WET LEG a girl band from the Isle of Wight on Domino Records

you know what's tiresome is men looking down their nose at this band because of "the marketing", and somehow it's only female bands that get this criticism, huh

Hum. I don't particularly like and know much about this band but regarding "marketing" criticism, I think the strokes mentioned xposts got their fair share at the time !

never forget Glasvegas

All I know about them is their singer was a professional footballer who "was part of the Cowdenbeath squad that won promotion as runners up in the 2000–01 Scottish Third Division". Thank you, wiki.

nepotism, i knew it

you know what's tiresome is men looking down their nose at this band because of "the marketing", and somehow it's only female bands that get this criticism, huh

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, March 2, 2022 10:28 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pulling the "Ahhh you just hate girls in bands" card there, nice one, thank-you. Won't change the fact that Wet Leg are a triumph of marketing over content. Not the first and definitely not the last band to fit that criteria, but the unusually aggressive way they have have been sold is absolutely worthy of comment and trying to shut down discussions about this is lame, tbh.

I dunno I'd respect them more if they'd just said "We actually worked really hard to get signed, one of us had a solo career before and it didn't really work out but we kept trying, etc" instead of all this "we were just rolling around in the grass with daisies in our hair and this nice record company man came and dangled a contract on a fishing rod and lured us into a studio, and now we're a successful band!!" type of thing. But I guess the true story wasn't quite whimsical enough.

you're right they should own up to their steely-eyed master plan of *checks notes* becoming a moderately buzz-worthy two-piece indie guitar band. i feel so used

in terms of Big Breakout UK Rock Bands With Massive Media Push, there have been loads that aren't female in recent years (Sports Team is one I suggested above, and boy you should see how much the kidz love Black Country New Road (as I also suggested above))

calling this moderate buzz is definitely inaccurate, there are bands who've been around 40 years who've received nothing like this kind of push

(cough LISTEN TO THE NEW HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT end cough)

They seem to be very cynically marketed at horny middle-aged 6Music listeners, and no surprise they've been pushed on there relentlessly.

The tiresomely repeated backstory about how "we're just two ickle babbies who somehow got a record deal and tons of exposure by accident" is also a bit obnoxious (and largely untrue afaik)

ah, the doctrine of lamacqulate conception

you know what's tiresome is men looking down their nose at this band because of "the marketing", and somehow it's only female bands that get this criticism, huh

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, March 2, 2022 5:28 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this board spent months mercilessly dunking on Greta Van Fleet, to name just one recent example

Nice to see them keeping some Isle of Wight settings in their videos - this one's set at St. Catherine's Lighthouse, near Niton.

This is the closest I've come to enjoying anything by them. By far their most tolerable song so far imo.

The marketing is classic, though. I only look down my nose at them for their music.

What is this "marketing" everyone goes on about? Like my entire exposure to them is some friends posting their videos on social media and saying "I like this!" (I like it too, for the record.) Are they underwritten by the Isle of Wight tourism board or something?

there's definitely a UK/US divide on this

But even in the UK, is it "marketing" or is it just your normal buzz-band thing where the music press grabs onto it because they like it? What's the marketing? Are they on billboards?

I was just making that up. I've only heard of them because of this thread.

promotional coupons in your biscuit tins, songs on repeat at the trilby hat shop, etc.

If they are getting a huge radio and media push in the UK, I guess that that’s one thing, but from the US it seems so far the “marketing “ seems to consist of issuing singles with videos, and a short article in Mojo, which has been pretty standard for anyone in the pop music industry since time immemorial? They are comely, sure that’s part of the appeal, but sex appeal has been part of marketing forever too.

We get it, marketing only exists if it's happening in North America.

I've seen no marketing for Wet Leg at all - apart from this thread which has done a decent job in and of itself.

Strikes me the accusatory tone of the response to them is retroactive, as in 'I don't like them, therefore there must be some dastardly scheme', as opposed to y'know, tens/hundreds of bands receive this kind of push, but most don't have any impact whatsoever. Which is to say, it's a bit of marketing, half-decent tunes and a shit ton of luck.

Maybe ilx poster jed_ was just a shill for Big Wet Leg.

side note, jed_ hasn't posted since November, so I hope he's ok.

Big Wet Leg is a better name.

We get it, marketing only exists if it's happening in North America.

Do you get a bonus for every time you shoehorn some variation of this into a thread?

We get it, marketing only exists if it's happening in North America.

yes! i posted something similar upthread i'm not even into this but it's like...this just seems like the music business

Do you get a bonus for every time you shoehorn some variation of this into a thread?

Hardly needs to be shoehorned the way American posters act on ILX.

I don't really see that much tunnel vision here, though, just people asking what the marketing is like in the UK (so far unanswered except by someone who has seen none) or relating their own experience. And North America is not an insignificant market for popular music tbf.

xpost - Yeah I get it, you really don't like American posters. You've made that very clear.

And I generally hate this band tbc.

jed_ was fine when I saw him a few weeks ago :)

xpost - Yeah I get it, you really don't like American posters. You've made that very clear.

I love them but they could do with getting their heads out of their arses occasionally.

Tbf, I suppose that by definition, if I had North American tunnel vision, I would probably be oblivious to my own tunnel vision.

Constant 6Music rotation, barrage of Guardian articles, came second on BBC Sound of 2022 (to Pinkpantheress), endless blogs, UK Twitter trending whenever they drop a single, etc etc

Festival billing is also a dead giveaway

(I mean, they are FROM the Isle Of Wight so I'll forgive the hype for that particular festival)

That all sounds kind of like “new band with some popular songs.”

It's been way out of proportion to how many songs they have and how good the songs have been. They're being prepped for gigantic things, honest (or at least, as gigantic as UK indie can possibly get you)

If new songs are enough to get all of UK Twitter atwitter maybe they are that good and you just don’t get it?

Nothing in your list screams dastardly plot to force people hear them, aside from radio play. Even then, I would guess that if people didn’t like the songs Radio 6 would have to stop playing them?

they already have more good songs than Pablo Honey, so gigantic things ahead maybe, who knows.

Wet Leg Kinder Eggs.

imago does see a choking hazard

Festival billing is also a dead giveaway

― imago, Wednesday, March 2, 2022 12:19 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

of what? marketing? promotion? press agents? big time booking agency? social media strategy? again these things are kind of the fundamental parts of music industry

i mean i get that it's some kind of grassroots things, but imo there aren't many of those in reality, including many that are perceived/billed as such

just seems like a pop band getting promoted like a pop band

i mean i agree the amount of hue and cry over 3 (?) songs is pretty crazy but in hip hop for example, rappers can blow up huge off one song

Lol they’re all over the digital radio station that is tailor made for people who like that sort of thing. Truly inescapable.

oh no, the people who like that sort of thing can't escape it

wet leg should go dark for a while until their popularity is more accurately in proportion to "how many songs they have". otherwise things are just going to be all out of proportion.

i.e. "The Garfield Approach". check out global tetrahedron's thread if you want to see how that ends.

I suppose I should lay out my position here: Chaise Longue is a great one off, nothing they’ve done since is anywhere near as good.