4 ms·

There was recently a commercially produced pop song about thrift stores in the charts, so you can rest assured that they've been cool again for at least ten yea

There was recently a commercially produced pop song about thrift stores in the charts, so you can rest assured that they've been cool again for at least ten years.

antiterra 13y ago
I'd argue that it was independently produced, and 'cool' varies by the crowds you grow up in and around. Commercial music is still considered cool by a very large swath of youth. Even when it wasn't, the industry has little problem absorbing and subverting the indies.
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  I'm not saying they're no longer cool, but the fact that some record company executives put millions of dollars behind the track in this risk-averse entertainment/identity industry means thrift stores have probably passed or are about to pass their peak coolness for this cycle. The same likely applies to Macklemore themselves, they didn't write those lyrics with blood and tears, they wrote them to sell. "They" watch what the really cool kids are doing, or at least the coolest kids they can find. When they've been consistently doing a particular thing for almost a decade, with the thing filtering down through the social hierarchy until almost-uncool people are doing it, that's the prime time to safely monetize the shit out of that thing for about 3 years until even your dad wouldn't be caught dead doing it. Macklemore/ADA are kinda late to the party, "vintage" clothing stores have been milking that particular cash cow dry for a while now. Filtering down... It's a process that sounds familiar to many people here, I'm sure.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    "Some record company executives"? Thrift Shop was produced under the label Macklemore LLC, i.e. bankrolled by Macklemore himself. That was one of the reasons it was an interesting track. An indy label hitting the #1 spot on the charts.
    - JonnieCache 13y ago
      It was distributed by ADA. You think they shipped thousands of promo CDs/mailouts to radio stations and record stores across the world all on their own? These artist-run labels are usually just shell companies. But yes, this track is maybe not the best example for the point I'm making. Just replace "record companies spending millions of dollars" with "ADA spending some other very large amount of money and macklemore spending hundreds of man hours" and the point is the same.
      - sliverstorm 13y ago
        My understanding is Macklemore (a man, not a band) is pretty wealthy, so I suspect it was mostly his dollars behind the track, including for distribution. That leads to the other interesting part- if he's already wealthy, does he care if the track makes a lot of money or not? But, yes, for most any other hit pop song you'd be right.
      - w1ntermute 13y ago
        > It was distributed by ADA. You think they shipped thousands of promo CDs/mailouts to radio stations and record stores across the world all on their own? The relationship between Macklemore and the ADA is fundamentally different from the traditional relationship between an artist and a record label, where the record label loans the artist money up front and takes care of all the promotional efforts in return for a majority share of the revenue from album sales. The ADA takes payment upfront - there is no "investment" going on. This is why Macklemore was able to take the lion's share of the profits from his album sales. In fact, Macklemore addresses this very point in one of his songs on The Heist: http://rapgenius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-jimmy-iovine-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-jimmy-iovine-... > But yes, this track is maybe not the best example for the point I'm making. No, it's actually the worst possible example you could have picked. > Just replace "record companies spending millions of dollars" with "ADA spending some other very large amount of money and macklemore spending hundreds of man hours" and the point is the same. No, it's not the same. It's just about as different as it gets when it comes to the music industry.
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    > the fact that some record company executives put millions of dollars behind the track That's not a fact, it's flat out wrong.
- aliakbarkhan 13y ago
  Macklemore & Ryan Lewis received seven Grammy nominations and won four (Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album), two for "Thrift Shop", which also went septuple platinum in the US, multi-platinum in 5 other countries, and sold over 10M copies worldwide. I'd say that's pretty fucking commercial.
  - antiterra 13y ago
    I think whether or not it was 'commercially produced' is separate from its mainstream success.

There was recently a commercially produced pop song about thrift stores in the charts, so you can rest assured that they've been cool again for at least ten years.

antiterra 13y ago

I'd argue that it was independently produced, and 'cool' varies by the crowds you grow up in and around. Commercial music is still considered cool by a very large swath of youth. Even when it wasn't, the industry has little problem absorbing and subverting the indies.

JonnieCache 13y ago
I'm not saying they're no longer cool, but the fact that some record company executives put millions of dollars behind the track in this risk-averse entertainment/identity industry means thrift stores have probably passed or are about to pass their peak coolness for this cycle. The same likely applies to Macklemore themselves, they didn't write those lyrics with blood and tears, they wrote them to sell. "They" watch what the really cool kids are doing, or at least the coolest kids they can find. When they've been consistently doing a particular thing for almost a decade, with the thing filtering down through the social hierarchy until almost-uncool people are doing it, that's the prime time to safely monetize the shit out of that thing for about 3 years until even your dad wouldn't be caught dead doing it. Macklemore/ADA are kinda late to the party, "vintage" clothing stores have been milking that particular cash cow dry for a while now. Filtering down... It's a process that sounds familiar to many people here, I'm sure.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  "Some record company executives"? Thrift Shop was produced under the label Macklemore LLC, i.e. bankrolled by Macklemore himself. That was one of the reasons it was an interesting track. An indy label hitting the #1 spot on the charts.
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    It was distributed by ADA. You think they shipped thousands of promo CDs/mailouts to radio stations and record stores across the world all on their own? These artist-run labels are usually just shell companies. But yes, this track is maybe not the best example for the point I'm making. Just replace "record companies spending millions of dollars" with "ADA spending some other very large amount of money and macklemore spending hundreds of man hours" and the point is the same.
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      My understanding is Macklemore (a man, not a band) is pretty wealthy, so I suspect it was mostly his dollars behind the track, including for distribution. That leads to the other interesting part- if he's already wealthy, does he care if the track makes a lot of money or not? But, yes, for most any other hit pop song you'd be right.
    - w1ntermute 13y ago
      > It was distributed by ADA. You think they shipped thousands of promo CDs/mailouts to radio stations and record stores across the world all on their own? The relationship between Macklemore and the ADA is fundamentally different from the traditional relationship between an artist and a record label, where the record label loans the artist money up front and takes care of all the promotional efforts in return for a majority share of the revenue from album sales. The ADA takes payment upfront - there is no "investment" going on. This is why Macklemore was able to take the lion's share of the profits from his album sales. In fact, Macklemore addresses this very point in one of his songs on The Heist: http://rapgenius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-jimmy-iovine-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-jimmy-iovine-... > But yes, this track is maybe not the best example for the point I'm making. No, it's actually the worst possible example you could have picked. > Just replace "record companies spending millions of dollars" with "ADA spending some other very large amount of money and macklemore spending hundreds of man hours" and the point is the same. No, it's not the same. It's just about as different as it gets when it comes to the music industry.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  > the fact that some record company executives put millions of dollars behind the track That's not a fact, it's flat out wrong.
aliakbarkhan 13y ago
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis received seven Grammy nominations and won four (Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album), two for "Thrift Shop", which also went septuple platinum in the US, multi-platinum in 5 other countries, and sold over 10M copies worldwide. I'd say that's pretty fucking commercial.
- antiterra 13y ago
  I think whether or not it was 'commercially produced' is separate from its mainstream success.