So as I’ve been watching “Classic Albums: Black Sabbath – Paranoid”, and its gotten me thinking of modern advertising techniques. Although not quite sure how the two ideas connected though, I cant help notice the fonts and posters and press releases.
If todays methods for marketing new acts was applied in the early days of Rock N Roll, what legends would make the cut? Groups like The Monkeys and The Hollies arent too far of a cry from “Making the Band”, but most musicians up until this digital age made it by either touring relentlessly or by heavy airplay on the long lost radio. (Disclaimer: I genuinely like both of these bands and the music they created, namely I’m Not Your Stepping Stone and Bus Stop, respectively. The point is that they were fabricated and pieced together like The Spice Girls.)
Would “Heavy Metal” have happened if todays PR applied 40 years ago? At some point or another, I’m sure something similar would have evolved, though probably not in the same manner. Sure, Led Zeppelin would still become the hard rock darlings, Jimmy Page was already popular with the Yardbirds, remember. Black Sabbath, though, were certainly before their time sonically, but right in the target era for promoters. What better way to draw a crowd than with the possibility the singer may be painted purple? It is pretty cool though that Tony Iommi has his two middle fingers chopped off.
Clotted Nonsense 