Sing Off Links

YouTube Links to the best performances of the finalists.
Nota’s performance of “Down,” probably their best performance in the show, but it is debatable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0PiVtqLxM
Beelzebub’s knocked their judge’s pick “Sweet Caroline” out of the park.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gewU78c5jo
Voices of Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dXObqGELbg

Disclaimers

I hereby declare that this blog has no pretensions whatsoever to objectivity.  I express my opinions wholeheartedly and while I hope that I use logic and information in forming them, I know they will be influenced by my experiences and political leanings.  However, I always encourage respectful conversation and debate and welcome posts with alternate viewpoints on any matter discussed, no matter how insignificant they may seem, from the appropriate colors to wear in winter to the appropriate approach to the war in Afghanistan. 

Conflicted...

Yes I am conflicted.  I flit between adoring consumption and clothes and beautiful things to abhorring the consumerism that controls our everyday life.  I’m not really disturbed by this because I feel it is probably normal considering we are humans with materials needs and desires and that we are constantly bombarded with fabricated material needs from the day we are born.  My goal is to ween myself off consumption as much as possible and turn towards more fulfilling searches.  Perhaps a New Year’s resolution can be to read 20 excellent and diverse books this year, or actually commit to a yoga routine for once...  or keep my running schedule up for once.  All of these things can help fill in the gaps in time which end up getting filled up with online shopping or promenade walks through touristy shops.  At the same time, walking through stores and feeling all the fabrics of different clothing items is one of my great pleasures in life.  Sigh...

"The Sing-Off" and the future of media

For the most part, NBC produced a piece of schmaltzy nonsense, but the highlight of this mini-series was the number of extremely talented young (and older) people that were thrust upon the national consciousness.  A cleverly laid out mini-series, “The Sing-Off” chose a shorter format that would minimize DVR usage, thus maximizing eyeballs on ads, while maintaining the public interest in A capella music throughout the duration of the series.  With one hour shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during the third week of December, followed by a live two-hour finale the following Monday, it was just enough exposure to whip up interest in the Idol-style competition show, without losing people over a long season, which an A capella only competition show probably could not support.  With anticipation running high about the live finale, fewer people would pre-record it, because the whole point was to find out who would win the $100,000 grand prize and Sony recording contract.  Would it be Voices of Lee, the Christian college co-eds, led by future R&B star Candace?  Or the Beelzebubs, the wildly entertaining and charismatic group of jokers from Tufts University?  Or would it be Nota, the soulful group with Peurto Rican flair?

In the end Nota prevails and probably rightfully so, considering the ultimate prize was a recording contract, not a tour.  While the Beezelbubs were entertaining, Nota was the only group that could possible get me to buy a cd.

NBC, for some reason, which doesn’t really make sense to me, decided to pull down its Sing-Off Channel from YouTube today, leaving fans completely dependent on other YouTube channels for the songs.  I guess they want to redirect traffic back to their site to watch their pieces of shows with all the commercials.  Very clever, but really irritating because when the judges talk, you mostly want to shoot yourself in the head.  The only interesting part is the singing.  They should pretty much just cut out the other stuff and keep the songs, bookended with commercials if that’s how it needs to be.

This brings back the question that is constantly on my mind, as someone who hopes to create media content one day: what is the format of the future and who is going to pay for it?  Typically it’s been advertisers who pay for most content.  They consumer pays for some things: theatrical movies, dvds, cds, and some for cable, but most of this is all underwritten by advertisers.  This is basically the case for most of the media we consume, even though we pay a nominal fee for it, we rarely really pay for the whole cost of its production, be it newspapers, magazines, or televisions shows.  The consumer has become used to voraciously consuming media often without paying a dime.  Particularly my generation, weened on Napster and graduating to Limewire and BitTorrent, we thought nothing of downloading any song, television, or movie on a whim.  Our motto was search and ye shall find.  Inconvenient PR laws slowed us down, but we are creatures of innovation and most young computer savvy people can still find most mainstream media if they look hard enough.  Besides that, there is now a wealth of legally free entertainment to be had on the web, much of it hosted on sites that are now also using an advertising based model to turn a profit (i.e. YouTube).  If the true cost of producing media were passed on to the consumer, in many cases they would rebel. 

That said, certain formats do make a lot of money, particularly films, merely from selling to consumers.  Let’s take “Avatar” for instance.  While IMDB claims they had a budget of $230 million, it’s widely rumored to have cost over $300 million to produce.  After one weekend, it has already grossed $238.5 million worldwide, well on track to turn a huge profit for Twentieth Century-Fox and James Cameron, king of the box-office mega movie.  Besides the massive amount of money they will make in ticket and dvd sales, Avatar will capitalize on toy sales, video games, and various other types of merchandise.  To maximize marketing dollars they have even teamed up with McDonalds to advertise the Big Mac and the movie at the same time.

While that’s all well and good for films like “Avatar” the rest of us are typically scrambling for funding and most likely not making even close to a profit in the end with just consumer contributions.  Most films lose money...  With a society obsessed with consumption, advertising underwrites everything from sports teams to charity events to media production.  But at what cost?  The biggest concern for me with media underwriting is in the category of news.  This is the area that one feels should be free of outside influence and possible sources of inappropriate restraint, but how can that truly be possible?  It’s difficult enough for news sources today to be unbiased when there are so many choices the consumer can chose whatever newspaper or network or blog that echoes their own opinion.  The temptation to fall into a political niche and preserve a core audience is strong, but that’s another can of worms entirely.  No logic in the world can convince me that news sources underwritten by sponsors can ever truly be objective.

Working in NC, SC, and VA

Our guy on the long lens at the beach.  Commercial for the Marines, crazy schedule, awesome stuff.