February 23, 2009
This Site Has Moved
Site has moved from https://niteshok.wordpress.com/ to http://andrewmcmillen.com/.
It used to redirect; now, it’s hosted on a different server.
Update your feed settings to point to the new one.
Thanks to Tubu Internet Solutions for the hosting and support.
See you, WordPress.com. You’ve been good to me.
But for now, this site will sit abandoned on the toxic waste side of town.
Permalink Comments off
February 21, 2009
Big Day Out Public Relations: Is Silence The Best Response?
A 17-year old girl died from a reported drug overdose at the Perth Big Day Out music festival earlier this month, after taking three ecstasy pills to avoid being caught by police at the gate. This was an unfortunate, but unsurprising occurrence.
The surprising element is how Big Day Out publicity have marginalised her behaviour by silencing their highly active online community.
A statement published on the BDO site on 2 February 2009 reads:
Perth drug overdose statement
Early yesterday afternoon a 17-year-old girl was taken to hospital after a suspected drug overdose at the Perth Big Day Out. Tragically she died overnight.
While details have yet to be confirmed, it has been reported that the teenager consumed a number of pills outside the event to avoid being detected by police sniffer dogs that were in operation, in this instance with fatal consequences.
Big Day Out does not condone the use of drugs at the event. The same laws of the outside world apply inside the event. Over 3 million people have attended the Big Day Out in its 17 year history and this is the first time an incident of this nature has occurred.
Sniffer dogs are commonly used outside large events like the Big Day Out and are part of the police’s harm minimisation responsibility.
The investigation is being followed up by the Police.
To respect the privacy of the family, no further comments will be made.
In contrary to that final statement, there’s also a dedication page on the BDO site, containing a message from the girl’s mother.
While the Big Day Out brand will remain untarnished by this event – it’s arguably stronger than ever – this sad occurrence is now inextricably linked to the event’s brand in the same manner as 16-year old Jessica Michalik‘s death during the 2001 tour.
Where Michalik’s death was the result of inadequate crowd control measures – a mistake rectified from the 2002 tour onwards – Thoms’ drug-related death requires a conversation between Big Day Out publicity and the hundreds of thousands who attend the tour across Australia and New Zealand each year.
Critically, the online community who follow the event have been silenced: the highly active Big Day Out forum was disabled immediately after the news of Thoms’ death broke, and it remains closed almost a month later.
http://forum.bigdayout.com/ as of 21 February 2009
Silence isn’t the best response here.
In this case, Big Day Out publicity invite criticism by refusing to allow a dialogue to occur.
The only publicised offshoot of Thoms’ death is a Western Australian police commissioner agreeing that “amnesty bins” should be installed outside music festivals, to allow punters to deposit their drugs without fear of prosecution. And to minimise the likelihood of festival attendees overdosing in a panic before entering the venue, as in Thoms’ case.
There’s nothing new about youth drug culture. But when an unfortunate event such as an overdose occurs, people start asking questions of the police, of the festival organisers, of each other.
In a time of crisis or confusion, people want to connect with each other. And while an isolated festival overdose isn’t the strongest catalyst for either impulse, it’s still an occasion better met with community encouragement than marginalisation; with noise instead of silence.
I understand that moderating public opinion becomes exponentially more difficult as a greater volume of people converge in one location. The need to consistently and accurately monitor the fine line between opinion and libel is likely at the forefront of the organisers’ swift decision to close the public forum.
Censorship aside, an alternative forum named Small Night In has sprung up following the closure. But many questions remain unanswered:
- Why silence an established, highly active online community following a drug-related death?
- Why not encourage a dialogue between festival attendees and festival organisers?
- Why not partner with an established organisation such as the Australian Drug Information Network (ADIN) and encourage participation – both online and in BDO-sponsored community forums held in capital cities – to gauge youth opinion on drug use, so as to minimise the chances of a repeat e?
- Most importantly: why not work harder to turn a negative event into a positive by reinforcing a sense of community?
Funnily, I was only provoked into thinking about the BDO organisers’ handling of the Thoms death after I received an email sent to the BDO user database advertising Lily Allen’s June Australian tour.
Promote a tour; marginalise the voices of Australian youths itching to converge and converse.
Poor form, Big Day Out.
February 15, 2009
Mirror Groups: Animal Collective
Simon Reynolds discusses how Animal Collective have become a “mirror group” at The Guardian’s music blog:
…with their new album Merriweather Post Pavilion, they have been promoted to a bigger league, where they’re a talking point for a whole new set of people who, until recently, had no interest in their existence.
Just like when you pass by a mirror and can’t resist taking a glance, people are looking for the flattering angle, for a stance on the band and their music that makes the opinionator look good.
I like this concept of a mirror group. Reynolds cites MIA, Vampire Weekend and Kid A-era Radiohead as recent examples, though I’d argue that the release of OK Computer heralded Radiohead’s tipping point.
I’ll add Kings Of Leon to that list. Two mildly successful albums, and then a surge in popularity upon the release of Because Of The Times and its lead single On Call in 2007. But that album was nothing compared to the runaway success of 2008’s Only By The Night and Sex On Fire.
Reynolds is right about Animal Collective. They’ve flittered away under my radar for a couple of years, and I chose to ignore them, if only because I wasn’t pushed hard enough in their direction.
But that’s changed with the new album. Aziz Ansari linked to their excellent video for My Girls, which burns bright with kaleiodscopic joy. (The “woo!”s in the background of the chorus totally make the song, btw)
And that’s all it takes. A solid recommendation, and I’ll pay attention to a band for a song or an album or a lifetime. I downloaded the album and I like it. I’ll recommend it to my friends and see them when they tour.
At a deeper level, beneath the particulars of aesthetics and resonance, what’s really at issue is, I think, the status and function in our culture of “middlebrow”. With Merriweather, almost everyone is either castigating or applauding Animal Collective for their tentative steps into the middling regions of pop culture: that Kid A zone where mild experimentalism meets not-too-obvious melodicism.
The space between the underground and the mainstream is a tricky intersection for musicians to navigate. Stray too far from your roots, and you’ll be abandoned by your core fanbase – your tribe.
Primal Scream are a fine example of a band whose sound has varied wildly across their career, yet their musical diversity allows them to successfully embody many genres – or wear many masks, if you’d like – when performing live.
The Reynolds column is worth a read, even if he does wander several hundred words past his point. Then there’s Kevin Kelly‘s ‘1000 true fans‘ notion, which requires a new discussion altogether.
Many musical thoughts for a Sunday evening. An open question – which sounds are exciting you at the moment?
February 14, 2009
Brand Memory, Addendum
Brand marketing lesson: it’s just as quick and easy to disappoint your fans as it is to satisfy them.
In this case, it’s as quick and easy as an errant article appearing at the top of a news feed.
My previous post discussing RHUM‘s great personal touch is now overshadowed by the first sentence I read upon loading their site today.
Screenshot of RHUM homepage, 14 Feb 2009 (click to enlarge)
See it?
Headline: “Girls I’ve Had Sex With“.
Great! If I were visiting with Penthouse Confessions in mind, or Tucker Max, or the zillion other smut repositories online.
Awful! If I were visiting the site for some well-written critique on Australian youth culture. You know, music, the arts, film.
That’s why I visited the site. For good, relevant content. Not for the infantile scrawl of some punk who wants to share his sexcapades under a pseudonym.
RHUM is an Australian web publication targeting creative youths. Their mission statement:
RHUM – Rabbit Hole Urban Media – is a non for profit arts-media organisation. RHUM works together with musicians, writers, visual artists and all sorts of other like-minded creatives as well as events, gigs and festivals Australia wide; connecting the peeps with all that is worth a read, ramble and a bit of showing off too.
RHUM, ball = dropped.
Sure, there’s a place for that kind of content within the guidelines stated above (“..a bit of showing off too”).
But – front page?
First item?
Is this the kind of image you want to portray?
Permalink Comments off
February 9, 2009
Content Analysis: admission.com.au
- Why do all of the footer links direct me to email the company?
- Why can’t I find any details about the company?
- When they were founded?
- Who is their managing director?
- How many comprise their team?
- Why don’t all of their examples link through to the developed website or live concept?
- If you can’t link to a real-world example of a concept, then why advertise it?
- Why can I only click on the tiniest section of the main menu?
- Why do I feel like leaving the site ten seconds after entering?
- Why do I feel no connection to a company who presents static images of their work without explanation?
Permalink Comments off
Brand Memory
I received an email newsletter from RHUM events & media, which directed me to their site.
They had some good content that I wanted to follow. But at the time, they didn’t have any RSS subscription feature enabled.
I emailed on December 9 suggesting its inclusion.
A timely personal response:
Yes absolutely, it’s on my mile long to do list don’t you worry. We will send out a subscriber notification and email when this function has been activated.
Kind Regards,
Nick Hutchins
Group Operations Manager
Rabbit Hole Urban Music events & media
And then, on February 4, an unexpected personal response:
Hi Andrew,
Just wanted to let you know that RHUM has now released RSS feed capabilities to http://www.rhum.org.au, facebook.com content applications and Myspace.com content applications.
Sorry about the wait for that and thanks for your patience as we sorted out some technical glitches preventing earlier release.
Kind Regards,
RHUM Admin
Rabbit Hole Urban Music events & media
In an era of diminishing attention spans, brand memory is crucial. If you remember me, I’ll remember you.
Easy, right? So why am I still surprised that a company cared enough to follow-up my cursory feedback, six months later?
The Next MySpace for Musicians
I’ve stopped logging on to MySpace. The only reason I’d continued to check it was to read bulletins posted by bands I enjoy.
But then the noise became deafening.
Too much effort for too little reward.
Processor-intensive Flash ads swarmed my homepage.
And instead of including bulletin pagination, to allow me to view 25 or 50 or 100 bulletins on a page, they kept with the original model of dividing bulletins into groups of 10. Each page yielded a new set of flashing ads. Awesome.
But that’s in the past. Bye, MySpace.
So if you’re a band I listen to or a band who thinks that I might like to listen to you, there’s a question you should be asking yourself. How are you going to connect with me, now?
How are you going to coerce me to join your tribe?
Or, more importantly: where is your tribe going to converge?
I don’t friend bands on Facebook, because Facebook is for human friendships.
I rarely visit band websites, as I’ve discussed.
If I don’t visit your Facebook profile or your website, it’s going to be tough to convince me to join your mailing list. And mailing lists aren’t the ideal method for artists to broadcast from, as it’s one-to-one. Not one-to-many like the sense of community you felt when browsing a band’s MySpace profile.
MySpace succeeded for several years because it provided the tools for musicians to share their craft and assemble a community in a central location.
But if the community is dispersing, where are they going to meet next?
Where is the next MySpace for musicians?
Finding a suitable answer for this question is as important for me, the music fan and critic, as it is for the artists who want me to hear their music.
I want a central hub to connect with hundreds of artists I admire and enjoy. I want to listen, to follow, to gain an insight into their recording process and international tours and personalities.
MySpace is no longer the answer. It’s old tech.
I don’t care about exclusive album streams. I don’t care about digital music store partnerships.
I just want to know when my favourite artists have recorded new music. When they’re touring. What other people think of their music.
Twitter is not the answer. Too shallow. When it comes to musicians, it’s a case of too little data spread too thin. I’ll happily read essays on subjects that I’m interested in.
If you’re a musician, I don’t particularly want to know what you’re doing all day, every day. Just the important stuff. Specific, anticipated, relevant. New music, tours, reviews, videos.
Again, these kinds of periodic updates could be delivered via mailing list. But I’m not going to go around visiting band websites and joining lists.
Like I said, this is as important a question for me, the music fan, as it is for the artists and labels.
Build something remarkable. Something worth sharing. Somewhere worth returning to. And I’ll be there.
Andrew McMillen 