Hard Copy Review - Elle Varner

           

           In a society that is filled with mp3’s and other forms of digital music, I purchased against the odds. This month I went out and purchased four hard copied music albums, so throughout this week I’ll be giving you a review on all four. I had the pleasure of listening to “Perfectly Imperfect” by Elle Varner, “Food and Liquor II” by Lupe Fiasco, “Chapter V” by Trey Songz, and “This is how I feel” by Tank.

            In a previous blog post you can remember me speaking on the album title “Perfectly Imperfect”. Varner expressed on BET’s “106 & Park” that the title simply means she is releasing the album with its “flaws and all”. In other words it isn’t something that she spent years perfecting, instead she decided “This is it”.

            From listening to her album you can’t deny her raw and soulful voice. Her voice is often compared to the sounds of Macy Gray, Ella Fitzgerald, Erykah Badu, and Jill Scott all in one. Most importantly she has beautiful content within her songs. Some of my favorite tracks from her album include “Refill”, “Stop the Clock”, “Only wanna give it to you”, “Leaf” and “So fly”.

“So fly” stands out to me because of the special topic it covers. Often times Hollywood and the media helps us in deciding what we call a beautiful woman. Whether  it be having long hair, being a certain weight, or even encouraging plastic surgery. Varner makes a great statement in this song letting women know you don’t need all of the plastic surgery, sex, cars, and money in order to be beautiful. As Varner says in the song “ I must be out of my head If I think, that I am governed by material things”. In other words she is saying, do not let these material things run your life, you will end up being “everything but” yourself.

This is a great album from an awesome artist, and as you can see she cares about the content and lyrics she is providing to her audience. You can find many empowering songs like “So fly” on this album. I encourage you to purchase this  album at a store near you, iTunes, or Google Play.

Die Antwoord Black Facing?

Hello my fellow music lovers, I know you are all wondering what the above video is about. This is a new video from Die Antwoord called “Fatty Boom Boom”. Die Antwoord is a South African rap/rave group whose style comes from the Zef counter culture movement. This video has received mixed reviews as it appears to feature black facing, along with many other graphic images.

Check out the video and let us know what you think!

ASCAP - Entertainment Industry

               In a day and age where music is being digitally shared and played faster than ever, there has to be someone in the industry who protects artists, songwriters, music publishers and more. This is what ASCAP is for.

               ASCAP stands for The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and they see to it that anytime an artists’ work is publicly performed, their revenue will shortly follow. One thing I like about ASCAP is that, it is the only performing rights society in America who is ran by its members.

               The ASCAP website is very key in getting new members to sign up for membership. In the “About” tab, the society gives you a brief history and it expresses its main purpose in the industry.  ASCAP licenses cover a wide surface of 10 main genres, which helps contribute to its 435,000 plus songwriters, music publishers, and composers. Under each genres tab are press releases and recent articles that show how the various artists are making strives in the industry.

This brings me to my next point of networking. According to the ASCAP website, obtaining an ASCAP license gives you “the ability to use any of the 8.5 million songs and musical works created by ASCAP members and members of foreign organizations who are represented by ASCAP in the United States”. In terms of networking this is great because it makes you apart of a community of composers, publishers and songwriters like yourself who are trying to make sure they are getting paid for their works being used.                                

Also, they have the ASCAP “I create music” exposition, which is a great networking opportunity as well. It gives members and others the opportunity to hear from industry leaders such as Quincy Jones, John Mayer, and Ludacris gaining knowledge on the music industry. This is also a great outlet for up and coming songwriters, publishers, and composers to get their work out there.

Overall, ASCAP is a great society, and it plays a major role in the U.S music industry. Without ASCAP many composers, songwriters and publishers will be cheated out of their craft, not being able to gain revenue from their pieces being publicly performed.

For my future business endeavors, it will be wise for me to become an ASCAP member; in order to make sure I have permission to play the music my customers will hear in my venue. 

The Late Great Steve Jobs

The saying “You never know what someone has gone through” is true, every one of us have a story to tell. I’ve had the chance of listening to a 2011 speech from the great Steve Jobs, at Stanford University’s commencement ceremony. Jobs named this speech “How to live before you die”, sharing with the soon to be graduates some of his life stories and lessons.

               His first point was called “Connect the dots” where he spoke on his past. Jobs told the story of how he made the courageous decision of dropping out of college, because it was costing too much of his parents savings. I admire this story because his decision to drop out of school made him even hungrier for success.

After Jobs dropped out he spent nights sleeping on the floor of many of his friends’ dorm rooms, and he’d often walk for miles to get a hot meal. Also, when he dropped out of the courses he was taking, he began “dropping in” on the courses he was more interested in. Those classes helped Jobs in his future endeavors with Apple, setting the Apple computer apart with its beautiful typography.

The next point I’d like to touch on from his speech is on “Love and loss”.  At one point in time, Jobs was fired from Apple after having a fall out with the company. Most people would see this occurrence as a time of grief, but Jobs did the opposite. Once again we can see Jobs using his time of hardships to start over and retaliate ten times stronger. Shortly after his fall out with Apple, Jobs started two companies named Next and Pixar. After Apple brought the company Next, Jobs was back at his stomping grounds stronger than ever.

One key lesson I’ve learned from Jobs’ speech is, sometimes it takes the moments of despair and struggle to help you refocus and go for the gold. It is best to take these moments and build on them rather than letting them be our demise. Also, Jobs spoke on passion. He expressed that passion will be one of the main factors in your success. I love this because it inspires young people like myself to find our passion, our love, the things we really care about. After all, if Jobs didn’t have passion for his work, he would have quit at the face of his trials a long time ago.

Resource: www.Ted.com - Steve Jobs