Some of you know that I am a songwriter (www.songbirdlegacy.com), so I found this recent article, courtesy of Tim Manners, very interesting:
“The pressures on musicians to keep things simple are obvious,” writes Jon Pareles in the New York Times (1/2/11). “What have become all-too-familiar 21st-century refrains — too much information, too little time and the diminished attention spans that result from trying to cope — have only grown more insistent through the decade,” he continues. “The recording technology of loops and samples encourages unimaginative producers to repeat something merely adequate for the length of a song rather than developing or enriching it.” There are exceptions, of course, like Arcade Fire, for instance, but they are “holdouts and contrarians against … the pop song as little more than sound effect and sound bite.”
A hit, these days “adds up to little more than a dull, thumping Eurodisco beat and a robo-tuned voice repeating an inane hook, something like … Justin Bieber piping, ‘Baby, baby, baby,oh‘ or the Black Eyed Peas chanting ‘Imma Be’ more than 100 times …” The trend, says Jon, is not limited to pop; it’s afflicting indie-rock, too, where we might have “a beat straight out of an old girl-group record, some familiar doo-wop chords and songs like Best Coast’s rudimentary (but enjoyable) ‘I Want To,’ which repeatedly declares, without fear of ambiguity, ‘I want you so much’.” And when they fade, “there’s always another act with another gimmick and slogan, the next novelty offering instant gratification and a short shelf life.”
This might be attributable to the economic downturn and “listeners’ yearning for a danceable beat and an uncomplicated, upbeat message to propel them through hard times.” It could be because of incentives “to write songs around nuggets and generic sentiments that can be re-purposed as ad jingles, ring tones and soundtrack backgrounds.” Perhaps it’s a “corrective and a clarification, a reminder of primal pleasures and impulses, a knowing rejuvenation,” like punk in the ’70s, for instance. Or maybe it’s just that “brevity and digestibility make a song more functional, at least in the short run … Someone just might write the new ‘Wild Thing‘ or the new ‘Hey Ya!‘ Too often, however, less is merely less.”
By Jeffrey L. Cohen
Even though many B2B companies, especially corporate and enterprise level companies, prefer Blackberries as their smart phone of choice, if you are in the social media space, a new iPhone is still news and you wonder if this is the time to make the switch. Each generation of iPhone improves its corporate compatibility, and this one is no exception. The new iPhone 4 supports Exchange Server 2010. It also has improved data protection, device management, and VPN support, all things that could make a corporate IT manager more comfortable with the device. But the real question is why do you, a B2B marketer and the person responsible for implementing social media in your company need one. Here are four new features that might convince you:
