Nathan Exposed » a passion for music

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

The year is 1998. It’s summer. I’m a teenager, living in a small Illinois town. I’ve developed a knack for creating websites on this amazing thing called the internet.

The internet has been growing in popularity for several years, but it’s still very new and not widely accepted outside the circle of technology nuts like myself. One industry that really neglected to jump on the bandwagon was the music industry. But I had bright ideas for the future.

One of my favorite singers was a young R&B diva. I won’t say her name because Google is very quick to pick up keywords from my blog. But she shared the same first name as a woman with the last name Lewinsky. Ring a bell anyone?

Anyway, her sophomore CD was coming out that summer and she had a huge #1 hit duet, which later won a Grammy. This singer had absolutely no presence on the internet. Her record label, Arista Records, didn’t seem to think the web was a useful place to promote music.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and create a fan site for her. I posted everything I could find about her, including pictures, audio, and video. I also kept up on exclusive news as soon as it rolled in.

By 1999, I had built the largest, most comprehensive web archive of this singer. I orchestrated a huge internet campaign for a single that I firmly believed would be a hit. It was released as a promo to radio stations, but it received hardly any airplay and was very slow to take off. In fact, the label canned the plan to release it commercially.

But I forged ahead and kept the buzz going. It jumped right to #1, was released as a video, and the single finally saw the light of day. I truly believe I played a role in this.

Arista finally took notice of my tactics. They caught on that I had this huge internet following when they didn’t even have a website for her. They contacted me personally and gave me the title of “Official Fan Site”. There was a banner on their website, and I received all promotional material as soon as it was available.

That summer, 1 year after I’d started the site, I was given a backstage pass to meet this singer when she played in St. Louis. When we met, it was a dream come true for me. That sad thing was that she didn’t seem to know who I was, or have any idea that I had built such a massive internet fan base for her. But I was blinded at that time. Afterall, here I was meeting my favorite singer. It was a treat, any way you look at it.

In 2000, I decided to take bold steps. She was working on a new CD and I believed I should take this to the next level. I contacted my connection at Arista and negotiated access to her manager’s private phone number. I called her manager and told them I wanted to handle the internet marketing for her next CD. They thought it over and agreed.

This was it! I was going to be set for success! I had just graduated from high school, and this was my big break into a career in music. I was so happy.

A couple of things took place in this singer’s personal life and her CD was delayed until 2003. When I started hearing buzz about it, I immediately called her management. But something had changed. They no longer returned my calls, I no longer received updates about her career.

Her new CD came out that summer, complete with a very crappy website design, done by somebody else. I tried to be cool about it, but I wasn’t. I took it as a very personal rejection because I had been a very dedicated fan, I was far more capable than the designer who created the site, and I just didn’t understand what happened.

Looking back, I realize it probably wasn’t personal at all. The designer probably had some type of contract or agreement with the record label. I noticed he had worked on other sites for their artists. But rejection is never an easy pill to swallow, especially when you invest your heart into something. I didn’t like the flakiness of her management. They could have returned my calls and just told me what happened. I don’t believe being a celebrity excuses you from common courtesy.

So that’s my story about music and how it changed the course of my career. It’s amazing to think that if things had gone a different way, I may have been in a completely different place now.

I’m quite happy with my life, though. So I guess all’s well that ends well.

Mon, May 14, 2007 @ 10:22 pm | Filed in Music, Life | Permalink

1 Comment

How cool is all of that. You are definitely a go-getter. It’s interesting how different paths and turns lead us in this direction or that direction. We could “what if” forever!

Posted by Lewis on Mon, May 14, 2007 @ 10:27 pm