Beyoncé and the New Face of Music Promotion

Last night’s Grammy Awards left one thing more exposed than Beyoncé‘s backside: the fact that the pop music promo game has changed. Queen B makes the rules and everyone else follows along, basking in her shadow.

It’s not really all that simple, of course: plenty of successful acts move through the usual channels when it comes to marketing and earned media. But when one reaches the heights occupied by the top of the pops, rules no longer apply.

For example, compare the Jay-Z/Beyoncé performance to six seconds of Katy Perry.

Katy Perry watched The Craft and was like, “yes, that, sure.”