Tinie: 500,000 singles sold
After all the talk of debt crises and stars fleeing the coop, it’s time for EMI to deliver on the pitch. A confident showcase of the label’s new artistic wares at the famous Abbey Road studios suggested that as far as pure chart-pop goes, a revival is well underway.
Most label showcases are sterile affairs designed to appeal to retailers and radio execs. Packing the famous studio with fans, as well as opinion-formers, and whacking up the volume to club banger level, suggested that EMI has recovered some of its confidence.
Andria Vidler, EMI Music UK President, with a background in consumer marketing, introduced a quickfire evening of seven live acts, ranging from established chart-toppers Tinie Tempah and Roll Deep to new US snger-songwriter Diane Birch.
The strategy soon becomes clear, find the current sound of heartland Radio 1/commercial radio pop and deliver ruthlessly and without deviation. Where possible, sample an old hit and use it as the basis for a new one to ensure immediate audience recognition. Quietly, EMI is building a little, whisper it, hit factory.
Roll Deep: pop light
Openers Roll Deep used to be grime but you’d never know it from their number one hit, Good Times. It’s shamelessly derivative, lightweight pop/dance/rap delivered with enthusiasm – and it’s sold 300,000 downloads so far, not to be sniffed at.
Next up is Eliza Doolittle, an EMI project for nearly two years – the idea is to ensure a higher conversion rate of successful artists, even if that means signing fewer acts and holding them back until the marketing and musical plans are ready to roll.
The Lily Allen comparisons are hard to avoid with Eliza’s breezy pop take on the loves and hates of a young, London girl. Her new single, based on the WW1 song, Pack Up Your Troubles, is cooed to a ukulele and double bass backing and sounds like a massive Summer hit.
Eliza: wartime spirit
The charming Eliza comes across as a forces sweetheart, taking music back to a sanitised, pre-skiffle era. Well, you probably wouldn’t get Lily doing that.
EMI has been scouring North America for talent that can crossover to the UK. Philadelphia hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang, who follow, have already done that with their MGMT-Kids sampling Opposite of Adults.
There’s real polish to Diane Birch, a Michigan piano-playing singer-songwriter, spotted by Prince. There’s a gospel tinge to her short set and her songs reflect the struggles she had growing up growing up a preacher’s daughter. Less pop, than her stablemates, Birch sounds like a cert for the Radio 2 playlist.
Birch’s songs have appeared on film soundtracks and delivering “synch” – getting music on to TV, adverts, movies etc, is an important part of the “rights management services” the new EMI will deliver to artists, as recorded sales suffer decline.
It’s over to Canada for Justin Nozuka, a 21 year-old strumming singer-songwriter with a neat way with a melody and a James Morrison-esque soulful rasp to his voice. He’s equally clean-cut and the girls at the front seem to like what they see.
Then it’s into the home straight with this year’s chart-topping UK rap stars Professor Green and Tinie Tempah. Green used to deliver reportage of his troubled background in an Enimen-style.
Green & Lily: Heading for No 1
But now it’s more a case of whacking a party rap over INXS’s Need You Tonight and Just Be Good To Me by SOS Band. The result – massive chart success, with a Lily Allen duet out next week to seal the deal.
Tempah’s Pass Out is on a different level. Fantastically exciting when performed in full flow by a live band, it’s the biggest UK original hit song of the year, shifting 500,000 downloads. And there’s more to come on Tempah’s debut Disc-Overy album for Parlophone.
Of course Dizzee, Tinchy and N-Dubz have all led the way in the ”UK urban” pop sound that EMI has now colonised, increasing the company’s share of the singles market to 20%.
As well as doing whatever is required for commercial success, EMI’s acts seemed keen to support and watch each other at Abbey Road, adding to the impression of a Motown-style, hit-making musical family.
Open for business
There’s more to EMI than these poptastic seven – eg Laura Marling and Gorillaz – but its easy to see why the new, narrower musical approach, might not have suited the more Radiohead-friendly execs of old.
But breaking new acts and getting people to pay for songs is the hardest trick to pull off in music today and both the balance sheet and the Top 10 suggests that EMI has got its mojo back. A hit factory isn’t the worst thing in the world for a record company to be.
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