I booked my tickets for the forthcoming 30 seconds performance in Cape Town this morning. Online. Early. It’s a far cry from my first encounter with their first album on Greenmarket Square. R30 it was. I picked it up and put it down the moment I saw these androgenous looking emo kids on the cover.
Fucken A it was emo, and he can scream like a bitch in a blender, but over the past 4 years they’ve built something, and I’ve bought into it. Not as a rabid emo head, but as a consumer of music.
Branded band, branded fans
This is War, the band’s latest concept album, features thousands of (well rabid) fans on backings vocals. Two thousand odd unique cds featuring their faces on the covers got launched, turning 30 Seconds into ‘their’ band. These kids go and tell their mates, and their mates, and their mates’ mates. They blog about it, they cover the songs on YouTube. They buy into the band’s iconograpy and get Leto’s tattoos done on their arms. Referred to as the Echelon and categorised per region or city (each with their own ornate legion style logo), these fans will buy, sing, spend and do anything Monsieur Leto tells them to.
Very emo. Very brand loyal, more like. Music video direction, packing and visual presentation is flawless and handled by the top world’s top branding agencies. But it gets even better
Purpose-built for multi-channel consumption
Apart from the videos, the mp3 and CD sales, their is something called touring. It makes bands fuckloads of money. And by pre-loading their War album with crowd-singable, stadium-ready bridges and choruses, they are stimulating concert attentance. I don’t think stimulating is quite strong enough; I think it’s like incentivising junkies to attend a party with the promise of free heroine.
It’s opium for the masses; produced, refined and packaged to perfection.
See you at the concert.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | 30 seconds cape town, 30 seconds to mars, cape town concert, cult brand, cult branding, music
