Wrapping up

So this blogging experience has definitely been a challenge and eye-opening at the same time.

When I first started blogging, I truly didn’t think it was going to be difficult – I guess that was a terrible assumption. I realized that finding new content every single time that other bloggers hadn’t already posted in their music blogs. I found it difficult to keep the content consistent and relevant for the readers; furthermore, it was hard to get the reader’s attentions and keep it!

On the bright side, I did find it kind of amazing that I could talk about the field I loved the most for four months. I can’t necessarily have these conversations in my general social context. It was most certainly a great outlet to pursue my passion.

Now that the experience of blogging is over, the question remains: am I going to continue blogging?

In all honesty, I don’t feel as though I am passionate enough about blogging but on the other hand, I have decided to get more involved my field of interest (music) and get more active on social platforms (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc.) in order to keep up more with the field. I will pursue the research I did for the blog but not continue the blog.

I hope everyone had a good time reading my blog posts 🙂 It was a great semester!

Vh1 blog

Many televisions channels have created blogs for viewers to be able to comment and give their insight on the content that has just been aired. The VH1 blog is the perfect example of an extension of a music channel.

This VH1 blog covers four major categories: music videos, music, shows and current gossip on the celebrities that make an appearance on their tv shows. They also blogroll and give content to different blogs related to their content. However, VH1 does have more blogs than just this one because it is a channel with a variety of media and entertainment.

There are several differences between VH1’s blog and mine. First, although the content may be similar in that in covers music trends, it also differs because VH1 has expanded from being a music channel into a channel that plays a lot of reality T.V shows, so it is not as specific.

This section of the blog would be the most similar to mine.

Secondly, my blog is written from my point of view on the content. VH1 has multiple writers providing content for the blog, essentially employees of the brand that are hired specifically for this blog. It also has a more consistent update of content because it has such a large following of readers. Essentially, the V-1 blog is an extension of a large television network channel versus a personal blog (it is not a biased form of writing). Of course, the material is very credible for the most part except for maybe the gossip column (which tends to be an issue for both gossip coverage on celebrities).

Overall, if you are a music lover and get most of your news feed through the Internet, I would definitely recommend this blog as a source but if you’re looking for something a little more specific, I would branch towards personal blogs, which stirs up a little more debate.

Learn some social media tips!

For this week’s assignment I am suppose to discuss one of my classmate’s blogs that is in relation to mine. It was a little difficult to find something similar as the content I have on my blog is really specific. But after browsing through numerous interesting blogs from my classmates, I fell upon on one that was the most similar to mine.

Luis O Gonzales is a classmate of mine that blogs a lot about the online social media world as it is from my understanding, a big part of his career.

He’s worked for start-up companies and e-Commerce sites and is currently doing his master’s at Georgetown University in public relations and corporate communications. He is from a latino and background and his culture has given him some of his best strengths in the marketing field because he can get a better understanding of demographics.

The really interesting part about his blog is that he provides readers with tips and new ways to improve social media skills. I gave similar tips but more so in concern to how to start off in music so reading this article was a great insight on finding on some new tips!

One of his articles that had a similar concept to mine was “The Blogs to Read for Startups”. This article featured Mashable and Google Panda. When i first started my blog, I began with the same concept by comparing two softwares, which were Itunes and Spotify. I couldn’t help but get intrigued about the idea of combining both concepts together. He could provide his insight about social media and give tips on how to expand it in the music world, after all social media is applicable in all fields of marketing! He also wrote an article about how to make online content more visible for readers and over all more accessible.

He mentions his hesitation about putting his blog up on Linkedin but that he ended it up doing it, which make me think I should do the same. It is a great way to become a bigger part of the social media realm and I advise all those start-up bloggers to do the same; connect their blogs through all social media profiles in which they have accounts!

We may not cover the same content, we both similarly cover the same concepts, which is trying to provide our insight on what we enjoy doing the most and what is related to your careers.

Click on his picture to check out his blog!

Related articles

• 10 Sloppy Social Media Mistakes to Fix NOW (hubspot.com)
• Tips to Avoid Boring Social Media (goactiontank.com)
• New stats: The impact of social media on holiday choices (freshnetworks.com)

Drake’s “Take Care”

 One of the releases I’ve been anticipating the most  this fall is the release of Drake‘s new album Take  Care.

I’ve personally follow Drake’s talent ever since the  ages of Degrassi. Before he became the notorious  rapper that he is, he was an actor in the T.V show  Degrassi that was featured on the N channel. I  remember during the show, his  character, “Jimmy”, would have moments in the  show where he’d rap and I always thought his  talent was going to take him his places.

Couple years later, I saw his single drop “Best I Ever Had” and I knew he was going to fill in the steps of legendary rappers like Jay-Z and Ye. This single was featured on his album So Far Gone. Then he released his album Thank Me Later“. Drake was always known as Lil Wayne’s prodigy and proud product of Cash Money Records (Wayne’s label). This album was Drake’s moment to separate himself from Weezy’s image and show his unique capabilities: which he did in full furry.

Now his new album Take Care, has rated both positive and negative. Some critics are calling in very monotone and makes listeners want to fall asleep because of Drake’s consistent women dilemmas, which he so often raps about. Others are saying that it’s best product he’s produced so far and that it really shows how much he’s intellectually grown as well as how much is voice has developed over the last year.

Here’s a track from each album, rate it!

I think this album is genius. Drake’s voice has truly grown and he’s not only become a better rapper but his singing voice is getting better on each album. The album carries more variety and as much as the album does have a soft, slow tone to it, I still think that aspect makes the album so good. Drake’s known for his slow, mesmerizing beats; his album wouldn’t be the same without them.

CNN calls him a guy with a Jay-Z ego and a Charlie Brown soul.

Unfortunately his album got leaked a month before it’s release,which created a serious buzz. But the album is still in the top-selling albums on the Itunes chart and the leak hasn’t ruined any sales.

Here’s my favorite song on his new album, hope you guys like it!

Related articles

• Drake Tracks Leak, Rapper Says ‘Enjoy It’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Drake Breaks Down “The Ride” From ‘Take Care’ [Video] (hiphopwired.com)
• Drake’s ‘Take Care’: EW review (music-mix.ew.com)
• Drake’s Moment of Truth (thedailybeast.com)

Music Apps That Will Enhance Your Music Knowledge

As we all know, most people who own a phone, now own a smart phone. It’s almost like people can’t seem to function without a smart phone anymore (including myself).

On the upside of this obsession, amazing apps have been created to increase the consumer’s entertainment on their smartphones; some of them are really useless and some of them can be seriously amazing.

There are thousands of apps someone can download as a music follower, some teach you how to create music, some allow you to follow certain artists and some expand your music knowledge. I find that the most practical and insightful ones are the ones that will expand your music knowledge.

Now, how many times have you been at a bar, a club or a concert and wanted to remember the name of the song but you just couldn’t because no one could tell you or you were simply too intoxicated to remember?

Solution: SHAZAM

Basically, whenever you’re listening to that awesome song that’s a complete must have, pull out your phone and click on the image of the app and BAM! Your song will appear and the app will create a list of all of the songs you’ve downloaded.

However, there are a couple downfalls to the app.

-It’s free but you’ll only get to have a certain amount of songs, sort of like a ‘trial”. Although, the app does come at a really cheap price of 5.99$, so it’s probably just best if you buy it and have it forever on your phone.

-Even though, it recognizes most songs that you’re trying to find out about, if there’s too much noise in the background or the sound quality around you isn’t fantastic, it will have a hard time finding it, especially if you barely have reception at the place you are at.

Second solution:  PANDORA RADIO

Pandora radio is an automated music recommendation app that randomly selects songs for you to listen to it according to what criteria you give it. If for instance you type in the artist “Avicii“, the app will start feeding you electronic and house songs so essentially music that is related to what you told it you wanted.

It’s a great app because for those who are a bit narrow in their music taste, it will open your ears to new genres and artists that you might have never thought of. Also, if you’re a commuter stuck in traffic a million hours a day, it’s a great way to entertain yourself as you can plug your phone in your car and it will replace your radio.

The only major problem i have with Pandora is that I won’t always necessarily enjoy the music it’s selected for me and it gets a little annoying to have to re-input the info back into the app to get the music you want.

But most of the time, the app does a fantastic job and I’ve found so many songs I would have never found otherwise. Oh and I forgot the best part: it’s free and you can also use it on your computer instead of your Itunes!

Of course these are some of the most popular apps out there but I find that they do the best things for any music lover; these two apps will give you some new music, expand your taste in music and keep it safe into a library so you’ll never forget!

Related articles

• Pandora Radio (wired.com)
• Pandora Internet Radio Service goes standard on Lincoln models (inautonews.com)
• Echofi helps you find artists on Spotify that fit your tastes (thenextweb.com)
• Missed Out on the Spotify US Launch? Try These Alternatives (savings.com)

Listen to this: Galvao

So the initial reason why I started this blog was to be able to talk about new artists that have an amazing talent and put them on the map. This week I’m going to talk about this band “Galvao“.

The lead guitarist of this band has been a great friend of mine since I was 12 years old. In high school he use to play in a band called “Misantro,” which, was way more oriented towards hard rock and metal. I always thought this type of music wasn’t allowing him to shine. He’s actually one of the most talented guitar players I’ve ever met.

When he moved to Montreal,Canada to study, he started up a new band, which they named  “Galvao“. The band currently holds a total of 6 members. Now, 6 members seems like a rather big number for a band but each member adds an interesting artistic flair to the sound of the band.

Aiza Ntibarikure : Voice
Phil Levine : Bass
Samuel Chaco Kohn : Keys
Daniel Pombo : Guitars
Adam “AfroD!eZ!aQ” Furman : Percussion
Owen Nelson: Saxophone

This band’s genre is for the most part pop/fusion. The main reason  why I’m so fond of this band is because they bring back the essence  of music: creativity and uniqueness. There are no random auto-  tuned sounds; everything they create is basically out of a garage just  jamming or around or in one of their small apartments.

They’ve played in multiple venues in the Montreal area, which is  already a great start because Montreal has a great emerging  underground sound that usually makes its’ way to the United States.

Previous venues they’ve been played include: Charnobyl, Brutopia and OAP.

Currently, they’re trying to land some gigs in the States, which I hope I’ll be able to do for them since I’m based in Washington D.C.

Here’s if you want to check them out live.

Twitter

Myspace

Facebook

Pitchfork: my go to critic

When I want to check out reviews for music, I try to go to blogs or websites that will be very honest but correct.

Pitchfork is rather harsh on new released albums but gives a detailed explanation that actually completely backs up the criticism made on the album.

Some of the only times I didn’t agree with Pitchfork was when Lupe Fiasco‘s “Lasers” came out and Pitchfork simply verbally destroyed this album when in fact it was an amazing album.

Recently the album “Watch the Throne” was released by JAY-Z and Kanye West. These two guys are legends in the music industry and when I heard they would be collaborating and releasing an album, I expected GOLD. A lot of people had mixed feelings about it, some claiming it was the best album of the decade and some saying that the album pretty much an extremely lazy effort on the part of these two artists.

Recently, I checked into the reviews of Pitchfork to see what the reviews had to say about the album.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15725-watch-the-throne/

The author of this article takes apart every single song off the album  and    poses a criticism for it. There are two specific instances in this  article that  stood out to me.

At some point the article states that JAY-Z has been known to  release his    albums at coincidental, terrible timings such as around  9/11 and this time  “Watch the Throne” came out right around  another downturn in the stock  market. Is it really proper for an  artist to be flaunting off their wealth this  way in an album when  others will never be able to relate to it? Could someone  say it’s  almost rubbing it in?

Well the author of Pitchfork makes a valid point by saying that  there are some  few songs in the album that take the two artists  beyond their wealth and they might even sound humble at times. But the blogger says, in the end they sound better when they’re simply bragging about their wealth.

I don’t necessarily agree on that. JAY-Z has been known through his entire hip hop career for rapping about the projects of New York city and has always had this very old school hip-hop feel to his sound. Saying that this album is basically him bragging throughout most of the songs may be true, but he does not to best when doing so.

FInally, the author of this post claims that Kanye West is the true leader of this album after the release of his last off the charts album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy“. He spent months working on that previous album and truly had the gift of mixing really unique pitches and beats to develop an amazing new sound. Even when listening to the album, the high moments in the song usually always happen when Kanye’s rapping.

Safe to say, he kind of stole JAY-Z’s thunder.

But I have to say, Pitchfork may be harsh but usually always right and real with the artists, which is in the end what an artist should want to grow.

Apparently someone else agrees…

Related articles

• Jay-Z, Kanye West Sued Over Watch The Throne Sample (mtv.com)
• Pitchfork PANS Kanye West, drops 1.5 points from 10.0 glory. Is his career ‘tanking’? (hipsterrunoff.com)
• Kanye West, Jay-Z sued over sample (canada.com)
• The Word On: Watch the Throne, Jay-Z & Kanye West (independent.co.uk)

The new age of advertisement

As we all know, Google is the largest search engine in the entire world and I’ve seen a couple of their advertisements but none of them have quite impressed me as much as this one.

As I was watching this video, I literally got chills. And, it was one of the smartest ways to promote Google Chrome.

Lady Gaga can easily be titled one of the biggest female pop stars of our generation. As much as she has been criticized for her over the top style and outrageous ideologies, she is still a genius artist that changed the way music listeners think of pop music. Last year, herYouTube video got over 1 billion hits and a part from Justin Bieber she is one of the only artists in the history of YouTube to have done so.

This advertisement is so amazing to me because it connects with Lady Gaga’s fan base, which is not only enormous but also extremely loyal. It shows the progression of her fame as well as many fans who aspire to be like her. If you think about it, if over a billion people watch Lady Gaga’s videos on YouTube, that means that millions will be watching this video from Google Chrome just because she’s in it; this video received over 4 million YouTube hits.

This is not only a great move for Google, but it is a great move on Gaga’s part because it truly shows the appreciate she has for her fans as she continuously blogs to them to thank them for everything they’ve done for her.

Essentially, through using Gaga, the Google brand comes off as an inspiring brand that will allow you to do everything over the Internet. Gaga’s image reflects Google Chrome.

Aside from the Google brand and Lady Gaga’s success, this advertisement illustrates the music industry in a great perspective. It shows what music is all about; listening to music is supposed to make listeners feels as though they can relate to something in certain times of their lives and more importantly music is supposed to make a listener enjoy themselves when they listen to it. This advertisement does it perfectly!

Related articles

• Video: Lady Gaga’s Heartwarming Chrome Commercial (q104.radio.com)
• Google Chrome Lover – Lady GaGa’s Love Affair with Google Chrome (browser.iyogi.com

Too much tune for one song

I’ve been following dance and electronic music since the age of 13 and never have I seen in pierce through mainstream top 40 music like it’s happening now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always more than happy with genres lap over one another or when new types of sound get developed; but when genres mixing should not mean one over-riding another.

So for instance, I’m sure everyone is familiar with famous fast rapper FloRida – known for notorious tunes such as “Right Round” or “Club Can’t Handle Me“. Both these tracks included infamous dj’s David Guetta and Benny Benassi, which was an awesome spin on a regular pop song, which made the tracks so popular

But yesterday I was slightly disturbed when I was listening to the radio and I heard FloRida’s new track “Good Feeling”. FloRida not only took a spin on one of Avicii‘s most famous tracks “Levels” but he also decided to add an awkward tone of Dubstep and mix those two factors with a back drop of acoustic sounds.

My first thought was: “Really, why are people trying to mix 35 types of genres together?”

This leads me to my second issue with these type of awkward genre mashups. When I’m surfing on Itunes to find someone like David Guetta, I’m not only going to find him in the Dance category, but also in the Pop and Electronic category.

TOO MUCH – Kind of makes me feel like this

I don’t have a problem with the idea of overlapping genres; I have a problem with it when it turns into a one-tune melody that takes away uniqueness in the music industry. When I tune on the radio in my car, I don’t want to listen to the same song on all the stations because it blends into all of them or else people start to say “I’ve had that song stuck in my head” one too many times.

Let’s just say, I’m finding it a little weird to listen to Edward Maya and Avril Lavigne on the same station.

Here’s a song that’s going to convey harmony between deep house, acoustics and alternative and you’ll see what I had in mind of genre mixing.

Which genres do you think go the best together?

Related articles

• MP3: David Guetta ft Sia – Titanium (thenext2shine.com)
• David Guetta: Nothing But the Beat (Review) (popmatters.com)

Why About Music?

Most 8 year old girls dream about getting barbie dolls; I dreamt about getting a CD player.

As I was growing up, I kept telling myself I was just a regular kid who was in love with music and it was totally normal to be downloading music at the age of 11. One day I was in Paris and my father had just bought a new computer; the first thing I did was download 3 different softwares to be able to download and then burn the next CD for my super awesome CD player. ( And Yes it was fantastic at the time ) I’m pretty sure my father had to physically detach me from the computer a couple of times.

Remember this?

Then it was the Ipod… then it was Itunes music store… Then it was Ipods that contained 10,000 songs… Then the explosion of illegal downloading.. and now Spotify!

Regardless, I’m mentioning this because I grew up with this drastic evolution of technology alongside of the music industry. Honestly, I am thankful every day I had this opportunity, or else I wouldn’t have a passion for a career.

Blogging about music has been a really different experience than just researching about it. It allows me to gather my thoughts and express my opinions about the industry. Not only that, but it allows me to get some feedback from other people and challenged my judgement about the industry.

I am hoping one day I’ll be able to revolutionize marketing for music so that innovative talent can be put on the map but also allow easier access to music without having it be illegal. And I am hoping this blog will push me to come with new, interesting ideas so that my goal can become a reality.

Today, I am going to leave with what I was currently listening to while I was writing. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN3Qbx8bamY&ob=av2n

Related articles

• The Musical Magic of Spotify (valeriewire.wordpress.com)