Chris Salmon looks at the different ways pop stars present themselves online while promoting their big releases
This year, Jessie J has already won the Brits Critics' Choice award, topped the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll and seen her two singles reach No 2 and No 1. But, she's still forging ahead with her awareness-building Dare Jessie J series. In the videos, which appear at myspace.com/jessiejofficial, we follow her touristy adventures around cities including LA, Las Vegas and New York. Throughout, the Essex singer remains unfeasibly excited and endearingly klutzy. Each episode then climaxes with a "dare" that involves her a) singing, and b) making a fool of herself. So, she belts out a song in Trafalgar Square dressed as a gorilla, does a James Brown impression on Hollywood Boulevard and performs in Times Square wearing a Statue of Liberty hat. The videos do make you warm to her, and her obvious vocal abilities. But you wonder how she'll feel about them when her career reaches its inevitable "serious phase".
At that point, she'd do well to look to Adele's second album campaign for guidance. That singer's return has been as perfectly pitched as it has been globally successful (her album, 21, has been the planet's biggest seller for the last fortnight, despite not yet being out in the US). Clearly a decision has been made to keep the focus squarely on her music, and make it all look as classy as possible. So, at Adele's official site, you can watch a series of videos in which she explains each of the new album's songs (adele.tv/trackbytrack/archive), while at bit.ly/adelevid1 you can see her performing a track from a recent acoustic session in LA. Even better, at the website of America's National Public Radio, they're offering both the full, spine-tingling audio of a special Philadelphia show from earlier this month (n.pr/adeleshow) and their latest Tiny Desk Concert, in which Adele wows NPR staff in the station's office (n.pr/adeledesk).
She also recently performed for Smooth Radio at the Liverpool Cavern. Six songs from that show are available on the station's YouTube profile, youtube.com/SmoothRadioNetwork. There are several other worthwhile videos available there, many of which haven't had much attention. Imelda May's spirited session performance has attracted almost 5,000 views, but three excellent session tracks from rising folkpoppers the Pierces (including a cover of Lady Gaga's Alejandro) have managed just a few hundred views each. Worst of all, a live song from soul legend PP Arnold uploaded on 27 January has been watched just 14 times. It might not be in its nature, but Smooth should probably shout a bit louder about this content.
Ana Paula Lemes Vanessa Simmons Chyler Leigh Julie Berry Lori Heuring
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