Melodrama: I’m Ready For It
As someone who is a fan of Lorde’s music, I have been following the release — or at least partial release, for now — of her new album: Melodrama. I have to wait until June to hear the rest of it. Which is fine. I’ve only been waiting four years for this.
When I sat back to think about the announcements and music releases so far in terms of how they had been marketed visually, the first thing that came to mind was how it has been very aesthetically pleasing to follow. Every visual aspect of the album announcement looks like it belongs on Tumblr. It has been very artistic.
The marketing started off rather conspicuously. Lorde first announced that there was an album coming a day before her birthday in November via an emotional and thoughtful Facebook post. In January, music festivals Coachella, Fuji Rock and Osheaga released their lineups, and Lorde is among the headliners for both.
Then, in late February, a website went up. On the website were posted three teasers in succession for Lorde’s new single Green Light.
You can even see them for yourself because having visual stuff in blogs is good and also they look really cool. Watching them all in a row, you might notice how the anticipation and excitement builds through each video.
All three are about fifteen seconds long and feature around seven seconds of visual and audio content. The brevity of these videos builds mystery and suspense, giving the audience just enough information to hook them. It also suggests the marketing team in charge of the teasers know who they’re targeting. Short attention spans? Consistently using online platforms? Visual and auditory consumers? Us youth, of course.
And they’re well done. They’re extremely artful and interesting to look at. Posting giving them their own website made them more interactive and exciting. They weren’t the only build-up to the release of the single, however. Part of the campaign included an invitation for fans in Auckland to go to certain location on a map in order to get more of a sneak peek at the single. Fans who met up at different points were treated to different ‘glimpses’ of Green Light. An online article for Pitchfork describes these:
One location featured a green projection on the side of a building. A clip from the chorus of new Lorde music played, followed by the flashing words “Green Light.” Elsewhere, a parked car was bathed in green light and radioactive-looking smoke, and a green-lit placard appeared, reading, “She thinks you love the beach/You’re such a damn liar.”
The same article also contains footage that fans took of the event and you can find it here. Lorde shared images on Twitter after the event had occurred and they look like they’re straight off of a mood board.
That is a really effective way to reach fans. Not only were Lorde fans in Auckland able to go out and engage with the artist in a unique and visually interesting way, fans from around the world were still able to enjoy it and engage with it on social media after.
When the full video was released, I watched it immediately. I’ve seen it a number of times since then. For a music video, I find there’s something compelling about it. Maybe it’s the vague 80’s vibe which seems to be popular in popular culture recently. Stranger Things, and The Weeknd’s new video for I Feel it Coming, are both examples of this trend. Lorde’s new single has done quite well on YouTube so far. As of right now, it has over 19,000,000 views.
Since the release of Green Light on March 2nd, a second song has been posted on YouTube, called Liability. Though it didn’t feature a video, it was paralleled with the official date the full album will become available, and contains an oil-painting styled image of the artist. I’m not sure if it is the official album artwork, but it’s what Melodrama has become associated with online.
The image shows Lorde lying in bed, staring broodily at the camera/artist/audience. The bright indigo and flushed pink colours on her face are very 80’s reminiscent. It is a very different style from her previous album artwork, which was white lettering on a black background.It is evident through these visuals that Melodrama is going to be different. More open and colourful and vulnerable than Pure Heroine was. The image personally gets me excited for the full album, as it makes me anticipate something artistic and different.
