THE CHALLENGE: Dell wanted to enter the increasingly competitive digital music space. But, given that the brand had little music credentials, and would only be selling the DJ Ditty online and through mall kiosks, we needed an innovative strategy that could launch this new MP3 player into one of the most crowded categories in the world, to one of the most cynical audiences — and achieve both unit and ROI goals within six months.

THE INSIGHT: After researching the target audience, we created an antihero who would stand out in sharp contrast to the rest of the design-centric, self-conscious digital music player market. Case Study

The parents of the Amsterdam High School student who was bullied on YouTube and MySpace have said that he was disabled. They told me that personally, and the father stated the same in a comment on the Gazette article about the cyberbullying.

In response to a comment left by someone going under the name MarkHolzer, the father said, “Unfortunately [ ] is incapable of agreeing or disagreeing as he is 100% disabled. If [ ] had the ability to stand up for himself and object to the video he would have. Which I guess is common as bullies rarely pick on those that can defend themselves and fight back. I assume you were not aware of that little fact about his disability.”

This is the part of the story that hasn’t been told but especially needs to after the story that appeared in the Recorder yesterday. This story by Jessica Maher leaves a completely different impression of the incident than does the Gazette’s coverage, and is frankly somewhat disappointing.

Maher says “On Friday, one AHS student, who asked to not be identified, said she’d heard the victim in the video and MySpace page knew what was going on the entire time.”

The excuse that the victim knew about the video, which has been removed from YouTube, and the fake MySpace page, which is still on the internet, and even approved of it, is being used to say that the whole incident was okay. But the argument doesn’t hold water, especially in light of the parent’s comment above, stating that the student’s disability made it impossible for him to even discern he was being picked on.

It’s unfortunate but understandable that the victim’s particular disability is not being made public right now. But the school district certainly must know what it is, and should not allow statements that it was all a joke and the victim knew and approved of the whole thing to influence the way this incident is dealt with.

It should be obvious to everyone involved that it is not normal for a person to approve of a video and fake MySpace page that denigrates that very person. Would you want someone to create a MySpace page about you that said, “Yes I am also the very same kid that stores hours of hardcore gay porn on my flashdrive that I bring to school everday, just ask and ill show you?” And that is not the worst of what is posted on that page. I doubt that anyone who was involved in creating the page and the video would have approved of someone doing this to them.

One of the makers of the video seems to be coming to some understanding about what he has done according to the comments he left on the Daily Gazette’s website. I hope his asking for forgiveness is real and not just because he was sorry he was caught. I also hope those who have supported what he did will come to the same realization.

Bullying is never right and bullying a disabled person is completely unacceptable. The first time I watched the video on YouTube, I knew the student had a disability, and I think most of the students making the video knew that something wasn’t quite right and that he was an easy target for being picked on.

Finally, I would note that according to my sources this was not the first time that things were posted on YouTube about this kid. Video clips were put up in the past, and then taken down. Also there is the story of the borrowed playstation that I may tell in the future if I get permission to do so.

http://www.myspace.com/rubberheadbanditz

http://www.youtube.com/user/rubberheadbandit

Name:  Rubberheadbanditz (Hovedstaden, Denmark)

Genre: Electro/Pop/Rock

Major/Indie/Unsigned: Unsigned

Album:

Released:

Overall Rating (out of 4): 3

Musicality – They produce a very rhythmic sound, with thudding punchy basslines, weaving guitar lead licks, and catchy vocals. I love the variety of sounds that mix together from real instruments to synthesized sounds. For example, they use the tambourine (works well!), in other tracks they use monkey sounds and even a cash register opening closing. Very creative songwriters!

Singing – Clear vocals make all the lyrics simple to hear. They have strong singing vocals, but not only that, they mix it up with rap rhyming, talking, and even a little beat boxing. You will not be bored by the vocals.

Lyrics – Entertaining, humorous, and witty. These guys sing about regular issues that everyone deals with (i.e. money problems, stress, etc.), however, these guys put a fun spin on these themes. Just listen to a their songs, you’ll know what I mean.

Flow/Rhythm – Rubberheadbanditz definitely have a funky groove that is very catchy. I’m sure it would get a whole lot of people dancing, jumping and partying to.

Freshness – Oh yeah, they have a fresh sound. I would say their sound is pretty unique and the closest similar musician that I can think off the top my head would be: Fatboy Slim and maybe Beck. It calls down to would listeners want to listen to their music repeated times, and I’m pretty confident they would playing it over and over in their Ipod’s.

Technicality/Recording – A very professional sound, especially considering all the effects, samples, and real instruments that they had to mix together.

Visuals – Rubberheadbanditz are just beginning their marketing and branding on the internet. They have a good Myspace page, however, they could spruce it up with some more graphics and visuals, but a good start. As well, they just started their own Youtube channel in April 2009. So, they are getting their music out there, it’s just a matter of time before people catch on. I just encourage them to keep performing, writing new music, putting more music on the internet, and maybe start an internet “street team”.

Top 2 Songs:

1. Revolution! (Crazy beat boxing with funky sonic jumping track, with Zack de la Rocha sounding vocals) Unfortunately no videos or live performances of this song yet!

2. Stress (Super catchy tune, rhythmic bass & beats, and the vocals tell an interesting story)

2. Remember Me (Funky synth bass groove, catchy vocals, and of course tambourines!)

~ Jason Chu

@Chodidees

http://www.myspace.com/chodidee

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

http://www.myspace.com/mrjmedeiros

http://www.myspace.com/theprocussions

Name: Mr. J Medeiros (of The Procussions)

Genre: Hip Hop/Rap

Major/Indie/Unsigned: Indie

Album: Friends Enemies Apples Apples

Released: 2009 Summer

Overall Rating (out of 4) 3.5

Musicality – It’s all over the place musically, yet it makes it perfect sense. Quite complex for Hip Hop/Rap.

Singing – The rhymes and transitions from one MC to the next, very smooth. I can’t argue with this…Tara Ellis is featured in a song and it sounds good!

Lyrics – Quality within the rhymes, yet easy enough to understand and for some reason leaves you wanting to hear it again!

Flow/Rhythm – Very strong! Smooth sound, it’s too bad more mainstream didn’t emulate the underground because this is good, real good!

Freshness – Well worth listening to. It’s more chill Hip Hop, where you are just listening to the rhymes and music, while nodding your head.

Technicality/Recording – Excellent!

Visuals – Not much videos to be found with them (underground mentality I guess), although Mr J. Medeiros has his own Youtube channel. His Myspace page is looking good with lots of information and cool graphics. In the end, it’s about the music, and he’s got it in spades.

Top 2 Songs:

1. Love is All feat. Tara Ellis (No vids of it, so just go to Mr. J Medeiros – Myspace link at the top of the page to hear this new track. The song is amazing. For that reason I’ll pick two other songs).

These next two songs were off his 2008 “Of gods and girls” album (available on itunes)

2. Constance (Soothing Hip Hop, with an ol’ School Vibe, so catchy, and the lyrics/rhymes amazing!)

3. Miss January feat. Talib Kweli (Slick groovin’ song with positive vibes and oodles of flow and great rhymes…try not to nod your head while listening to this track).

~ Jason Chu

@Chodidees

http://www.myspace.com/chodidee

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Call her Mamma M.I.A. The Grammy- and Oscar-nominated rapper has announced on her MySpace blog that she has given birth to a son.

The rapper wrote Saturday that her baby is “healthy, fine, beautiful” and the most amazing thing on this planet. She jokes that the two are working together on a tour.

The father is her fiance, musician Benjamin Bronfman. A representative says the couple have declined to release the baby’s name.

The “Paper Planes” singer had a scene-stealing performance at the Grammys on Sunday. She strutted on stage with her swollen belly during a performance with Kanye West, Jay-Z, T.I. and Lil Wayne. The rapper says she started going into labor hours later.

Every time it’s available we post content by Noah Sife himmself. This post is from his myspace blog.

Being that it’s Wordless Wednesday,I thought I would share with you my daughter’s writing instead of my own (It’s her profile off her myspace page.)Even though the words are definitely hers,they will show you what I helped create,made my life’s work,and one of the things I’m most proud of in my life….my children.

“My name is Samm. I LIKE TO DANCE!

I do a badass cartwheel.

If I was black, I’d want to be Tina Turner, hands down.I’m seventeen and an upcoming senior. I drive a red VW bug… it’s rad.I have the best boyfriend in the entire galaxy and I absolutely adore him. He is incredible. <3 I've reached a point in my life where I realize that I cannot depend on anyone else other than myself. I don't understand girls who have low self confidence and spend all their time imagining life with a vampire boy or as characters on shitty tv series. I do not partake in illegal activities, other that hitting mailboxes (which is a federal offense).I enjoy baking cupcakes.I take pride in having self confidence.I don't believe in organized religion but I definitely have morals and they play a role in all the decisions that I make. I'm extremely independent. I value intelligence above everything. My family is absolutely wonderful, no matter how dysfunctional they may be. I drool, frequently.I never answer my phone. I have boy toes. I have a very bizarre sense of humor. Working with little kids is my passion and that is what I plan on doing for the rest of my life. I love theater, I always have. Braces make me look like I'm twelve.I worry way too much.I could clothe an entire army.My zune is named Henry. I'm sensitive. I adore the ocean. Little things make me happy, like front parking spaces or sprinkle donuts. I can sing you almost every song that comes on the radio. I do a really good retard impression, almost too good. I've heard that I'm nice and I've also heard that I'm a bitch… I like to think I'm a combination, maybe a teensy bit more of the latter. I go to sleep early. I'm deathly afraid of needles. School is extremely important to me, I love learning new things.I could live off of grilled cheese, cupcakes, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. I obviously like talking about myself. I have a true sense of who I am and who I truly want to be."

In November of 2004, a Barack Obama volunteer supporter, Joe Anthony had set up a MySpace page for fans of the political candidate. Due to his hard work and creativity , it generated 160,000 “friends”. 

Obama made a deal with MySpace to pull the site from right under this supporter’s feet, leaving him with nothing and ending his longtime network of 160K users…

Nice …  huh ?

So then why didn’t the Obama campaign do the right thing ? They could have registered another page name like barackobamafor president,myspace.com ?  etc etc

Not a very Christian move by Barack Obama by just taking the page.  This demonstrates how uncaring Obama can be , even to one who was a supporter of him.

As stated by Joe Anthony, “Regardless of the  (Obama) campaign’s intentions, the campaign quashed not only my right to have this profile, but the very hope that inspired me to build it.”

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/05/sweet_column_joe_anthony_at_th.html

Joe Anthony’s current MySpace page is:

http://www.myspace.com/skyscrapernationalpark

Just a quick word to let you know that “Oh my ! Books !” is getting social. We have now a proper Mypace Page to be in touch with our authors ! Many thanks to you who has already answered the call ! Have a look ! We already have Stan Nicholls, Fabrice Colin or Chuck Palahniuk ! And it’s only the beginning !

—–

Un post rapide pour vous faire savoir qu’”Oh my ! Books !” a dorénavant son réseau social ! Nous avons aujourd’hui une vraie page Myspace pour être en contact avec nos (vos) auteurs favoris. Un grand merci à tous ceux qui ont répondu à l’appel ! Jetez-y un petit coup d’oeil, vous pourrez déjà papoter avec Stan Nicholls, Fabrice Colin ou Chuck Palahniuk ! Et ça ne fait que commencer !

Representa tu pais colombia ben y busca tu pagina aqui en loquesta.com. Busca las paginas de myspace de tu favoritos artistas, y mucho mas. Este es el unico ugar donde encontraras pagina de myspace, noticias de entreteniminto, videos en alta calidad y mucho mas encuntranos aqui dando click aqui loquesta.com

Anti-Flag’s new song “The Bright Lights of America” is now on their myspace page.

Daniel 31-33 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

Anyone who’s every played music in America can tell you, music can be an unrewarding vocation. It seldom pays the bills; hell, it barely covers its own bar tab. Most of the time it doesn’t even credit the players and writers with their work. Even in movies, music credits roll last, right before the name of the company that provided the film stock.

My youngest stepdaughter’s been a little reticent lately. I know mostly it’s because she’s twelve. But you know, sometimes you just wanna make sure it’s not more than that. Well, she ain’t talking about it. So, given that I’m concerned and wondering what’s going on in her life, and given that I don’t want to pry.

I decided to do what any normal parent would do to find out what’s going on in her life; I checked out her MySpace page.

Well, I’ve never checked out her MySpace page before.

The first thing I noticed was that she had linked one of my songs in her page. I thought that was really sweet, but natural given that I wrote it about her older sister.

Then I scrolled down and saw this in her “heroes” section:

Right there, under John Lennon, is a picture of me standing on the drum kit at one of our shows.

Um, I was speechless. Floored. I never considered myself anyone’s hero. And aside from having my hair compared to his by a guy on The L in Chicago, I’ve never placed myself in the same bracket as John Lennon. But here’s this tiny little part of the world where not only are we within the same pale blue box, but I’m someone’s hero with a guitar standing on a drum set. And that part of the world is mere inches from where I sleep. And I had no idea.

Seeing it brought back every note I ever wrote, from all the bands, practices and performances. From my mom’s basement to the Abbey Pub in Chicago. Every bit of it came to me in a flash, and thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of miles later, for the first time in my life, it was all worth it. Every compliment and dis, from René Angelil and the biggest hitters in music to the kids in the crowd in Madison Wisconsin ceased to matter. They were all replaced by this blue box.

It taught me some important things:

• The things that matter most often come from the leftest of fields.

• We all better make it count and make it beautiful, because things we often forget matter a lot to people we never expect.

• You never know where, how, and when your created works are measured. That’s why you’re obligated to create them. The world around you needs and deserves them, even if that world is right under your own roof.

So cast those feet in bronze and keep making the world a more beautiful place. Everybody needs heroes.

I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing will
Drive them away
We can beat them
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
Just for one day

And you
You can be mean
And I
I’ll drink all the time
‘Cause we’re lovers
And that is a fact
Yes we’re lovers
And that is that

Though nothing
Will keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
For ever and ever
What d’you say

I
I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
For ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day

I
I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
Will drive them away
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be us
Just for one day

I
I can remember
Standing
By the wall
And the guns
Shot above our heads
And we kissed
As though nothing could fall
And the shame
Was on the other side
Oh we can beat them
For ever and ever
Then we can be Heroes
Just for one day

We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We’re nothing
And nothing will help us
Maybe we’re lying
Then you better not stay
But we could be safer
Just for one day
– David Bowie

The Shadow Democracy Radio Show did take place last Sunday but due to the same technical difficulties we had the week before it was not broadcast live or will be available for download. This was too bad since the discussion on the news and topic between me, Matthew and our new producer Jack was very compelling stuff in my opinion. Sometimes it does suck being a no budget production. We are confident that with the help of WNYMedia.net that we will be up and running next Sunday, but stay tuned for any changes on this blog.

In other news we have a official ShadowDemocracy.org MySpace profile now! We hope to connect with fans, friends, and spread the buzz about the Shadow Democracy Network across the internet. It’s ironic that we are using the social network owned by right wing media mogul Robert Murdoch to promote our own ‘left-leaning purposes’ but we don’t mind. So if you are on MySpace please add us as a friend since we could use some more. That’s all for now…