As president of Island Urban Records, Jermaine Dupri has spent a lot of time thinking about the future of music. And his latest brainchild is… TAG Records, a joint venture with, yes, TAG Body Spray, the favored scent of skeezy dudes everywhere. When I first saw this press release in my inbox, I thought it had to be a way-late April Fool’s joke. I still wish it were. "Today, we make history in the music industry with TAG Records," Dupri pompously offers. What kind of history — terrible-idea history?! I’m sorry, but sure-to-fail vanity labels and cheap-o deodorant brands (what, he couldn’t have gone upmarket and partnered with Axe?) are two cultural phenomena which did not need to join forces. Besides, there’s already a defunct label called Tag Recordings!
Oh, this label. As Jay Sherman would say, it stinks! (Indeed, one blogger has already dubbed it "Stanky Records.") It hurts me to give it even a little bit more publicity with this post. But now that I have, what do you say — would you ever willingly buy a CD with the TAG logo on it?
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i can’t wait for “old spice studios”
Simon, after reading all your posts today (this, the Robin Williams rant, the Alvin and the Chipmunks tirade) I think you and “The Hater” from the Onion AV Club should get together (fittingly, her name is Amelie Gillette). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing, things like this often send me off on an angry tirade…I’m just sayin’…
Not a chance. The music will be just as odious as the spray (don’t even get me started on the people who actually buy this crap)
Dude needs to ditch those glasses. He looks like he has a Bert unibrow eventhough he doesn’t.
In the immortal words of Whitney Houston, hell to the no!
In the immortal words of Whitney Houston, hell to the no!
Perhaps this music will function like the spray, as an d-bag early-warning-system, only aural instead of olfactory.
the critic!
Excuse me, but I thought labels handled promotion and marketing! Why does Island/Def Jam need Proctor and Gamble’s money to help promote artists?
In the past, artists got a corporate sponsor on their own and kept the money they made from that deal. Are the labels trying to change the game?
Now, you get a sponsor with your record deal… I wonder who gets to keep the money now? This is just another way for the majors to say they are helping artists while doing the exact opposite, as always.