I discovered these artists after talking with one of my room mates about a concert she was going to be attending in a couple weeks with one of her cousins. I immediately looked up the band because, to be honest, I love looking up artists and being able to widen my ‘world of music’ with new musicians. This band is actually a Canadian band as well, who started off in Vancouver, British Columbia. Hannah Georgas – to be honest, when I first heard the name of the band, I kind of became hesitant and thought it was going to be a Country band (I am not the biggest fan of Country). To my surprise, it was not Country at all. Hannah Georgas provides listeners with an alternative, easy-listening type of music with keyboard, guitar, and amazing vocals. Her lyrics are very deep and gives listeners the ability to connect deep into each song. To conclude this, I am super jealous that my friend is going to her concert, and am going to try and buy tickets ASAP.

Alt-J – So it has been awhile since I have posted any of my new recent favourite artists. I started listening to this artist over the holidays. I fell in love with the artists unique voice and rhythms. Alt-J are a British indie rock band formed in 2007, although their first album was released in 2012 – An Awesome Wave. The lyrics of the tracks are recognized as being intimately personal  confessional and even connected to specific film and literary references. These artists definitely have the potential to becoming a really popular band and could even see them becoming the next Radiohead mixed with a little bit of Sigur Rós…I wouldn’t be surprised.

Eddie Vedder – An American musician, singer and songwriter, well-known for being one the lead singers and lead guitarists from the popular band Pearl Jam. Not only is he famous for his musical work with Pearl Jam, but as well as his own music work. I used to listen to his music all the time, and just recently fell out of it. A friend of mine told me he was watching the movie ‘Into the Wild‘, which allowed me to reawaken some of the tunes from its soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, which was his first solo-released album. Music from this soundtrack is focussed on having a narrative of simplicity, with a ‘folk’ type of genre. Vedder continues to produce music that makes the listener feel at ease, and at peace when listening. He has also produced a second solo album, which is a collection of covers performed with a ukulele. I’m leaving you with one song from the ‘Into the Wild’ soundtrack – Hard Sun. I find this song to be very uplifting, and has a classic-feel to it. It also feels the same theme of having a narrative of simplicity. Enjoy!

Sigur Rós – After just watching ‘We Bought a Zoo‘ on my Netflix account, the movie reawakened my love for one of my all-time favourite musicians, whom I discovered through another movie soundtrack. This band is Sigur Rós, an Icelandic ambient/post-rock band that has been active since 1994. Although I discovered this band specifically through a movie soundtrack, I didn’t stop there. This band is very unique and seems to combine a classical feel into their tracks. I love the fact that the music is not in English, and it kind of adds an unrevealed identity to the song. Many of their tracks are also purely instrumental. Leaving you with one song from Sigur Rós that has lyrics -Glósóli, which is translated to Glowing Soul. I find this track to be very uplifting and emotionally captivating. Although the lyrics of the track are in Icelandic, one can still understand the song’s purpose. The collaboration of vocals and rhythms help assist in the collaboration of this song to make it a great listen and literally music to your ears.

Lana Del Ray for H&M

Lana Del Ray – Lana Del Ray provides us with music that is incredibly unique. Her voice is very powerful, and unique; along with lyrics in each of her songs that have  a lot of meaning. Her music is specifically different than any recent artist. Del Ray’s music has a kind of eerie and has a sense of downheartedness. Her music has a lot of references to pop culture, especially from the 50s and 60s time period.  The song and music video I have left you with is called Video Games, and the music video consists of many home videos from the 50s and 60s time period. It has been said that she is intrigued by portraying things by how the look on the outside – this idea can be noticed through this song and music video in particular.

Firstly, taking a look at the phone itself, it looks amazing to me. It is definitely a step-up for Blackberry and it’s clear that the brand is really trying to fight back in this tough, competitive Smartphone market – with iPhone and Android having a strong grasp and control of majority of the market.

The Blackberry 10 has actually ‘sprouted’ from the generic style and look of the original Blackberry devices. In fact, after taking a look at the photograph of Blackberry 10, it doesn’t even appear to have the Blackberry logo or standard menu button on the front of the phone, like the older Blackberries. The way I see the Blackberry 10 is having very similar features as both the iPhone and Android. Again, it is great to see Blackberry succeed in developing a phone that meets the expectations of today’s Smartphone users.

After watching a video on the specs of the phone though, I realized that Blackberry has not changed their demographic and who they are trying to attract with their phones. The target continues to be focussed on the tech-savvy business person. To be honest, thinking of the current state that the brand is in, makes me wonder why Blackberry didn’t try to expand their demographic at all. But the again, looking at it from another angle, it shows how dedicated Blackberry is in providing working professionals with a phone that perfectly meets their needs. I can confidently say that Blackberry has done just that with the BB 10. While offering basically all of the same features as the iPhone and Android, Blackberry 10 even has a feature for users to be able to separate work and personal data on the phone, making it easier for the working professional to manage their life at work and at home.

To be completely honest, I think Blackberry has taken a very strategic approach in developing and launching the Blackberry 10, even with maintaining their ‘status quo’ and targeting the same demographic. Many brands have begun branching out into other markets in order to attract a larger audience. Although this is probably an effective approach in marketing, considering everyone these days is finding convenience a top deciding factor in where they shop; I know I am not the only skeptical person in the world thinking that sometimes some brands take it too far.

One brand that I think has taken it too far is Mc Donalds. Although I used to love Mc Donald’s and have to admit I probably ate it at least once a week when I was younger, I have developed a separation with the brand now and never eat there anymore. Why? Well it is bad for you and this is simply because the brand is trying so hard in branching out from what the company initially started off as – a fast food restaurant. Now, McDonald’s has tried branching off into serving ‘healthier’ products, bistro products, and even trying to compete with coffee brands like Starbucks.

In reality, Mc Donald’s will never branch away completely from being that ‘oh-so-greasy fast food restaurant that we love so much’. The more they try to branch away from this, the more questionable some of its customers will get in trying to understand what services they are offering to their customers. Now Mc Donald’s is such a huge brand and branching off into this many different market segments will not harm the brand, but I do believe that the company will begin to slowly lose their customers to ‘simpler’ fast food restaurants like Harvey’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s – my new favourite weekly fast food restaurant!

But turning back to the initial topic…will this be the breakthrough launch Blackberry needs to regain its place in the market? I guess we’ll find out soon enough!

Although I developed and performed a presentation for TrendsTalk with another student in the program. In which our presentation was based on the idea on developing a strong community on Social Media through a Comparative Case Study between a local fitness club and corporate fitness club. Follow the link to view the powerpoint. I wanted to speak briefly on a topic that was discussed as one of the presentations for TrendsTalk and this is Ad Games – Advertising placement in video games and the advantages towards it. I will eventually post the presentation shortly as a file to refer to but in the mean time, I want to just comment on how well the presentation was presented by two second-years of the program. Although I think ad placement is a great way for brands to advertise their products and services. I can only see this technique being beneficial for those brands that already have a strong recognition and top of mind awareness with its existing and prospective consumers. I say this because when individuals are playing video games, majority of their attention if focussed on the game, and when they see the advertisements on the video game, most of this is subliminal – its in the back of their head. The brand that is advertising must already have a strong presence in its market for it to be able to be effective in its subliminal marketing message. Brands that may be smaller within the market, who may not have a strong enough logo recognition, this technique may not be as beneficial to the brand.

Thinking locally, for smaller cities, this opportunity may not be available for some time due to the fact that subliminal marketing messages may only be effective for brands who already have a strong presence on the market. Thus smaller, less well-known brands that may not be available even outside of the city would not find very much advantage in this type of Advertising.

Share your thoughts with me on this topic if you’d like.

After having about four classes focussing on Flash Mobs and what type of Flash Mob our class would carry out  in the city of Kingston, we decided to follow through on a Flash Mob to support our local hockey team – the Kingston Frontenacs. Since there is no NHL this season, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to reach those die-hard Canadian hockey fans.

With only a couple weeks to prepare, the turnout was pretty solid! I had never experienced a Flash Mob until this one, so I was finally able to observe the amount of immediate awareness levels available from bystanders.

Some of the participants of chalkaboutit Flash Mob

Our plan for the Flash Mob was to meet downtown and begin drawing K’s and Kingston Frontenac-related drawings with chalk for an hour onto the ground. We set up three different setups in downtown Kingston. Starting off in Market Square, we reached the highest amount of exposure here from bystanders. We had many people walk by and observe what was taking place. We even had several people ask what exactly we were doing. Luckily, we also had first years from our program and our professor Kathy Patterson attend, support and help us out!

What has to be taken into consideration is that most Flash Mobs planned are brainstormed and developed with a lot of time to prepare for the event. Due to the fact that our course was only for a semester, our time frame was fairly rushed. With the amount of the time that we had, I felt that we were fairly successful.

What Social Media platforms did we use? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Slideshare, Pinterest, Youtube, Google Hangouts, and foursquare.

Keyword for the platforms include: #chalkaboutit

Stay tuned for a debrief on how successful the Flash Mob really was!

In the meantime, here’s a video to see a summary of the event (I’m the introducer, hehe): Chalk About It!

It was in grade 9 that I began to develop my music infatuation with Radiohead. I was part of a band for the majority of my childhood; from grade 6 to grade 12, I was a part of our school band.It was here where I started to develop a real infatuation with music. Call me a band geek, but I loved going to music and attending band practices after school.Playing and being able to listen to music became my remedy.

Back to Radiohead though, from grades 9 to 11, I would come home from school every day and listen to Radiohead until my parents would tell me I had to either turn it out or to go to bed. It must have been confusing for my parents to understand why I enjoyed such music like Radiohead, because it really isn’t a ‘normal’ genre a 16 year old girl should be listening to. But nevertheless, when my parents asked, I told them it was amazing music. Throughout my whole high school experience  I spent countless hours listening to Radiohead, watching their music videos, live concerts, interviews and much more – this band had become part of my life. It has been awhile since I listened to them as religiously as I did in high school, but when I did, I knew every single song on all of their albums – OK Computer, Amnesiac, Pablo Honey, Hail to the Thief, Kid A, In Rainbows, The Bends – yeah, there were a lot of songs.

I especially loved Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead’s main guitarist and keyboardist. Jonny Greenwood was famous for his aggressive guitar playing style, and even had a famous splint that he sometimes had to wear during concerts. My first acoustic guitar tune I learned was Jonny Greenwood’s solo in the song High and Dry.

Jonny Greenwood playing with his splint.

I could honestly, go on forever about how much I love Radiohead, and how the band and its music helped me through some hard times in my life. However, I feel like I have summed it up fairly well in under 500 words. The sad part about this whole thing is…I have still not had the opportunity to see the band in concert, in grade 10 they toured to Toronto and wanted to desperately go but had no one to go with me, and my parents would not let me go alone. Last year, they toured again and I missed the day they were in Toronto because of work and other responsibilities. Next time, I am really hoping there will be a next time, you will see me in one of the first 10 rows – singing along to Karma Police at the top of my lungs.

Fellow Radiohead fans, I will see you all there!