On April 11th, 2014, Eric Church announced 'The Outsiders World Tour', kicking off in September 2014, with presales starting in May.
The tour will supposedly feature a high tech design and a 360 degree view of the entertainer and his band. Supporting acts will be Dwight Yoakam, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark and rock band Halestorme for select dates.
Eric Church is one of the hottest country acts currently, even though he incorporates a lot of musical elements, which make him also attractive to non-country audiences; right-on with the 'Outsiders'-theme of his current, excellent album.
So it is no wonder, that everybody wants to see him live (in particular when his live show has been hailed by Billboard Magazine and he has even been invited to alternative rock-, rap- and punk-festival Lollapalooza in 2013). And a World Tour clearly displays his immensely grown status in the world of music. Especially since country artists rarely ever leave the US, because they make their best business there.
There is actually only a handful of country stars, who ever really went on World Tours.
With the missing presence in the foreign media, the demand in foreign markets is not there. So each trip does represent an investment in a new market; a risk which only few hot artists will take, when the demand in the US is big enough anyways.
Probably the first artist to do a full-blown World Tour was (of course) music giant Garth Brooks. I still do remember that even national radio stations (normally only catering for their pop music customers) where reporting about his shows in Germany in the late '90s. And of course I do remember his show spectacle in the Olympic Arena of Munich, which I was lucky to be able to attend myself.
The latest one to do a full-blown World Tour is (of course again) Taylor Swift. But then, she is by many considered pop and therefore does have a radio presence on international radio, which typically lacks a country format anyways. So there is demand for her and I am sure the tour was also financially more successful than the initial one Garth did in the '90s (according to Patsi Bale Cox and her book "The Garth Factor", he did not really make a profit on his first World Tour, which is why he did not go beyond Ireland on his second World Tour).
There
are a lot more (older) artists, for whom demand in the US is no longer
there, who then try to build a presence in a foreign market. However
they will never reach bigger audiences and typically play smaller
festivals or club venues. The Bellamy Brothers do come to mind,
although to be fair, they are still profiting from their pop crossover
hits (in particular the number one hit "Let Your Flow", which was
successfully covered by German singer Juergen Drews, and converted to
"Ein Bett im Kornfeld" which then became a number one hit again in
Germany).
Only lately we have seen more efforts of current hot country stars to go international, with a main focus on Australia and the UK (Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum and Toby Keith to name the main acts).
This may be supported by the fact, that music is being consumed more and more from internet sources (iTunes, Amazon, YouTube or straming services such as Spotify), which are also offering a wider spectrum of music, including country.
This may potentially lead to genres becoming less important (and less dictated by radio stations). In theory it is now purely up to consumers to decide what they want to listen. So it may also be easier to sell live music by artists, that do not necessarily get played on the radio.
Reality is of course, we will have to wait and see. Clearly artists and their management need to take the effort and risk in order to potentially widen their global appeal. Which may be more difficult for country acts that are too American, than for those whose musical theme is more removed from 'redneck tailgating parties in the backwoods', which is indeed foreign to most people outside of the (southern) USA.
So Eric Church is going to be the next artist to take that risk! His music should have enough appeal to attract music interest outside of country music and convert some new fans. So I am looking forward to potentially getting a chance to see this show!
But hey, wait ... there are no shows scheduled outside of the US!
Well, there are 3 shows scheduled for Canada. But does that make for a World Tour???
I do not think so! This sounds more like cheap marketing, making something bigger than it actually is.
It is similar to the statements made in reference to the 'international tours of country artists', when in reality they were just USO tours. Which meant, those artists were simply performing for US Troops abroad, which also meant, no regular fan would typically be able to attend. Those 'international tours' go completely unnoticed by the regular media, which means nobody out there knows about them.
So please lets stick to calling something what it is - and the Eric Church 'Outsiders Tour' in the current announcement clearly is not a World Tour!
P.S.: In all fairness, Eric Church has actually just been on a limited European tour, on which I was lucky to catch him in Munich. It was in support of his new album 'The Outsider', but it (naturally) was just a club tour of him and the band, because bigger venues would not fill for a more or less unknown artist outside of the US (even if he showed up with a number one pop album under his belt, which -by the way- could have been better used as a good marketing theme).
The tour will supposedly feature a high tech design and a 360 degree view of the entertainer and his band. Supporting acts will be Dwight Yoakam, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark and rock band Halestorme for select dates.
Eric Church is one of the hottest country acts currently, even though he incorporates a lot of musical elements, which make him also attractive to non-country audiences; right-on with the 'Outsiders'-theme of his current, excellent album.
So it is no wonder, that everybody wants to see him live (in particular when his live show has been hailed by Billboard Magazine and he has even been invited to alternative rock-, rap- and punk-festival Lollapalooza in 2013). And a World Tour clearly displays his immensely grown status in the world of music. Especially since country artists rarely ever leave the US, because they make their best business there.
There is actually only a handful of country stars, who ever really went on World Tours.
With the missing presence in the foreign media, the demand in foreign markets is not there. So each trip does represent an investment in a new market; a risk which only few hot artists will take, when the demand in the US is big enough anyways.
Probably the first artist to do a full-blown World Tour was (of course) music giant Garth Brooks. I still do remember that even national radio stations (normally only catering for their pop music customers) where reporting about his shows in Germany in the late '90s. And of course I do remember his show spectacle in the Olympic Arena of Munich, which I was lucky to be able to attend myself.
The latest one to do a full-blown World Tour is (of course again) Taylor Swift. But then, she is by many considered pop and therefore does have a radio presence on international radio, which typically lacks a country format anyways. So there is demand for her and I am sure the tour was also financially more successful than the initial one Garth did in the '90s (according to Patsi Bale Cox and her book "The Garth Factor", he did not really make a profit on his first World Tour, which is why he did not go beyond Ireland on his second World Tour).
Only lately we have seen more efforts of current hot country stars to go international, with a main focus on Australia and the UK (Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum and Toby Keith to name the main acts).
This may be supported by the fact, that music is being consumed more and more from internet sources (iTunes, Amazon, YouTube or straming services such as Spotify), which are also offering a wider spectrum of music, including country.
This may potentially lead to genres becoming less important (and less dictated by radio stations). In theory it is now purely up to consumers to decide what they want to listen. So it may also be easier to sell live music by artists, that do not necessarily get played on the radio.
Reality is of course, we will have to wait and see. Clearly artists and their management need to take the effort and risk in order to potentially widen their global appeal. Which may be more difficult for country acts that are too American, than for those whose musical theme is more removed from 'redneck tailgating parties in the backwoods', which is indeed foreign to most people outside of the (southern) USA.
So Eric Church is going to be the next artist to take that risk! His music should have enough appeal to attract music interest outside of country music and convert some new fans. So I am looking forward to potentially getting a chance to see this show!
But hey, wait ... there are no shows scheduled outside of the US!
Well, there are 3 shows scheduled for Canada. But does that make for a World Tour???
I do not think so! This sounds more like cheap marketing, making something bigger than it actually is.
It is similar to the statements made in reference to the 'international tours of country artists', when in reality they were just USO tours. Which meant, those artists were simply performing for US Troops abroad, which also meant, no regular fan would typically be able to attend. Those 'international tours' go completely unnoticed by the regular media, which means nobody out there knows about them.
So please lets stick to calling something what it is - and the Eric Church 'Outsiders Tour' in the current announcement clearly is not a World Tour!
P.S.: In all fairness, Eric Church has actually just been on a limited European tour, on which I was lucky to catch him in Munich. It was in support of his new album 'The Outsider', but it (naturally) was just a club tour of him and the band, because bigger venues would not fill for a more or less unknown artist outside of the US (even if he showed up with a number one pop album under his belt, which -by the way- could have been better used as a good marketing theme).
Comments
Post a Comment