27th May 2012

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The crypto-RnB singer : The Weeknd

Thought I’d share one of the first articles I read about the weeknd when he started gaining internet buzz. The writer really hits the nail about Abel, his persona/image (at the time), music and XO. This still remains one of my favorite articles. I wish things would have stayed like this a little longer…

“Enter the crypto-RnB singer The Weeknd. No one knows who he is. All we know is he makes pointedly stylish content across all the hippest digital channels and has an impeccably curated presence. Oh, and he makes music so perfect for the Tumblr moment I almost think it was designed in a lab. Or in the office of a very savvy new media marketing agency.

The Weeknd is a Master’s course in building an engaging presence for the cool kids. He created his own language, like Odd Future, both visual and verbal. The use of “XO” appears everywhere, but kinda means nothing. It’s just a symbol. A symbol for The Weeknd that can be used across platforms, across posts, across media. Next is the visual signs that whisper, “You’re seeing something created by The Weeknd”: always black and white, women with faces obscured and a lot of balloons. These clues signal the artist and his seeping out of Tumblr and into other platforms across the Web.

This is the language the singer’s story is told in, and it’s crucial that every piece of the narrative unfold using this language or it will exist outside the universe he is creating for himself, one with great mystery and therefore great appeal to jump in. Forget about the fact that the music is grounded in RnB but brilliantly blends elements of electronic music, ambient, dubstep, hip hop and indie rock. A lot of genius music goes unnoticed (and I may be leaning toward that descriptor for this guy soon). It’s almost too good, like if pop mastermind The-Dream were a devious little hipster with the CD collection of the most discerning bespectacled music critic. The power here is in the grip this kid has on the complex, labyrinthine inner workings of the vast networks of the music scene online. Kids like The Weeknd are creating multi-layered stories that make you want to jump in and stake your claim to reblog, repost, like, love, download”

Tagged: the weekndabel tesfayearticlexoxo til we overdoseweekndtheweeknd

Source: blatantineptitude.blogspot.com