When good hype turns bad: media attention can be a help or a hindrance for new acts. But, with the public reluctant to believe the hype, how can the buzz best be handled?(Talent)

A handful of artists began 2004 as the names on virtually every newspaper and magazine's list of acts that are going to break over the next 12 months.

The likes of Joss Stone, McFly, Wiley, Scissor Sisters, Razorlight, Keane, The Distillers, Franz Ferdinand and Amy Winehouse are all names which are being widely talked about, a boon for PRs and pluggers alike. But the elevated expectations which are generated--sometimes before any significant achievement--can often prove to be the sting in the tail of such early acclaim.

As history has painfully taught, being the subject of hyperbole at an early stage can raise commercial expectations of an act way beyond ...