Let's start with Vienna Teng herself, and here's where I run into the first element that really sold me on her: her voice. Now let me stress that Aims by Vienna Teng isn't perfect by any stretch, but considering it's an independent release and manages to balance fantastic melodies with songs containing some intellectual heft, it's damn great. Make no mistake, it's a goddamn crime that Vienna Teng is not receiving airplay, because if I'm looking an adult alternative indie pop album that could rule the airwaves if properly pitched, it would be this album. So, from a recommendation, I took a listen to that album: how was it? So she did what indie acts have had some success with in 2013 - she founded her own record label to release her newest album Aims, all the while finishing grad school. She's been around for over ten years on the fringes of the indie folk and pop scenes, and has always gotten rave reviews for her albums when they've bothered to pay attention, but maybe it was an issue of marketing or promotion from her label or not having that killer single, because she seemed to fly entirely under the radar. And as much vitriol as I spew at the record industry, they simply have more resources in sweeping through the talent pool and finding marketable stars (managing them, however, is an entirely different issue).īut even on that note, I'm floored that none of the major labels have swooped in to grab up Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter Vienna Teng yet, because it's been a long time since I've seen an act as professional and talented as this. But at the same time it floods the market and makes finding true superstars a real challenge - separating the wheat from the chaff takes time, and when I still have a full-time job and have to cover hundreds of professional acts, it makes hunting through the independent or underground scenes incredibly difficult. But believe it or not, I do listen to nearly all of it and I'm always on the lookout for material that deserves more mainstream attention, or at least the attention of record labels hungry for new talent.īut here's one of the unfortunate things about working in the era of the internet: thanks to iTunes and the relative ease of distribution, it exposes a ton of talent who might otherwise get ignored. Here's a fun fact about my 'job' as a music critic here: people send me music they want me to cover or talk about all the time, which means I'm almost always slammed with more material than I'll ever be able to cover.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |