Pre-naked Pictures Thoughts 

So the Grammy and Academy awards happened already. Check those off the list!

There are too many award shows (don't you agree?) but, even so, it is a good thing for peers to recognise each other. We think so anyway.

But, I wish there was an Internet or viral awards thing as well (and there probably is) but there are so many bands like us out there not even on the radar that it would be hard to judge it - let alone award anything. So perhaps the "Off-The-Radar" Awards. We'd take the "try hard" award - or at least get a nomination. 

I don't mean "try hard" in the music sense - though we do - I'm talking about leveraging social media to let people know we exist. The Whiners are everywhere we should be virally but sometimes I wonder if that's part of the problem. If you are reading this - thanks! We see traffic coming to some of our web places but not much engagement. And that is a bit of frustration to tell you the truth. If you are reading this and not saying anything back shame on you!


Are you in a band and feeling the same thing? 

Short of adding naked pictures to our sites, I'm just not sure what we can do to get people to go beyond reading our page - to stop a moment longer and listen to our tracks. We seem to get "you" to the water but "you" won't drink.

Perhaps it's the presentation or our name or even our text on a page. I really don't know. We do know having tracks play automatically generally gets people clicking off the page or shutting off the music. We won't do that based on watching other users surf, land and click on other band pages. Hell, we do the same thing when we surf. It has to be a choice thing to listen. We've also found our friends don't help us out virally by telling their firends or people we don't know about us. Maybe we just have lousy friends!

Perhaps it comes down to restricting the choices. By that I mean, being off more places than you are on. Less choice! If we chose Facebook, leverage that to all else. Maybe it's the triple threat: Announce it on twitter, talk about it on Facebook and offer the rest on your own web?


Why bother?
Jamie and I talk about why we are presenting our music in the first place and it has always come down (in our discussions) that we think it's worthy. We like it. We like what we do. I tend to get a bit more testy about people not listening to it. To his credit, Jamie doesn't worry about it. 

The Voice
One of the reasons I like The Voice so much is related to all this I think. I absolutely love the blind aspect of the judging. The artists sing without an "image" or look influencing the reactions - it's down to the song and their delivery of the song. One of the reasons I don't like American Idol and X-factor is that they seem to relish in embarrasing. Even for those who are obviously talented, they put them through the same routine year after year of group singing and style singing, etc, etc. I guess that's OK if you want to be a lounge singer but if you are a rocker or a rapper or a country gentleman (or lady) then why should you have to sing something else? 

My point is you are what you are. You should know your limitations of course. You might want to try and break out of a shell or rut once in a while but it should be on your own terms. To me that is the essence of art. It may not be the flavour of the month or year but, hopefully, any honesty will stand the test of time and get a chance to shine through.

I also loved the other Mark Burnett program: Rock Star - the INXS season and the second season (not as good) where there were auditions for a lead singer. What I liked most was the songwriting parts where the talent was asked to come up with original material for the band. Anyone remember JD Fortune and how he basically broke off from his assigned group and came up with Pretty Vegas as his song? The talent group he was supposed to work with hated him for bailing on them but he delivered the best song of the series. And it was a genuine hit! Had he conformed maybe we'd never have gotten that song. That's rock and roll baby! I mean it is part attitude as well as the rest. 


 
 






 

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