Another thought... Funkmaster Flex, Red Alert et al receive records months before anyone else, so naturally there will be a lag before they hit stores in NYC let alone Holland:) Also the majors probably only like to concentrate their marketing and PR on releaseing on one continent at a time - much like movie studios.
Later - Mark* ----- Original Message ----- From: Otto Koppius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <313@hyperreal.org> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 3:45 PM Subject: Re: (313) The instant globalisation of music? > (trust me, it will make sense below (well, hopefully anyway)) > > Andrew Duke wrote: > > > [Bobby] Konders has always been a big fan/proponent > > of roots and culture. > > He has a show dedicated to it on Hot97, the main hiphop/r&b radio > station in New York City, on Sunday afternoon. Also, I seem to remember > that around lunch time on weekdays they have a 'classics' show with lots > of great old electro, but I'm not sure whether that was Hot97 or another > station. > > Anyway, about Hot97: I was in NYC from July-September last year and > listened to it quite a bit. One thing that struck me in the last one/two > months or so, is the number of hiphop and r&b tunes that are new in the > charts or on the radio here in the Netherlands (and I presume in most of > Europe) that were in heavy rotation on Hot97 three to six *months* > earlier. > > Some examples, some slighty more recent than others: > Donell Jones - "U know what's up" (v. good r&b tune, btw) > Montell Jordan - "Get it on tonite" (ditto) > ODB - "Baby I got your money" > 702 - "You don't know" (313 relevance courtesy of TP: Mark Kinchen > produced this) > Kelis - "Caught out there" aka 'I hate you so much right now' > > This several-month-lag between the US and Europe surprises me. > > With house and techno, if a track is not just on promo/white anymore and > is out officially, it's *out*. Worldwide. There may be a delay of a few > weeks, but certainly not months. Why this difference? > > I can think of a few (partial) explanations: > - Hiphop and r&b are much more controlled by major labels. They probably > have a marketing strategy in which this lag is purposefully built in. > The rationale for it is unclear to me though. > - House and techno rely much more on grassroots marketing through > word-of-mouth, reviews on mailing lists like these and others. Word > travels fast (especially in an IT-savvy community like this one), so > this creates instant demand for a track. Hence stores everywhere > ordering it. > - Word travels fast, but so do DJs (got any more travel stories Alan? :) > Get a hot track in the right hands and within a few weeks it will have > enough frequent flyer miles to forget which timezone it is in... Again > instant near-global demand. > > Any thoughts? > > Otto >
