Happy Halloween!

After a sickness-induced hiatus...I am back!

In honor of Halloween, I want to draw your attention to some creepy, spooky, journalism-related fun.

Slate.com has some interesting Halloween articles today, including Torie Bosch's "Explainer" article about politicians and Halloween costumes. According to Bosch, a recent poll says that Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are the scariest politician-themed costumes. And here I am having nightmares about Karl Rove!

Julia Moskin, a food and wine critic with The New York Times, surveys several top chefs in her article "Good Taste Takes a Holiday," to find out what deliciously sugary, decidedly un-gourmet treats they plan to serve this Halloween. I'm particularly tickled by Tasting Room chef Colin Alevras, who plans to add "caramelized marshmallows" to his old fashioned Rice Krispie treats.

If you're a nerd like myself, make sure to stop by Live Science's educational article: "Halloween's Top 10 Scary Creatures." This is a must-read for anyone who wants to impress friends with some Halloween trivia tonight! (Did you know that Jack-o-Lanterns used to be made of turnips?) You might even get some good ideas for a last-minute costume...

And, of course, no Halloween blog entry would be complete without a list of the best scary movies to watch on Halloween. Reader's Digest has a good collection of cinematic terror here.

To all Experience.com readers, Happy Halloween!


p.s. Google has a fun, Halloween-themed homepage today. Make sure to check it out!

New Theory on Radio

In the conventional process of acquiring stardom in the music industry, most would think it necessary to chase radio play across the nation in as many cities as possible. It seems like a credible notion that radio airplay means success, but does that really hold true today? Not quite. When I say most, I mean most people with conventional thinking. The newly innovative thinking is the counter and the conventional process seems more like a burden for many musicians and their managers across all genres.

Within the aspiring music-making community, radio has recently been revered as a monotonous zone of favoritism and exclusion. Naturally, that's what favoritism does but there has been some speculation that record labels may play a bigger role in what gets played than the radio production crew itself. With revenue declining and lack of growth, radio has all the incentive to play artists' music when backed behind a label that would gladly pay a premium.You think that new artist you heard the other day with the new hit single was given a well-deserved chance for fame all by their lonesome like the good ol'days? Not exactly. Record labels have been known to forward content from unsigned artists as a "hook, line, and signer" strategy to get them signed to their label as a lure.

So what's wrong with the conventional process? The answer is that high transformational variety is still a hot commodity among listeners and is in high demand; so why aren't radio stations listening to what the people want? My self-proclaimed saturation theory would state that constant radio play does not guarantee success and industry fame but, in fact, jeopardizes it. People get tired of hearing the same 10 songs on all three -good reception- stations every hour of every day. Furthermore, the saturated content of radio play pushes the listener to look for something new within a shorter amount of time. This leads to listener agitation and away from advertising, hence lower ad sales and the, now current, high demand for ad sales reps in radio. In response, now the artists and their people have to work harder and faster to get new music out to the public, lessening the quality of their content and increasing the liability of radio advertising, music promotion and poor listening choices.

The medicine; online radio. Internet (online) radio has begun to fill the void and even surpass the poorly coordinated attempts of (subscription-based) satellite radio much like the flash drive did the embarrassing debut and ousting of the zip drive. Online radio has been, in my opinion, the best innovative response to the lack of variety in conventional radio. Not only do you have more personality talk and new artists that you may come to know and love, but you also have new exclusive songs from current artists that mainstream wouldn't accept or is just hot off the production board. Not to mention, many online radio stations do not saturate you with 20 songs from Beyonce and T-Pain, allows listeners to sample other genres with more stations than three to choose from, and is now becoming readily available for your car, creating a viable market for advertising and music sales (ie. instant access to digital sales et. al.).

If that's not innovative then I don't know what is, but I tell you it surely isn't conventional and radio should have recognized the opportunity a decade ago. So bye-bye bland band radio, it's time to burn off that saturated fat and start dining elsewhere.

Devil's Advocate

The sun is the most powerful source of energy in our solar system, then comes the power of electricty, and third, for people all around the world today, comes the power of spoken word; speech. Well, I'm hear to bring the word to you all about the environmentally "green" movement.

I love saving energy and all, but some things (at least for me) will never change. Get this! Last I went to the supermarket, which was this past (my B-day) weekend, I had seen chicken legs the size of my desktop, apples the size of a canteloupe, and a car with 11,000 features the size of a jet ski. What's wrong with this picture? I don't know about you, but how does one get dramatically oversized food into an iPod on wheels while still having room for friends?

Car makers and genetically engineered (GE) food creators are not two that I would normally mention but they have one thing in common; I'm not feelin' what they're wheelin'. There's just something about humanly-altered food and plastic bubbles on cart wheels that gives me a cringe. And I quote, I personally refuse to sacrafice the style a smoothly manufactured aluminum case of "fashionable entrance" power and size to save 20 cents per gallon.

And is GE food good for the environment? Because there's a couple organizations on my campus who are parted on the issue; one saying it saves money and helps millions, the other saying it corrupts bodies and hurts millions. All I know is when I eat meat, fruit, or veggies, it better be O'natural because, correct me if I'm wrong, humans for the past couple hundred years have made some pretty huge bloopers in hopes of making a profit, and I'd rather my health not be on their income statement.

Lastly, as I stated earlier, I love saving energy and all but it has it's limits. However, 'you give me a classic 1996 Chevy Impala SS with new eniviromentally sound insides and a good meal delivered straight from Mother Earth herself, then you'll have an avid believer. Until then, "say hello to da bad guy."

The Key, to the Front Door

image provided by www.musicblog.ro/.../03/30/blowing-in-the-wind/

Last week, I mentioned Hip Hop is not a genre, it is a culture and that Hip Hop music is actually Rap which bleeds into other forms. But today, above all else, it is important to know that your aspirations to become a superior music icon in the industry revolves around one main factor, it’s a business; a personnel business.

Okay, DUH! How many times have we heard that? Instead of giving the long prerequisite lecture, I’ll just get right to core course. In the music industry of today, most of the work is left to the artist. Resource acquisition, networking, development; it’s for the most part left up to the artist to first establish.

In previous blogs, I’ve added that just because something involves business doesn’t mean it’s not personal. In fact, most of your gains come from personal experiences with industry personnel. To point out what makes you the better candidate for a record deal or just self-stardom requires the aforementioned. Mistakenly, people associate the term “business” with too many corporate-strict scripts that inhibit their creativity. Eerrt-This is wrong. Your everyday acquaintances and activities are actually more business-oriented than you may think.

Equally important, that show you arranged, the fliers you’ve dispersed, the emails you’ve circulated and the reading you’ve covered are all facets of the “business” that people constantly throw around. Accordingly, a list I found through Artistopia.com contained somewhat of a rundown of what I think is necessary for longevity, so here’s a few:

• Good musicianship – vocals, performing and songwriting capability

• Image maintenance, goal setting, and quality equipment

• Basic recording, producing, engineering, mastering, manufacturing, distribution and air-play knowledge (on and off-line)
  

• Law & legal awareness in publishing, copyrighting, trademarking, and negotiation

• Alternative career options - associated trades and skills
  

• And last but not least, good people and good personnel choices around you.

If you’ve been to any sites like these and have a fan base that loves you, then you’ve already done half the list. Congratulations, you’re a star, or just really, really bright.


OurStage.com

allhiphop.com

Music-sites.net

hiphopdirectory.com

MasteringCentral.com

Links for last week's post, for the nay-sayers
http://www.rapnews.net/0-202-259247-00.html

http://www.passthemic.com/columns/editorials/Hip-Hop%20vs%20Rap%20Whats%20The%20Difference

http://rap.about.com/od/rootsofraphiphop/p/RootsOfRap.htm

So What's the Diff?

Here's a scenario in the most simplistic fashion. Let's say you actively soak up music so much so that you decide to become apart of it, a creative part. You, then, pick up a distinctive taste for creating the best lyrics and sounds you know possible and decide, "hey, I'm good," and visit a music site to post. Finally, you fill out your profile, upload your pics, and attempt to upload your music. But now, you've stopped.

Why? Because you thought you knew, for sure, what genre of music you belonged to and didn't stop to think just what it meant to be apart of it and if you may be apart of three others that are curiously similar. Since terms in music have often gone undefined and re-defined during periods of time, let's take a stab at re-defining a few.

One of the largest misconceptions, in my opinion, is that Hip Hop and Rap are the same yet two totally different music styles. This is not true and is rather confusing. Hip Hop is a culture, not just genre, and encompasses the collective expressions of DJing, Emceeing (MCing), Grafitti, and Breakdancing as well as the media and fashion it influences. The music you hear is Hip Hop music, designated as the marriage of DJing and MCing; what you may call, and should call, Rap. Both had quickly evolved and MCing became Rapping as can be done acapella (voice-only) or atop music.

So what's the point of all this? Well, to be quite frank, the constant avoidance of proper definition has led people to believe the very term "Rap" is hardcore and the term "Hip Hop" is softer and more widely accepted. Notice the feeling you may get when you see the words Conscious hip hop, Alternative hip hop, and Gangsta rap, among others, as if created to pin Rap against Hip Hop, but that doesn't even make sense. Too many times have artists continued to wonder if their genre is Rap or Hip Hop or both or maybe neither. Consequently, the word Rap has picked up a thicker coat of scrutiny and negative connotations from its hardcore sub-genre, gangsta rap, but really, this goes against Hip Hop all together.

Hip Hop music is a mix of all these new sub-genres and needs no specializations, but can use one distinct alias to lessen the confusion. The sheer fact that MCs have specialized themselves into these creative cubicals has only pushed them to further realize their fate as unidimensional stars, which turn out rather square. Quit falling into the holes and continue to break the sub-genre mold. These arts are already defined and do not need further dissection. I mean, will you be the queen/king of Hip Hop or the queen/king of Rap?

Considering I'm a believer in the Dignity of Simplicity, Pop Culture is to Hip Hop as Pop is to _ _ _. That's simple even if you didn't take the SATs. So decide; take Rap and bring it back to light as the official musical genre of Hip Hop culture but don't restrict yourself to one form of it, because when your audience grows tired of it, consider it a wRap.

The Speech that Launched a Thousand Bloggers...

It feels a tad repetitive to talk about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks at Columbia University (since it would seem that everyone is speaking up about this topic) but I wanted to begin today's blog by examining the journalism community's reaction to this event.

NYT's Stanley Fish took a critical look at Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's address prior to President Ahmadinejad's speech. In his opening remarks Bollinger criticized President Ahmadinejad, a tack that Fish found inappropriate because "a university president doesn’t have the luxury of choosing whether to speak as a citizen or as a faculty member or as an administrator. Everything he or she says is received as the utterance of the university’s leader." Fish may criticize Bollinger for not maintaining a neutral tone, but what kind of reaction would Bollinger have elicited had he not acknowledged the growing tension between President Ahmadinejad and the US? Click here to view the entire column and tell me what you think.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Another interesting reaction came from The Huffington Post's Joe Cutbirth, who focused on President Ahmadinejad's assertion that Iran doesn't have any homosexuals. During this "unscripted moment," said Cutbirth, "it became crystal clear that Ahmadinejad is either dangerously removed from reality or he is a lying despot who will tell the world anything he wants it to believe about his country." Check out Cutbirth's blog here.

Finally, even though this is a political rather than journalistic reaction, I was dying to hear what you all think about this story from The Politico's "The Crypt." Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter wants to cut federal funding to Columbia University because he believes "by hosting President Ahmadinejad, Columbia University openly insulted the thousands of servicemen and women serving in Iraq." This effort is so obvious an indictment of the First Amendment, it scares the freckles off my face. Thoughts?

Moving on from current events, I'll update you on my recent projects. I've fallen into some good fortune as of late and was able to write a small piece for a daily newspaper here in Boston and am hoping that this will lead to some more work in the near future. Opportunities to write are not always plentiful, but I've come up with some tricks for getting my foot in the door. These may or may not help you, but I'll list them here with the hope that they might prove useful:

1. Submit your resume, even if there isn't a job opening. When a position does become available, they'll start looking at the resumes they already have.

2. Apply to every job you want, even if some of them seem out of your league. Some of the most rewarding jobs I've had were the ones for which I almost didn't apply. Enthusiasm and potential go a long way--don't let your self-doubt keep you from a great opportunity!

3. Literally get your foot in the door. If the office is a 15-minute subway ride from your home, why not drop your resume and cover letter in person? I once did this and received an assignment on the spot because one of the paper's other writers had flaked at the last minute.

4. Don't give up. If you're a freelance writer, I can't stress this last piece of advice enough.

With that, I'm off. I hope to hear some of your comments soon. Have a great week!