Is Paul McCartney out of mainstream now?
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Weird thing, but I think he is or almost is. His new stuff (no matter what, KOTB, Ocean's Kingdow, The Fireman) is never played on the radio, there's no promotion of Paul in the mass media, etc. Actually 99 % of the people don't realize of it when Paul releases a new album, if you want to keep up with what he does you must search for it, it is not brought to you for the mass media. So, I think he is a underground/indie artist or so... Yes, he has all the previous popularity, but he is out of the major record labels, major radio stations, etc. I think he kind of likes it, that's why he creates alias like The Fireman. "The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." Frank Zappa
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No way is Paul an underground/indie artist. He is Paul freaking McCartney. Everybody in the world knows who he is and for that reason alone he will always be mainstream.
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It's natural that when an artist gets to a certain age (after about 40-45 years of age) the public pay less attention to newer music by the older musicians. Paul hasn't has a really successful single since the mid-80's but he had many no. 1's in his career from 1962-1983 which is incredible! 21 years of no.1's! To top it off he is the most successful musician from the most successful band of all time and he will be listened to 100's of years from now like Mozart, Beethoven etc. Chart success doesn't mean much particularly in the 21st century when the classic rock/pop music of Paul's caliber isn't as much in style. His albums however still sell very well and even his recent covers album, Kisses On The Bottom managed to get to positions 3 and 5 in the UK and US charts 50 years after Love Me Do. If that doesn't show how his music has endured I don't know what will. Even on the same bill as The Rolling Stones and The Who, Paul McCartney ALWAYS headlines the big music events. Edit: Oh yeah and The Beatles were the best selling artist of the 2000's along with Eminem 40 years after they broke up!
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JimmyMcCullochFan:
No way is Paul an underground/indie artist. He is Paul ****ing McCartney. Everybody in the world knows who he is and for that reason alone he will always be mainstream.
Well, the younger generations have not been exposed to "Mainstream Paul", and most of them don't know who Paul McCartney is. He was, but is not now. Not even The Beatles.... like Justin Bieber playing Let It Be and their fans thinking he's playing a new song he has composed. I mean teenager hardly know who Paul McCartney is. They haven't been exposed. There is a cutting point in 1993. That was Paul's last mainstream promotion, Off The Ground album. So people born after 1980 or so hardly have been exposed to Paul's mainstream.
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It doesn't make him Indie. It just makes him old. (Nothing to be ashamed of even for a woman)
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I don't think of him as either indie OR mainstream. All I know is that I like it!
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This guy at work was born in 1980 and he thought it was Paul McCarthy!!
Most of the 20 somethings do know who the Beatles were and they know about Paul. I keep them all educated with 'current events'! -
I have haven't listened to top 40 pop music since the 80s, even then I was more into the old stuff, but anyway. I spend a lot of time on the road and out of shear boredom started listening to today's music. Most of today's hit singles are by young people FOR young people. I love Paul's music (except PTP), but he,like most of his fellow rock stars from the past, just can't fit in with what's going on now. The only thing he's done that might have fit in is Electric Arguments, other than that the pop station is a revolving door of a few bands and solo artists. The music industry has always been a cabal of puppeteers, pushing whoever makes the most bucks. The Beatles and Paul had their time when they could do no wrong and all their music got tons of air time. Now it's these young people's turn.
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The Beatles released their final album in 1970, 42 years ago, and people are still listening to that music now. In that time how many people were listening to music from 20 years ago let alone 50?
Who in the early 70's knew Al Jolson or Ethel Waters besides the generation that grew up with them? -
MaccaBeatles:
The Beatles released their final album in 1970, 42 years ago, and people are still listening to that music now. In that time how many people were listening to music from 20 years ago let alone 50?
Who in the early 70's knew Al Jolson or Ethel Waters besides the generation that grew up with them? -
Paul hasn't been mainstream since summer '07. Tick tock, tick tock...
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Maybe he is taking some time to be with his family love doris
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I am being facetious. I'm not too bothered if he never releases another anything ever. But it would be nice.
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Off the Ground being the last big promotion of his solo work? I disagree. What about "Flaming Pie"? If that wasn't his biggest solo promotion and coverage for a solo album then I don't know what else was. That was massive, I was in Europe and saw the videos for the singles, he was in the press, reviews were positive, he went on Oprah, the singles were top 20 in the UK and the album nearly went #1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Flaming Pie had no huge world tour behind it. If it did it may have tipped it to number 1. In the last 5 yearsbPaul has been doing shows in promotion of The Fireman, Kisses On The Bottom and The Beatles remasters. I hope 2013's set list has 5 new songs in it from his new album, whenever that materialises.
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*Perry*:
Flaming Pie had no huge world tour behind it. If it did it may have tipped it to number 1. In the last 5 yearsbPaul has been doing shows in promotion of The Fireman, Kisses On The Bottom and The Beatles remasters. I hope 2013's set list has 5 new songs in it from his new album, whenever that materialises.
I agree, a resounding #1 as Paul and Beatles were at a popularity peak back then. Possibly the health of Linda prevented touring around the album?
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Good post. I think you're right, but he has always been able to do pretty much what he wants with mixed results. He put out at least two of the best albums of the last 10 years in Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Electric Arguments. His tours keep him in the spotlight if not the mainstream. And he always puts in one or two of his new songs no matter how commercial. It reminds us that he's first and foremost a musician, not just a pop star. I for one, am glad about that.
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Fly Paul Fly to Australia:
Off the Ground being the last big promotion of his solo work? I disagree. What about "Flaming Pie"? If that wasn't his biggest solo promotion and coverage for a solo album then I don't know what else was. That was massive, I was in Europe and saw the videos for the singles, he was in the press, reviews were positive, he went on Oprah, the singles were top 20 in the UK and the album nearly went #1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
He did 5 or 6 songs off Chaos and Creation during the US Tour. That was pretty heavily promoted as a I recall. Come to think of it, Starbucks did a massive PR job on Memory Almost Full too.
