Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 December 24

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December 24[edit]

Is there a website[edit]

That would tell me when the movie The_Pyramid_(film) is being relased on dvd or blu-ray? Thank you Venustar84 (talk) 02:31, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Considering it was only released to theaters 18 days ago, it's liable to be a little while, and they may not have even decided yet. Usual rule of thumb is at least a few months, after it's finished its first-run in theaters. Although I recall when the Walk the Line DVD came out, it was still being first-run in the theater. Is there a "Contact us" feature on the movie's website and/or its production company's? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:50, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I can't speak to the overall reliability of the site but it's been pretty good to me so far for my needs, but here: www.comingsoon.net Mingmingla (talk) 22:12, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

College football coach hiring[edit]

ESPN reports on the hiring process for the University of Wisconsin's head football coach: someone submitted an open-records request and got detailed information on all 46 applications. Wow, 46: do we have any idea if this many applications is common? Of course there are a lot of jokers; perhaps many openings get fewer because they don't get the jokers? Nyttend (talk) 15:42, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The scope of your question could use some more definition, Nyttend. Do you want "this many applications" to apply to all job vacancies anywhere in the world, all sports coach jobs in the USA, all previous occasions the post of Head Team Coach at the University of Wisconsin has been available, or some other category?
ObPersonal, not very relevant to this particular vacancy but the best I've got: advertised posts for office administrative jobs in the south of England typically attract well over 100 applications. {The poster formerly known as 87.71.230.195} 90.219.165.93 (talk) 17:00, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Please read the header: the scope is US college football coaching jobs, especially institutions with programs comparable to Wisconsin's. If I'd been going for job applications in general, I wouldn't have come to the Entertainment Desk. Nyttend (talk) 19:47, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How does new music get popular?[edit]

I don't get how music of today becomes popular. What is the path or main paths? I know that question's not self-explanatory. Look, back in the '50s and '60s, there were various ways to get the attention of the movers and shakers to green light cutting an album but once made, that physical album was cut and promoted and there was radio airplay. People listened to the radio, they bought albums, maybe reel to reel in small numbers, and it was all interconnected. There wasn't a billion different mediums and everyone shared those mediums–if you were interested in music you listened to the radio and bought records. That's pretty much it. In the '70s and '80s and even 90s it was essentially the same. Sure, there were some new devices, 8-tracks, then cassettes then CDs, but it was just a version of records with new technologies, and of course there was MTV and VH1. There was a clear path from unknown, to known and popular. But for many years now I can't seem to see what path is taken. Videos? Well, MTV and VH1 haven't played videos in years (literally: they might have a top twenty countdown for a few hours out of a whole week, but 99% of their programming is not music programing at all). I get how a new Beyonce track get popular. She's already super famous. She posts an album and a video and it trends on social media. But how does someone not famous get there. Few straight up listen to the radio, and there isn't one main station and affiliates in an area all drawing from essentially the same trough. There is no central album play medium whch provides "just these five are the new records this week" type thing anymore. It's just not clear to me.--108.46.137.89 (talk) 21:31, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I wouldn't quite discount videos just yet. MTV and VH1 might not play videos anymore, but YouTube sure does. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with live TV appearances, particularly on late night shows and other things similar, just my two cents ~Helicopter Llama~ 21:51, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
There are multiple ways for new music to get famous now:
1) The old way still partially applies, say to new music by a known commodity. If Stevie Wonder comes out with a new album, people will listen to it once, no matter what, and radio stations, knowing this, will play it, no matter what. If it's good, they will keep playing it. If not, they will stop.
2) There are lots of music contests on TV, and many of the winners and even losers become popular enough to start a career in music.
3) There's word of mouth. Of course, this was always the case, but now, with social media, you can see that a million people like some musician, and decide to give it a listen, immediately, there's no going to record store to try to find it.
4) I've occasionally seen an advertisement for a musician's new album. I've even seen a few on TV, but this has to be expensive. StuRat (talk) 22:27, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sending demos to college and independent stations with a press kit is standard procedure. I heard pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, and Pantera on Seton Hall's WSOU rock format long before they were played on the large commercial stations out of Philly and New York. "WSOU has played a pivotal role in breaking bands and music genres within the New York market. It was one of the first to play punk rock in the 1970s. Additionally, WSOU gave some of the first airtime to many commercial successes - Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Incubus, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine and Korn.[3]" μηδείς (talk) 18:32, 25 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]