tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73620352736423080762024-03-18T20:48:37.834-07:00The ScoreThe score is a inside look from a music fans prospective of the music world, this is "The Conscious of the Art of Music With A Vengeance!!!!!!!"The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-33669988087019871362011-04-22T05:49:00.000-07:002011-04-22T05:49:39.757-07:00A Gaga BreakdownLady Gaga's "Born This Way" sounds like Madonna's "Express Yourself." <a href="http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/88460/lady-gagas-born-this-way-vogue-yourself/;_ylt=AvVSgD6ACCQ3JGQlpdwMmzxhyCUv">The Amp hears it</a>. <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Antjx8CY9WjZoqH2w4AP3tBhyCUv/SIG=11togsd3c/**http%3A//www.people.com/people/article/0,,20465664,00.html">Fans hear it.</a> Evidently <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AuX2sQzNPQ9BcLN3mDXOuthhyCUv/SIG=14dotisr7/**http%3A//www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2011/02/madonna-uploads-her-89-mtv-vma-performance-of-express-yourself-to-her-official-you-tube-account/">Madonna hears it.</a> But Lady Gaga... not so much. <br />
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"I am not stupid enough to put out a record and be that moronic," Gaga told the <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AkQGVIyYgGLDDUd6a_RcF5ZhyCUv/SIG=10of1m62j/**http%3A//www.nme.com/">NME</a> (via the <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AuSVHb63u148xJM01yp.yW1hyCUv/SIG=12lvd5p81/**http%3A//www.theprophetblog.net/lady-gaga-flips-out-over-madonna-plagiarism-claims">Prophet Blog</a>) at the top of a rant that began with denial then quickly transformed into rage, indignation, devastation, and religious pandering. It's her very own version of the <a href="http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/88889/britney-spears-second-till-the-world-ends-video-is-superfluous/;_ylt=AmfLRwhIj6Ag1f1cjAj1ilRhyCUv">Five Stages of Grief!</a> We've helpfully diagrammed the conversation below:<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Denial:</span></strong><br />
"No. Listen to me. Why the [expletive]...? I'm a songwriter. I've written loads of music. Why would I try to put out a song and think I'm getting one over on everybody? That's retarded."<br />
[We agree! Tell us more about this, Lady Gaga. Also, we know there was no room for "retarded" among "gay, straight, bi, lesbian, transgender, black, white, beige, Chola, and Orient" on "Born This Way," but it's not nice to use that term as a pejorative, either.]<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Rage:</span></strong><br />
"What a completely ridiculous thing to even question me about. I will look you in your eyes and tell you that I am not dumb enough or moronic enough to think that you are dumb enough or moronic enough not to see that I would have stolen a melody. If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It's the same one that's been in disco music for the last 50 years. Just because I'm the first [expletive] artist in 25 years to think of putting it on Top 40 radio, it doesn't mean I'm a plagiarist, it means that I'm [expletive] smart."<br />
[Actually, it's not just the chord progression, it's the melody of the chorus. Here, <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Ai0rQuGjTR1zSOJ4jSwddHthyCUv/SIG=1236hap7n/**http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=j0PvggdjkKE%26feature=related">this video</a> that puts the songs next to each other, side by side, will help explain their striking similarities to you. Give<a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AoQ.agg6KFynd9yeMel_oP5hyCUv/SIG=1204oe562/**http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=5Z-43jz4inw%26feature=fvst"> this mashup</a> a whirl, too.]<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Indignation:</span></strong><br />
"Nobody in this room at any point looked around and said, 'Oh my God, it's 'Express Yourself.' Not once. Listen. I swear to you. ... It's so funny to hear you say, 'It must have been a homage,' I'm like, NO. When I homage, I [expletive] homage with a big sign saying I've done it. Why would I not do that now?" <br />
[Ooh, juicy stuff! So nobody on your team had the guts to mention this striking similarity to you? Because it's impossible that nobody in your organization heard it, but everyone else on Earth did. Also, tiny nit-picky thing, but we don't think homage is a verb.] <br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Devastation:</span></strong><br />
"I just don't want my fans... I don't know. This is exhausting. I just don't wanna perpetuate that [expletive]. I'm sure you want to address it but it's just so ridiculous. I was just [expletive] shell-shocked by it." <br />
[That's fair. And frankly, we admire you for answering questions about it. Most stars would have said "no comment" or had their publicists rush to the rescue. Have we mentioned we love "Telephone"? One of our favorite songs ever!]<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Religious Pandering:</span></strong><br />
[Starts crying] "I feel like honestly that God sent me those lyrics and that melody. When you feel a message to give to the world and people are shooting arrows at it... there's no way for something that pure to be wrong."<br />
[And... you just lost us.]<br />
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Between these comments and<a href="http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/88895/lady-gagas-judas-betrays-good-taste/;_ylt=AoRXyEaVwfopu0kuBx9J2AZhyCUv"> the unpleasantly schizo "Judas,"</a> we're starting to get concerned about Gaga's hearing. But you know what really doesn't help? A few quotes from the new <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AsHwE.i7dKSVSD8jT3WBl7dhyCUv/SIG=11hvkc177/**http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=O6Gs6d1-Sew">GagaVision</a> video released today, in which the singer explains her writing process as 15-minute purges of creativity. "And then I spend days, weeks, months, years, fine-tuning," she adds. The real question, though, is who is Norm! And why is he filling in for Ed?! Click over to the video to see what we're talking about, and enjoy one of the "Born This Way"/"Express Yourself" mashups here:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Z-43jz4inw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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by Caryn Ganz in <a href="http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier;_ylt=AnDqJcxVcIRf0fZfyfRkVFJhyCUv">Amplifier </a>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-81260111726623646212011-04-18T09:26:00.001-07:002011-04-18T09:26:50.468-07:00Combining Forces = WINNING!Being an independent artist doesn’t mean you need to take the word ‘Independent’ too literally. Chances are, you’re missing big opportunities to take your career to new levels if you’re not actively looking for chances to join forces with other artists and industry pros. A piece of something big is worth a lot more than all of little or nothing. If you feel like you’re bashing your head against the wall trying to get people to your shows or to buy your music on your own then changing your approach can make all the difference in the world.<br />
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What could you create if you partnered with the right people? For example, I have a friend who’s planning a regular monthly gig at a venue here in Los Angeles. Her husband is a world-class magician. They have friends who are world-class comedians. There’s no law that says you can’t put on a show with musicians, magicians and comedians!<br />
Personally, I can’t wait to see these shows. I’ll go to every one. Any one of the performers individually would put on an excellent show, but combined it’s a must see. It’s an event. More people will come and people will stay longer. The audience gets more, the performers get more and the club owners get more. It creates a synergy. It becomes a combination of forces that’s greater than the sum of it’s parts. <br />
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Internet marketers are another great example. They form networks whereby they promote each other’s products to their mailing lists. The ones who do really well are the ones who find a tight group of compatible partners and generously help promote them and give them value. They know that if they help each other they can do much better than they could on their own. <br />
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When was the last time you sent out an email to your mailing list asking them to check out another artist’s new CD? I believe that in the future, there will be much more co-operation between independent artists. Some day in the not-too-distant future there will be a growing number of artists who offer commission to other artists for helping them sell their music….and they will sell more music! <br />
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Smart artists in today’s economy always keep an eye out for other bands and artists who ‘get it’ and are also looking to connect and give value to other bands. A lot of good can come when the right people get together.<br />
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With that spirit in mind, I’ve reached out to some amazing people and asked them to be a part of my blog at IndependentRockstar.com. We’re now going to feature daily content that covers everything from fitness to contract law to marketing to website tips and a whole lot more. I’m really excited because the blog is going to become so much more than I could ever make of it on my own. <br />
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I hope you can find your own opportunities to form exciting new partnerships with other friends, artists and professionals inside and outside the music business. You just might be able to create something that’s more inspired and exciting than you previously thought possible! <br />
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Article by Scott James of The Independent Rockstar Blog.<br />
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Read more: Combining Forces = WINNING! — Echoes - Insight for Independent Artists http://blog.discmakers.com/2011/03/combining-forces-winning/#ixzz1JtPdqD00The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-10779714810218578322011-03-31T11:41:00.000-07:002011-03-31T11:41:36.938-07:00Jay-Z under investigation by the NBAWhen Jay-Z dropped by the Kentucky locker room on Sunday after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four berth with a victory over North Carolina, the rap mogul shook hands with the players, signed autographs and posed for pictures.<br />
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It was an innocent moment in everyone's eyes except perhaps the NBA's.<br />
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According to CBSSports.com, the NBA is investigating whether Jay-Z's presence in the Kentucky locker room is a violation of league rules prohibiting team personnel from having contact with college players before they declare for the draft. In addition to his rap career, Jay-Z is also the part owner of the New Jersey Nets.<br />
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The advantage Jay-Z could gain by mingling with Kentucky would be the chance to spend time around potential draft picks in order to make a better informed decision on whether to invest in them or not. The Wildcats have several potential lottery picks, including guard Brandon Knight and forward Terrence Jones.<br />
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The situation is reminiscent of one that occurred four years ago involving Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge and then-Texas prospect Kevin Durant. Ainge was fined $30,000 for sitting with Durant's mother during a Big 12 tournament game before the freshman forward had declared his intent to enter the NBA draft. <br />
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In that case, Ainge's intent was fairly obvious considering the Celtics were certain to have one of the top picks in the draft and Durant was a potential target.<br />
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It's harder to envision Jay-Z gaining much inside information from a few minutes inside the victorious Kentucky locker room, but it's also understandable that the NBA doesn't want to set a precedent by letting this slide.<br />
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-Courtesy of Yahoo SportsThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-63109070270363056082011-03-22T09:55:00.000-07:002011-03-22T09:55:20.790-07:00'Ready to Die' Baby All Grown Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2g7838axOzT7bN_eFk8SsrEyN5OruBZ1zk96H3g-H4jNtyg9qwk4zteRUBAkxyPqRVSRimb9XXFvOgRF8UicGeOOMjXHm6Mcca-7suUFVf0urVQQMvOYI_fYjO7JU_3d-GxMfQSc39uw/s1600/ready_to_die.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2g7838axOzT7bN_eFk8SsrEyN5OruBZ1zk96H3g-H4jNtyg9qwk4zteRUBAkxyPqRVSRimb9XXFvOgRF8UicGeOOMjXHm6Mcca-7suUFVf0urVQQMvOYI_fYjO7JU_3d-GxMfQSc39uw/s200/ready_to_die.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>Besides perhaps the <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AnCRE1BxtGR8oPtRJZ7sa_VhyCUv/SIG=12fh9vivt/**http%3A//sleevage.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/nirvana_nevermind_cover.jpg">Nevermind baby</a>, the child sporting a giant Afro pictured on Notorious B.I.G.'s classic debut Ready to Die is the most iconic infant in album-cover history. As the music world commemorated the 14th anniversary of Biggie's death on March 9th, many fans began inquiring about the Ready to Die kid. Diddy simply told <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Aq7lryAPkUBGAfVst_T_JOBhyCUv/SIG=122gmmtkg/**http%3A//rapradar.com/2010/09/13/diddy-talks-ready-to-die-baby/">Rap Radar</a>, "That was a baby we just found... We did a little casting for somebody that looked like Big," and the Bad Boy offices had long lost any concrete form of documentation. <br />
But now, the <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Aq5sEd92Nc.idP_VXAi1yGxhyCUv/SIG=13mmj59dc/**http%3A//www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/20/2011-03-20_his_big_claim_bx_teen_sez_hes_notorious_album_star.html">New York Daily News has uncovered</a> the 18-year-old who claims to be the mini-B.I.G.: Bronx native Keithroy Yearwood.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.hiphopdx.org/images/news/Keithroy_Yearwood-Ready_To_Die.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="http://cdn.hiphopdx.org/images/news/Keithroy_Yearwood-Ready_To_Die.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
"I just want people to know that's me. The truth is finally coming out," Yearwood told the Daily News, who corroborated his claim with Yearwood's baby photos. The story of how the teen landed on the cover also seems to match Bad Boy's assertion that the baby came from a modeling agency: Yearwood's mother Delcenia Burns says her son was recruited by the now-defunct modeling agency Chicky's Kids, and that she has the paperwork to prove it. <br />
That Yearwood was a paid model would come as a surprise to two people involved in the shoot: Designer Cey Adams and the cover's photographer Butch Belair, both thought that the Ready to Die baby was the child of someone who worked at Bad Boy.<br />
"When I first found out about it, it wasn't a big deal to me. Now, of course, it's a big deal to me," Yearwood, who plans to study sports management in college, said of his claim to fame. "It's an honor to be on this album." <br />
Yearwood says he only received $150 for being on the cover of Ready to Die, but his place in music history is priceless.<br />
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</script><noscript></noscript>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-71802043652247863332011-03-16T08:33:00.000-07:002011-03-16T08:33:55.530-07:00Another Legend leaves us RIP Nate Dogg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/nate-dogg-stroke-snoop-family-stable-kids-hip-hop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/nate-dogg-stroke-snoop-family-stable-kids-hip-hop.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>(CBS) Nate Dogg, one of the most recognizable and smooth voices in rap and R & B, has died. He was 41.<br />
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Born Nathaniel Hale, Nate Dogg suffered from ill health for years. His death was first reported in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.<br />
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The cause of death is not immediately known, though the Press-Telegram reports that he suffered two strokes, one in 2007 and another in 2008. TMZ reports it's confirmed Nate Dogg's death.<br />
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The hook singer first came to national attention on Dr. Dre's 1992 masterpiece "The Chronic." Nate earned the first of four Grammy nominations in 1995 for "Regulate," a collaboration with Warren G. His fourth and most recent nomination came for Eminem's "Shake That" in 2007.<br />
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Since the news broke of Nate Dogg's death, his friends and collaborators have sent messages out about him. "We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb. One of my best friends n a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at poly high where we met," tweeted Snoop Dogg, who continued on for several tweets before concluding, "RIP NATE DOGG."<br />
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On Twitter, "Nate Dogg" quickly became a trend.<br />
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Nate Dogg released several solo albums, including a self-titled effort in 2008.The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-76483321339700587812011-03-09T13:15:00.000-08:002011-03-09T13:15:54.296-08:00R.I.P. B.I.G.<div style="text-align: center;">Rest in Peace to two of Hip Hop's Legends</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/g36Y08Ia3fw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-50664296930537624172011-03-02T09:38:00.000-08:002011-03-02T09:51:47.496-08:00Killing Music with the Kardashians<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">As much as I hate to even type about this, it is absolutely relevant, and it’s pissed me off enough to share with you, so here goes…</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.themusicage.com/_files/pic/image/a313bd83a50f2fe84d1f4faafc5cb74e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" l6="true" src="http://www.themusicage.com/_files/pic/image/a313bd83a50f2fe84d1f4faafc5cb74e.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">We all know that Kim Kardashian has amassed a significant, albeit completely undeserved, level of fame, we may not all know how she’s done it, so let me break it down for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually before I list her “accomplishments,” and trust me I use that term as loosely as grammatically possible, let me say this: The real reason that Kim K. is famous is because America is full of brainless zombies controlled by television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moving on… Miss Kardashian’s claims to fame include:</span></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">Filming an absolutely, ridiculously boring sex tape</span></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">Having a slightly larger than average butt (for a white girl)</span></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">A pointless “reality” show</span></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">Being a jock chasing slut</span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">And a Super bowl commercial that was somehow more of a pointless bore than her sex tape and her stupid show combined.</span></span></div><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">Now with all of the notoriety that she’s gotten for basically doing nothing, you would think that would be enough, but not for our little busy bee. Now this self absorbed bitch has decided to spread her brand of idocity into the music business. <s>BITCH!</s> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">I have a myriad of problems with this foolishness!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First off, the song is even more boring than her and Ray J rolling around in bed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, this bitch can’t sing! I mean the song may have all of 8 notes, #CmonSon<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that she convinced The Dream to produce this garbage is a detriment to his reputation in my opinion, although after he decided to step away from the board and behind the mic, his reputation ain’t been worth shit anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says she will donate half of the proceeds to cancer research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now you may be asking, “What’s wrong with that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer: nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, nothing except for the fact that the real reason she’s doing this is because her publicist needed her to do something that said “Look at me, look at me!” so she could make more money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because let’s be real, let’s say she sells 100,000 downloads, that’s $50,000 to cancer, and $25,000 in her pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Makes her look like a saint right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the point!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where she’ll make the real money is all of the publicity this will give her; all of the talk shows, radio shows, etc. The only thing that money is going to is the cancer that she (and those in her ilk) is contributing to the degradation of music. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">But worse than ALL OF THAT is the fact that she will probably sell more than real musicians will this week. </span><span style="color: white;">It’s no coincidence that this song, for lack of a better term, is hitting the net on a Wednesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’ll probably outsell</span> </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6SSTMpIRFI">Tiësto vs. Diplo’s “C’mon (Catch ‘Em by Surprise)” </a><span style="color: white;">and they had a 3 day head start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that happens, it will truly show that Americans don’t actually listen to music at all.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">A t this point, I’m just praying that they don’t decide to shoot a video *sigh*</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white;">Here’s the song if you feel the need to torture your eardrums: <a href="http://www.kyte.tv/ch/default-channel/kim-kardashian-jam/p=4484&c=388452&s=1201112">Kim Kardashian's "Jam"</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;">-Se7en Owt</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-48065069753507163842011-03-02T08:25:00.000-08:002011-03-02T08:25:40.459-08:00Top 5 Music Business Mistakes<div sizcache="3" sizset="12"><em sizcache="3" sizset="12">The following article was originally posted on Music Consultant Rick Goetz’s website – <a href="http://musiciancoaching.com/"><span style="color: #d57702;">MusicianCoaching.com</span></a>.</em></div><br />
I’ve never been one for top 5 or top 10 lists, but I have seen these mistakes so many times in the past year, I figured they needed to be documented.<br />
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<strong>#1 Waiting</strong><br />
<br />
Sounds innocuous enough, right? We should be good at waiting given all of the waiting that goes on with the craft of music.<br />
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Waiting on our fellow notoriously late collaborators, waiting on getting things tracked right in the studio, waiting to load in, waiting on sound check. There are a million things that we have to hurry up and wait for before we even get to the business side of things. This, of course, is not the waiting I am talking about.<br />
<br />
The biggest mistake I have seen in the past year (admittedly, it is NOT unique to 2010) is that people wait on outside help to starting their businesses. Anyone who has tried to raise money can tell you that it is much easier to raise when you have momentum with a project than when you only have a blueprint and some high hopes. This is in no way saying I think people should do everything themselves. DIY, in my opinion, is a condition of last resort – but a condition that almost all of us are stuck with at some point or another.<br />
<br />
Keep this in mind – when you are someone looking for outside help from someone like a potential manager or an agent, you are asking someone for their time. Given that time equals money, you are, in fact, asking someone to invest in you and your company. When you are preparing to approach someone for help of this kind, ask yourself “What would make me invest in an artist’s career?”<br />
<br />
When I ask myself this question, I almost always come up with “wanting to see that my time and money would be going into a business is already showing signs of life.” I would want to see that, in spite of or in addition to what my eyes and ears tell me, that real consumers are responding to this musician’s material. Generally speaking, those artists who have a spark and have a fledgling business are people who didn’t wait on outside help to get those businesses going.<br />
<br />
I’ll let you in on a little insider secret – since the un-bundling of the album, EVERYONE is making things up as they go along. There is no hard science to the initial stages of breaking new artists – it is a series of best guesses. Since no one is ever going to care about your career more than you do (at least I hope not), you may as well give it a try for yourself. Even if you fail you will no more about the job and be better qualified to find the right person who complements your strengths and weaknesses.<br />
<br />
There will be times when you are forced to wait for circumstances to change. It happens to all of us no matter what business we are in, but I urge you to find ways of making these periods productive. No matter what major event in your career is looming large – get out and play, meet people, and record as much as possible, and remember: there is never going to be a perfect time to start that next phase of your career. Something will always be in your way if you let it.<br />
<div sizcache="3" sizset="13"><br />
</div><div sizcache="3" sizset="13">Ready for more? <a href="http://musiciancoaching.com/music-career/music-business-mistakes-2/"><span style="color: #d57702;">Check out Mistake #2</span></a> on Rick’s website – MusicianCoaching.com.</div><div sizcache="3" sizset="14"><br />
</div><div sizcache="3" sizset="14"><em>Rick Goetz is a music consultant and musician coach by way of a fifteen year career at major record labels and various online and television projects. For more articles like this you can visit his site, </em><a href="http://musiciancoaching.com/"><span style="color: #d57702;">musiciancoaching.com</span></a>.</div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-49386010704050933912011-03-01T11:27:00.000-08:002011-03-01T11:27:07.341-08:00The Biebs and Selena Gomez: It’s official<strong>Not that I personally give half a shit about this, but I like the writing. *shrug* </strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Anyway....</strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ultimategate.com/web/wp-content/uploads/justinbeibergomezredcarpet-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="http://www.ultimategate.com/web/wp-content/uploads/justinbeibergomezredcarpet-3.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Justin Bieber</strong> and <strong>Selena Gomez</strong> appeared together Sunday at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, where Gomez wore a floor-length red Dolce and Gabbana gown to complement Bieber’s black Dolce and Gabbana suit. It was the first “official” outing for the two lovebirds, cementing months of speculation between those aged 8 to 18 and bored gossip columnists and the commuters who read her. <br />
<br />
Since they never went to a traditional school, we’re sure this was like prom for the two child stars. But instead of being held in some dingy gymnasium that smells of years of sweat and burgeoning hormones, it was at the most exclusive party in the entire world. Still, you have to feel for Justin Bieber — he might be a millionaire a hundred times over, but he’ll never know how exciting an illicit sip of Mad Dog 20/20 tastes in the parking lot of a school’s gym. Then again, we’ll never know what it’s like to have <strong>Jeff Bridges</strong> as a chaperone, so we’re calling a draw.<br />
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By DOROTHY ROBINSONThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-47894848789483357402011-02-17T11:06:00.000-08:002011-02-17T11:06:04.382-08:00Jay and Bey on the Brink of Bye Bye?Well that's the rumor anyway...<br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://str8nyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/jay_z_beyonce_040208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" j6="true" src="http://str8nyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/jay_z_beyonce_040208.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><br />
According to Media Take Out the superstar couple have been fighting like cats and dogs for over a year.<br />
<br />
"The biggest thing [they argue about] is about kids," reveals the source. “[Jay Z] wants them and Beyonce doesn’t. It’s all about her career, and she doesn’t want to slow down.”<br />
<br />
The insider claims, “For now [Jay Z's] going to be staying in LA. Beyonce will be in NY. . . The hope is that with the time apart, the couple will decide to either have kids, or go their separate ways.”<br />
<br />
MTO has secondary back-up on this story coming from additional snoops.<br />
Seems, several celeb guests on Saturday’s RocNation lunch, claim there was “definitely something wrong” between Jay Z and Beyonce. As one attendee put it, “They didn’t even look each other in the eye.”<br />
<br />
That's the word on the streets, but only time will tell. I personally don't believe it. I don't have any solid reasoning for not believing it, I just don't. Maybe part of it is that the information came from Media Take Out, with me, they hold ZERO credibility. The other part is that I would like to see their relationship succeed.<br />
<br />
Statistically, 52% of all marriages in the US end in divorce, and I'm sure that number goes up astronomically when talking about very public relationships between superstars such as Mr. and Mrs. Carter. None the less, the Barack and Michelle of Hip-Hop seemed to be defying the odds. They kept their relationship under wraps for quite a while, their careers never suffered, all in all, they seemed (dare I say it) happy. But the key word there is "seemed." There is no way for me, or anyone outside of them that knows for sure. <br />
<br />
I hope, for the sake of all of the youngins out there that worship and idolize superstars, that they can work it out. The little idiots, that our generation is rearing need to see an example of a successful marriage. Because clearly we're not teaching them anything at home, but that's another blog for another day. <br />
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Good luck to Jay-Z and Beyonce, whether they stay or go, we'll all get some passionate songs out of it one way or the other...<br />
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At the end of the day though, I don't care, because my life won't change as a result of whatever they do *shrug*<br />
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-Se7en OwtThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-34130435673089399322011-02-17T07:53:00.000-08:002011-02-17T13:55:37.410-08:00Billy Ray is worried about his baby *update*So Mr. Cyrus is worried about his daughter. Here's my question: What the hell took you so damn long to be worried Billy? SMH check out the OMG! Yahoo! post below so you can say, "Duh" like the rest of sane America.<br />
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<a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/billy-ray-cyrus/celebs/386"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Billy Ray Cyrus</span></a>'s heart is achy, breaky and bitter.<br />
In an uber-revealing, uber-melodramatic interview in <i><a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201103/billy-ray-cyrus-mr-hannah-montana-miley?currentPage=1"><span style="color: #ec147f;">GQ</span></a>,</i> the country star blames "Hannah Montana" and the evils of Hollywood for tearing his family apart.<br />
"I'll tell you right now -- the damn show destroyed my family," he tells the magazine. "And I sit there and I go, 'Yeah, you know what? Some gave all.' It is my motto, and guess what? I have to eat that one. I some gave-all'd it all right. I some-gave all'd it while everybody else was going to the bank. It's all sad." <br />
When asked whether he viewed his family as under attack by Satan, the God-fearing singer and showbiz dad responds: "I think we are right now. No doubt. There's no doubt about it. ... There has always been a battle between good and evil. Always will be. You think, 'This is a chance to make family entertainment, bring families together ... ' and look what it's turned into." <br />
<a href="http://yhoo.it/gcJAt0"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Photos: Miley's Most Outrageous Outfits </span></a><br />
Cyrus' personal life is in shambles: He <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20437267,00.html"><span style="color: #ec147f;">filed for divorce</span></a> from wife Tish last October amid reports she <a href="http://awards.omg.yahoo.com/news/17334-rep-report-of-bret-michaels-affair-with-miley-cyrus-mom-untrue"><span style="color: #ec147f;">had an affair</span></a> with <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/bret-michaels/celebs/1224"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Bret Michaels</span></a>, of all people. He fears for the future of his megastar daughter, Miley, as she grows up and makes mistakes in the public eye. <br />
"I'm scared for her," he says. "She's got a lot of people around her that's putting her in a great deal of danger. I know she's 18, but I still feel like as her daddy I'd like to try to help. At least get her out of danger. I want to get her sheltered from the storm. Stop the insanity just for a minute."<br />
Cyrus regrets that he treated Miley like a friend and not a parent; when she recently celebrated <a href="http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/thefamous/miley-cyrus-celebrates-18th-birthday-with-her-mom-and-demi-moore/92"><span style="color: #ec147f;">her 18th birthday</span></a> at a nightclub in L.A., he put his foot down and refused to attend. <br />
"It was wrong," he complains. "It was for 21 years old and up. ... I said, 'This whole thing's falling apart up there and they just want to blame all this stuff on you again.' I'm staying out of it." <br />
<a href="http://yhoo.it/eIo0JM"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Photo: See Miley's Newest Tattoo </span></a><br />
Fired up, Cyrus rambles on about such casualties of fame as <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/michael-jackson/celebs/263"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Michael Jackson</span></a>, <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/anna-nicole-smith/celebs/3"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Anna Nicole Smith</span></a> and Kurt Cobain, drawing a somewhat bizarre analogy between the late Nirvana frontman (who committed suicide) and his "Party In the U.S.A." daughter (who seems legitimately confident and self-loving).<br />
"That's why I'm concerned about Miley," he says, referring to Cobain. "I think that his world was just spinning so fast and he had so many people around him that didn't help him. Like <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/anna-nicole-smith/celebs/3"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Anna Nicole Smith</span></a> -- you could see that train wreck coming. I was actually trying to reach out to <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/anna-nicole-smith/celebs/3"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Anna Nicole Smith</span></a>, because I kept telling Tish and everybody around me, going, 'This is a disaster.' <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/michael-jackson/celebs/263"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Michael Jackson</span></a> -- I was trying to reach out to <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/michael-jackson/celebs/263"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Michael Jackson</span></a>. I knew he had kids, and I was going to invite his kids down to a taping of "Hannah" -- I just felt it would be good for Michael." <br />
<a href="http://yhoo.it/fI9ZwO"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Related: Miley To Host SNL </span></a><br />
Lest we all brand Cyrus a less evil, equally oversharey version of <a class="omg-inlink" href="http://omg.yahoo.com/michael-lohan/celebs/1983"><span style="color: #ec147f;">Michael Lohan</span></a> (in terms of using the media to get his message across to Miley), he works some preemptive damage control into the <i>GQ</i> interview. <br />
"For the record," he says, "to set it straight, I want to tell you: I've never made a dime off Miley. You got a lot of people have made percentages off of her. I'm proud to say to this day I've never made one commissioned dollar, or dime, off of my daughter."<br />
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*********************************U-P-D-A-T-E************************************<br />
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In light of Mr. Cyrus' comments in the GQ spread, Disney has cut all contractual ties with the Cyrus family. "We saw it coming for a long time," a source at Disney said. "She wanted to mature herself, but it kind of backfired. Her future eithout Disney is TBD." Not sure if this is what he wanted, but Mr. Achey Breaky won't have Disney and nem to blame for his <strike>lil slut's</strike> daughter's issues. Hmmmm... Disney brat, Southern girl wanting to be "more adult" this sounds eerily familiar... OH that's right this is exactly how Britney Spears started out. That worked out GREAT for her *insert sarcasm here* let's see what Miss Miley does with her new found freedom and adult hood.<br />
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-Se7en OwtThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-58114187523227432532011-02-09T12:35:00.000-08:002011-02-09T12:35:21.708-08:00Licensing Your Music Ain’t Easy – Be CoolFrom Echos blog:<br />
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I recently had lunch with the founder and CEO of a popular website for independent artists. It was great to catch up and hear about all the exciting things going on with the site. On the other hand it was a bit of a concern hearing about some of what he and his staff have had to put up with recently in dealing with some of the more, shall we say, frustrated and/or unstable musicians that use his services. <br />
On the site, artists can submit their music for a nominal fee to listings for licensing and other opportunities. As you can imagine, only a relatively small percentage of the music submitted can be accepted. There are high standards for anything that’s going to be used in film and TV and chances are that most of the submissions will fall short of this standard. Also, factor in that with licensing, it’s a bit of a crap shoot. You may have a better song than the next guy, but something about the other song just works better for the scene or they happen to have a lyric that fits perfectly for what they’re looking for. There’s no way around it – a lot of artists are going to end up frustrated. <br />
The ones who ‘get it’ realize that you have to keep pushing forward and that you have to plant 1,000 seeds to grow 10 trees. The ones who don’t ‘get it’, in my experience, are poor judges of their own material and put too much importance on each submission. They also tend to underestimate how much work and perseverance it really takes to develop themselves to the point that they can produce broadcast quality music and get it placed. They fall into the trap of thinking that other people are responsible for their success or failure. Their minds play tricks on them and they imagine scenarios where the cards are stacked against them. <br />
I remember when I first learned ProTools and started recording from home. I spent A LOT of time working at it. Before long I started to feel like the quality of my recordings were good enough to start getting placements. I signed up with some submission services in hopes to get some good breaks. I was sure that I was only a few months away from being able to make a living at it. WRONG! I was a lot further than I thought. My ears and brain just couldn’t tell what was lacking in my recordings. It all sounded great to me. <br />
I remember the frustration well. I think one of the most difficult things for humans to deal with is when we can’t see the correlation between our actions and our results. I literally could not tell why I wasn’t getting the results I expected. A lot of explanations went through my head, but none of them gave me any peace. Eventually I ended up with a roommate who was much better at recording music than me and thankfully wasn’t afraid to call it like he heard it. It was painful to hear the truth at times, but I finally started to hear some of the things that I needed to improve. After several months of my roommate’s feedback I started to make money with my recordings.<br />
Until you break through and have some success it can be a lot easier to blame someone else for your frustration. It requires a lot more effort to actually get the job done. Unfortunately, some people are so sure that their success is being thwarted by some evil-minded, greedy company or person that they will act like spoiled children and absolute jerks. This strategy only causes pain for all involved.<br />
What I’d like for more people to realize is that when you submit your music for opportunities, the people who are screening your music are people who care, just like you and I. In most cases they’re musicians too. They probably understand and empathize with your frustrations more than you realize and they don’t enjoy having to deny anyone opportunities. <br />
Even if you don’t understand why you’re not having the success that you believe you deserve I urge you to withhold judgement and to just stay at it and get as much honest, constructive feedback as you can. When your results in the outside world match your hopes and expectations then you’ve reached the point where you truly know what it takes and can judge your own work. Until then, you don’t and you can’t. If you’re not there yet then take 100% responsibility for getting yourself there, even if you don’t know how you will. If you have faith then you’ll have the strength to stay at it long enough to figure it out. In the meantime, be cool and treat people with kindness and respect. <br />
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<br />
Read more: <a href="http://blog.discmakers.com/2011/01/licensing-your-music-aint-easy-be-cool/#ixzz1DUoPDxUq" style="color: #003399;">Licensing Your Music Ain’t Easy – Be Cool — Echoes - Insight for Independent Artists</a> <a href="http://blog.discmakers.com/2011/01/licensing-your-music-aint-easy-be-cool/#ixzz1DUoPDxUq" style="color: #003399;">http://blog.discmakers.com/2011/01/licensing-your-music-aint-easy-be-cool/#ixzz1DUoPDxUq</a>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-92182183114034825732011-02-08T12:36:00.001-08:002011-02-08T12:36:13.495-08:00Do some Hoe shitLOL the Music business according to Miss Badu. I saw this on my Homie Yazza's blog, and had to post it, but go to her page to see it! <a href="http://vaggaswagga.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-it-in-industry-according-to.html">http://vaggaswagga.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-it-in-industry-according-to.html</a>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-46830243632613404532011-02-08T11:46:00.000-08:002011-02-08T11:46:17.443-08:00For what?It's bad enough that Wiz Khalifa's annoying ass song <em>Black and Yellow</em> is on the radio every 2 minutes, but now I have to hear Lil Wayne's annoying ass voice do a remix? Ugh kill me now! If you haven't heard Lil Wayne has up and decided that his favorite football team is the Green Bay Packers, this realization prompted him to write <em>Green and Yellow.</em> His ode to the Cheese Heads... The fuck outta here dude! I refuse to believe he is an actual fan of the Packers, but to be fair the song isn't completely terrible.<br />
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It ain't hard to tell that Lil Wayne ain't my favorite rapper, but I'm no hater and will give props where I feel they are do, with that said, have a listen to this...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0Sk9zRXq5Y?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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Although Wayne mars this track with his terrible voice, this is was one of the few tracks he's been on in a while that he actually said something that made sense, so for that I commend him. I'm not convinced he's a fan, but he predicted Aaron Rodger's MVP award, so *shrug* who knows...<br />
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Se7en OwtThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-15980977805938446562011-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:002011-01-11T09:49:53.328-08:00Chalie Boy is 'Here'<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Greetings Good People!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As a fan of Chalie (and no that isn’t a typo) Boy of Dirty 3<sup>rd</sup> Records, I feel compelled to share with you his latest video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My writing partner Note would probably be appalled by the fact that I put this up on the blog, but he ain’t here, so fuck him! LOL I kid it’s all love my man.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Without further adieu, here’s the video:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/A9NoktQRCzI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Like I said I am a <a href="http://chalieboy.net/">Chalie Boy</a> fan, and as such I can criticize without being a hater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here goes my criticism. This is the second video to come off of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://djbullonline.com/dirty3rdpromo/Music/ImHere.zip">I’m Here</a></i> mixtape which dropped back in February of last year. Much like its predecessor <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKr2SZUW3Bk">Déjà Blu</a></i> (Which happens to be one of my favorite tracks from the Double Disc mixtape) the video just doesn’t do the song justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like this video much more than the previous entry; hence my reason for blogging about it, but it still doesn’t meet my expectations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When I listen to this song I hear the passion in his words, and I see the picture that the lyrics pain; that of a young hungry artist eager to make a name for himself and make his hard work pay off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the video doesn’t show me that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It attempts to, but it falls short.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None the less, this is still a good song, and kudos to Chalie Boy for all of his hard work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep doin ya thang mane!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Se7en Owt</span></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-22176760121254819762011-01-09T07:50:00.000-08:002011-01-10T08:10:26.812-08:00Is Omarion Gay?According to the singer himself he isn't, but arecent press release stated the contrary. But you be the judge. Check out the link. Omarion talks to funk flex about the recent allegations, and says "I love ladies." <a href="http://www.vladtv.com/mobile/video-detail/36017/">Check it out</a>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-56315403418855258702011-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:002011-01-06T11:04:23.818-08:00Now put that on Your F*ckin Wall<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black','sans-serif';">After seeing the 7 year old ‘gangsta rappers’ yesterday, I was happy to run across this today. I can't lie, when I saw this I couldn’t help but laugh, but that's part of the point. Take a look.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black','sans-serif';">Sad part is, he'll probably be investigated on child abuse charges. This is one story that Oprah SHOULD pick up, but we won't see this on any daytime talk shows, although it’s a perfect example of parenting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black','sans-serif';">Say what you want. This is a lesson learned, and I hope this uncle followed through and made his nephew put this video on his wall. Kudos to you sir, there may be hope for our youth after all! Just wish I knew this man so I could thank him, maybe buy him a drink or take him to a strip club.</span><br />
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</div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-24589687685529936572011-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:002011-01-05T13:44:48.499-08:00A lyrical 'Whipping'For everyone that was dumb enough to believe the rumor that Soulja Boy penned Willow's Whip My Hair Check out what JukeBox (who actually worked on it) has to say about it:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZYtPI1zjhqk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-26935456862468844682011-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:002011-01-05T07:27:46.386-08:00Where is yo momma?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After watching this video I was left with the question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is yo damn Momma?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the caption these are 7 year olds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I am well aware that the world is a different place than it was when I was 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am also aware that children are exposed to more than most 7 year olds were when I was a child, but that doesn’t excuse this.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><object height="374" width="448"><param name="movie" value="http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/e/16711680/wshhRCJHCZ4ubCHZj0w4"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/e/16711680/wshhRCJHCZ4ubCHZj0w4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" width="448" height="374"></embed></object></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These are children rapping about shooting, and fucking!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where in the hell did they even learn this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure they got it from Scarface, Z-Ro, Devin, or any other Houston rapper that they’ve heard, but what gives them the gall to use such language? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I got m</span>y first rap album at 10 and it was Eazy-Duz-It by the late Eazy-E, but I knew better than to repeat what the NWA posse was saying. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a child I would have never said anything like that because I would have feared for my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was deathly afraid of my father, and anytime I did something remotely wrong I just knew he would find out and beat my ass for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what these kids need. A good old fashion, passionate ass whoopin! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My guess is they probably haven’t felt the painful sting of a leather belt across their naked asses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they had, they wouldn’t be so brave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>What’s sad is we can’t blame the children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Children only imitate and emulate the adults in their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the children of the world don’t have better examples than this, then we are in trouble folks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So who do we blame? Their mother? Their father? The idiot bastard filming this shit? Or all of the above? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The latter gets my vote) I don’t know who the adult is behind the camera, but he deserves the ass whooping more than they do, because he is the one who should know better!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I’m disgusted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a parent if ANYONE ever hears my child speaking in such a way, I grant you full license to pop her one good one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then call me, and I’ll take over from there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SMH This is a perfect example of what the hell is wrong with Black America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not the Dream that Dr. King had for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this doesn’t appall you, then do the world a favor and jump of f of the nearest overpass, to remove your ignorant ass genes from the pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t deserve to procreate.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In closing I ask you all to go out and find a child and teach them something positive.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Se7en Owt</span></span></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-14499492064150897172011-01-04T06:59:00.000-08:002011-01-04T06:59:20.543-08:00Everybody knows Monsters can't act!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The past few days everyone has been all atwitter about the Monster video with Kanye, Nicki, Jay, and Rick Ross, and it took me a couple of days, but I finally got the chance to watch it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before I comment on the video, I want to express my feelings about the song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I had to sum it up in 2 words I’d say “Fuckin Awesome” *Jay-Z voice* The song, in my opinion, is what Hip Hop should be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean three Lyricists just being lyrical. There’s nothing better for a Hip Hop head like myself who loves the artistry involved in putting words together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The poetry of delving deep into one’s vocabulary and pulling out the best and delivering it ferociously is truly music to my ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, before all of the haters start throwing stuff at their computer screens, let me clarify.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t the best song I’ve ever heard, nor is it the best verse I’ve heard from either of these artists. With the exception of Miss Minaj, I haven’t heard her go harder (not that she hasn’t, but I’m not a fan and haven’t listened to her much).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is the type of stuff I like to hear when artists come together; MAGIC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fibMgAKUkfI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Now on to the video, first off Officer Ricky shouldn’t be in the video, just like he had no reason being on the song (somebody should lose a week’s pay for that dumb ass decision).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The video was god, but it didn’t live up to the hype, and it definitely didn’t do the song justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While it was creative (as most of West’s videos are), it wasn’t the 2011 version of Thriller that it was hyped up to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yes, before you ask, someone did indeed call it that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Kanye’s section was good, it went well with his verse, and it was probably the most conceptually appealing piece of the video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jay-Z’s part, on the other hand, was just terrible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For all of the visuals that his words convey, they did nothing in the video to match it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He basically stood there for 16 bars; POINTLESS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lone bright spot in the video, the play on Roman vs. Barbie was good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t done as well as it should’ve been given the unbelievable amount of stardom involved in this project.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’d like to redo the video and show them how it should have been done, hmmmm maybe that’s a new project for me. Stay tuned…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Se7en Owt</span></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-60586780253209083772011-01-04T06:57:00.000-08:002011-01-04T06:57:21.406-08:00Happy New Year!As customary, Skillz has blessed us with his year end rap up, and as usual, he killed it. Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/W9V_2OiixrY/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/W9V_2OiixrY&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/W9V_2OiixrY&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-77587177192556480032010-12-14T13:10:00.000-08:002010-12-14T13:10:12.599-08:00Pockets BK double Whopper<object height="385" width="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YJ3dSKO7vFI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YJ3dSKO7vFI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="340" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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This a new video for the song Freeze Me by Young Dro feat. T.I. and Gucci Mane....<br />
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There are so many issues that I have with this debochery. First and fore most if you still had doubts as to whether Gucci Mane was retarded or not, now you have proof right at about 12 seconds in. SMH.<br />
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The song is very elementery, as is most new rap music, but it's elementary from two Grand Hustle artists that I've grown to expect more from. Young Dro has always been very underrated to me, but with lyrics like "Pockets BK double whoppers so you know they cheesy" and "Whoop a nigga ass with a tall nigga" actually suggest the exact opposite. T.I. While his flow was great, he didn't have much to say either. It's a sad day when Gucci Mane isn't the lyrical downfall of a song. <br />
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But lyrics aside the visual of this foolishness is even worse, not only did Gucci decide that picking his gigantic ass nose in the begenning was a good idea, but he also decided those ugly ass red glasses matched his purple shirt. Who was in charge of this mess? Then you have T.I. drinking Remy with a big Kool-Aide grin on his face like he's a high school freshman that just got invited to the star quarterback's big bash. c'mon son.<br />
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I can't say anymore about this foolishness my stomach hurts I'm going to go listen to some Michael Jackson to make myself feel better.<br />
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Until Next time Se7en Owt<br />
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P.S. yeah I know it's been a long time since I blogged. I've been busy, get off my nuts!The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-64891671431404851982010-09-02T09:49:00.000-07:002010-09-02T09:49:20.857-07:00T.I. Arrested.... again! C'mon Son<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://musicwarship.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ox="true" src="http://musicwarship.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ti.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>According to the CNN blog "This Just In" Clifford T.I. Harris has been arrested for "posession of a controled substance." Not only was he locked up, but his new wife Tiny went down with him.<br />
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Here's what CNN has to say:<br />
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Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Police arrested rapper T.I. and his wife in California after they were allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance.<br />
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The couple was arrested late Wednesday during a traffic stop in Los Angeles, according to a police report. <br />
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During the stop, police said, they smelled an odor of marijuana coming from their car.<br />
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The arrest isn't the first for the rapper, whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris.<br />
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In 2008, he was sentenced on charges of unlawfully possessing firearms as a convicted felon. <br />
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The charges followed an arrest by federal agents a year earlier while T.I. was buying three machine guns in the parking lot of an Atlanta, Georgia, grocery store.<br />
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T.I. was released after serving nine months in prison and three months in a halfway house.<br />
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"Well, I'm just ready to put the bad things behind me and look forward to the future and, you know, just move forward and evolve -- continue to evolve," he told CNN's Larry King this year.<br />
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T.I. and his wife, Tameka Dianne Cottle, were held on $10,000 bail.<br />
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Why is it that these rich and famous fuckers can seem to hire somebody to carry this shit for em? I've only got 2 words for this foolishness C'MON SON!The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-53884660347009287312010-08-30T12:09:00.000-07:002010-08-30T12:09:39.956-07:00DIY Performance Video – Part 2: Post-ProductionLast month, I described the pre-production planning process and the DIY video shoot done with the band Sugar Water Purple. Now let’s step through the DIY post-production process used to finish up the video.<br />
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First, I wanted to recap a few decisions we made in the pre-production process that came up in reader comments to last month’s story. (See the link at the end of the story to read Pt. 1)<br />
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One reader pointed out that we used a stationary camera position for the 5:00+ song and suggested having multiple cameras would have made the video more exciting. While this is true, a multi-camera shoot would have required more time and editing than our project allowed for. The purpose of the video was to see what type of quality we could get sticking to a simple, one-camera, one-take approach.<br />
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Another reader questioned why we bothered to record the audio to a separate device, instead of taking the audio mixing board output and plugging it directly into the cameras. While this is an option, the audio recording capabilities of most consumer-grade video cameras do not offer the type of headroom that will make for good audio reproduction. Just look at the thousands of self-made performance videos on YouTube where this approach was tried to hear poorly balanced or distorted audio tracks.< Alternately, using the camera’s on-board microphone rarely results in a decent audio track for a full band. If you are a solo performer with acoustic guitar and vocals, you might get a decent result using the camera’s on-board mic, but using higher quality external mics and a separate audio recorder will always yield a better-sounding audio track for a band. That’s why we chose to do a separate live audio mix to the Zoom recorder and match the audio and video recordings up in post-production. The live mix came out clean and very representative of what the band actually sounds like live. This was one of the goals that the band was looking for, to capture what they sounded and looked like in a live setting.<br />
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Post-Production<br />
While the band was packing up their equipment after the shoot, I pulled the SD Memory card out of the Zoom recorder and, using a universal card reader, downloaded the audio mixes for all four complete takes of “Before This Began” to my computer.<br />
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At home that night, I plugged in both of our cameras and, one at a time, transferred the video recordings to my Mac. The trick to making this a snap is to first open the iMovie application (which comes free on all new Macs). When I plugged in the camera’s USB cable, the software automatically recognized the camera and asked me if I wanted to import the video files into iMovie.<br />
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After clicking “Yes,” it took about five minutes to download the normal resolution video we shot with the Canon F200. Then I repeated the process for the HF200 camera, and that took a little more than 30 minutes to download the larger, high definition video files.<br />
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A few days later, Dan and I got together at my house and started checking the audio mixes. All four complete takes came out fine, but as we expected, take four had the best overall audio mix. The audio was saved as 16-bit, 44.1K .WAV files, with the complete song taking 59.7 MB of disc space. Next, we reviewed take four of the video recordings from both cameras. What we noticed was that the tripod we had used under the FS200 didn’t work properly, so each time the cameraman zoomed or panned the camera, there was a slight, but perceptible amount of jitter, which ended up rendering the footage from the FS 200 unusable. All was not lost, however, since our second camera, the HF 200, had a much sturdier, fluid head tripod that performed as expected.<br />
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In hindsight, shooting with two cameras was a good safety measure: had we only used the FS 200 video, we would have had to reschedule another shoot. A simple, but essential piece of equipment, such as a tripod, should never be taken for granted when making your own DIY videos.<br />
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The second thing we realized was that we had used the high definition mode on the HF 200 and the resultant video had much greater contrast and definition than the footage from the FS 200. So the second lesson is, if you can borrow a camera that is high definition-capable, take advantage of that to capture the original video in the highest possible resolution.<br />
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To complete the post-production process we faced four distinct linear tasks. These were:<br />
1. Syncing up the audio recording with the video<br />
2. Trimming the beginning and end of the selected video recording<br />
3. Adding opening titles and the band’s MySpace address as closing credits<br />
4. Posting the finished video to YouTube.<br />
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At the start of our post-production session, we had a complete video recording of the song and a separate complete audio recording of the song. The first thing we learned was that iMovie requires you to start the editing process by opening a “New Project,” which would become the finished version of the video. In my opinion, this is one of iMovie’s best design features, because as you edit your video in the new “Project,” your original source video is never changed, so you always have that as a back up.<br />
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Step One: Syncing Audio with Video<br />
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We had relied on our own DIY substitute for the electronic pulse and SMPTE time code that would have been generated by a professional clapper system. By focusing each camera on me while I held up a sign with the take number and counting down before clapping my hands, we hoped that we could adequately synchronize our separate audio recording to the video. Now it was time to find out if this would really work. <br />
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The raw video showing in our project window had the compressed and echo-y sound that was recorded using the HF200’s on-board mic. Dan went to the Edit menu and selected “Detach Audio,” which separates the camera audio from the video. This audio now showed it as a separate colored band underneath the video strip. Since we weren’t going to use any of the on-board audio, we deleted the track.<br />
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Next, we minimized the iMovie app, opened the folder with the separately recorded audio mixes, and dragged the audio track onto the computer desktop. Then we dragged the .WAV file over into iMovie and dropped it right over the camera audio track in the project window.<br />
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While the audio import was a snap, getting it in sync with the performance proved to be a bit more challenging.<br />
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The audio mix landed roughly three seconds ahead of when the video performance actually began. Dan was able to click on the beginning of the audio track and drag it to the right (later in the project window) and after a few tries, we had the visual of me clapping fairly close to the sound of the handclap on the audio track from the Zoom.<br />
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It only took about ten seconds of viewing before we realized that we were still out of sync, but by a much smaller amount.<br />
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The other thing we noticed was that the newly imported audio volume was a bit low. By double-clicking on the project video, the Inspector pop-up menu box appears, which allows you to fine tune video or audio for your project. Dan selected “Normalize Clip Volume,” which boosted the audio level nicely for the overall audio mix.<br />
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Watching the drummer and matching up the sticks hitting his hi-hat and cymbals was one good way to check our sync. The song’s chorus also featured some aggressive chords on guitar, which was another visual “hit” that had a correspondingly clear audio element we could check. The third cue we looked at closely was our singer’s mouth, and the sound of her breathing on the audio mix. What we discovered as we worked to accurately sync up the audio and video was that the original hand clap sync only got us so close.<br />
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In other words, the video and audio of the handclap would appear perfectly in sync at the top, but when we closely watched the band’s performance, and the “hits” we were tracking, we found that we were still off by a few frames. (Each second of video is broken down into thirty smaller units, called frames.) It actually took us about 30 minutes of painstaking experimentation before we finally had the sync close enough to move on to the next step.<br />
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Although it was tedious and time-consuming, we had proven that we could marry a separate audio recording to the video successfully, resulting in a much better audio track than the on camera mic had captured. Dan and I agreed the extra hassle in recording audio separately and syncing up had been worth it, as our mix was clean and had a full frequency sound that no on-board camera mic would have captured.<br />
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Step Two: Trimming the Video Recording<br />
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Dan set the spots where we wanted the live performance to begin about five seconds before the music began. The most intuitive way to do this is to use the software’s “Precision Editor,” which shows as a small gear wheel when you roll your mouse pointer over your project’s video clip. Then you simply drag the little handles at the front and back of your project video to determine where the project’s video will begin and end. (If you want more precision, holding down Option and then using the left or right arrow allows you to adjust the Trim Point one frame at a time.)<br />
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The day of the video shoot, I had instructed the band to freeze for about fifteen seconds between takes, being sure to mute their instruments completely and avoid talking or making any noise. This proved helpful as Dan set the start point at five seconds before the song started (to allow for a fade in to set the stage) and ended (for the fade out). We played back the entire video recording back in high definition to confirm that we liked the start and ending points before moving on to adding the titles.<br />
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Part Three will detail the process of adding titles and publishing the video to YouTube.<br />
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Special thanks to Dan Faughnder, Erik Urbina, Ralph Roberts, Middagh Goodwin and the band Sugar Water Purple for collaborating on this project. Thanks also to James Gonzalez, Jeff Crawford, Jace Hargis and Dave Chase for the loan of various pieces of video and audio gear.<br />
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by Keith Hatschek for discmakers.comThe Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7362035273642308076.post-69766063443869650112010-08-18T13:50:00.000-07:002010-08-18T13:50:12.516-07:00DIY Performance Video Part 1: Pre-Production and the ShootAs I was filling my car with gas the other day, a television was blaring commercials to me at the pump. Video has become the ubiquitous window that allows us to glimpse the good, the bad, and plenty of the ugly aspects of 21st century life. According to the latest Nielsen Television Audience Report, there are now more televisions (2.93) in the average American household than there are people (2.54), and an average of two computers per four-member family. We are a video culture, so for anyone working to build a career in music, one of the best tools to use in creating a buzz is video.<br />
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Videos come in all shapes, sizes, and budgets. They can serve many different purposes. Many bands make a video of every live performance to review and improve their show. Others work with top filmmakers to create elaborate mini-movies with six-figure budgets. Some use video as a documentary medium, recording life on the road, or the making of a new album. With the explosion of low-cost, high-quality video equipment and software, making videos is within the reach of any musician who wants to use the medium for his or her benefit.<br />
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Just how easy and how affordable making your first performance video can be is the subject of this two-part story. Before starting any video project, it’s important to determine realistic expectations for the amount of time and money you want to invest. It’s also essential to decide who the audience for your video will be, as well as its purpose. For example, hard-core fans of an established band will relish a backstage and tour bus shaky-cam diary. However, labels and managers will likely want to see a more polished video product.<br />
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For this DIY project, I contacted a local eight-piece band, Sugar Water Purple, and asked them if they would like to have me put together a live performance video to help promote the band. They agreed. We discussed possible dates, what song they would like to record, and I arranged to attend a rehearsal to meet the band and listen to some of their original songs.<br />
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My next step was to make decisions about some of the technical aspects of making the video. Generally speaking, there are three stages to making any music video: pre-production, the actual video recording (usually dubbed the “shoot”), and post-production. We’ll cover the first two steps in this article and go through the post-production process in the second part of this story next month.<br />
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Sugar Water Purple and crew at the DIY video shoot.<br />
Pre-Production<br />
The first step was deciding the purpose of the video shoot with Sugar Water Purple. Basically, it would serve as a promo video and another tool to refine their stage presence. The next step was to determine the budget. Basically, the budget was as close to zero dollars as I could keep it, as I planned to borrow all necessary equipment to create a finished video. The next decision was one that would impact the post-production timeline significantly: to shoot one continuous take of the performance, or to use two or more cameras and then edit between the different camera shots to create the finished video.<br />
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Based on the goals agreed to with the band and the amount of time I had available for the project, I decided to shoot one continuous take, in order to save time and effort in the post-production phase. Multi-camera shoots utilize editing or live-switching between cameras or shots and are a more complex undertaking. They can require days or weeks of post-production, depending on the level of detail and quality for which you are aiming, and a proportionally larger budget.<br />
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As a safety measure, I decided we’d have two video cameras recording each take, so that we would have a choice of two versions for each take of the song. The next important decision was where to shoot the video. One of the keys to making a decent quality video is to find a setting with adequate lights. (There’s no such thing as too many lights in the world of video!) Daytime hours at a club or concert venue often provide an ideal setting. I contacted Middagh Goodwin, a friend who operates a local non-profit music cooperative, the Plea for Peace Center, in my hometown.<br />
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He agreed that we could use the stage, lights and sound equipment in the club to shoot a video on a Sunday afternoon for a small rental fee. I visited the venue during a load in before another concert and decided that I would use black plastic sheeting available at any hardware store to cover the side walls on the stage area which were a little the worse for wear. The wall directly behind the stage was already painted black. Having a black background eliminates distractions from the focal point for the video, the artist. Although the stage was small, the band had performed there before and assured me that they could squeeze in the available space. There were two adjustable-height lighting trees, each with four lighting instruments and a separate dimmer for each one. The materials used to color each light, called gels, and were red, blue, purple, and yellow, which I decided would be adequate for our project.<br />
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Yamaha MG 16/4 sound board used for the mix.<br />
With the venue and lighting requirements set, the next pre-production decision centered on how to handle the audio. Sound is usually the most overlooked element in DIY video production. How would we get the audio from Sugar Water Purple’s live performance onto our finished video?<br />
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As reported in the recent Echoes post, “Using Video as a Learning Tool,” most consumer video cameras have a very inexpensive microphone that is designed to capture audio at a family reunion, wedding, or vacation destination – but definitely not the sound of an eight-piece band. I decided we would do a live audio mix of the band, similar to what would be done if there were an audience at the venue. We’d send a separate mix to an audio recorder, which like our cameras, would be borrowed. During my site visit to the venue, I found out that the Yamaha MG 16/4 mixer, power amps and speakers, 8-channel snake, six dynamic mics, assorted cables and mic stands would be at our disposal.<br />
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Zoom H4n digital audio recorder used to record the stereo audio tracks.<br />
I downloaded the operation guide for the mixing board and found out that it would allow for ten XLR audio inputs, which would have to be enough for the audio track for our video. I contacted a friend and he offered to lend me his new Zoom H-4n pocket recorder for the audio recording.<br />
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Next, I made a few calls and tracked down two video cameras and tripods, which I could borrow over a weekend. Both were flash memory devices, so there would be no video tape or disc to worry about, making the recording process that much easier. One was the Canon FS 200, a very small, but high quality video camera that has a list price of $299. The second was a Canon Vixia HF 200 (street price $750), which is capable of recording in high definition. Each camera owner also loaned me a tripod and the attendant cables for charging and downloading the video to a computer via USB.<br />
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We had settled on a particular day and time for the video shoot and then went over how many mics and direct boxes would be needed to record the audio. This resulted in the first compromise we had to make on the project. Working with the band’s trumpeter, Dave Creel, I had developed an input list that called for 12 channels. After checking the house sound board and realizing we only had 10 XLR inputs on the board, we decided to do without the two background vocal mics, which for “Before This Began,” only occurred in one brief passage. Here’s our final input list.<br />
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The band had been recording their new album at their rehearsal space, and while attending practice, I noticed that they had good quality mics on the kick drum and overheads. They agreed to bring those to the video shoot. The venue had six working dynamic mics, so I got on the phone and called a local sound man who agreed to loan me another Shure SM-58, two direct boxes, some black gaffer’s tape, and 6 AC extensions cords. The other friend who was loaning us the H-4n digital audio recorder, kindly allowed us to raid his studio for 12 mic cables and two ¼” – ¼” cables to go from the sound board to the Zoom’s inputs. I asked three colleagues to act as crew, Ralph and Erik would each operate a camera, and Dan would do the audio mix. Here’s our gear checklist:<br />
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Gear Checklist<br />
Microphones/DIs – drum mics provided by band; 6 mics at venue; 1 SM-58 and 2 DIs on loan<br />
Camera Gear – 2 Canon video cameras on loan<br />
Audio Gear – Zoom H-4n digital audio recorder with card reader; Headphones and 1/8” adapter; 12 XLR mic cables; ¼” output cables for stereo mix; all on loan<br />
Miscellaneous – Black plastic sheeting; black gaffer’s tape; case of water; AC extension cords<br />
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As the day for our shoot drew closer, I asked the band to send me an MP3 of the song they had chosen for the video, so the video crew could familiarize themselves with the song’s arrangement. Next, I hit the hardware store and bought a 20’ x 50’ (4 mil thickness) roll of black plastic sheeting and the grocery store for a case of water. As I drove around town collecting all the gear on the Friday afternoon before our Sunday shoot, I realized the pre-production phase of making the video was over.<br />
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The Shoot<br />
The crew met at my house at noon. We headed down to the venue and began our set up. I had asked the band to arrive at 1:30 PM for the load in, figuring that by 2 PM, we would be setting sound levels, tweaking light placements and ready to start recording by 2:30 which would allow us to record until 4:30 PM, as we had to be out of the venue by 5 PM. I had decided that rather than recording a variety of songs, we’d focus on getting a really strong performance of just one song, which we all had agreed would be a plus for promoting the band.<br />
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The first thing we did was to clear the stage area and measure, cut and hang the black plastic sheeting on the stage’s side walls. Then we set up our mics and stands and tested each one. We discovered a few buzzing cables and replaced them with some of the cables we had brought. (We marked every cable we brought to the venue with a piece of blue painter’s tape, to avoid any confusion on the load-out, as to what gear belonged to whom.) We moved the lighting trees to the far edges of the stage to maximize room for the band and decided that we would turn the house speakers toward the band, which with the three floor monitors, would allow the band to hear one another. Dan decided to send a separate Auxiliary (Aux) mix to the musicians onstage. He’d then use the board’s main faders and Control Room stereo output to feed the stereo mix to the Zoom.<br />
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The Canon HF 200 and Velbon 607 fluid panhead tripod.<br />
Since the band would be playing live with Dan in the same room, we brought headphones that he would use to adjust the stereo mix during recording and to check playback after each take. We did a test recording with each camera and the Zoom and awaited the band. Meanwhile, Erik and Ralph experimented with their camera settings, zoom capabilities and practiced how to use the tripod to smoothly move the camera horizontally across the stage (called “panning”).<br />
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We decided not to take any chances on battery life and plugged both cameras into AC power. As it turned out, there was quite a difference between the two tripods. One was bare bones, a no frills model, which turned out to be less than ideal.<br />
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The second was a much better tripod, the Velbon Videomate 607 Mini-Pro Panhead (Street price $85 with carry bag). It featured a damping system that greatly minimized any shaking or jitter when the camera was panned. With the inexpensive tripod, every time we panned the camera across the stage, there was noticeable jitter. Any jitter will likely be a real distraction, so if you don’t have access to a better quality tripod with a fluid head, it’s worth buying or renting one for your video shoot if you plan on making any camera moves at all while recording.<br />
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The Canon FS 200 camera with its view of the stage during set up.<br />
At 1:30, the band called saying that their Sunday morning gig at a local church had run long and they would be late. They arrived around 2 PM and quickly set up. We had to experiment with where to place everyone and in the end, squeezed in the band by carefully angling the three horn players and moving the light tree on their side of the stage onto the floor. We were ready for the first run through of the song. As the band ran down the song and Dan worked on his audio mix, I adjusted the lights to try to ensure every member of the eight-piece ensemble was lit adequately. Josh, the keyboard player, was in the back corner and hard for the camera to see, so I grabbed an incandescent work light and used it to illuminate the wall behind him. This added just enough depth so that he became more visible to the camera. Problem solved!<br />
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Thinking ahead to post-production, I knew one of the key challenges would be to seamlessly combine the video and audio recording of the song. Professional film and video teams rely on an electronic clapper system that sends an electronic pulse to all the recording devices being used on a shoot, thereby allowing easy synchronization in the post-production phase of the project. Staying with our DIY plans, I simply made up a paper cue sheet with the song title and take number written on it, then stepped on stage before each take. Erik and Ralph zoomed in on me while I verbally counted down to a handclap, which was recorded simultaneously on the audio and video recording devices in real time. We planned to use this handclap to synch up the two recordings later in post-production.<br />
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I had told the band that since we would be filming complete takes, if they made a significant mistake to go ahead and stop. Over the next hour, the band did four complete takes of the song, interspersed with a few false starts. After the first complete take, I asked the band to look and listen to what we were getting on video and audio, so that they wouldn’t be surprised later when the video was completed.<br />
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Although we were limited to 8 mic and 2 line inputs, Dan was able to craft a clean audio mix that the band loved.<br />
After a few suggestions on the balances between the various instruments and a discussion about whether more or less camera movement fit the mood of the song, we got back down to recording and completed takes two, three, and four. Dan was tweaking his mix and by the fourth take, he felt he had a workable balance for the stereo mix of the song.<br />
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Again, we asked the band to listen to take four and approve the mix. They also looked the video to ensure that they were happy with the results. I also listened carefully to the mix and spot-checked both of the video recordings. Everyone agreed: take four was the “keeper.” We began the process of tearing down the gear. Using a digital memory card reader, I actually started the post-production process by downloading the stereo audio mixes from the Zoom to my MacBook Pro computer as the band and crew packed up. Using the card reader, the download took less than 2 minutes for all the various 16-bit, 44.1 Hz audio takes we had recorded. By 4:45, we were loading our cars, shutting down the lights and locking the Plea for Peace Center.<br />
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Everyone was smiling as we drove away and I felt we had a very productive day. The real proof would come when we started the post-production process a few days later. To be continued…<br />
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by Keith Hatschek <a href="http://blog.discmakers.com/2010/06/DIY-performance-video-part-1/">Source</a>The Scorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231783624876708807noreply@blogger.com0