the hell would you have to be established to talk about the attitude you have that made you popular?
She's explaining that not everything that works for most artists works for others and that people shouldn't sacrifice artistry for ca$h and fame.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Member Since: 3/5/2011
Posts: 15,589
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Lol look at her acting like an established veteran while she's only had two hit songs out.
She doesn't seem too bright either, being all things anti-industry has never helped anyone.
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Member Since: 8/1/2008
Posts: 52,761
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Is she really trying to shade her own label with this?
You're not supposed to bite the hand that's feeding you until you have a couple of millions in your bank...
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 8/1/2012
Posts: 27,547
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Quote:
Plus, I can sit down with basically the most intimidating people in the industry and not flinch, and maybe even make them flinch. Or cry. Heh."
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Wow, she really knows what she's doing
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 32,106
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Quote:
Originally posted by gloamingtheplain
She's successful. Why the hell would you have to be established to talk about the attitude you have that made you popular?
She's explaining that not everything that works for most artists works for others and that people shouldn't sacrifice artistry for ca$h and fame.
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People won't be willing to work with her if she keeps talking like she knows everything, although I agree with half of what she says, but she has to learn to be humble and bite her tongue sometimes
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,973
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I respect Lorde more now.
I hope she stays out of trouble and becomes a staple in Alternative Pop music
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 3,628
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Universal is the worst big label
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Member Since: 8/19/2011
Posts: 37,346
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Quote:
None of the musicians I like make lyric videos.
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such a stan.
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Member Since: 10/22/2011
Posts: 2,549
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Liked the bit about the video & how she told them what was & wasn't cool with her peers. Reminds me of what Britney did at that age, with the handling of BOMT & her image.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,150
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Well Radio played the hell out of it and got me tired so..
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Member Since: 11/23/2011
Posts: 46,048
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I don't know why this made me laugh so much.
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 25,228
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So according to people on here, you have to be established to assert yourself and express your views on things?
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 31,020
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She's awesome but interviews like that are the reason she's not gonna last. She wants to be seen as cool and artistic in this anti-industry sense but coming for your boss like that in the RS is not the best way to achieve it.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 13,761
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I appreciate her audacity but, yeah, she's not going to last long if she keeps deriding the very industry in which she's trying to thrive
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 25,228
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Quote:
Originally posted by EdgeOfAddiction
I don't know why this made me laugh so much.
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She is only 17...
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 11/5/2011
Posts: 100,491
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Quote:
Originally posted by TKO
Universal is the worst big label
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They own Capitol Records, though. Are you sure?
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