On the weekend the 59th Eurovision Song Contest took place in Denmark.
Over the years it has become more and more a high tech media spectacle, which is by now reaching a world wide audience of an estimated 125 Mio. viewers.
Although over the years every now and then a song from the contest crossed over to international radio charts (with "Waterloo" by Abba probably being the most famous), it has mostly been snickered at by the rest of the music world.
With the increasing integration of social and other media, such as twitter, and high tech stage and lightning designs (take a look at the performances available on the internet), it has stepped up in public recognition over the past few years. And with potentially 125 Mio. music buying consumers, it is certainly also of interest to the music industry.
While the winner is chosen by a jury team and the public audience in each country, for the first time audience voting numbers have been published separately this year. Numbers that were not always in line with the jury and may potentially show a better picture of the public music taste in relation to the songs presented. Although there have been heated discussions about motives for votings and how 'objective' they actually are in the end.
Nevertheless shouldn't the music industry and radio in particular study these results in more detail? This sounds like a free market research. What more could you want without paying for it?
While the winner from Austria may have performed flawless, the victory clearly was a politically motivated one: the artist and his/her message was chosen over the song by the majority of the voters. No other artist (with most of them not even that well known in their own home countries, let alone the rest of the world) has acquired such a recognizable status, even independent from the song!
So who do we find in second place? Which one was the best liked song for the music?
Not so surprisingly, the artist is unknown, by the name of 'The Common Linnets' (a duo made of Ilse deLange and Waylon) from the Netherlands. However much more surprisingly, the song called 'Calm After the Storm' clearly delivers a mid tempo country sound, which reminds one of Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town!
Obviously
just recently formed, but already travelled to Nashville for their
debut album 'The Common Linnets', their sound and performance was
exceptionally well received all over Europe!
So what can we conclude from this? Is this still a result that is not worth being taken seriously or should this be taken as a hint, that a sound like that may actually have big potential also outside of its native territory North America?
Where is the issue with radio and music industry, that they still do not offer that kind of music style equally next to other styles who find their way onto pop radio? Is it because genre radion stations are mostly not available in Europe? Or is it still being stuck in the old cliche of country being thought of more as western and old time, than modern and state-of-the-art?
I think that the Eurovision 2014 results clearly show, that modern country sounds (and "Calm After the Storm" is less pop or rock-oriented than some of the songs on the country charts these days) do have an audience outside North America and it is up to radio in particular to make use of that understanding.
Over the years it has become more and more a high tech media spectacle, which is by now reaching a world wide audience of an estimated 125 Mio. viewers.
Although over the years every now and then a song from the contest crossed over to international radio charts (with "Waterloo" by Abba probably being the most famous), it has mostly been snickered at by the rest of the music world.
With the increasing integration of social and other media, such as twitter, and high tech stage and lightning designs (take a look at the performances available on the internet), it has stepped up in public recognition over the past few years. And with potentially 125 Mio. music buying consumers, it is certainly also of interest to the music industry.
While the winner is chosen by a jury team and the public audience in each country, for the first time audience voting numbers have been published separately this year. Numbers that were not always in line with the jury and may potentially show a better picture of the public music taste in relation to the songs presented. Although there have been heated discussions about motives for votings and how 'objective' they actually are in the end.
Nevertheless shouldn't the music industry and radio in particular study these results in more detail? This sounds like a free market research. What more could you want without paying for it?
While the winner from Austria may have performed flawless, the victory clearly was a politically motivated one: the artist and his/her message was chosen over the song by the majority of the voters. No other artist (with most of them not even that well known in their own home countries, let alone the rest of the world) has acquired such a recognizable status, even independent from the song!
So who do we find in second place? Which one was the best liked song for the music?
Not so surprisingly, the artist is unknown, by the name of 'The Common Linnets' (a duo made of Ilse deLange and Waylon) from the Netherlands. However much more surprisingly, the song called 'Calm After the Storm' clearly delivers a mid tempo country sound, which reminds one of Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town!
So what can we conclude from this? Is this still a result that is not worth being taken seriously or should this be taken as a hint, that a sound like that may actually have big potential also outside of its native territory North America?
Where is the issue with radio and music industry, that they still do not offer that kind of music style equally next to other styles who find their way onto pop radio? Is it because genre radion stations are mostly not available in Europe? Or is it still being stuck in the old cliche of country being thought of more as western and old time, than modern and state-of-the-art?
I think that the Eurovision 2014 results clearly show, that modern country sounds (and "Calm After the Storm" is less pop or rock-oriented than some of the songs on the country charts these days) do have an audience outside North America and it is up to radio in particular to make use of that understanding.
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