The Popularity Secret Of Vampire Weekend

It’s becoming the default strategy for music promotion today; get your songs hyped on the internet via music blogs then proceed to the mainstream media and profit. New York band Vampire Weekend is a perfect example of this new dynamic at work. Only two years old, the band has traveled from their roots as a Columbia University college band to featured MTV artist at warp speed.

Vampire Weekend was revered by the blogosphere very early on—and most bloggers by and large are educated and more affluent,” says Matt Wishnow, founder of the online independent music retailer, Insound.com. “People responded to them being worldly.”

Not wanting to be left behind, mainstream media seconded the band’s hip cachet. Late Show With David Letterman showcased Vampire Weekend in February; Saturday Night Live followed in March. A raft of general-interest magazines, from New York to GQ to Teen Vogue, profiled the group. “I was surprised by the fashion and lifestyle magazines,” Wishnow says. Adds a source close to the band: “MTV definitely wanted to be part of their story. They were very aware of them.”

[via Conde Nast Portfolio]