Even if you don't buy Rihanna's music, you're probably familiar with her name and her pop stardom. That's the brand marketing that her record company does so well.
But that hard-sell marketing may be a double-edged sword in an age when music lovers love nothing more than discovering the next big thing on their own.
"You're having so much stuff thrown at you, like you have Rihanna just blasted at you from all directions," said Jon Pareles in The New York Times Popcast. "And you think: 'Wait a minute, I want something that's mine. I want something that I'm curious about, where my curiosity hasn't been smothered by the barrage of marketing."
On The Daily Circuit Tuesday, Jan. 15, we'll discuss how music fans find new music and how that's changing with musicians finding stardom on the Internet outside traditional marketing methods.
"Pop performers can become truly famous by building their careers themselves online, maybe more efficiently and faster than a major company can help them to do," said Ben Ratliff, jazz and pop critic for The New York Times.
Ratliff will join The Daily Circuit along with Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot.