When You Can Believe the Hype

What do Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Prince, U2 and Nirvana have in common, in addition to their success and influence?

They were all labeled “Hype”--with a capital H--early in their careers.

That term continues to surface every time a new artist receives what appears to be excessive media attention.

Think Alicia Keys last year and Norah Jones this year.

Keys, the young R&B; singer from New York, generated so much media heat that her debut album entered the sales chart at No. 1, raising immediate suspicions among many pop fans. The success, they assumed, was record company manipulation--master marketing by J Records’ Clive Davis, the executive who also helped launch Janis Joplin and Whitney Houston.

The label did do a superb job of positioning the gifted singer, from setting up classy showcase performances to choosing the right single (“Fallin’”) to promote to radio programmers. But Keys’ talent made it all work.

Excited about her potential, the media leaped on her story before the album hit stores. The momentum continued through her Grammy wins in February.

Whispers of hype are now beginning to circulate around Jones, a young, Texas-based pop singer whose debut album on Blue Note Records has soared into the Top 50 on the national chart. I wasn’t immune to the suggestions. It was easy to be wary when Jones’ name popped up repeatedly in print weeks before her album was released. I even resisted the album at first because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being swept along by the critical enthusiasm.

It wasn’t until I accidentally caught Jones’ performance on the Jay Leno show that I started warming to her intimacy and command. The fact that I’m not alone in thinking she has a chance to be a major figure means you are going to see a lot about her--and maybe you’ll find yourself instinctively putting up your hype guard.

In an era of media overkill, it’s only natural to be skeptical when something sounds too good to be true--and until you check out the music, it’s hard to tell which highly touted artists are genuinely worth attention. The danger is letting the media attention close your mind to exciting new arrivals, including, in the rock world these days, such passionate bands as the White Stripes, the Hives and ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. This is especially true at a time when media space is increasingly devoted to pop music despite a scarcity of acts worth that attention.

If you want a sobering look at the marginal nature of pop hit-makers these days, check out the list of 100 best-selling albums last week. I couldn’t fully recommend more than seven, and I wouldn’t want to read about more than a dozen.

Is it any wonder the media get excited when genuinely talented young stars such as Keys and Jones come along?

When the same faces keep reappearing in print and on TV, the suspicion is that record company publicity machines are at work--as opposed to the natural buzz that follows the arrival of underground stars.

Much of this thinking grows out of the belief that labels have more power than they actually do in influencing media coverage. In truth, most of the so-called hype we see is simply media enthusiasm.

Bob Merlis, who was the longtime head of publicity for Warner Bros. Records before opening a private PR firm last year, says a publicist’s most valuable tool in encouraging members of the media to write about an artist is the testimony of other journalists.

“A writer can listen to me talk all day and night about how much I like a new artist, but the writer knows I get paid to say it,” he says. “If I can quote someone who isn’t paid, such as someone from another publication, that holds a lot more weight. One of the most effective things we can do is use the genuine enthusiasm of the media to get other media interested.”

The textbook story of media excitement perceived as hype occurred in 1975 when Bruce Springsteen appeared simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek. It was a revolutionary moment because the magazines then typically put pop figures on their covers only once or twice a year--and usually it was cultural sensations along the lines of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, not some virtually unknown musician.

Mike Appel, an ambitious manager who represented Springsteen in the ‘70s, remembers the excitement of seeing Elvis Presley in 1956 and the Beatles in 1964 on the covers of such celebrated magazines as Life and Look. It was his introduction to both acts, and he raced out to buy their records.

Appel had such faith in Springsteen that he thought the young New Jersey rocker could have the same impact if he was on the cover of national magazines.

So when Newsweek and Time requested interviews for small stories upon the release of the “Born to Run” album, Appel said no. The only way he’d let them talk to Springsteen was if they put his picture on the cover. It was a ridiculous demand, and executives at Columbia Records, Springsteen’s label, told Appel so. The magazines refused the demand, and the label felt Appel’s crazy idea had blown its chance for valuable national exposure. To everybody’s surprise, however, Newsweek and Time editors became so intrigued by Springsteen’s potential that they reversed themselves and put him on the cover.

The cries of hype were immediate, and they could have killed the career of a lesser artist, but Appel figured Springsteen’s talent was strong enough to eventually win over doubters, and he was right.

Most experienced publicity and marketing specialists in the industry know it’s a fine line between buzz and hype, and they try to avoid crossing it.

“The goal is to generate just enough exposure so that fans are turned on to an artist, but not so much so that fans feel they’re being bombarded and force-fed,” says Larry Jenkins, senior vice president of marketing and media for Columbia Records. “Every so often, the media respond en masse to an artist beyond anyone’s expectations and that response feeds on itself and evolves into hype.”

Mitch Schneider, whose L.A.-based MSO public relations firm represents such acts as Alanis Morissette, David Bowie and Tom Petty, also stresses the danger of too much media attention. “Artists should pursue artistry. The ones who chase celebrity will inevitably suffer from hype.”

Record companies throw millions annually into publicity to keep trying to update artists’ images in an era when audience loyalty is extremely low.

Bryn Bridenthal, who is head of publicity at DreamWorks Records, whose roster includes such highly touted newcomers as Nelly Furtado and Rufus Wainwright, says the ultimate distinction between hype and buzz often depends on whether the artist delivers. “If I’m Paul Revere running through town saying, ‘The British are coming, the British are coming,’ and the British don’t come, that’s hype. But if the British do come, it’s a different story. The same with pop music. If the artist delivers, nothing else really matters.”

Robert Hilburn, The Times’ pop music critic, can be reached at robert.hilburn@latimes.com