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Lily Allen · S2 E1
The Upload
A bedroom recording hits the internet and the internet hits back
November 2005. Lily Allen opens a laptop, uploads four demos to MySpace, and waits. Within weeks, 10,000 strangers a week are requesting to be her friend.
Smile, Lily Allen (2006). The first song she ever writes, uploaded to MySpace in November 2005 and released as a single in July 2006. It goes straight to number one. Lily hires thugs to destroy her ex-boyfriend's life while she smiles into the camera.
Smile, Lily Allen (2006)
The first song Lily Allen ever writes, produced by Future Cut and sampling "Free Soul" by The Soul Brothers. Written about her breakup with DJ Lester Lloyd. The famous "la la la" middle eight exists because nobody told her what a middle eight was, so she just sang la la la as a placeholder. They never changed it.
The Platform
In 2005, Rupert Murdoch pays 580 million dollars for MySpace. By January 2006, the site signs up 200,000 new users per day. Profiles are customizable with raw HTML: auto-playing music, neon cursors, tiled wallpapers.
Sources
Angwin, Julia. "Stealing MySpace." Random House, 2009.
Gillette, Felix. "The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace." Bloomberg Businessweek, June 2011.
The Numbers
By April 2006, five months after the upload: 40,000 MySpace friends and roughly one million downloads. Regal Recordings rush-presses 500 copies of "LDN" on 7-inch vinyl. They sell out instantly and resell for 40 pounds each.
Sources
Petridis, Alexis. "Lily Allen: 'I had to call my own bluff.'" The Guardian, June 2014.
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Friday Night
From Alright, Still (2006). A song about getting wasted on a Friday night and regretting nothing. The sound of the girl who spent ninety minutes every morning accepting MySpace friend requests and then went out and lived the life she was blogging about.
Friday Night, Lily Allen (2006)
Follow the lyrics while you listen. The sound of the girl who spent ninety minutes every morning accepting MySpace friend requests, then went out and lived the life she was blogging about.
What happened when Regal Recordings rush-pressed 500 copies of "LDN" on 7-inch vinyl?
Forty thousand strangers know her name and the label is finally paying attention. Next episode: the song that made London sound the way London feels.
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