Summer Jam 2009 was my first summer jam ever. Hot 97 delivered again this year with a slew of artists both upcoming and established. The-Dream, Day 26, T-Pain, Elephant Man, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, Mavado (So Special), Young Jeezy and many more all came to the stage and showed love at Giant Stadium this past Sunday. I especially enjoyed Mary J Blige's performance, heartfelt, energy driven as always and her sound was on point with a fantastic band supporting her. It was so awesome when she started singing "You're All I Need" and Method Man came out and did his part! Then in the middle of her set Redman came through and performed with Meth...I was waiting for the whole Wu to come out but to no avail.
Nonetheless, I was still pleasantly surprised with a performance by Jay-Z delivering "Death of Autotune" - Blueprint 3 coming. The whole stadium went crazy of course. My boy Drake also came by surprise and performed "Best I Ever Had" - I wish he could've done more. All in all it was a good show but was disappointed with the Dip-set not going hard at the end.
Estelle was lovely last Thursday at Terminal 5, performing all my favorite songs - "Magnificent," "Come Over," and "No Substitute Love" with a rocking live band! She was graceful to share the stage with some attendees to groove it out. Check out additional pictures via Flickr. LL Cool J was absolutely phenomenal! So much energy, I was bopping my head and dancing like crazy to "Rock the Bells," "Doin' It," "Don't Call It a Comeback," "Momma Said Knock You Out!" and "Around the Way Girl." My first time seeing LL perform live and I was very impressed with his performance...excellent delivery and crowd interaction. Next time we'll have to see LL and Estelle share the stage...their names just sound so good together..
According to Heartbeats International, a brand-communications company from Stockholm about seven out of ten companies are using only 5% or less of their marketing budgets on music while 97% of brand managers and directors believe that "music can strengthen their brand." So why the disconnect? Apparently, for some, it is "the difficulty in measuring the value of an investment in music" as well as legal issues. This serves as an extremely lame excuse in my opinion...how exactly are non-textual graphics measured? What you hear is just as important as what you see if not more in some cases. Sounds Like Branding, is a video presentation conducted by Heartbeats International that outlines the importance of music for a brand's positioning especially in this new advertising environment (I recommend watching only the first 15 min). Key points made included: (1) how brands now need to not only have consumers but real fans; (2) music is the best personality identifier and (3) 75% of people ignore advertisements. All of this makes sense because brands need to become more human and music is human, it's emotion, it's feeling and expression so voila we can potentially have the perfect marriage. Brands + Music = More Human brand. See Billboard.biz for more info.
Pepsi recently launched a viral ad, "Wordplay" with its new agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day (on its website Refresh Everything) to capture the millenials, the generation that includes 80's and 90s babies. What is so powerful about the millenials? We represent pop culture which includes music, fashion, movies, art and ultimately tastes and trends across all products and services. According to Adweek, Pepsi did some research and found that "95 percent of millenials feel that its important for them to maintain a positive outlook on life." So with some feel good vocabulary (optimisim, love, joy), Happy 2009 in several languages and the song "Energy" by indie rock outfit, The Apples in stereo, Pepsi attempts to project our experience. Looks like there are still some great opportunities for artists to get their music heard via ads. Tougher economy just means that we have to work smarter, a lot smarter and we can definitely still grow.
Earlier this week, Ad Week announced that GM is no longer part of the top 3 global marketers club and now the lineup consists of Proctor & Gamble Co, Unilever and newly number 3, L'Oreal (which owns brands that include Lancome, Biotherm, Mizani, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Cacharel). The expectation for 2009 is a 3.2% decline in ad spending in the U.S. So what does this mean for music? Well, ad spending is expected to go down because companies feel that consumers are not interested in new products (this includes music) and are curbing their spending. If companies are not looking to market their products and services and find new ways to connect with consumers, they are not making new ads and not working with labels and artists for strategic marketing purposes. But just how much do labels and artists rely on corporate sponsorship and strategic marketing opportunities? Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to that, but I do know that it surely limits opportunities for artists and their music and of course revenues for labels. So what can we do in this down market? Staying positive and being hopeful are the only actions that come to mind.
Red Bull knows how to position its brand, I left Red Bull Big Tune last night feeling really great about hip hop and Red Bull's efforts. Red Bull is real f'n cool. The night started out with introductions by producers from Philly, Detroit, Oakland, Seattle, Chicago, D.C. and L.A. Each producer then had an opponent to battle and the diverse crowd of hip hop heads was the only judge. The energy was real, the music was bumping and the scenery at the Highline Ballroom was nothing short of magnificent. Digable Planets stepped to the stage performing the hit "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)." DJ Alchemist also did his thing on the turn tables delivering that oh so heavy sound. And last but of course not least was Ghostface who came on with mad energy giving us some Wu Tang classics like "Cream."
The two finalists of the competition were C-Sick and Frank Dukes. C-Sick won the competition thanks to the crowd's firm response and support. C-Sick at only 17 years of age will now have the opportunity to work with Common at Red Bull Recording Studios. While C-Sick took the title because of his heavy, hard-hitting beats, I feel that Frank Dukes remains a strong contender because of his unique artistic abilities. For more photos check out my Flickr page and visit Red Bull Big Tune for additional information.
Summer Jam 2009 was my first summer jam ever. Hot 97 delivered again this year with a slew of artists both upcoming and established. The-Dream, Day 26, T-Pain, Elephant Man, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, Mavado (So Special), Young Jeezy and many more all came to the stage and showed love at Giant Stadium this past Sunday. I especially enjoyed Mary J Blige's performance, heartfelt, energy driven as always and her sound was on point with a fantastic band supporting her. It was so awesome when she started singing "You're All I Need" and Method Man came out and did his part! Then in the middle of her set Redman came through and performed with Meth...I was waiting for the whole Wu to come out but to no avail.
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