#I was listening to some video in theme of Are The Straights Okay trends and the commentator agreed w this one

[gaminegay]

Another straight/monogamous/general Relationship Thing I don't get is "when they're still friends with their ex 🚩🚩🚩🚩" like. Oh so it's better if the breakup sucked or they childishly refuse to talk or they grew apart? Why.

[yelenasdog]

something like “i know” (ben hardy x fem reader)

genre: FLUFF FINALLYY

summary: sometimes making tiktoks with ben doesn’t always turn out the way you plan, but by no means is that a negative.

words: 1.4k

warnings: age gap (not dramatic, reader is like, idk, 23 maybe?), kissing, i think that’s it but lmk!

a/n: hi! so i’ve had this idea for ages and wanted to write it so here it is! the end of it is far sappier than i planned but meh whatevs. also ty to cici and eva for helping me pick the moodbard hehe. k enjoy!

☆❂✧

Having an age gap was never something that put a large damper on their relationship. The conflicting personalities of the two balanced out quite nicely, and the similarities that drew the two of them together in the first place (apart from the aforementioned) made sure they never had a lack of interesting things to talk about that weren’t generational.

Until TikTok, that was.

Now of course, there were some other millennials on the application, but Ben just for some reason couldn’t get it.

“Yes, I know that, babe, but why do they do dances?”

“They lip sync too!”

“But what is the point?”

And that’s how the conversation would end. Every single time. So Ben would sit on the sofa, watching as she danced about in front of the small screen, occasionally playing some cruel (ok, that’s a large exaggeration, they’re somewhat mean, at best) joke on him, claiming it was a trend on TikTok? That just did not sit right with him.

He didn’t remember hearing “mean pranks” in the initial description of the app when she had described it to him all of those times.

Ben tried to tune it out, he really did. He would wear his headphones, blasting Zeppelin as loud as he could while reading scripts or a book. But somehow, those catchy little tunes always managed to worm their way into his ear, being stuck in there for days and days on end.

He would waltz around the house humming Megan Thee Stallion, the occasional Flo Milli or underground indie artist also making an appearance often.

He was pouring a cup of coffee for himself one Tuesday morning in the kitchen before going on a run, Y/n watching fondly from afar. Rain was softly rolling down the windows, barely coming to a cease. The air was chilly, and fog floated through the early morning sky, a sense of calm washing over their shared South London home.

The room was kept somewhat warm, though, from the fireplace that she had insisted the house had to have, which Ben ended up being grateful for on more than one occasion. He looked over his shoulder briefly, smiling at the sight of his beloved wrapped up in his seafoam jumper, watching him move about contently.

As he turned back to where he was working on filling the two mugs in front of him, he began to oh so quietly sing the lyrics to what sounded like a familiar tune off of the app. Watermelon Sugar, maybe?

“Ben? Baby?”

He turned, his eyes growing wide and his hands flying to his hips as he leaned against the countertop behind him.

“Mhhm, yeah, w-what’s up, babe?”

She couldn’t hold in her giggle at the sight of her boyfriend’s red face and disgruntled appearance, one of his hands now scratching casually at his gold locks.

“What’re you singin’, pretty boy?”

His blush only increased at the nickname, eliciting another laugh from his girl.

“Y’know, just somethin’ I heard on the radio the other day.”

She immediately recognized his lie, he refused to listen to the radio, only using either Bluetooth or the aux cord, his music taste too pretentious for mainstream stations. She didn’t mind, though, always finding it quite funny how much of a music snob he was.  

But rather than call him out, she only nodded and smirked, standing up and bringing her phone with her over to the windowsill where she usually filmed her TikToks, pulling Ben along with her.

He sipped from his mug, eyes slanted as she scrolled through something on her phone, various sounds emitting from the speaker.

A little smile showed up on her face when she (apparently) found what she was looking for, leaving her to set the phone down, allowing a video under the sound to play on repeat.

“Sweetheart, what’s going on?” He asked, ever so cautiously, taking a step towards her. She walked towards him, engulfing him in a hug which he (yet again) cautiously reciprocated.

“I am going to teach you a TikTok dance.”

He had to do a double take.

“Come again?”

She pulled on the elastic waistband of her sweats, grabbing Ben by the arm.

“Come on, I know you wanna. And if nothing else you’ll do it to make me happy.”

He rolled his eyes, slightly irritated at her confidence and that she was so incredibly correct, he would do mostly anything to put a smile on her face.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He grumbled, moving to stand next to her.

She clapped once in excitement, joy flooding her entire body. The music started up again, but this time, she began to dance along to it.

“Ok, so just try to do what I’m doing, alright?”

“No! Not alright, can I just stand here, I think I should just stand here-“

“Ben, it's literally not that hard, 8 year olds can do it!”

“Well, I’m an extremely confused 29 year old man, thank you very much!”

And that’s basically how the next 15 minutes went until she finally gave in, allowing Ben to stand behind her, occasionally doing a little move of sorts. The two were in a fit of giggles now, struggling to keep enough composure for long enough to get even one successful video.

“Benjamin Jones! This is the last one, okay?”

He put a hand on his stomach, both of the pair attempting to catch their breath.

“Yes, yes, right okay, got it, last one.”

The little timer button counted down, the sound echoing throughout the property. 

The music then started, and she could barely keep a straight face for the 15 seconds. Bored of the routine, but never of her, Ben decided he would grab her and throw her onto the sofa, as payback for all the “TikTok pranks” she would pull on him. He waited for the perfect time to strike (one where she wouldn’t hopefully be too infuriated), restlessly shifting from foot to foot.

Nearing the last few seconds, he made his move. He swooped forward, a high pitched shriek falling from her lips as he wrapped his strong arms around her waist, running and jumping onto the couch, crushing her. He rolled off quickly, and she moved to be on top of him, her hair wildly astray. She sat up, straddling his thighs with a bright smile plastered on her face.

“You little jerk.”

He only smiled boyishly in response, a lovesick gaze set in his eyes.

The song was still playing on repeat as she leaned down, positioning her hands on either side of his head in order to place her lips gently upon his.

“That’s your reward for putting up with me today, Jones.”

He scoffed, taking her by the shoulders and bringing her to his chest. She looked up from where she was now comfortably lying, meeting his homey emerald gaze, his eyes like sea glass that had washed up on white sands, waiting to be rediscovered.

“I feel as if I deserve something more for all of that.”

“Oh, do you?”

He hummed and nodded, closing his eyes. She reached up, placing another peck on his plump lips, before scurrying away to retrieve the phone. He sat up rather quickly at the sudden loss of her body weight, smiling at the sound of her laughter coming towards him.

“Ben, look, it turned out so well.” She managed to slip out before basically throwing him the phone. A grin erupted on his own face soon after, along with the hearty chuckles to match. 

He made some commentary on how wonderful it was, before handing her back the device. She moved so she was once more essentially laying on top of Ben, the screen in both of their views. 

After sharing a few more laughs over the video, she captioned it and posted it, throwing her phone to get lost in the couch cushions as the likes and comments began to roll in.

She looked up at him once more, and he met her gaze, as he always would, bringing a hand up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. 

It didn’t leave her cheek, resting there and lightly caressing her skin. The two were most serene then, almost appearing as two felines that had decided to nap during the morning showers, most comforted by each other and the steady sound of the droplets as they pattered.

He was whispering now, the rambunctious energy of the room fading into a much more tranquil and stolid vibe, wrapping the two up like a warm embrace.

“Y’know I really would do anything to make you happy, my love.”

She closed her eyes, taking hold of one of his hands.

He then heard her mutter something like “I know”, and all was well.

☆❂✧

it was fitting for the theme. but anyway i hope u enjoyed, pls reblog and like if u did :) go drink some water, eat some protein, and take an electronics break!

love you bunches! xx hj

[hshouse]

are you done with your essay?

YES!! Harry essay is here and I love her.

It’s under the read more!! 

Harry Styles: the gay icon gay women deserve.

If you walk into an arena to watch a Harry Styles concert, you might think you came to a pride parade instead of a concert. His fans bring pride flags (all kinds of them: the gay, the lesbian, the bisexual, the transgender and the asexual have all been spotted) and wait excitedly for the moment when Harry snatches the flags for himself and runs around on stage with them. To understand the Harry Styles that his LGBT fanbase knows and love, it is crucial to know both his path to a successful solo artist and how he is perceived by the general public. Before his solo career, he was a member of the boyband One Direction. Boybands (and their members) have historically occupied in a curious position in popular culture. These groups, mostly composed of early twenties men, have been openly marketed towards a young female audience (who is presumed to be straight). The magazines write about the perfect date for each member and which actress the cute one is dating - all in a clear effort to sell them as romantic/sex icons for teenage girls. However, despite all of these efforts, these boybands are also adored by the LGBTQ community. While the appeal to gay men is more understandable, the bulk of the LGBTQ fans, at least in Harry Styles’ case, is composed of lesbian and bisexual women. Through analyzing four of his songs, I will shed a light on why this appeal exist and how he has become one of the iconic gay icons of the 21st century.

The first two songs that have become an important gay anthem for his LGBT fans were written by Harry Styles during his time in One Direction. The song “Happily” is featured in the third album of the band and “If I Could Fly ” is part of the fifth album. To understand the importance of these songs, some context is needed. A significant part of the One Direction fandom (the word used to describe the collective of fans) believes that Harry Styles was/is on a long term relationship with another bandmember, Louis Tomlinson. This belief is held mostly by the LGBT fans and it has shaped the fandom from the very beginning (this video - which has been watched over five million times - provides a good introduction on the topic). Many LGBT fans were introduced to the band by hearing about this belief. In different, and often controversial and unconvincing ways, both Harry and Louis have denied this relationship. However, the fans, including myself, even after four years of the band break, still believe in the existence of their relationship (the dynamics of this group are extremely interesting but are unfortunately outside of the scope of this essay).

In both “Happily” and “If I Could Fly” Harry writes/sings directly to his lover without (or with few) pronouns. Both songs invoke a common theme of certitude about their relationship while facing outside struggles to maintain this relationship. In “Happily”, Harry directly addresses how their relationship is viewed: “I don’t care what people say when we’re together/You know I wanna be the one to hold you when you sleep/I just want it to be you and I forever”. For straight listeners, this verse may not seem like more than a common love declaration in a pop song. However, for LGBT fans this verse is understood as a clear and loud representation of the queer struggle with acceptance for their relationships. Moreover, Harry is sending a strong optimistic message about queer love: “I don’t care what people say when we’re together”. In a pop culture that still often portrays queer love stories as tragedies or unattainable desires, hearing a song showcases a fairly happy queer love story is important for young LGBT people. Later in the song, Harry also plays (as he does in many songs as we will see) with the common listener’s assumptions about his sexuality: “It’s four a.m. and I know that you’re with him/I wonder if he knows that I touched your skin/And if he feels my traces in your hair”. A straight listened will likely assume he is jealous of another man who is with his female lover. However, the lover Harry is talking to is not specified as a woman so these sexually charged lyrics are understood by his fans to be within the context of a gay relationship.

In a distinctively sadder tone, “If I Could Fly” showcases another side of queer love: the understanding that that relationship is often the only social space where LGBT people get to truly be themselves. While many are lucky to have LGBT spaces and friends, it is still not the case for everyone - especially those in the closet. When performed live, this song seems to be personal and even perhaps painful to him. He sings: “For your eyes only, I’ll show you my heart/For when you’re lonely and forget who you are/I’m missing half of me when we’re apart/Now you know me, for your eyes only/For your eyes only.” These verses seem to say that he is himself only when he is with his lover or that only his lover truly knows him. Again, for his LGBT fans this song is undeniably about feelings and experiences that are unique to queer love within the context of our society. During his first tour as a solo artist, Harry performed this One Direction song in a separate B stage alongside one of his own love songs (the small stage was quickly nicknamed “the Boyfriend stage” by fans). During one of his London shows (linked above) the fans used their phones to form a pride flag across the arena. As he sang “I can feel your heart inside of mine”, his fans held a pride flag and sang back to him “I feel it/I feel it.” An incredibly powerful moment to us and to him (as you can see in the video).

In 2017, Harry started his solo career post One Direction. His first album cycle (including album release and tour) lasted until 2018 and it included over a million albums sold and 69 sold out concerts across the world. His career has been marked by his refusal to share anything substantial about his personal life outside of what is said in his songs. Harry talks through his actions and lyrics more than through any interview. Further, his solo career has also been marked by his fashion choices. He is the face of several Gucci fashion campaigns and the first gender neutral perfume. On tour, he was usually on a two piece suit with an extravagant pattern or in a creative variation of it like this prince outfit. But by far the most unique part of any Harry Styles concert is pride flags that flood the audience everywhere he goes. During every concert of his tour he grabbed some of the flags and ran around the stage. This movement to bring pride flags is a culmination of four years of efforts from his LGBT fans. During the One Direction tours a few brave fans brought pride flags, in a movement named Rainbow Direction, and were often met with hostility from other fans. It wasn’t until Harry started grabbing the flags and, in his fashion “saying without saying” that he supported and liked this trend, that the pride flags became accepted by the larger fandom.

Two of his solo songs deserve special attention for their importance for the queer fans. The first one is “Two Ghosts”. This song, like the ones mentioned before, is believed to be about Louis Tomlinson. The song was released as part of his 2017 album but was written in 2013. During that time, the Louis/Harry belief was first partially addressed when Harry and Louis, who were self declared best friends who lived together, completely stopped interacting with each other. This arrangement was in place until the last day of the band almost 3 years later. In a five person group, it was painfully obvious. “Two Ghosts” is believed to address this new public arrangement: “Sounds like something that I used to feel/But I can’t touch what I see/We’re not who we used to be/We’re not who we used to be/We’re just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me.” Styles then goes on to repeat “We’re not who we used to be” multiple times. Regardless of one’s belief on that relationship, when the song was released, Harry’s queer fans were stunned with how raw the song was. While being a celebrity in that situation is a mostly unrelatable problem, the feeling of not being able to express queer love freely is shared by many. In particular the lyric “I can’t touch what I see” shows a sadness and struggle that is known to many, if not all, queer people.

The second song is “Medicine”. This is Harry’s most openly queer song and also his most sexually charged. The second verse of the song boldly states that he is gonna treat his lover like a gentleman - a line that is hard to be interpreted in any other way but that his lover is a man. The song goes on to describe, by using the metaphor of taking medicine, the singer’s sexual desires with this person: “Here to take my medicine, take my medicine/Rest it on your fingertips/Up to your mouth, feeling it out/Feeling it out.” These lyrics are more explicitly sexual than any of his other songs. In a fan loved moment, Harry sings “I had a few, got drunk on you and now I’m wasted/And when I sleep I’m gonna dream of how you -” and the fans complete the (supposed) lyrics by screaming “tasted”. The song then comes to its most talked about verses: “The boys and the girls are in/I mess around with him/And I’m OK with it”. These verses exemplify what queer women love on Harry: in an unprecedented hint on his sexuality Harry is said in the same breath that he says is okay with it. Again, the reassurance that it is okay to feel this way. It is crucial to highlight an unsurprising detail about this song: it was never released as a track, he only performs it live. These lyrics, therefore, are not in the canon of what non fans know about him. Harry constantly seems to want to share his experiences in some contexts but not others - a feeling entirely too familiar to his queer fans.

During his concerts, Harry talks to the fans close to him from the stage and he seems to have talent (perhaps a radar) for choosing gay fans. This video contain most of the moments mentioned here. He helped multiple fans come out during the concert, he helped a girl find a girlfriend and even said that “everyone is a little bit gay”. His connection with his lesbian and bisexual fans is evident to anyone who follows him. In a very tangible way, this connection was not supposed to exist. Harry was, and still partially is, marketed as a sex symbol who girls are supposed to want to sleep with. His fanbase is supposed to be straight women that daydream about having a chance to date him. Of course, this is an incredibly sexist and condescending way to treat women and Harry has never been okay with this framework. Considering his silence on most topics, he has been loud and clear about his respect towards women and his love for his mostly young female fanbase: “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.“ And this sentiment, if his on stage interactions are anything to go by, seem to be even more clear about his gay fans. It is not to say that every straight fan wants to sleep with him or that he loves them any less. But there is a clear understanding by him that there is something special about the LGBT fans that, despite a marketing that was not meant to appeal to gay women, stood by him for now almost a decade. Show after show he has made it abundantly clear that this relationship is just as important and sacred to him as it is to us.

[alpha-incipiens]

Favourite music of the decade!

This is some of what I’d consider the most innovative, artistic and just great to listen to music from 2010-2019.

First a Lot of very good songs:

Crying - Premonitory dream

Arcade Fire - Normal person

Sufjan Stevens - I want to be well

Deerhunter - Sailing

Foster the People - Pumped up kicks

Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy problems

Grimes - Butterfly

Travis Scott - Butterfly effect

Future - March madness

Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj et al - Monster

Juice Wrld - Won’t let go

Danny Brown - Downward spiral

Kendrick Lamar - Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst

Kate Tempest - Marshall Law

The Avalanches - Stepkids

Iglooghost - Bug thief

Vektroid - Yr heart

Ariel Pink - Little wig

Mac Demarco - Sherrill

Vektor - Charging the void

Jyocho - 太陽と暮らしてきた [family]

Panic! at the disco - Ready to go

The Wonder Years - An American religion

Oso oso - Wake up next to god

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - I can be afraid of anything

And my top 20(+2) albums:

Calling Rich gang’s style influential on trap would be like saying Nirvana may have had some impact on early-90s grunge. In 2019 with trap so omnipresent in popular music, hip hop or otherwise, through the impact of artists like Drake and Travis Scott it’s almost hard to remember when this was a niche genre - it was Rich gang that popularised its modern sound here. Birdman’s beats with their rattling hi-hats and deep bass could have been made 5 years later without arousing suspicion, while Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug deliver consistently entertaining flows and numerous bangers between them. Thugger, this being his first major project, steals the show with his yelpy and hilarious rapping style. This may have once been the defining sound of house parties in the Atlanta projects; now it can be heard blasting in the night from white people’s sound systems around the world.

Early 21p may have never aimed to be cool, to avoid a certain appearance of lameness, but they did have a knack for writing some really catchy pop with an optimistic message. To the devoted, the critics of Pilots’ apparent mishmash of nerdy rap, sentimental piano balladry and EDM production were just stuffy, wanting music to stay how it was back-in-the-day forever and unwilling to get with the times. This viewpoint is understandable when you approach this album openly and actually listen to Tyler Joseph’s lyrics about youthful anxiety and insecurity, delivered with real conviction and sincerity, actually recognise that disparate musical elements are all there for emotional punch. A few songs do underwhelm. But this is emo for post-emo Gen Z’s and it’s easy to see why to some it can be deeply affecting.

The musical ancestor to the ongoing and endless stream of ‘lo-fi hip hop beats’ youtube mixes, chillwave filled the same low-stress niche, and Dive released at the peak of the genre’s relevance. Tycho’s woozy, mellow sound prominently features rich acoustic and bass guitar melodies over warm synths, enhancing the music’s organic feel compared to that of purely digital producers in the genre. The experience of starting this album is like waking up in a soft bed, the cover’s gorgeous sunrise reddening the room’s walls, while a guitarist improvises somewhere on the Mediterranean streets outside. And it is indeed great to study or relax to!

Simple, minimal acoustic guitar and vocals. If you’ve got talent this type of music shows it, or else it doesn’t: perfect then for Ichiko Aoba. Her touch is light, her songs calm, meditative, in no rush to get anywhere. As if serenely watching a natural landscape, one can best understand and enjoy Aoba’s music in quiet and peaceful appreciation.

Through the incorporation of genres like shoegaze and alternative rock, Deafheaven managed to create a rare thing: a metal album that’s both heavy and accessible, needing no sacrifice of one for the other’s sake. Over these four main songs, there’s a sensation of being taken on an intense, atmospheric and even emotional journey, with the band stepping away from the negativity and misanthropy that dominates most metal. The vocals, closer to the confessionalism of screamo than classic black metal shrieks, express more sadness than they do aggression, and in respites between solid blaring walls of guitar and drums, calm pianos and gently strummed guitar passages set a pensive tone. This totally enveloping, flawlessly produced sound can take you away, like My Bloody Valentine’s best work, into a dream or trance.

By the late 2000s MCR had taken their thrones as the kings of a subculture formed from the coalition of goth, emo, scene and other assorted Hot Topic-donned kids, and earned a lifelong place in the hearts of many a depressed teenager. But after the generation-defining The Black Parade Gerard Way took off the white facepaint and skeleton costume, ditched the lyrics about corpse brides and vampires, and embraced an anthemic, purely pop punk sound. The silly story of Danger Days, set in a dystopian California where villainous corporations rule and only the Punks can stop them, serves as a kind of idealised setting for the all-out rebellion against authority and normality that so many fantasised about taking part in. The band’s electrifying performances are the most uplifting of their decade making music. For many diehards the upbeat sound here was a celebration that they’d made it through the most difficult years of their lives, and a spit in the face of those who’d done them wrong.

The teller of rural American tales, the indie legend, the teen-whisperer himself. John Darnielle, long past his early lo-fidelity home recordings and now backed by a full band, loses none of the heart his songs are famous for. The theme of the album, taken straight from John’s childhood when the pro wrestling on TV offered an escape from his abusive stepfather, is complemented by the country and Tex-Mex flavouring to the instrumentation. Some of the best lyrics in his long career infuse the stories of wrestlers with universal meaning - his characters try, fail, lose hope, reckon with their mediocrity, and when they step into the ring they’re up against all the adversity life can throw at them. John Darnielle’s saying that when that happens, you stand up and sock back.

Folk music was always a major part of the Scandinavian black metal scene during its peak years, so when American musicians began exploring the genre naturally they incorporated American styles of folk. The complex, oppressive and sometimes hellish compositions here, starkly contrasted with bluegrass that sounds straight from the campfire circle, give the impression of life in the uncharted woods of the American frontier, in the middle of a brutally cold winter. Almost unbelievably, one-man-band Austin Lunn plays every instrument on the album: multiple guitar parts, bass and drums as well as banjo, fiddle, and woodwinds.

Andy Stott seems to delight in making his music as unnerving, haunting, perhaps even scary, as possible. The female vocals these songs are built around become ghostly, echoing and overlapping themselves disorientingly. The percussion, audibly resembling metal clanging, rustling or rattling in the distance, is often left to stand for its own, creating a tense space it feels like something should be filling. UK-based club and dub music can be felt influencing the grimy almost-but-not-quite danceable rhythms here, but the lo-fi recording and menacing vibe makes this feel like a rave at some sort of dimly lit abandoned factory.

There’s so much Mad Max in this album you can just picture it being set to images of freights burning across the desert. True to its title, the nine songs on Nonagon Infinity roll into each other as if part of one big perpetual composition, with the end looping back seamlessly to the start and musical motifs cropping up both before and after the song they form the base of. With its fuzzy, raw sound, bluesy harmonica and wild whooping, the Gizz create a truly rollicking rock’n’roll experience. The band would go on to release 5 albums within twelve months a year later, but Nonagon shows these seven Australian madmen at the height of their powers.

Sometimes you just want to listen to fun, hyperactive pop. The spirit of 8-bit video game soundtracks and snappy pop punk come together to create a vividly digital world of sound that seems to celebrate the worldliness, connectivity and shiny neon colours of early 2010s internet culture and social media. The up-pitched vocals and general auditory mania recall firmly Online musical trends like nightcore and vocaloid, while the beats pulse away, compelling you to dance like this is a house party and the best playlist ever assembled is on. It demands to be listened to at night with headphones, in a room lit only by your laptop screen.

“You hate everyone. To you everyone’s either a moron, or a creep or a poser. Why do you suddenly care about their opinion of you?” “Because I’m shallow, okay?! … I want them to like me.”

The fact that that Malcolm In The Middle quote is sampled at the emotional climax of this record should give some idea to the absurdity that defines Brave Little Abacus. It’s not even the only sample from the show on here. And yet the passion and urgency so evident in Adam Demirjian’s lispy singing and the band’s nostalgia-inducing, even cozy, melodies are made to stir feelings. The tearjerker chords and guitar progressions are so distinctive of emo bands with that special US-midwest melancholia, and they are interspersed with warm ambiance and playful sound effects ripped from TV and video games, seemingly vintage throwbacks to a sunny childhood. Demirjian’s lyrics, yelled out as if through tears or in the middle of a panic attack, verge on word salad in their abstraction, but that’s not the point: you can feel his small town loneliness and sense the trips he’s spent lost on memory lane. The combined effect all adds to Just Got Back’s themes of adolescence and the trauma of leaving it. While legendary in certain internet communities for this album and their 2009 masterpiece Masked Dancers, the band remains obscure to wider audiences.

These Danish punks know how to convey emotion through their raw and dramatic songs. Elias Rønnenfelt’s vocal presence and charisma cannot be ignored: his husky voice drawls, at times breaks, gasps for breath, builds up the deeply impassioned, intense force behind his words. The band sounds free and wild, unrestrained by a tight adherence to tempo, often speeding up, slowing down or straying from the vocals within the same song, as if playing live. Instrumentally the command over loud and quiet, tension and release, accentuates the vocals in crafting the album’s pace. Horns and saloon pianos throughout give the feel of a performance in a smoky, underground blues bar, with Rønnenfelt swaying onstage as he howls the romantic, distraught, heartbroken lyrics he truly believes in.

At some point on first listening to Death Grips, a thought along the lines of “He really yells like this the whole way through, huh?” probably crosses the mind. When Exmilitary first appeared, quietly uploaded to the internet, the rapper’s name and identity unknown, another likely reaction among listeners might have been “What am I even listening to?” But perhaps more revolutionary than Death Grips’ incredibly aggressive sound and style might have been its foreshadowing of how over the next decade underground rap acts would explode into the mainstream through viral songs, online word of mouth and memes. It showed all you needed to come from nowhere to the top of the game was to seize attention, and it did that and far more. MC Ride’s intoxicatingly crass, intense rapping captures the energy of a mosh pit where injuries happen, the barrage of sensations of a coke high, while the eclectic mix of rock and glitchy electronics on the instrumentals is disorienting in the best way. If rap were rock and this was 1977, Death Grips would have just invented punk. Ride’s lyrics paint a confrontational, hyper-macho persona; unlike much hip hop braggadocio, the overwhelming impression given is that Ride truly does not care what anyone thinks. He just goes hard and does not stop. It’s music to punch the wall to.

Inspired by classic rock operas, this concept album represents some major ambition and innovation in musical storytelling. Delivered in frontman Damian Abraham’s gravelly shouted vocals, the complex lyrical narrative of the album follows a factory worker, an activist and their struggle against the omnipotent author (Abraham himself) who controls their fates. Featuring devices like unreliable narrators and fourth-wall breaking, it takes some serious reading into to untangle. But it’s the bright guitarwork, combining upbeat punk rock and indie to create some killer riffs, that gives the album its furious energy and cinematic proportions.

Joanna Newsom is enchanted by the past. Like 2006’s ambitious Ys, the music on Divers makes this evident with its invocation of Western classical and medieval music, throwing antiquated instruments like clavichords together with lush string orchestration, woodwinds, organs, folk guitar and Newsom’s signature harp. With her soulful, moving vocals leading the way, it’s hard not to imagine her as some kind of Renaissance-era country woman contemplating nature, love and mortality in the fields and the woods. As always Newsom proves herself a stunningly original and creative arranger with the sheer compositional intricacy and flow of these songs, and most of all the harmonious intertwining of singing and instrumental backing.

Burial’s music is born from the London night: the bustle of the streets, the faint sounds from distant raves, the buskers, the rain on bus windows. This EP’s dreamlike quality makes listening to it feel like taking a trip across the city well after midnight, watching the lights go by, with no idea where you hope to get to. Every single sound and effect on these two songs is so precisely chosen, from the shifting and shuffling beats, the swelling synths and wordless vocals that sound like a club from a different dimension, the ambient hiss and pop of a vinyl record. Musically this sound is drawn from UK-based scenes like 2-step and drum ‘n bass, but twisted into such a moody and abstracted form as to be nearly unrecognisable as dubstep. Just when this urban, dismal sound is at its most oppressive, heavenly soul singers or organs cut through like a ray of light in the dark.

There’s an imaginary rulebook of how construct music, how to properly make tempos and combinations of notes sound harmonious, and Gorguts have spent their career ripping it up and throwing it in the bin. On 1998’s seminal Obscura, their atonal experimentation sounded at times like random noises in random order. But listen closely to Obscura or Colored Sands, their return after a long hiatus, and the method behind the madness emerges. One mark of great death metal is that it’s impossible to predict what direction it will go even a few seconds in advance, and the band achieves this while presenting a heavy, slow, momentous sound. The density of inspired riffs, and the intricate balancing of loud and quiet, fast and slow paced throughout these songs are exceptional. In instrumental sections the guitars will echo out as if across a barren plane, then the song will build up to the momentum of a freight train. Behind the crashing and twisting walls of guitar the patterns of blast beat drumming are almost mathematical in nature. Luc Lemay’s harsh bellows sound like a warlord’s cry or a pure expression of rage to the void. It’s threatening, menacing, unapproachable, but it all makes sense in the end.

Futuristic yet deeply retro, Blank Banshee’s music takes vaporwave beyond its roots in the pure consumerist parody of artists like Vektroid and James Ferraro and makes it actually sound amazing. Songs are built out of a single vocal snippet processed beyond recognition, new agey synthesisers, Windows XP-era computer noises, hilariously out of place instruments, all set to the 808 bass and hi-hats of hip-hop style beats. The genre’s pioneers intentionally sucked the soul from their music using samples pulled from 70s and 80s elevators, infomercials and corporate lounges - here the throwback seems to be to the early 2000s childhood of the internet, and the influence of a time when email and forums were revolutionary can be felt. The effect of this insanity is an album that whirls by like a techno-psychedelic haze: the atmosphere of dark trap beats places you squarely in a 2013 studio one moment, the next you’re surrounded by relaxing midi pianos and humming that a temple of new age practitioners would meditate to. Still, at some point when listening to this album, perhaps when the ridiculous steel drums kick in near the end, you realise that this is all to some degree a joke, and a funny one. It’s hard to overstate what an entertaining half-hour this thing is.

While 2012’s Good Kid, m.a.a.d City presented a movie in album form of Kendrick’s childhood and early adult years, TPAB’s journey is one of personal growth, introspection, and nuanced examination of the state of race in post-Ferguson America. It’s simultaneously the Zeitgeist for the US in 2015 and a soul-search in the therapist’s office. Sounding deeply vulnerable, he openly discusses depression, alcoholism, religion and feelings of helplessness. The White House and associated gangstas on the cover give some idea to the album’s political themes, with Lamar contrasting Obama’s presidency to the political powerlessness and lifelong ghetto entrapment of millions of black Americans. Everything I’ve written about the lyrics here really only scratches the surface because the words here are substantive, complex and dense with meaning. Near enough every bar can be analysed for multiple meanings and interpretations, essays can and have been written on the overall work, anything less does not do justice. The musical versatility on display is astounding: the album acts as an extravaganza of African-American music, from smooth west coast G-funk to east coast grit, neo-soul and rock to beat poetry, and most of all jazz. Like an expertly laid character arc the record progresses through its ideas in such a way that they’re all impactful, with the slurred rapping imitating a depressed drunken stupor followed later by exuberant, defiant cries of “I love myself!”, the white-hot rage against police brutality balanced by the hopeful mantra: “do you hear me, do you feel me, we gon be alright”. Perhaps the most culturally significant album of the 2010s and an essential piece of the hip-hop canon.

This harrowing hour chronicles the struggles and everyday tragedy of a series of characters and their relationship with the city they live in, narratively driven by some outstandingly poetic lyrics. Jordan Dreyer’s wordy tales despair at the poverty, gang violence and urban decay in the band’s native Grand Rapids, Michigan, an almost childlike open-hearted naivete in his words as he empathises with the broken and alienated people in these songs. There’s no jaded sneer or sly lesson to be learned as he sings about the child killed by a stray bullet or the homebird left alone after all their friends move away, just genuine second-hand sadness and a dream that compassion and community will eventually heal the pain. Taking elements from bands like At the Drive-In’s fusion of punk and progressive, and mewithoutyou’s shout-sung vocals, La Dispute hones its sound to a razor edge to put fierce instrumental power behind the lyrics. Not an easy listen, but a sharply written songbook and a perfect execution on its concept.

Around 2008, Joanna Newsom met comedian Andy Samberg. Within a year, their relationship was becoming the basis upon which the poetry of Have One on Me was spun. Newsom’s lyrics, exploring her relationship with her future-husband, nature, death, spirituality, are above all else loving. Through her warm and vibrant voice, at times an operatic trill and in others deeply soulful, she expresses the joy of love for another, the peace and earthly connection of her beloved pastoral lifestyle, deeply affecting melancholy and grief. Contemplative, artful, genuine or expressive: every lyric in every sweet melody is used to offer her ruminations on life or overflowings of passion.

More so than her previous and next albums, the feel of the album is of not just a folkloric past but also the present day, with drums, substantial brass and string arrangements, and even electric guitar anchoring the sound to Newsom’s real, not imaginary, life in the 21st century. Yet songs here with moods or settings evoking simpler lifestyles and the women living them in 1800s California or the Brontës’ English moors still have a universal relevance. Whether rooted in past of present, the instrumental variety of these compositions, from classical solo piano, grand orchestral arrangements led by harp, to the twang of country guitars or intricate vocal harmonising, makes it apparent that this is the work of a master songwriter in full command of well over a dozen talented musicians. Ultimately, what makes this my favourite album of the decade is that, very simply, it is one stunningly beautiful song after another, all collated into a cohesive 2-hour portrait of Newsom’s soul.

[taste-in-music]

My Top 10 Favorite Hit Songs of 2018

I’m going to say it. This year’s popular music SUCKED. As I attempted to keep in touch with the US Billboard charts, the music I saw getting big every week only assisted in my losing faith in humanity. Pop music just wasn’t popular this year. And that’s not to say that pop music is dead or that there isn’t any good pop music being made, (just look at my entire page,) but it certainly wasn’t getting as much success in the mainstream as usual. I get it. Music trends come and go, and what’s big in at one point in time might not be in another Just think about how much R&B there was in the 2000s, and how club/EDM anthems were giant in the early 2010s. This year was dominated by hip hop, which I have nothing against in theory, but at least have it be GOOD hip hop music. I know there’s amazing hip hop out there, but that’s not what I saw getting popular. The bad stuff this year was really bad, at best bland and forgettable and at worst unlistenable garbage music made by garbage people. But rather than focus on the bad, I think that it’ll be better for my sanity to focus on the good, just to assure myself that even when the charts are dominated by shit there might a diamond hidden somewhere. This is the chart I will be using. So, without further ado, here are my best hit songs of 2018.

10) One Kiss by Calvin Harris ft. Dua Lipa This isn’t my favorite Dua Lipa song by far, (or Calvin Harris song,) but this is still a ton of fun. The production is simple, but tropical and uptempo, with a glossy, shuffling background beat and synthy horn riffs, and Dua Lipa’s performance helps elevate it all. This song radiates summer, it’s like having a tall glass of orange juice on the beach. My only problem with the song is the drop, with the pitch-lowered vocals and continuation of the background track. It feels a bit lazy and is too short to really build up steam. Otherwise, this song is pretty good. It was certainly refreshing to hear on the radio every so often.

9) Eastside by Benny Blanco ft. Khalid & Halsey This song is so relaxing and smooth. The production is simple, with a mid-tempo beat and a couple fluttering notes her and there, but it suits the subject matter of the song, which is very nostalgic and bittersweet. As always, I love the sound of Khalid’s voice, (though his pronunciation on this song is kind of garbled, it’s hard to tell what he’s saying,) and Halsey’s performance is good too, never dipping into grating territory like it does sometimes.The two of them have great chemistry. Also, the music video for this song is both funny and heartbreaking. It low key made me cry? I never heard this on the radio where I live, and only listening to it recently when making this list, but it’s certainly one of the best hit songs of the year.

8) LOVE. by Kendrick Lamar ft. Zacari Kendrick Lamar made a… pop song? Kind of? Okay, I wouldn’t call it pop, it’s definitely still hip hop, but it’s got some R&B and pop elements to it. It’s his version of a pop song. While it may not Kendrick Lamar’s best song, it’s still Kendrick Lamar. Him not at his “not best” is a whole lot better than other artists at their peak. The production is bold but at the same time chill, with a smoky kind of atmosphere. I’ve never listened to Zaraci, but his voice is wonderful here, cutting through the background music and Kendrick Lamar’s rapping like a ray of sunlight. I’m going to be honest, I mostly love this song because the CHVRCHES version is so good (listen to that here.)

7) Love Lies by Khalid ft. Normani This is one of the only pop songs that got consistent radio play where I live, and while the overplay did wear this track out a bit, I still like it. I never changed the station when it came on. Khalid and Normani have great chemistry, (what is it about Khalid that makes him so good at duets? With Eastside, this, lovely with Billie Eilish…) I love their harmonies on the chorus. Normani is a very promising vocalist, I’m excited to see what she comes out with in the future. The production is solid, with that low (I think guitar? synths? IDK) riff, snap percussion, and vocal layering in the backgrounds.

6) IDGAF by Dua Lipa The. Tell. Off. Anthem. Of. The. Year. This is a guilty pleasure of mine, I can’t say that this song is particularly good, but I’m literally in love Dua Lipa, so I don’t care. She’s sassy as hell on this song. The production is so catchy, especially with that plucky guitar melody and those pianos that come in as the song progresses. I love the bridge, where it goes back to just her and guitar, and it slowly builds back up to the final chorus. My only problem with hearing this on the radio is that it always had to be the censored version! I mean, I get why, but listening to the censored version of this song is like eating an unsalted Saltine cracker. It’s completely against the point.

5) Delicate by Taylor Swift I haven’t heard the entirety of Reputation. I don’t think I’ll ever go out of my way to listen to it. Look What You Made Me Do and ...Ready For It? were pretty awful, but Delicate? Delicate I really love. I didn’t like LWYMMD or ...RFI? because they were grating, lacked subtlety in their lyrics, and the production was all over the place. But this song takes the lyrical themes in those songs and presents them in a more vulnerable light, which works a lot better. And the production is very nice too. Everything flows together so smoothly. I like how the chorus is just her voice with the snaps in the background, and then melodies rush back in for the “drop.” This song washes over you and it’s perfect for a late night drive.

4) Boo’d Up by Ella Mai Praise the heavens for this song’s success. I remember when I first head it, it was so pants-shittingly good that it blew my mind. Ella Mai’s vocals are gorgeous, going through the melodies with such ease and grace and using vibrato in just the right places. The production on this song is lush as hell. I love the blocky percussion, light cymbals, and twinkling pianos. My only problem with this song is the extended spoken word outro, which gets a bit tiring. Otherwise, this is an amazing song.

3) when the party’s over by Billie Eilish  I’m cheating here. This song didn’t make it onto the year end list, but I just had to include it. This song is heart-wrenching in all the right ways. Billie Eilish’s vocals are quiet and reserved, dipping into her higher register, they’re just so vulnerable and sad. She emits so much emotion on this song. The production on this song is simple, with just a piano, some distortion, background vocals, and not much else, but that’s what makes it work so perfectly. Anything else, and this song would become too cluttered. I’m so happy that this has hit the charts and is picking up steam, because god knows we need more promising, unique, and talented voices like Billie Eilish’s in the mainstream.

2) Finesse (Remix) by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B Sometimes, you just need a song that’s downright fun. That’s how to describe this song. FUN! It’s so energetic and fucking catchy, everything about it clicks into just the right place. I don’t like Cardi B, but she’s pretty great here. Bruno Mars is great here. The production is slick as hell, with the bells and the drums and the sound effects. That little doh-pah sound in the chorus? Amazing, low key my favorite part of this song. You can’t not dance to this song. It’s perfect for a party playlist, or even when you just want to feel happy. This was such a relief to hear on the radio in between all the forgettable mush, like a rainbow pouring through the clouds.

Should Have Been Hits

Strangers by Sigrid This song had a ton of chart success in Europe, but didn’t cross over to the U.S. I guess we weren’t interested in listening to a bubbly, sunny BOP AND A HALF.

Paradise by George Ezra George Ezra, you know, the “Budapest” guy? That song was pretty good, wasn’t it? Another hit in the UK, this song features an electric, rushing beat, sick guitars, and George Ezra’s wonderful deep voice. I only have one issue with this song, and that’s that the line “running though your bloody veins” makes my skin crawl. Otherwise, this song is a total jam.

Answerphone by Banx & Ranx & Ella Eyre featuring Yxng Bane Slaps to the gods. Holy lord. This is the summer smash we deserved. Listen to it NOW.

Sun In Our Eyes by MØ ft. Diplo C’mon, we can give MØ another hit, can’t we? One where she isn’t sidelined into a feature slot? No? Our loss, then. This song isn’t my favorite off Forever Neverland, but had the most potential to become a hit, (I even heard it in a Starbucks one time,) and it deserved to.

Honorable Mentions/Guilty Pleasures

Wait by Maroon 5 I’m willing to admit that this song isn’t that good. Adam Levine’s falsetto is grating, the beat staggers all over the place like it’s drunk, and the production turns everything into soup. But something about this song keeps me from hating it like I know I should. Maybe it’s the fact that I find it kind of relaxing, maybe it’s because Alexandra Daddario is in the music video and she’s really pretty... I don’t know.

Friends by Marshmello ft. Anne-Marie Okay, this song straight up SUCKS and I kind of like it a lot? The production is a mish mash of random noises that sound like a robot having a seizure, Anne-Marie’s voice get annoying, and the lyrics are reprehensible. Still low key love it though. It’s like drinking Mountain Dew: you know it tastes cruddy and is bad for you, but there’s a spark to it that keeps you coming back.

Nice for What by Drake In a year where Drake absolutely DOMINATED the charts, this is the song by him that I liked the most. It’s got a groove to it with that Ms. Lauryn Hill sample and some decent lyrics.

Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD It’s just fucking catchy, man I don’t know what else to say. (It’s not even his melody, really. It’s a Sting sample.) This song is the epitome of whiny sad boi emo rap, and the positively dreadful lyrics reflect that. I’m not going to say this song is even remotely good, (it’s probably one of the worst songs of the yeah, tbh,) and I’m not going to defend it. I’m ashamed enough as it is.

Youngblood by 5 Seconds Of Summer Who would’ve thought that the band that came up with “you look so perfect standing there in my American Apparel underwear,” one of the dumbest lyrics ever put to music, could come up with something good? This song has a propulsive feel, like you could go on a run to it. I like the “ooooh” that come in during the chorus too. Count this in as my number 11 pick.

All the shitty schlock music that got big this year was starting to weigh me down. I was in a state of mind, if you will. But then, something happened. I heard a song, a pop song, a good pop song. A great pop song. A song with an angelic opening, a surprising yet amazing switch-up, and uplifting lyrics. And then, in that moment, I knew that something wonderful had happened, that a god has returned from the heavens, and that I, now, had no tears left to cry. 

1) no tears left to cry by Ariana Grande  This song is awesome, okay? The production is catchy, the lyrics and fun, the chorus soars like a goddamn eagle, and the vocals? Do I even have to tell you? It’s Ariana Grande. This powerhouse performance puts all those mushy mouthed vocal deliveries that ruled the charts this year to shame. And in the midst of all the slower tempoed songs, I remember hearing this song and thinking: “by god, you can dance to this.” All of these elements come together and form something special, something damn near perfect. no tears left to cry by Ariana Grande. My favorite hit song of 2018. 

Do you agree with this list? What were your favorite hit songs of 2018? Leave a comment and let me know!

[kpoprambles00-blog]

MAMAMOO (마마무) - White Wind (9th Mini Album) [COMEBACK REVIEW]

[NOTE: I couldn’t fit in all the videos due to the video limit, so click/press the name of each song to go to YouTube and listen to it!]

There's a very well known saying that we often save the best for last. And yeah, that might not always be true, and I'm not trying to spoil my opinion right away, but... MAMAMOO took that saying to heart. HARD. I've loved the vast majority of what they've given us with the '4 seasons, 4 concepts' thing they've been doing for the last year or so - with their last album, Blue;S, admittedly being my least favourite, and Red Moon being my favourite. Yellow Flower was alright, with a few great songs here and there.

But White Wind? White Wind is THAT BITCH. AND I MEAN IT.

At this point this blog is basically composed of hyperbole and nothing else, but... holy fuck, this album. THIS FUCKING ALBUM. These sorts of releases are the reason I started this blog and these comeback reviews - every now and again we'll get to see something really special get released, and White Wind is one of those occasions. It's... the best thing MAMAMOO have ever done, period. And it absolutely shows why these girls are so damn popular. This is one of those albums that's making me proud to be a Moomoo since "Mr. Ambiguous". This is THEIR album. This is MAMAMOO's evolution if you ask me - this is where they go from a great group to a downright phenomenal one.

So I could wax on all day about how phenomenal this project is, or I could actually SHOW you why. And hey, that's what this blog is for, so buckle the fuckle up and get ready to have your wig fly to Mars.

I mean it. Get some glue for that shit, you're gonna need it.

1. WHERE R U

Any time I'm listening to a MAMAMOO song, and I hear Solar say this at the beginning:

🌟🌙✨C O S M I C ✨🌙🌟

I IMMEDIATELY LOSE MY SHIT. 'CAUSE THEN YOU KNOW THE SONG IS GONNA BE GOOD.

Cosmic Girl (formerly Lucy from RaNia) and Cosmic Sound have worked with MAMAMOO as composers and lyricists for quite a while now. But I'm now at the point where I'm convinced - CONVINCED, I TELL YA - that they cannot make a bad song for the girls. And "Where R U" serves to continue that trend!

It honestly fits the title of the album really well; there's some plucked strings and marimba-like notes in the instrumental that feel so damn breezy and relaxing. As well as this, the song's tempo is slow, but not slow enough that you're bored with it. "Where R U" is a very bright, smile-inducing song if I'm being honest. I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat the first time I listened to it, it's just damn delightful. It also helps that all four members sound like honest-to-god angels here. And hey, any song where Moonbyul sings more is a good song in my book!

The lyrics carry this very light-hearted feel to them, as well - they match the song perfectly. They're very sweet and heartfelt, but with emphasis on a lot of minute details that are super charming. It's not often that MAMAMOO actually do a lovey-dovey song like this, but when it's done right, it's very effective. And yeah, that's absolutely the case here! I like the lyrics a lot.

Do you want to eat and watch a movie? Just the two of us? The corners of my lips are curling up just thinking about it

All in all, I don't have a single bad thing to say about this song. It serves as a great introduction to the album, since it's slow and breezy yet pleasant at the same time. It's the perfect sort of song for a really summery day, to be honest - not the sort of sound I thought MAMAMOO would nail like they did here, but damn! I'm impressed. And that's just the start of this album. Oh boy.

2. GOGOBEBE (고고베베) [TITLE]

Not gonna lie, leading up to this song's release, I actually listened to all of the teasers - which is something I very rarely do - and I got hyped. It all sounded a bit more hip-hop inspired than most of MAMAMOO's title tracks, and the vocals sounded out of this world (as per normal). So when the song actually came out, and it was THIS good? Yeah, I was floored from the word "go".

I remember reading an interview where the girls themselves said "Gogobebe" is "a term that means everyone should just play, go, and enjoy themselves". And yeah, that certainly comes across here! There's playful acoustic guitars scattered around the instrumental, some really bouncy synths, a STRONG bassline, and choruses that just fucking explode towards the end of the song. Seriously, this is the sort of song you'd blast at a party at 2am, and the entire room would start singing along - think "Mr. Brightside", but not on the same level of recognition, obviously. That shouty "뻔뻔하게 놀아 미친 듯이 즐겨" section in the choruses is AWESOME.

I feel like this is the first title track we've had where MAMAMOO get to show off their personalities a bit more, too? Like, we all know how upbeat and playful these lovable idiots are, but that's mainly shown off in their side tracks - like "Taller Than You" or "Sleep in the Car". But here, their personalities are on clear display. This is a song they can have fun with, and that absolutely comes across in both the MV and the live stages. And when the song is this contagious, it catches on fast - just listening to "Gogobebe" puts me in a really good mood!

The playful/party theme of the song is carried over really well into the lyrics, which are also about just enjoying yourself and not caring about what comes tomorrow. There are a few stellar lines in there though, especially in Wheein's introduction and Moonbyul's second rap - apparently Solar and Moonbyul both helped write the lyrics, and if that's the case, consider me very impressed! They're a really fun and uplifting. (Also "너와 나의 mix and match" is A DAMN GREAT LINE. Thank you very much.)

The people who talk too much Always die first in the movies So raise up your self-love

So the song and lyrics are great, but what about the choreography? Honestly, I feel like MAMAMOO haven't had that many stellar choreographies; they're more focused on their songs and performances. Which is completely fine, that's just their style - but I'll be damned if they didn't knock it out of the park for "Gogobebe".

NOTE: The choreography in the video below is mirrored, so it's actually the wrong way around! There isn't an official dance practice for this song, so this is the best I could find.

That's mainly because they got Mina Myoung from 1MILLION dance studio to do the choreography here; and her skill in choreographing shows massively. There's a lot of pretty complex footwork and fast movements here, and yet the girls look flawless doing it! My favourite part is honestly the "9 slash 6" section after that second chorus - MAMAMOO go OFF and I am living for it. There's just a lot of complex details and touches here that make the routine so fun and pleasing to watch - they all make it look so easy, too, which, hoo boi that's not the case once you learn it. It's tough, but in the way that I love!

And hey, the girls even visited the studio to perform it with Mina when she taught it for a class. That's adorable. 😄 (Also HOLY SHIT WHEEIN. GO OFF GIRL. MAIN DANCER COMING THROUGH.)

Yeah, "Gogobebe" was fucking amazing. It's definitely up there with MAMAMOO's best title tracks, if you ask me - it's got the right blend of charm and charisma yet some silliness as well, and if that doesn't sum up the girls I don't know what will. I really hope they keep this momentum going, cause goddamn, I'll be a proud Moomoo if they do. :,)

3. WAGGY (쟤가 걔야)

Not gonna lie, when I saw the title of this song for the first time, I immediately thought "CHOO CHOO JOKE SONG TERRITORY HERE WE COME". And while that isn't completely false, it's definitely not completely true either. The jokiness of this song comes across more in the live stages than the actual song itself, since "Waggy" is actually an adorable little love song! And when I say adorable, I mean ADORABLE. This shit nearly gave me a goddamn cavity.

Let me be clear when I say that cutesy songs like this normally aren't my thing - I often find that unless they do something unique with their cuteness, I'll be bored with them veeeeeery quickly. But thankfully, describing your crush like a little puppy who follows you everywhere is JUST the sort of unique charm I look for in these sorts of songs. It's a memorable metaphor, and IT'S JUST TOO DAMN CUTE, MAN.

There's also the fact that the song itself is infernally catchy; the drum beat matches how my head was bopping along when I listened to it for the first time! It's honestly very reminiscent of Animal Crossing for me, since the soundtrack in those games is very similar to "Waggy"; full of acoustic guitars, simple rhythms and nice little songs you hum the melody to every now and again. I'm... honestly quite disappointed that this didn't blow up amongst young kids like iKON's "Love Scenario" did - it's adorable, and not that complicated either! There's also the fact that when the girls try to be cute, it either works, or ends up being hilarious (for example: Solar's little animal impressions in that bridge. I was ROLLING).

The lyrics are certainly another one of this song's assets, if you ask me. This is already "Puppy Love: The Song", and the lyrics definitely fit that theme! I'd love to know if the girls were able to keep straight faces whilst recording this, because I feel like there would've been a few laughter fits here and there... But like I mentioned before, that comparison of your crush to a puppy is the best part of this song. Hands down. My heart has melted and I'm surprisingly okay with it. ALSO HWASA SINGING IN FRENCH HOLY FUCK.

Woof woof woof, follow me upstairs, puppy When you follow me around You're seriously so cute

Y'know what the cherry on top for this song is, though? The live performances. Go watch them and then try to tell me that MAMAMOO are a deadly serious group. Hwasa looks like the friend that got dragged into everything because she lost a bet, and it's hilarious. 😂

But I don't think there's much else I can say about "Waggy"! It's got the perfect mix of jokiness and cuteness to be memorable, and it's irresistibly fun to boot. And catchy. Seriously, I've had this stuck in my head for weeks. Help.

4. 25 (WHEEIN SOLO)

All I can say is: IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME.

A lot of Moomoos caught on quite quickly that each member would get one solo per album; Hwasa had a solo on Yellow Flower, Moonbyul had hers on Red Moon, and Solar had hers on Blue;S. BUT NOW IT'S WHEEIN'S TURN. If you ask me she's the most underappreciated member in MAMAMOO! And yet, while this doesn't live up to "Moderato", her other solo - but let's be real, what can - it's still a pretty solid track that acts as a nice interval to the album itself. And hey, Hash Swan isn't in this, so that already makes me happy! (Seriously, that guy's voice is insufferable... couldn't RBW have picked someone else???)

Similarly to "Where R U", "25" has a very chill, relaxed vibe going for it, with some atmospheric guitars and echoing vocals in the instrumental. I really like the triplet/sped-up rhythm of the lyrics in the verses, too - they give the song a nice bit of flavour where it's needed most. And obviously, the star here is Wheein; her vocals are no joke, she's the best vocalist in MAMAMOO in my opinion. But I do unfortunately feel like the song runs a bit short? It feels like she was hampered a bit, and I don't like that very much. She deserves her time to shine, too. But either way, she's still got a gorgeous voice, and she does get her chance to at least show that.

But aside from Wheein's voice, the lyrics to this song are my favourite thing about it. I never expected Wheein to take such a mature angle! And yes, she helped write the lyrics for this, go figure. Wheein actually talks about the topic of growing up, and trying not to lose your innocence and curiosity as you become an adult. She fully admits that growing up is, at times, not something she wants to do - she just wants to curl into a ball and not have to face adulthood. But eventually you get used to it - you adjust, you adapt, and you become more comfortable with the person you are (as well as who you'll be in the future). It's... surprisingly deep? Yet really, REALLY beautiful at the same time. They really changed my opinion on the song, actually! I went from being lukewarm on it to really, really liking it.

At times, I don't want to grow up Like the natural days I want to talk about it myself, but it's hard

"25" ultimately ended up being a song I really enjoyed - and yes, that's largely because of both Wheein's vocals and those amazing lyrics. The song itself does run a bit short, and I do still think it had a lot more room to develop, but what we got in the end is of an insane quality. Wheein should really try her hand at songwriting more, because if this is the sort of thing she's going to write, I'd love to hear what else she can come up with. 👌

5. BAD BYE

Ohhhhhh man, now we're getting into the part of this review where I just start to gush.

Everything we've had so far is either insanely high-quality, or memorable enough to become one of my favourite MAMAMOO songs - but now we're going into ballad territory. And THAT is where MAMAMOO apparently decided to step things up a notch, and turn this album from a good one into a great one.

All I can really say about "Bad Bye" is this: if you haven't done so already, listen to it. Just... listen. Sit there, listen to it in its entirety with no interruptions and preferrably a good pair of headphones, and just take it in. I can 100% GUARANTEE you that you will cry. Even if you've never been through a breakup, even if you can't understand the lyrics - that doesn't matter. I promise you, this song will leave you bawling. If you're not crying by the end, you'll certainly be close to it. And yes, that's largely because of the song itself and its execution, but what really put me over the edge was THE MOTHERFUCKING VOCALS.

People always categorise MAMAMOO as a "vocal group", right? Because of their power and technique, and the fact that pretty much all of the members can sing? I've always felt that title was fitting - but holy SHIT, this is taking it to a new level. Not only are Moonbyul's raps full of anger and raw emotion, Hwasa, Solar and Wheein fucking nail it vocally - THOSE ADLIBS, MAN. THOSE ADLIBS. They legitimately left me in tears here.

I cannot wait to see clips of this from their upcoming concerts, because if they sing this live? ...I may just collapse to be honest. "Bad bye" is so beautifully done, and so emotionally performed on the girls' part that it's breathtaking. And really, really damn heartbreaking, too. It's one hell of a sincere ballad. The instrumental has a part to play there too, because even though there are very skittery trap snares throughout, they never overpower the really emotional piano line - they never feel like a distraction, and they actually end up giving the song a good rhythmic base. But yeah, they're nothing but background to the girls' vocals, which are honestly some of the best in the industry. Fight me.

But if your heart wasn't broken from just listening to the song, don't worry! There's lyrics to help with that! Moonbyul once again helped on the writing here, and the lyrics end up being just as emotionally charged as the song and vocals. It's like the icing on top of a really depressing cake - but in a good way. There isn't a dull moment in them, they're as descriptive and heart-wrenching at the end as they were at the start.

Stop trying to comfort me now, I'm holding back tears I'm afraid of it being the end if I turn my back I can't go, I can't do it - tell me this isn't it

I could go on forever about "Bad bye", honestly. It's just... perfect in the saddest way possible. THIS is the sort of magic I look for in ballads; this has so much legitimate feeling and so many emotions to it that it makes you emotional regardless of whether or not you understand the words. I really didn't think they'd blow me away this much late into the album, but... man, was I wrong. As I'm typing this, their concert is taking place tonight (April 19th) - and I know I said it earlier, but I'm saying it again. I DESPERATELY need to see a live performance of this song. Please. 😭

Y'know what else I need a live performance of, though?

6. MY STAR

BITCH, YOU'RE ASKING ME TO PUT MY FEELINGS FOR THIS SONG INTO WORDS?

Hooooooooo man.

This song made me FEEL things, y'all. IT STILL DOES.

Again, once we were blessed with that "Cosmic" namecall at the beginning, I was excited. Really, really excited. I know Cosmic Girl & Sound make phenomenal MAMAMOO songs, so this was going to be great, right?

BITCH, WRONG. IT WAS GOING TO CHANGE YA DAMN LIFE.

We're only four months into the year. FOUR. MONTHS. And I may have found my side track of the year. Because "My star" is fucking insane. It, once again, left me in tears - but not because the song was emotional. I was in tears from how fucking shook I was whilst listening to this. This song goes haaaaaaaaaard. The bass and drumline in this song is SO damn powerful, the really creepy synths are right up my alley, the hand claps are hype as fuck, and THEM VOCALS. LET ME FUCKING TALK ABOUT THEM VOCALS. Because the girls all sound jaw-droppingly good, but... I need to call someone out real quick.

SOLAR.

MOTHERFUCKING KIM YONGSUN.

BITCH?!?!? WHERE WERE THESE VOCALS HIDING????

Did y'all even HEAR that fucking F6?! LIKE. FOR REAL?! KE$HA IS (majestically, like the queen she is) QUAKING.

Those adlibs... that was a fucking spiritual experience. My soul has left this plane of existence because of those high notes. Looks like she heard that I thought Wheein was the best vocalist in MAMAMOO and decided to fucking change my mind, good LORD.

Another huge thing for me is that this song has sustained my hype for it SO DAMN MUCH. Often, I'll love a song to death once I first hear it, but then it'll wear off over time. But "My star" is so good that that hasn't happened!! It is not only one of the best Cosmic tracks the girls have, but THE BEST B-side MAMAMOO have done. Period. It rivals "Midnight Summer Dream" from Red Moon for me.

And hey, speaking of "Midnight Summer Dream", this song also carries a creepy vibe! Now, unlike "Midnight Summer Dream", I don't think that creepy vibe is intended on "My star". But goddammit, read this song's lyrics and listen to those distorted/reversed synths during Solar's first verse, and tell me you don't immediately think 'stalker girlfriend'. This is a yandere anthem and y'all can't change my mind. IT'S CREEPY AND I LOVE IT. I really want to see a yandere MV for this. PLEASE, RBW. MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE.

But every time I breathe, [and] my heart is beating I can't feel it through you I wanna be your love

So don't mind me. I'm just going to go listen to this song for the millionth time and cry over how good it is. And also Solar's falsetto.

UPDATE [21/04/2019]:

THEY ACTUALLY FUCKING WENT AND PERFORMED IT LIVE.

The best video I can find of it right now is this Wheein fancam but I DON'T CARE. THEY ACTUALLY DID IT.

QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEENS.

7. 4SEASON (OUTRO)

...you know an outro is good when I want it to be a full song.

And that NEVER happens with me. I very rarely listen to intros/outros and go "huh, this would be nice as a full song". But that happened with "4season"! It's so nice and chill, literally perfect for listening to in a coffee shop of some sort. It's very short, of course, but the blaring synths and the trap snares actually make a really cool, atmospheric outro. And, as always, all four girls sound phenomenal. It's MAMAMOO, is that really surprising to you at this point?

Since the song is so short, the lyrics are going to be quite minimal as well. But the lyrics here remind me a lot of "Daydream" from Dreamcatcher's recent album - they seem to be a thank-you of sorts to the Moomoos. And I love stuff like that - it's super heartwarming when an idol/group does it, to be honest. If you're a Moomoo, you know how much MAMAMOO really do care for their fans, and that just makes this all the sweeter. :,)

One by one, build up [the] good memories and walk Walk together You and me

"4season" ultimately serves as both a great outro to "White Wind" as an album, and the '4 seasons, 4 colours" project as a whole! And godDAMN, what a way to end it. I wasn't kidding when I said this album is the best of the 4. It's skyrocketed its way to my list of favourite MAMAMOO albums, and I can't wait to own this physically. It's 100% worth it. 😊

ALL THE SOURCES FOR THE ENGLISH LYRICS I USED IN THIS REVIEW: Where R U Gogobebe (고고베베) Waggy (쟤가 걔야) 25 (Wheein Solo) Bad bye My star 4season (Outro)

COVER IMAGE CREDITS: Wind transparent background by KissPNG

[jasperover137-blog]

From Around the Web: 20 Fabulous Infographics About youtube video free download

You presume folks are hearing Zach inside their own fantasies? That is a weird question. Hello everyone. Wel come back to VidCon 2018 and we have been now with Stacey's world aspirations. Wonderful. To eventually meet you in person. I'm kinda admired this because, uh, Zach is your first person we interviewed onto a movie IQ.

The horror genre. Can this, um, have a good deal of contentious themes or negative opinions or trolls oreven. Do you have any particular trouble with that and just how do you deal with it? The horror neighborhood on YouTube for whatever explanation. I meanyou consider this like terror men and women are getting to become edgy or something, but frankly, mepersonally, myself, my channel and talking to some other dealers at the terror community, individuals have some of the very best, such as most supportive comments, sections out of anyone.

I don't know why this really is, but I definitely love that. And that I presume part of everything it's really is that people. Uh, they, they will like listen to those terror tales, um, such as prior bed. And I have done it before too. Plus so they sort of, and that they believe attached to that creator as it is like a, it's similar to a maternity story kind of thing.

Just like they believe , they believe exactly like an individual connection to the individual telling that narrative. You presume people are listening to Zack in their own fantasies? Um, this is such a weird matter nonetheless. No. Have someone above there pointing which can be, yeah. Um, I actually did do a narrative of, about that at all, U M, one of the personality in the story, it absolutely was listening to store, uh, the creepypasta narrations just before bed and the scary story like leaked into the dream.

And this was kind of the notion of the story. And also a lot of the opinions on this video said enjoy, Oh yeahI listened to your own stories before bed plus I Have heard. Just like your narrations along with my fantasy, so yeah, it happens. It really is pretty intriguing. It seems like inventing thoughts for your genre and producing videos is a very easy, lots of video founders fought with picking out ideas or some other overall tips you have for movie creators.

You may struggle with coming up with ideas to your own articles. Um, yeah, I dunno. I have never really experienced trouble creating notions per se. I feel the answer to this really is because you're so enthused, you may merely consider ideas daily, all day, also it's not really a issue. So yeahI really mean , I figure one thing that I do so may possibly help some individuals is I have such as a big checklist.

I have a Google document of. My thoughts. Yeah. And should anyone could ever see it, it'd probably cause no feel of them, but it is logical to me. Absolutely. And whenever I have an idea, I just pull my cellphone and jot down it where I am. Like if I am at the shower, then I'll leap out of the shower and also then write it down someplace so that I can not forget that idea.

And 99 percent of this period I will return straight back into it and also I'll be like, no, this is a terrible plan. But, there certainly are some excellent ones. Filter procedure, jot , then you gotta give it a handful days to, it has real good deal to. Check it out and see whether or not it's really a good idea or perhaps not. Ok. So if you had one piece of suggestions which can instantly improve an individual's station at the moment, what would it be?

So I feel that the number only matter, um, that's helped me to grow YouTube from 2018, U M, would be taking good advantage of those videos that are related. In the event that you are able to make content which, um, uses such as an trending key word or some thing, like look for a goal video which is succeeding, and you also can utilize movie IQ to. Um, look at the movies which are getting a lot of perspectives per hour.

That's exactly what you want to search for. If you see a video that has 5 thousand views, however, nobody is watching it in 2018, afterward it isn't going to assist you to. So locate a video clip that has substantial perspective velocity right now and do something because ballpark and you make the most of your own SEO. Take advantage of it. IQ, enter the most suitable tags, uh, place key words in the description and you really can receive a lot of, um, a great deal of incoming visitors.

Coming Away from a popular video. I think that is, that's the way todo it on YouTube at 2018 amazing. Thankyou very much for your time and effort. Is that okay?

Source

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/20868424-why-people-love-to-hate-download-a-youtube-video-free

[jes-wan]

An eye behind shattered glass - Black Mirror S1- S3 thoughts

I just completed a binge of Black Mirror’s three Seasons. It’s hard to say if this was mentally a great thing to do, as the show has a rather down trend with it’s stories, for the most part. My thoughts will be in Netflix order, for whatever reason they have the season’s backwards, although it doesn't mater too much with each story being standalone. I suppose that is what makes binging a series like this easy, because everything is different and you only notice a few actors returning to play different roles. I thought I would write down my thoughts on these episodes and how they relate to real life, I won’t be talking too much about the episode themselves, because I don’t think that’s exactly what the writers of Black Mirror are after.

Obviously spoiler alert, so read at your own peril, you have been warned.

Nosedive

The first episode I watched in this series was also the first to make me feel guilty in real life. Of course I'm talking about relating this to using Uber. Where we rate our drivers and they rate you. A friend questioned recently how wrong the system is to be so open and have no guidelines for rating. It’s a good point and exactly what this episode is based on. Out of all the stories this one is the most realistic to actually happen. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine cafe’s starting to adopt the same system as Uber, and it spiralling out from there. I did enjoy the actress’ journey to discovering what’s the point in this system where you can’t be honest, or a breakup costs you, your job, the ending of the two of them yelling in some sort of lockup was perfect. Where, the language was ugly, that didn’t mater, it needs to be apart of our life. Sometimes you just need to tell someone, look that’s really stupid, without loosing your social standing. Speaking of which, going back to Uber, after watching this I found out how a passenger can see their rating. Mine was 4.96, which means someone gave me a four star, the feeling that you weren’t perfect right there is the problem. In the end conversations shouldn’t be rated for being meaningful, regardless of their outcome it’s all about interacting with another human, taking the good and bad.

Playtest

Buyers regret, that’s what VR feels like after watching this episode, or at least what VR might do to some people. Okay, maybe it isn’t that bad. Yet, it does make you wonder how fears could play a huge part in someone getting hurt in VR. Yes, the point of this story is playing off fears in a horror setting. Although in reality fears a deeper than that. You could be playing an adventure game and you have a fear of spiders. One comes up close to you and gives you a real life heart attack. How will we in the future combat actual fears, safe environment or not, that’s what the episodes asks. Instead, the real underlining issue is leaving things too late, putting something off because it’ s too hard. Well for the main character, doing so proved to be fatal, if he had just answered his mum a long time ago, she might not have called during the test and he would still be alive.

Shut up and Dance

You hear about people being blackmailed all the time, I couldn’t say if anyone has ever gone this far, but it might have happened to some lesser degree. The real question to ask yourself, is the risk worth it? If he had gone to the police right away, yes the video would have been released, but he would have had some backup, heck even the media might have been interested in hearing his story. It’s taking a bad situation and turning it better. Raise awareness, because as far as I know the web cam hijacks do indeed happen. In the end the troll, who I suspect was the kid in the hotel lobby, just released it all anyway. Not surprising, because someone who would come up with the ideas they did, probably isn’t someone with social empathy anyway.

San Junipero

I have to say this story was beautiful, I wasn't expecting the twist with it being a cloud reality. At first I thought it seemed like an excuse for a writer to put every 80s pop song into one episode. Big lessons here, even when someone tells you a story don’t assume they are selfish or whatever the case might be, ask questions. How long were you married is a good one. I’m not sure I wouldn’t struggle with the idea that after being uploaded living there forever would make me long for those who didn’t make such a choice. The ending was a surprise happy though and it was nice to see Greg was just someone willing to help out and get nothing in return, seldom do we see this today.

Men Against Fire

I was thinking this might be straight out action and not too thought provoking, at this point I should’ve known better. After binging the entire Alien series before this, I was glad to be wrong. I’d never heard the stats before about soldiers shooting over heads and the hit rate was so low. It’s sad to think that turning people into what we consider a monster would make them easier to kill. Even if they are expressing the exact same motions as someone saying people don’t shoot me. Not much of a choice for the ending, either watch those people die in an endless loop or be erased, no idea to be honest, both are bad. He got discharged anyway and now lives in a fantasy world, still bad I guess.

Hated in the Nation.

First of all, please no one make mechanical bees! Just don’t do it. Secondly what’s happened to all the bomb shelters in the UK. They could have put the third victim in one, a house surrounded by FLOWERS seemed like a terrible idea! Of course, social media plays a big part again, how often do we see people hiding behind their computer screen, shouting hate or even death in this case, knowing there is no consequences. That’s the lesson here, you can troll under your fake profiles, hate the world, think it’s funny to condemn, but really if someone manages to program killer robot bees, you might be in trouble. So consider this next to you decide to call someone on twitter. :P

Be Right Back

Tragic story from the get-go, the regret of putting work ahead of going with someone. Then dealing with a pregnancy, under a self imposed isolation. If you were offered the chance to talk to a passed person based on how they talked on social media would you? I couldn’t even try, to me it would be like forever putting yourself though the loss, every second you would feel sad after the conversation is over. Even more so with the android version of her late husband. In some respects it is nice for your daughter to meet basically a ghost of her father, but as she gets older what kind of impact will this have on her? Tricky, but a choice I can say I would never make.

White Bear,

Not what I was expecting, brutal but brilliant acting. Being ignored is worse than being yelled at, in my opinion. That people will film someone getting hurt rather than help, is something that does exist now. It seems to be instinct to pull out the phone and take video/photos before calling emergency. I heard that police actually hear about public crimes on Facebook first as opposed to people calling their emergency line. I don’t want to get to into too much about how she filmed her partner killing the child, there are no words and it’s hard to fathom that probably has happened somewhere for the writers to come up with it. A park for justice though, I know I couldn’t be a part of that, but with the rise of reality TV, I'm surprised something like this doesn’t already exist.

The Waldo Moment

I’m hesitant to write too much about the theme of this episode, due to the pure politics as opposed to social themes. I will say, is this really how the disenfranchised feel? If so, oh...

White Christmas

Realised what was going on after the lady and the egg scene, although I thought he was a police officer looking for a confession, I was close enough. However, I'm keen to talk about blocking people. The feeling of blocking people rather than facing them, easy isn't it? But can be cruel. If she had just come clean, he wouldn’t have gone through years or torment. Wondering why she kept the child, after the argument was seemingly about that. She may not have died on that train, if she was honest and her dad would still be alive same goes for her child. Of course he’s responsible for his own actions, and he did commit murder. Yet, the real lesson is, be honest, not mater how much it will hurt. You can’t possibly predict what you might set in motion by lying.

The National Anthem

You could just slap the media, which really did a great job in making a situation worse, anything for a story! Would everyone actually stand/sit there and actually watch such a horrible humiliation? No where in the demands did it say people had to watch it, yet the whole nation stopped. People laughed and smiled forgetting all about the reason why he is doing this. As a species do we really have such little compassion until it’s too late? Do we want to watch the train wreck? Of course, humanity's super power and after a year it’s pretty much forgotten and turned into a political vote changer. Although only three points up? I guess regardless of heroes, it’s not a popularity contest, which probably isn’t a bad thing.

Fifteen Million Merits

I’m not a big fan of talent shows, especially music ones, I feel it’s turned talent into image. Regardless, after watching YouTube videos recently on comments made by judges, it’s no wonder we are turning into a society of people who do not question our idols. What people will do for fame, she said yes to a life of sex slavery and he sold out to preach something no one is even listening too! It’s almost not worth it and looking for a way to escape the complex would have been a better use of time.

The Entire History of You

Would you become obsessed with the past if you could just rewind it? As someone who always tries to find the truth, I know I would be overusing this system. I’m not sure it was really that bad of a system, because without it he would have never found the truth and would have lived in a state of ignorance. Been played as a fool is much worse in my books. Irrespective of having this technology people didn’t seem to worried a conversation could just be rewound back and still followed their ways of deceit, shame really. Of course this sounds like a conflict with Nosedive, but the difference is honesty not avoidance.

Well that’s it, my thoughts on Black Mirror and it’s very good attempts at making you think about the society we live in.

Thanks for reading,

Peace out

Jes-Wan

[mrlylerouse]

Tactical Takeaways from (a Very Chilly) Inman Connect New York 2019

Even the Polar Vortex couldn’t stop us from getting the most out of Inman Connect New York (#ICNY) this year! We certainly left with a notepad full of tactical tips and expert strategies. Thank you to all of the insightful speakers and to everyone that swung by our booth to chat about BoomTown and the role that technology plays in today’s real estate industry!

  Whether you attended Inman Connect New York or not, we hope you’ll find this recap of our key takeaways to be a helpful guide for trucking through 2019 with a renewed sense of motivation to kick a$@!

  If You Read Nothing Else, Read These 4 Pieces of Advice

1. Be an expert on what’s current and anticipate what’s to come

  Real estate agents are expected to wear a million hats. It’s just the nature of the beast…you’re the expert, the friend, the counselor, the sales guru. This rang truer than ever at ICNY this year. To have an edge on the competition, you need to be an absolute expert in your local market. Know every stat, know every address, and have them at the tip of your tongue at all times.

  This means going further than the average price point for a neighborhood and your standard demographics. Who is the principal at the local high school? Are the roads safe for pedestrians? Think outside of the box and be hungry for data.

  Now, anticipating what’s to come is a tough piece of advice. You don’t have a crystal ball, and while you may play the role of superhuman, at the end of the day you are just human. But by being a hyper-local expert and staying on top of national trends, data and predictions, the anticipation factor will come naturally. You’ll be able to say to your clients, “I can tell you ABC about this neighborhood and this house, and based on my experience, I can predict XYZ.”

  2. Roll out the red carpet: it is all about consumer experience

  Real estate is a relationship business. Now more than ever we are hearing how critical it is to go beyond the standard level of “good customer service.” Consumer demand is ramping up as home buyers grow more accustomed to a streamlined, simple process.

  A classic case of “you get what you give,” it seems that the agents that are putting in the extra 10% to give a VIP experience are reaping the benefits tenfold. This could mean hiring an additional team member to act exclusively as a client “concierge.” Or hosting a dinner club for past clients and allowing them to bring guests. (Free dinner for them – new leads for you.)

    So consider this. What are you doing in your business to ensure that your clients are getting the red carpet experience? Are you asking enough questions? Write down 3 things that separate your consumer experience from the next agent. If you’re not doing enough to differentiate yourself, you might need to invest more time and energy into customer service in 2019.

  3. You’ve heard it before, but it’s time to be the tech-enabled agent.

  Real estate technology is not only here to stay, but additionally, the ecosystem is rapidly evolving. New tools and features continue to improve the consumer and the agent experience alike. The trick is to find a balance between utilizing the technology that will help you grow your business while not getting swept away in “new and shiny syndrome” (trying every single new tool, app, and platform and losing sight of the fundamentals).

  Use these 3 steps to make sure you are being empowered by tech.

1. Audit what you have.

2. Test and measure the ROI.

3. Nix (what’s not working), keep (what is working), and/or add (what you need to meet your goals).

  4. Perfect the fundamentals

  Okay, okay, I know we just told you to stay ahead of the curve, embrace technology, etc. etc. But you cannot forget the core fundamentals of being a good real estate agent! One resounding takeaway from Inman Connect New York was that successful agents have not only taken advantage of the technology that will help them dominate their market, but they are also phenomenally skilled at one thing — selling real estate.

    What we mean is, through it all, it is important to never lose sight of the fundamentals of real estate. A people business. A sales business. You are never too far along in your business to practice scripts, to watch a webinar, or to hire a coach. If something feels off and you’re not hitting your goals, check in with the fundamentals first and see if there is a foundational skill that you could use improvement.

The Industry is Abuzz with the Market Shift. So What Gives?

The shifting market was a major focus at Inman Connect New York and continues to be a hot topic in the days and weeks following. So what do is at all mean for your business?

  As a quick recap, here are the “Top 10 Trends Agents Need to Know in a Shifting Market”

1. Brokers embrace distinct technology as a core service offering to agents

2. Lending standards continue to ease

3. Search as a commodity (used to be a differentiator, now standard)

4. Focus on improving the transaction

5. Rise of short term rental investors

6. Performance analytics (consumers are measuring agent capabilities, becoming more choosey)

7. Minimalist lifestyle gains popularity (downsizing, remove clutter)

8. Predictive analytics and business prioritization

9. Diversified content offering

10. Great customer service takes on a new meaning

While the market shift was a hot topic at Inman Connect New York, rejoice in the fact that nobody seems to be too nervous about the shift. There was no “doomsday energy” to be found. In fact, quite the opposite. A fair amount of agents and brokers alike are excited for the shift and moving towards a more normalized market. Particularly if the shift opens up more opportunities for buyers.

  Be smart with your budget. Track and measure everything and tweak your business model if there are processes that are throwing your profitability off track.

    As we mentioned before when discussing the fundamentals (back-to-basics) of real estate, it’s more important than ever, in a shifting market, to focus on relationships. Often real estate agents have to play the “counselor” role, and the agents that can perfect this skill are going to be the agents that can effectively educate and coach their leads to buy or sell.

  Tips for Communcation “Counseling” in a Market Shift:

Share Facts – always have detailed and valuable market information at-the-ready

Listen – learn your client’s needs and fears

Avoid Pitfalls – be aware of common transaction pitfalls (inspections, appraisals, loan approval), and take extra precautions throughout the process to avoid them

Be Honest – don’t manipulate data to push a seller or buyer in a particular direction if you don’t genuinely think it’s in their best interest. (Be encouraging without being pushy)

Thriving in a Shifting Market Read More

Social Media & Video (We’ll Keep This Brief)

I overheard an Inman Connect New York attendee say, “If I hear one more person tell me to leverage video, I’m going to lose it.”

  It’s been said over and over, so we’ll get straight to the point with just the most important things to note about social presence and video in 2019.

  Keep an eye on messaging apps and chatbots as they continue to gain popularity

People don’t care about your last closing. People care about how you’re going to solve their problems.

Even if you’re not getting “likes,” your content might still be effective at creating brand recognition. People are scroll-happy.

Use an app that creates captions for your videos. Some stats show that 85% of users watch stories/videos without sound.

2019: The Year of Differentiation

Think of your favorite brands. Patagonia, YETI Coolers? Maybe it’s Starbucks, Apple, or RayBan. Every great brand has a brand story, which dictates everything else that brand touches. Marketing, communication, relationship-building. The story and the “mission” guide that brand.

  Real estate is a people business, a customer service business, but at the end of the day, it’s also a business (and every business has a brand). A common theme on the Inman Connect stage was successful and unique businesses. They had something to differentiate themselves from the competition.

    So this year do some introspection! You might already have a rock solid brand and a unique value proposition. But if you don’t, take some time to think about what really sets you apart from other agents. It could be something small, like telling jokes. (Maybe you’re the agent that leads with humor and makes people smile.) Or it could be something extremely unique, such as having a team that is made up completely of veterans or veteran spouses.

  For a kickstart on building a strong brand story, check out Katie Lance’s slides from Inman Connect New York 2019: “How to Attract Your Dream Client Through Social Media and Storytelling”

Automation Nation! Time to Work Smarter (and Harder)

If there is one thing I noticed at Inman Connect New York, it’s that agents do not want to work less. This is a business of the hustle! The grind! The power-players, the rainmakers, and the movers and shakers!

  That being said, automation is a major trend not because agents wants to “set it and forget it” and go on vacation. No, it’s a trend because agents want to automate the busy day-to-day tasks that are bogging them down so that they can get back to doing their thing – selling real estate! There are mundane office tasks that are essential for building a healthy book of business: following up with leads, digital advertising through Google and Facebook ads, reaching out to previous clients to solicit referrals. All of these things are important for a thriving business. But if you can delegate/hand-off that work or even better, automate it? You’re essentially doing double the productivity in the same amount of time.

  Keep and Eye on These Top Tech Trends in 2019

Without getting wrapped up in “new-and-shiny syndrome,” take a look at some of the top trends in real estate tech right now. Whether it’s an app that could improve your productivity or a tool that might streamline the consumer experience, one of these tech trends could elevate your business.

1. Smart speakers (Alexa, Google Home)

2. “Dare to be original” with your website design (stand out)

3. Voice from smart speakers (Alexa flash briefings)

4. Before investing in something new, have a concrete plan

5. Siri (Start asking Siri some questions and explore how she can make your life easier)

6. Relationships matter

7. The video dilemma! (Don’t ignore the power of video because you’re afraid to be on camera)

8. Read the fine print (Be smart with data, listings, profile information and contract fine print)

9. Apple phone usage (monitor what you’re doing on your phone)

10. Collect your data, start recording everything

Dear Agents, Stay Focused on What Matters (While the Franchises Battle for Your Loyalty)

There are a lot of power-players on the Inman Connect stage. And a lot of those power players have one vested interest — their business. A common theme at ICNY this year was the on-stage battle between leaders over who provides the most value for their agents. From commission splits to culture, in-house digital marketing to complimentary CRM systems… the franchises continue to duke it out over what they believe matters most to their agents.

  Reminiscent of college football rivalry, tensions can be high.

  Our advice to you – whenever you are making a decision regarding switching to a new franchise, becoming (or shifting away from being) an independent brokerage, stay focused on YOU and your personal business goals.

In Conclusion, Lead With a Good Conscience and Get to Work

Leaving Inman Connect New York 2019, through all the noise and voices, there was one resounding message on my mind. It’s a back-to-basics, elementary school concept, but it’s often overlooked in the world of business. Do the right thing.

  “Do the right thing” is one of BoomTown’s core values. Real estate is a people’s business. It’s about doing everything in your power to help people (not clients, not leads – people) make the best possible decision that they can regarding their home. One of the most important decisions in their life! Agents have the power to create an amazing experience for them, while building trust and understanding.

&nsbp;

  And in the end, karma does seem to play a part in this industry! The most successful, happiest real estate professionals seem to have one common thread – they’re in it for the right reasons, and that reason is to help people.

The post Tactical Takeaways from (a Very Chilly) Inman Connect New York 2019 appeared first on BoomTown!.

from BoomTown! http://bit.ly/2SCaTwf

[mrdonaldclark86]

Tactical Takeaways from (a Very Chilly) Inman Connect New York 2019

Even the Polar Vortex couldn’t stop us from getting the most out of Inman Connect New York (#ICNY) this year! We certainly left with a notepad full of tactical tips and expert strategies. Thank you to all of the insightful speakers and to everyone that swung by our booth to chat about BoomTown and the role that technology plays in today’s real estate industry!

  Whether you attended Inman Connect New York or not, we hope you’ll find this recap of our key takeaways to be a helpful guide for trucking through 2019 with a renewed sense of motivation to kick a$@!

  If You Read Nothing Else, Read These 4 Pieces of Advice

1. Be an expert on what’s current and anticipate what’s to come

  Real estate agents are expected to wear a million hats. It’s just the nature of the beast…you’re the expert, the friend, the counselor, the sales guru. This rang truer than ever at ICNY this year. To have an edge on the competition, you need to be an absolute expert in your local market. Know every stat, know every address, and have them at the tip of your tongue at all times.

  This means going further than the average price point for a neighborhood and your standard demographics. Who is the principal at the local high school? Are the roads safe for pedestrians? Think outside of the box and be hungry for data.

  Now, anticipating what’s to come is a tough piece of advice. You don’t have a crystal ball, and while you may play the role of superhuman, at the end of the day you are just human. But by being a hyper-local expert and staying on top of national trends, data and predictions, the anticipation factor will come naturally. You’ll be able to say to your clients, “I can tell you ABC about this neighborhood and this house, and based on my experience, I can predict XYZ.”

  2. Roll out the red carpet: it is all about consumer experience

  Real estate is a relationship business. Now more than ever we are hearing how critical it is to go beyond the standard level of “good customer service.” Consumer demand is ramping up as home buyers grow more accustomed to a streamlined, simple process.

  A classic case of “you get what you give,” it seems that the agents that are putting in the extra 10% to give a VIP experience are reaping the benefits tenfold. This could mean hiring an additional team member to act exclusively as a client “concierge.” Or hosting a dinner club for past clients and allowing them to bring guests. (Free dinner for them – new leads for you.)

    So consider this. What are you doing in your business to ensure that your clients are getting the red carpet experience? Are you asking enough questions? Write down 3 things that separate your consumer experience from the next agent. If you’re not doing enough to differentiate yourself, you might need to invest more time and energy into customer service in 2019.

  3. You’ve heard it before, but it’s time to be the tech-enabled agent.

  Real estate technology is not only here to stay, but additionally, the ecosystem is rapidly evolving. New tools and features continue to improve the consumer and the agent experience alike. The trick is to find a balance between utilizing the technology that will help you grow your business while not getting swept away in “new and shiny syndrome” (trying every single new tool, app, and platform and losing sight of the fundamentals).

  Use these 3 steps to make sure you are being empowered by tech.

1. Audit what you have.

2. Test and measure the ROI.

3. Nix (what’s not working), keep (what is working), and/or add (what you need to meet your goals).

  4. Perfect the fundamentals

  Okay, okay, I know we just told you to stay ahead of the curve, embrace technology, etc. etc. But you cannot forget the core fundamentals of being a good real estate agent! One resounding takeaway from Inman Connect New York was that successful agents have not only taken advantage of the technology that will help them dominate their market, but they are also phenomenally skilled at one thing — selling real estate.

    What we mean is, through it all, it is important to never lose sight of the fundamentals of real estate. A people business. A sales business. You are never too far along in your business to practice scripts, to watch a webinar, or to hire a coach. If something feels off and you’re not hitting your goals, check in with the fundamentals first and see if there is a foundational skill that you could use improvement.

The Industry is Abuzz with the Market Shift. So What Gives?

The shifting market was a major focus at Inman Connect New York and continues to be a hot topic in the days and weeks following. So what do is at all mean for your business?

  As a quick recap, here are the “Top 10 Trends Agents Need to Know in a Shifting Market”

1. Brokers embrace distinct technology as a core service offering to agents

2. Lending standards continue to ease

3. Search as a commodity (used to be a differentiator, now standard)

4. Focus on improving the transaction

5. Rise of short term rental investors

6. Performance analytics (consumers are measuring agent capabilities, becoming more choosey)

7. Minimalist lifestyle gains popularity (downsizing, remove clutter)

8. Predictive analytics and business prioritization

9. Diversified content offering

10. Great customer service takes on a new meaning

While the market shift was a hot topic at Inman Connect New York, rejoice in the fact that nobody seems to be too nervous about the shift. There was no “doomsday energy” to be found. In fact, quite the opposite. A fair amount of agents and brokers alike are excited for the shift and moving towards a more normalized market. Particularly if the shift opens up more opportunities for buyers.

  Be smart with your budget. Track and measure everything and tweak your business model if there are processes that are throwing your profitability off track.

    As we mentioned before when discussing the fundamentals (back-to-basics) of real estate, it’s more important than ever, in a shifting market, to focus on relationships. Often real estate agents have to play the “counselor” role, and the agents that can perfect this skill are going to be the agents that can effectively educate and coach their leads to buy or sell.

  Tips for Communcation “Counseling” in a Market Shift:

Share Facts – always have detailed and valuable market information at-the-ready

Listen – learn your client’s needs and fears

Avoid Pitfalls – be aware of common transaction pitfalls (inspections, appraisals, loan approval), and take extra precautions throughout the process to avoid them

Be Honest – don’t manipulate data to push a seller or buyer in a particular direction if you don’t genuinely think it’s in their best interest. (Be encouraging without being pushy)

Thriving in a Shifting Market Read More

Social Media & Video (We’ll Keep This Brief)

I overheard an Inman Connect New York attendee say, “If I hear one more person tell me to leverage video, I’m going to lose it.”

  It’s been said over and over, so we’ll get straight to the point with just the most important things to note about social presence and video in 2019.

  Keep an eye on messaging apps and chatbots as they continue to gain popularity

People don’t care about your last closing. People care about how you’re going to solve their problems.

Even if you’re not getting “likes,” your content might still be effective at creating brand recognition. People are scroll-happy.

Use an app that creates captions for your videos. Some stats show that 85% of users watch stories/videos without sound.

2019: The Year of Differentiation

Think of your favorite brands. Patagonia, YETI Coolers? Maybe it’s Starbucks, Apple, or RayBan. Every great brand has a brand story, which dictates everything else that brand touches. Marketing, communication, relationship-building. The story and the “mission” guide that brand.

  Real estate is a people business, a customer service business, but at the end of the day, it’s also a business (and every business has a brand). A common theme on the Inman Connect stage was successful and unique businesses. They had something to differentiate themselves from the competition.

    So this year do some introspection! You might already have a rock solid brand and a unique value proposition. But if you don’t, take some time to think about what really sets you apart from other agents. It could be something small, like telling jokes. (Maybe you’re the agent that leads with humor and makes people smile.) Or it could be something extremely unique, such as having a team that is made up completely of veterans or veteran spouses.

  For a kickstart on building a strong brand story, check out Katie Lance’s slides from Inman Connect New York 2019: “How to Attract Your Dream Client Through Social Media and Storytelling”

Automation Nation! Time to Work Smarter (and Harder)

If there is one thing I noticed at Inman Connect New York, it’s that agents do not want to work less. This is a business of the hustle! The grind! The power-players, the rainmakers, and the movers and shakers!

  That being said, automation is a major trend not because agents wants to “set it and forget it” and go on vacation. No, it’s a trend because agents want to automate the busy day-to-day tasks that are bogging them down so that they can get back to doing their thing – selling real estate! There are mundane office tasks that are essential for building a healthy book of business: following up with leads, digital advertising through Google and Facebook ads, reaching out to previous clients to solicit referrals. All of these things are important for a thriving business. But if you can delegate/hand-off that work or even better, automate it? You’re essentially doing double the productivity in the same amount of time.

  Keep and Eye on These Top Tech Trends in 2019

Without getting wrapped up in “new-and-shiny syndrome,” take a look at some of the top trends in real estate tech right now. Whether it’s an app that could improve your productivity or a tool that might streamline the consumer experience, one of these tech trends could elevate your business.

1. Smart speakers (Alexa, Google Home)

2. “Dare to be original” with your website design (stand out)

3. Voice from smart speakers (Alexa flash briefings)

4. Before investing in something new, have a concrete plan

5. Siri (Start asking Siri some questions and explore how she can make your life easier)

6. Relationships matter

7. The video dilemma! (Don’t ignore the power of video because you’re afraid to be on camera)

8. Read the fine print (Be smart with data, listings, profile information and contract fine print)

9. Apple phone usage (monitor what you’re doing on your phone)

10. Collect your data, start recording everything

Dear Agents, Stay Focused on What Matters (While the Franchises Battle for Your Loyalty)

There are a lot of power-players on the Inman Connect stage. And a lot of those power players have one vested interest — their business. A common theme at ICNY this year was the on-stage battle between leaders over who provides the most value for their agents. From commission splits to culture, in-house digital marketing to complimentary CRM systems… the franchises continue to duke it out over what they believe matters most to their agents.

  Reminiscent of college football rivalry, tensions can be high.

  Our advice to you – whenever you are making a decision regarding switching to a new franchise, becoming (or shifting away from being) an independent brokerage, stay focused on YOU and your personal business goals.

In Conclusion, Lead With a Good Conscience and Get to Work

Leaving Inman Connect New York 2019, through all the noise and voices, there was one resounding message on my mind. It’s a back-to-basics, elementary school concept, but it’s often overlooked in the world of business. Do the right thing.

  “Do the right thing” is one of BoomTown’s core values. Real estate is a people’s business. It’s about doing everything in your power to help people (not clients, not leads – people) make the best possible decision that they can regarding their home. One of the most important decisions in their life! Agents have the power to create an amazing experience for them, while building trust and understanding.

&nsbp;

  And in the end, karma does seem to play a part in this industry! The most successful, happiest real estate professionals seem to have one common thread – they’re in it for the right reasons, and that reason is to help people.

The post Tactical Takeaways from (a Very Chilly) Inman Connect New York 2019 appeared first on BoomTown!.

from BoomTown! http://bit.ly/2SCaTwf

[redrocketmg]

Using Social Listening to Improve Your Business Social Media

Using Social Listening to Improve Your Business Social Media Content

Are Your Social Media Efforts A One-Way Conversation?

How many times have we heard that listening is key to good communication? Probably more times than we can count. Hopefully, we’ve at least begun to learn this trick in our friendships and other relationships. Have you ever considered, however, how important listening is when it comes to your social media marketing as a company? Missing this key component of good communication could be causing us to miss out on better results.

  What Is Social Listening?

Social Listening: ‘listening’ to what others are saying about your industry and brand online in order to gain helpful insights that will help you improve your business, your products and services, and your social strategy.

  Now let’s make sure we’re not getting social listening confused with social monitoring. Social monitoring is focused on collecting information about your social media efforts, including social mentions and engagement with your audience through your posts. Social monitoring focuses on responding to notifications about interactions with your posts. Social listening takes you beyond just monitoring current engagement but helps you take what you learned from those interactions to improve your content strategy. It helps you not only hear what your current audience needs, but takes you further to a greater potential audience that you could reach.

What Are the Benefits of Social Listening?

What if you began to listen to your audience to allow them to get in their two cents about what they would like to see your business do on social media? Do you think changing your content strategy based on what you learn from listening to your audience could increase engagement with your social marketing? Imagine with me some of the possible benefits you could gain.

  You could find out what your audience is interested in and talking about.

You would learn about the problems your audience is having and know how you could work to bring a solution.

You’d be able to find out what people are complaining about related to your niche…and then you could address those complaints and do things better.

You would actually be able to post the kind of content your audience is craving, the kinds of things that give them real value.

  How Do I Begin Social Listening?

Start by knowing where your audience (or potential audience) hangs out. If the people you are trying to reach tend to gather on Facebook but you’re only active on Twitter, I’m afraid you’ve started your social media efforts on the wrong foot. Discover where your ideal audience is and then put your focus there.

Pay Attention to Feedback on Your Posts

There are all kinds of ways to begin being purposeful about listening to your audience. One of the most obvious ways is to pay attention to comments people leave on your posts. Whether they’re giving you praise or criticism, perk up those social ears…you may just learn something that will help you take your social media marketing to a new level. Go beyond just common courtesy in responding to comments, but learn to extract valuable insight from those conversations to be able to share content your audience needs.

Listen to Your Reviews

Start by checking out the reviews customers have left for you on Google or Facebook: the good, the bad, the ugly. Are there additional products or services people wish you would have offered? Is there something about your service that they loved that stands out above the crowd? Are you noticing a common problem people have that you could address in a Live video, blog article, or another type of social media post? Maybe there’s a common theme in the complaints people leave in your reviews. How can you fix or address them?

  Check your competitors’ reviews for ideas as well. Notice any gaps in customer reviews that you could fill? Maybe there’s a service they don’t offer that you do. Perhaps there are concerns they haven’t addressed that would be relevant for you to address on your page.

  Find out What Questions People Are Asking

A great way to find out what people want to know about your niche is to check out a site like Quora or Yahoo Answers. The questions they are asking could help you gain all kinds of ideas for shareable content to create, from videos to blog posts, to infographics. You would be creating content that people have been looking for, even if they haven’t been directly asking you.

  Look for the “People also ask” toggle when searching for a target keyword question in Google search to get additional ideas on common questions you could address for your audience.

Spy on Your Competition

Okay, don’t really spy on them. But do visit their social media pages to find out what they’re doing that is bringing good responses from their audience as well as what isn’t making much of an impression.

  Have your competitors had requests to share about something, but they have never done it? You may be able to fill that gap. Have they shared information that just doesn’t fully satisfy a customer’s question? Create content that is thorough to share on your page.

  Get a Bit More Trendy

Instead of trying to rack your brain for new and inventive things to share, why not find out what is already trending with your audience and tap into those trends?

  You can find out what’s trending and what people are discussing with these hacks:

  Search hashtags with keywords relative to your niche to find what people are saying about your industry

Explore the relevance of topics related to your industry using Google Trends

Use a Tool to Social Listen

Stay in touch with what’s going on with your brand or related keywords beyond just monitoring your own social media pages. Try using one of these tools:

Use a tool like Social Mention. This tool allows you to search your brand name or industry-related keywords and find any mentions of them on the web. You can filter your results by the date of the mention or the source. This tool will also give you information, like the strength, sentiment, passion, and reach your entered keywords have across the web.

For a more robust tool, check out Mention. This tool will give you updates whenever your brand is mentioned on the web or on social media. Mention allows you to monitor keywords, compare your metrics with competitors, and more. Mention is a paid service, but you can start by using their free trial.

You can also use Google Alerts for social listening. When you set up an alert for a particular brand, keyword, or keyword phrase, Google will email you a notification when those keywords are mentioned on the web.

Try Taking a Poll

Taking a poll to find out what your audience wants to see you post may be the perfect approach for your business. Whether you leave it open-ended for people to comment out what they want to see or allow them to select one or more from a few options, this can be a great way to get answers straight from the people you want to reach.

  Conclusion

So to wrap this all up, what is the whole goal of social listening and why should we be doing it?

Social media isn’t just about you. It’s about your audience. You can’t serve them well with one-way communication.

Social listening helps you understand your audience’s needs so that you can meet them.

Listening helps you take better care of your customers and therefore strengthens the relationship.

Social listening helps you attract new followers and potential customers

Social listening not only helps you improve your social content but can also help you improve your services and products.

  Was this article helpful? You may also want to check out our Facebook Live session about social listening.

The post Using Social Listening to Improve Your Business Social Media appeared first on Red Rocket Web Specialists.

source https://www.redrocketmg.com/social-listening-improve-business-social-media/

[openupmy-eyes]

Interview with Mabel

I was lucky enough to chat with Brits Critics Choice nominee Mabel McVey for Sound Of Brit (interview in French is here).

Hi Mabel! 2017 has been quite a big year for you, you played a show in Paris last month and it was packed! How does it feel to know that you can sell out venues outside of the UK? Very surreal! In the UK it’s awesome but I think going somewhere else and just knowing that a little thing that I’ve created like a song that can spread to the whole world is actually amazing. It’s a great power! And it was such a beautiful show, I think Paris and London were some of my favourite shows!

How was the crowd, was it different from London? I think London can be quite hard, I’ve never had this experience, not at a headline show but I think people can be quite reserved. But I don’t know, people said to me when when I was coming here “it might be quite weird, playing Paris sometimes can be difficult too” and I was a little bit nervous. But then got to the show and there were so much love and everybody knew the words… yeah it was amazing, really beautiful!

This year you released your debut EP “Bedroom” and also a mixtape later, so what’s coming up next? An album? For sure! The album is really important to me this is why I am not rushing it. I’m working on it already, I’m quite a way into it and it’s bigger and better than anything I’ve done before I can say that already. With the EP and the mixtape, I just wanted to show people that I can create bodies of work but without going to the album too early because I think you don’t wanna do that.

Could you tell us a bit more about the musical colour of this album? On your EP you’re singing a lot about relationships, are you going to explore different themes? I always write in the same way I think, relationships are interesting and I definitely always write about them. I’ve been exploring other themes as well, like a lot of things I grew up with such as battling with anxiety and depression. In the battles I think it’s important to talk about that too. When it comes to the sound of the album it’s similar to what I’ve done before but I’d say I just take a bit further, being more daring and I’m experimenting with other sounds. I’d say there are slow jam vibe and nineties influences are still really present and then when it comes to up-tempo: afrobeats, it’s really important to me. I never explored up-tempo until Finders Keepers, I’ve always found it really hard, I was always like “how am I going to do that”. I love to dance but it’s difficult! Stuff like straight-head pop with four-on-the-floor… And I remember just being “afrobeats are important to me”, growing up I’ve got roots in West-Africa and I felt I should try that because that’s a great way to go up-tempo. The first song I did like that was Finders Keepers and then my next record which is quite up-tempo is all in that world.

And did you expect that Finders Keepers would be such a massive success? It’s crazy, it was always my favourite song! I can say now that I have new songs to come that I like even more but up until that point of writing that’s always been the most important one to me. I think there was some people around who were quite nervous because it was different to anything that I’ve done before. But it’s an important part of me and I wanted my fans to hear it and let them decide, let’s see what they think. That’s the best thing that could happen to me that my favourite song is also my fans’ favourite song. It’s just amazing that’s how things worked! Because you know my fans essentially decide…

So your fans have an influence on your work? Definitely! Because I didn’t even put that song out as a single really, it was a little taste of the EP. Bedroom came out as a single and Finders Keepers just went so far past Bedroom! And we were like “shit, we didn’t even get a video!” so we shot one. It came out in March and we’re in November now and it’s still in the top ten in the UK! So that’s amazing!

On Finders Keepers you did a collab with Kojo Funds, is there any other artist you’d like to collab with on your new album? I’ve seen you were talking to Zak Abel on twitter… Zak is a friend and he’s an amazing performer but I’m not sure about any collab. We’ve been writing together because it’s fun to write with other people and he’s a good writer! Who else? I think there are so many amazing women in the UK like Stefflon and Raye, so I’m hoping something will happen there. We’ve been writing but any time we write we just end up hanging out and going out so it will take us a year before we write a song! Some other UK artists like Stormzy, I’d love to do something with him, he’s amazing! Some American rappers… Tory Lanez I love him!

So mostly urban and rap artists? Yeah definitely! I like rap and R&B and it’s a big part of my identity, but then yeah some afrobeats, I’d love to do something like that. Maleek Berry would be really cool too!

I’ve read you were a massive fan of Beyoncé, are there any other inspirational female musician that you look up for? Lauryn Hill, Aaliyah… From the present day probably Kehlani, SZA, just any women who are fearless in their writing. I think Lauryn Hill and Aaliyah were very much in a man’s world sort of bossing that vibe. Then you have Destiny’s Child, I grew up in the age of, thanks to them, Survivor, Independent Woman, I got taught that you don’t need somebody to love you to feel good about yourself and I think it’s a message that I want to send to my female listeners.

You started to write music quite young, do you remember the first song that you’ve ever written? It’s so funny because I do remember it but I’ve sworn to myself to never share it! Basically it’s funny because it was a love song and I was five years old so at that time I’ve definitely never been in love! So it’s funny our obsession with love and how it’s start so early and how we place so much importance on it. But yeah, it was about a guy in my year… I literally don’t know where he is or what he does.

You said before that you were struggling with anxiety and I was wondering how do you manage and deal with it when you’re performing in front of audiences like you did when you opened for Years & Years at a quite early stage of your career… I think I only get anxious or nervous because I care and it’s about using all that energy. Anxiety takes a lot of energy, brain power, physically it gets me tired because it’s about taking all that energy and turning it into something positive. For me it was about disconnecting with the Mabel that reads, the Mabel that hangs out with her friends and being that other thing. Which is like I don’t even think of myself as human, just being pure energy, that’s what it is. Taking all of that negative stuff and stop thinking “what if this or that happens?” and just owning it. I think it’s the best feeling in the world.

To be on stage and to feel the crowd with you? Yeah, it used to scare me but I realised that if I jumped then they’ll jump too but I have to do it! I have to go in! If I scream then they will too and it’s just amazing, having that connection with people!

Did you have any awkward moment on stage though? Oh yeah there were definitely some awkward moments! Like when I scream and nobody screams… There’s always some moment and I’m like “what if my bra is not in place, what if…” but I think it’s what I really learned from my mum… it’s that fuck it! No matter what happens, because shit happens but it’s just about owning it! But I think people like the flaws as well. I’ve got a thing now, because I used to be so scared of performing, when things would go wrong I just wouldn’t say anything, carry on and get to the end of the show and I would think “I didn’t enjoy that” because I was so focus on that mistake and thrown by that but now it happened a couple times on tour and I just say “you know what? Something went wrong, we’re just gonna start this again”. People like that because they’ll see I’m human, we’re all human, everybody fucks up, shit goes wrong – oh my god sorry I swear so much! I like just admitting and sometimes they are even my favourite moments because people cheer, they’re with you, they’re like “we love that you’re human” so I think “thank god!” because if you think I’m some angel you’re gonna be disappointed!

Your music and fashion sense are both quite inspired by the nineties, if you could only keep one trend from this era, which one would you pick? That it’s so hard! Okay I’m going to say two things: one music thing and one fashion thing! I’d say it would be the harmonies, nineties harmonies, they’re amazing, I think people neglect that so much in modern music! I travel with two back-up vocalists and in all my shows we do a section where it’s really broken down, it’s just me and vocals. So I’d say that, a lot of nineties R&B were based around that. And in fashion it would be the nineties lip-liner! That’s like an everyday thing for me, I usually do a really tacky nineties lip-liner with a lip gloss and it’s really the vibe!

Finally, if you could pick an era to live, would you stay a millennial or be a nineties kid? Yeah it would be the nineties, I feel like I was meant to be a teenager in the nineties. I always ask my auntie “tell me a bedtime story! Tell me about the year 1996!”.

And what can we wish you for next year? The album, a lot of touring… it’s gonna be even bigger than this year!