alice-owen18-blog

[alice-owen18-blog]

PR Strategy//

Alice Owen specialises in publications mainly within the rock genre and has interests in many areas. When writing publications she likes to use humor to keep the reader interested and so they want more from her. Mainly specialising in album reviews and events such as concerts and festivals, Alice spends her time getting to grips with the latest music and trends surrounding the world of rock music. She also has a keen eye for photography, something she takes a big interest in, which also comes in handy when needing to use imagery for any publications.

Below is a list of festivals visited in the last two years:

- Download Festival

- Reading Festival

- Isle of Wight Festival

- Impericon Festival

- Womad Festival

By the list above you can see she is well versed in many different festivals, alot of which showcase a lot of music, some with rock music not the primary genre. This has given her the opportunity to experience many different artists and styles alongside thousands of music fans.

Last 5 albums listened to:

- The Space Between - Majid Jordan

- All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us - Architects

- Freudian - Daniel Caesar

- The Cold Sun - Loathe

- Terror Firma - Osiah

As you can see she has a very diverse music taste, stretching from R&B to modern heavy metal giving her a very open view on music and being able to write publications for genres albums and shows outside of rock music making Alice very diverse in her writings.

Potential future stories:

- “The streaming revolution and how it has affected rock music”

- “Who are the next rock festival headliners”

- “How will Brexit affect music in the uk?”

[alice-owen18-blog]

Media Plan // NME

Dear Mr Williams

After reading the recent story on current Rap artist French Montana and his plans to launch his “We are the Dream” campaign with get schooled and MTV, i thought this would be of interest to you and your publication. The story carries much good intention as it’s aimed at giving people of a non american background the opportunity to go to college and supply them with the materials they will need to do so.

The reason i am writing to you in particular is because i feel this story is very relevant to the NME and their current readers as it involves a popular current artist who is very much in the public eye like many other artists mentioned within NME, and also being a very controversial topic, that being immigration, especially as the president has quite strong views on the topic as well.

The fact that MTV are playing a part in helping with the campaign will also sharpen some ears, as in recent years MTV has been considered “less music based”.

I would like to be the person to write this article as i have done much research not only into French Montana himself, but also other “get schooled” projects and the topic surrounding immigration in the USA.

I understand that not everybody who is of a younger age, will understand what is going on and why it is happening and why this campaign/charity is so important. There are so many people with opinions around this topic. If they read this they could possibly start to gather more of an opinion around it and have more of a general idea about what the campaign/charity is about.

I think it’s time that the younger generations voice should be heard.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Faithfully,

Alice Owen

[alice-owen18-blog]

French Montana Launches / “We Are The Dream” / Charity Campaign

So this week it has been announced that ‘French Montana’ launched a non-profit organisation and has teamed up with get schooled and MTV to do it.

The Organisation is called ‘Get Schooled’, it is aimed to supply undocumented immigrants with material to help them achieve a higher education in college.

‘French Montana’ migrated to America from Morocco when he was only a teen, so he now wants to help people get the same opportunities he had.

“I am one of tens of thousands of first and second generation immigrants that are having a significant positive impact on the United States,” “I am excited to lead others in this fight to ensure Dreamers connect with support they need to get to college and make their American Dream come true.” (Billboard, 2018)

The campaign has been named ‘We Are The Dream” referring to the people who are involved in the campaign and everyone who they help as ‘Dreamers’.

‘French Montana’ has been in charge of the campaigns social media side of things. He has been asking people to take selfies on Instagram and Twitter with hashtags ‘#WeAreTheDream and @GetSchooled to raise awareness. On the 20th of February they had an open Twitter discussion, with experts in higher education and immigration areas to further people's understanding in what they want to achieve.

I think seeing this kind of campaign is really great and also quite different. It’s common for musicians to support charities to do with education. but to have a charity specifically aimed at immigrants to get a higher education so they have better opportunities for work when moving to another country seems very outside of the box.   

“The Department of Education estimates that only five to 10 percent of the 65,000 undocumented children who graduate high school will go on to get a college education.” (Complex, 2018)

From the extract above you can see that higher education for undocumented children who have already been through high school struggle to get into college. This can also be because the process of applying for college has not kept up with immigration law, meaning immigrants are also unable to receive financial aid making college unaffordable and the process unclear.

There is a lot of thoughts and opinions around immigration especially in French Montana's country of residence (the United States). But he, with the help of MTV has made a stand on what he believes is right and what many other people is right and is looking to make a difference.

I think the campaign itself is a great idea and is one very personal to French Montana himself as he moved to the united states from Morocco at the age of 13, also to have the backing of an organisation like MTV is great as that can offer many opportunities to raise awareness for this charity and hopefully many other in the future using the various media outlets they have and not to mention other artists affiliated with MTV and French Montana.

[alice-owen18-blog]

Shaded /10th November 2017/

So what is officially your role in the band?

“Im the guitarist in the band, so i help write the guitar parts and anything else i can offer with the writing process, but i also do help with the recording side of things too. We self produce and record our music, so i also produce and record our music too.”

So like setting up everything and the gear that kind of thing?

“Yeah exactly! Setting up the equipment, the instruments, and when we are recording, i help produce it also.”

What would you say your main influences are for you and the rest of the band?

“Well personally for me when i play guitar outside of the band, it’s Blues and Jazz. But for the band, its band such as ‘All Time Low’ and ‘State Champs’, those are definitely the main influences. The bigger Pop Punk type of bands.”

So what about the genre of Pop Punk drew you in, in the first place?

“I dont know, it’s quite shit” *laughs* Nah it’s really fun to play. The energy in the songs, the fast paced nature of it makes writing and especially playing live, so much fun to play. Jumping and running around on stage and when the crowd gets into it too it just adds to the energy in the room and just makes it that much more fun!

So the EP (The Better Man In Me) which you just released in September, what kind of promotion did you do for that?

“So we did a Whole Press Release for it, we put on a EP Release show for it and invited a load of people down, friends, family and spread the word around all over social media, posters and flyers around Guildford and practically shouted it across the rooftops *laughs*, and did a few magazine Interviews too. 

“We also did a tour afterwards to keep the hype going, we did shows in Manchester, Liverpool, Abertillery, Swansea and Bournemouth. The turn out for these were awesome and it just made it that much more fun!”

So what did you enjoy most about creating the EP?

“I think for us it was mainly the control and the freedom we had, when you self produce an EP, you can take your time with everything and take as much time as you needed on parts that we really wanted to concentrate on. It’s also cheaper too *Laughs*

[alice-owen18-blog]

Architects / Brixton Academy /18th November 2017 /

The electricity in this room is unreal, everyone who is here knows exactly what’s about to happen and they know exactly how much this night means to this band. 

This is Architects biggest headline show to date and to top it off, it’s sold out!

As soon as they step on that stage, the crowd just go mental, the heaviness of the bass (Alex Dean) and those brutal riffs from the guitars, (Adam Christianson and Josh Middleton), the animalistic style of Dan Searle’s Double-Bass Drums and Sam Carter’s captivating vocals, all of this brought together just shows exactly why this is a sold out show and why they have such the mass following they do.

Their perfect balance of intense down tuned guitars and melodic parts, really bring these songs together and these guys pull it off just brilliantly.

For people who tend not to listen to this genre of music, they probably don’t realise just how moving these lyrics are. But for those who do listen, they can hear that Sam Carter really is a brilliant lyricist. Many of their songs revolve around politics, society and a lot of the time helping their fans with themselves. 

With songs such as ‘These Colours Don’t Run’. The first verse really shows what they try to put across in their songs,

‘These streets aren't paved with gold

Don't believe everything that you're told

Deception hides in all you see

Corruption hangs in the air that you breathe’

You can see that this band really mean what they’re telling their fans and the rest of the world. The amount of passion and feeling they are putting into this performance is just incredibly to watch. It’s hard hitting and you can see with the reaction they are getting from their fans, they’re doing it perfectly.

This show is very special for the fact that it is their biggest headline show but also emotional for one other reason.

Three months ago, ‘Tom Searle’, Guitarist and Founding Member, passed away, after living with cancer for 3 years. Tom and twin brother Dan, drummer of the band, kept this from fans, which made his passing at the age of 28 even more of a shock.

During their show, there were many chants of his name, even though his physical presence gone, his spirit was definitely felt there tonight, with Sam Carter responding to these chants by saying “ Tonight we stand with you in celebration of our brother’s life. Tonight we open Tom's diary and sing some of the greatest metal songs ever written.”

Toms presence was 100% felt in the air tonight, every person in that venue was their to celebrate the life of this incredibly talented man.

After smashing out more incredible songs from their new album, such as Phantom Fear and Colony Collapse, after their encore Dan Searle returns to the stage to deliver an emotional and heartfelt tribute to his brother.

“We've spent some time being close to dealing with death and you realise how fragile life is. It's very easy to sleepwalk through life. Don't sell yourself short. Find what you love and embrace it. Don't settle for mediocracy. Make the most of this life, you never know when it might end.”

It was a very emotional moment which definitely touched everyone in the building.

The band finished the night with ‘Gone with The Wind’ with fans joining in with many of the lyrics.

Overall the band really made that night their own, After all the tragedy these amazing guys have been through, they really made this night an incredible tribute and celebration to Tom and his life. 

They really have shown everyone that they deserve to be playing at Brixton Academy selling out their biggest headline show!

Links used:

- http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/architects-brixton-academy-review-metal-tom-searle-sam-carter-a7428446.html

[alice-owen18-blog]

Arctic Monkeys // Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not //

Arctic Monkeys. In a way this band has become a household name. With their last two albums, ‘AM’ and ‘Suck and See’ throwing them straight back into the light after a few years of hiatus.

Going from their days of being the 4 cheeky lads from Sheffield, singing about going out on a Friday night, (‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’), picking up girls, getting chased by police and bouncers (‘Riot Van’ & ‘From The Ritz to Rubble’)

There are definitely some similarities between the first albums and with their newest albums, the creative wordy lyrics and catchy guitar riffs, still all in all make them incredible albums. They’re still the young lads from Sheffield, just grown up, and with a bit of a hair cut!

So, set the scene, you’re nearing the end of your night out, it’s the last song and you suddenly hear it, loud fast paced guitar riff’s, those quick drums and you know instantly what this track is. Everyone in the building shouting at the top of their lungs. ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor’ will forever be included on party anthem playlists and will always be known as one of this band's most played and most popular tracks. It just has everything, fast guitar riffs and drums which together just make you want to jump around and dance, and with lyrics which you just can’t help but shout at the top of your voice.

The way in which Alex Turner writes his lyrics, he makes them so relatable to their fans. This is why their following became what it is from their major following from MySpace. With their lyrics referring to first nights out, run in’s with police, bouncers, making it as fun and trying to make it as relatable as possible and showing their fans that they really just a couple of lads having fun.

This album alone became the fastest selling debut album in British music. Selling over 360,000 in its first week alone, and still remains the fastest selling debut album by a band! Since then it has gone on to go platinum in the U.K.

The producers for this album were Jim Abbiss, he is known for working with such artists as Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, and Adele. Alan Smyth also worked on this album, he has also worked with bands such as Pulp, Reverend and The Makers and Richard Hawley. Both of these producers are well known for working with bands well within this genre of music, which you can really hear when listening to the album.

Arctic Monkeys are very well known for getting found through putting their demos and music out on the internet through ‘MySpace’ and building a big fan base through this.

NME have also named them “Our Generation's most important Band”. They are known for becoming a huge mainstream band while also being signed to a indie label, ‘Domino’ another artist signed to this label is ‘Franz Ferdinand’.

With inspirations such as the Specials, The Streets and Oasis, they’re expressive story telling lyrics and fast paced guitars is what puts them slightly apart from the rest of these bands, but you can also really hear the inspirations from those bands in their music.

Arctic Monkeys are definitely a band which this generation will not forget for a long time to come.

Links Used: 

- https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/497-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/ 

- https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/22/arctic-monkeys-debut-single-i-bet-you-look-good-dancefloor