FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL đ«đđșđœ️đ. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Yes, so VERY, VERY infectious! :-) The newest song stuck in my head: "Cut Your Teeth" by Kygo @KygoMusic & Kyla LaGrange @kylalagrange, via @ultrarecords
Today is not just the first day of the 2014 NFL Draft or the second Semifinal of the Eurovision Singing Contest in Copenhagen, you know, it's also...
Just 14 years ago 2day: debut single of HĂ„kan Hellström. And now, everyone in Sweden ❤ HĂ„kan -he can do no wrong. :-) http://t.co/pmEqo4HvzE — HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) May 8, 2014
vackragavlestad YouTube Channel video: HÄkan Hellström - KÀnn ingen sorg för mig i Göteborg
LIVE on SVT's AllsÄng pÄ Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013
The clip above is from the amazing one-hour LIVE SVT telecast from last July from the stage at AllsÄng pÄ Skansen in Stockholm that was a special broadcast featuring HÄkan and some of his friends and special invited guests, like Helen Sjöholm, Anna JÀrvinen, Tomas von Brömssen and others.
I watched that LIVE on my computer here in Hallandale Beach and it was, by far, the single most entertaining hour of music I heard all year, especially when you understand what most of the various elements in the show -and costumes in the audience- represent, both symbolically and emotionally to his fans.
Speaking of @Skansen & "Valborg," from HÄkan Hellström's amazing concert last July, here's the sublime Helen Sjöholm http://t.co/LCA85IPX6S
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) April 30, 2014
For instance, speaking of the amazing Helen, so often written about here on the blog the past seven years, here's a sublime Helen singing "Valborg."
vackragavlestad YouTube Channel video: HÄkan Hellström - "Nu kan du fÄ mig sÄ lÀtt" LIVE on SVT's AllsÄng pÄ Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013.
I call this video above of him singing "Nu kan du fÄ mig sÄ lÀtt" from the show, "The Adoration" for reasons that are quite apparent.
Years ago, in some of his public performances, HĂ„kan dressed onstage in a white sailor's uniform. It's sort of a common knowledge thing in Sweden.
Anyway, as you can see at 0:08 and 0:27, by the drawing and the girl in the sailor outfit herself, some of the girls haven't forgotten.
I guess there's just something about a sailor, eh?
And I don't mean Sailor Moon.
You can see the whole concert here, which I have watched from beginning-to-end probably a dozen times since last July, with just a brief appearance by AllsÄng host MÄns Zelmerlöw.
Phareed YouTube channel video: AllsÄngsscenen Àr din: HÄkan Hellström (Live pÄ Skansen 2013) Stockholm, Sweden. Uploaded July 9, 2013. http://youtu.be/0upVoqUXc4Q
Listen online - Annie's interview with BBC Radio 5 live (Interview starts at 39.00 on the player) http://t.co/QhGkRi1jiM — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 7, 2013
BBC Radio 5 LIVE audio, October 7, 2013: Annie Lennox: "I'm all for boundary pushing but it's into the realm of porn" DURATION: 04:02
"British singer-songwriter Annie Lennox talks to 5 live Drive about why she feels some music videos are not suitable for young children, suggesting young fans should be protected from artists who wish to push sexual boundaries.
I looked up this definition of pornography on the internet… the "issue" is whether you want it on awards show,... http://t.co/atTMg0cmtM — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 8, 2013
-- UK Press Alert --
Today's UK edition of The Times newspaper includes a new interview with Annie. http://t.co/EnfjvgsTas — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 8, 2013
A question for all parents of young children under the age of 15.. How do you feel about the barrage of powerful... http://t.co/SWIdSYSK39 — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 7, 2013
-- UK Radio Interview Alert --
Annie will be speaking to BBC Radio 5 live today during the Drive Time show. The... http://t.co/PfL1Rd0l8t — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 7, 2013
I have to say that I'm disturbed and dismayed by the recent spate of overtly sexualised performances and videos.... http://t.co/Zdw4cmfVhW — Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) October 5, 2013
Clearly, nothing covers an empty wall like awards!
But somehow, despite all that is known about its power to sift and find that hidden thing which you seek, the article above never mentions the power of Google Alerts, something I swear by and testify to. Just saying...
Music's long-tail idea not working out exactly as planned, is it? I last wrote about rock guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen in my April 30, 2011 blog post titled, If the blog is rockin', don't come knockin' - Yngwie Malmsteen: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (HQ); original version by ABBA (LIVE at Wembley Arena, 1979) http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/if-blog-is-rockin-dont-come-knockin.html of which this remake of ABBA'sGime Gimme! Gimme! is but one of many videos there.
The ambitious Latina teen has plans for superstardom, a goal she sings about in her debut, 'Becky From the Block.'
By Reed Johnson
August 19, 2013
At the time, her family had been forced to move into her grandparents' Inglewood garage after losing its Riverside County home. Money was tight. Her dad was stressing out. And her mom was "really scared."
Becky G vividly remembers what she calls "my little mini midlife crisis." It happened seven years ago, when she was 9.
That's when Becky had an epiphany.
"I did have this moment of realization of, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do with my life?'" she says. "Just feeling like I had to get my act together, even though there was really nothing to put together yet."
This is a slightly-edited version of an email I sent out Monday night to a friend in Europe who is a very smart and savvy music producer and talent manager, whose reaction to this Los Angeles Times article I could well imagine even before I hit "Send."
----------
August 19, 2013
7:55 p.m.
After reading this article above, I think we both know that most discerning people of a certain age, educational background and open-eyed observer of Western pop culture history will be of one mind with you and me on it, and I think we both know, implicitly, something that we can't actually prove empirically.
Why? Well, in my case, I'm smart, pop savvy and have an excellent memory and an even better intuition!
As for you, well, you know those reasons better than me.
Here's what that intuition tells me today.
That there are tens of thousands of people all over Los Angeles in the entertainment industry who woke-up this morning, opened their front door and grabbed today's LA Times off their porch or lawn and started scanning the headlines as they walked back to their house, condo or apartment, still half-asleep.
Somewhere by the time they got into their kitchen, they'd pulled the plastic bag off and had popped the whole paper open on their table and were scanning and scanning and scanning and then...they stopped when they saw the headline below the fold:"Becky G. dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez."
At that point, more than a few of them said to themselves, "WTF? Who is this girl and why is SHE getting front page coverage by the Times when there are so many more-talented singers out there I know who deserve attention and who've already paid their dues?"
So, this morning, all over LA, people who don't know each other already have something in common: their day started off bad and was only going to get worse once they got behind their steering wheel and within minutes, found themselves in traffic. And as they wait at the long red light, they think back to the carefully-orchestrated photos which seemed more like they belong on Becky G.'s official website, not a reputable first-class newspaper, and they mutter,"All this for a 16-year old Latina rapper? Really?"
And you know what?
The LA Times could care less about how much this story upsets and antagonizes the real professionals within the LA-area recording industry, even if they are subscribers. The people who are below-the-radar but who are the backbone of the industry: sound engineers, techs, the receptionists at the studios, the A&R types in their shiny glass office buildings with nice views of the mountains, as well as the mountains of newspapers and magazines they get to let them have a Sixth Sense know about the Next Big Thing.
The reason the Times doesn't care what those industry people think about this article is because in their own minds, they're taking the larger, long-term view. The Times knows that because they orchestrated this with the complete help and cooperation of the record company, complete with two record company "minders" in tow, to prevent her from saying something the record company wouldn't like -a condition which many reputable journalists would NOT accept.
In large part they did so because they consciously want to be known in history as the first major Anglo news media outlet in the U.S. to "discover" Gomezfor a national audience.
The fact that she's Hispanic helps them ward off the ever-present criticism in LA that the Times
ignores Hispanics in their pages except when they get arrested or are crooked politicians.
But it's hard to say that you "discovered" someone when they already have roughly 48 separate citations on Univision, the leading Spanish-language TV network in the U.S. -and already have a contract with Cover Girlcosmetics as one of their "faces."
To me, she seems more like a carefully-constructed "Disney" media star than a real singer with something to say, and you know I don't mean that positively:
Then I look at what someone I'm more familiar with, 15-year old Cecilia Nilsson tweets and writes about on her Facebook page in Gavle, and to me, she seems so much more grounded. A real teenager with her ups and downs, and while ambitious, of course, in her particular case, someone whom you know I personally believe has an amazing talent, and someone that's preternaturally mature musically. An ability that she's honed and made better thru lots of very hard work and learning from experience.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8
As it happens, this presentation video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people.
It was recorded mostly at her home in GĂ€vle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and a city that I've written about here on the blog a few times in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things.
To me, at least, that means that any songsCecilia writes and sings about will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in
a beautiful place Södermalm, one of my favorite places in all the world, and had affluent parents. The sort who'd push her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell atNordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm, surprised that that there was even a little department for them at a store, even one that large, since I'd never seen anything like that in the U.S., not even in Macy's or Nordstrom's.
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAaoWritten by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson. Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in TranÄs, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI
These videos first appeared here on the blog in my May 14, 2013 blog post titled, "On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom"
Now getting back to Becky G., to me, the LA Times clearly wanted to be the first Anglo media organization to write about this singer -that 99.99% of the U.S. has never heard of- in such an over-the-top way that all future reporters who ever write about anything about her, will reflexively have to read this Times article first, to see what her answers and attitude were like, way back in 2013.
Becky Gomezseems like a nice kid and maybe she's talented.
Or maybe she's not.
Her music isn't my thing and never will be, that's certainly not going to change, but if some people like it, it doesn't bother me, per se, though as you know, I hate rap music, since I like harmony and melody.
But to me, after reading this, what bothers me the most, and what no doubt bothered the vast majority of the people in the music industry I described at the top of this email who also read it, is that it all seems so very contrived.
That Gomez is merely the shiny new face of corporate music trying to find an audience niche amongst the influential and affluent teen market In North America, especially of teenage girls who are perhaps overly-indulged by their well-meaning parents that finds her palatable if not very original.
Not the good part of corporate music, like a certain consistency in the quality of the recording studios or the knowledge and experience of the sound engineers you might work with, or even the quality of the hotels you stay at, but the negative things that we are all in agreement on.
After reading this article, I thought back to the interview with Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard)
on Channel 4 early last year -as seen above in a screenshot of my first blog post on her from February 4th, 2012.
I was so impressed by what she said and how sincere she was in saying it.
That is, to the extent that I could fully understand what she was saying and hinting at to the hosts! :)
Still, the reason I sent this article to you today is because this is a great snapshot of a major American media company, which, because it's located in the world's entertainment capital, and has been losing lots of longtime readers, advertisers and money (and fired lots of reporters), is trying quite desperately to be seen as still relevant.
Which is why they were fully-prepared to swallow whole a pre-digested corporate music advertisement and pretend that it was really journalism.
In the late 1970's and most of the '80's, the Times' ad-filled Sunday paper were famous for
their weight, often coming in at well over eight pounds during the pre-holidays, the largest in America in those pre-Internet days.
Back when they had among the best group of foreign correspondents that had ever been assembled, plus really great political and sports columnists who could tell a story in original and compelling ways, which is why so many of them were syndicated nationally in other U.S. papers, like the ones in Miami that I grew-up reading.
Like Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray, whom I read in the Miami News, the afternoon paper that I preferred to the Miami Herald in part because I knew so many of the reporters, columnists and editors who worked there when I was in high school, but spent lots of time there in the Herald building on Biscayne Bay.
I think within a few days, the reader comments at the LAT website will not be quite so friendly and positive about Becky G., with lots of people asking why the editors are putting something so lightweight on their front page that seems to almost be more like an advertisement than a genuine news article.
So with all this in mind, perhaps next week, rather than do some things I already have planned, I should fly off to Stockholm again, except this time, stay at some crazy expensive hotel in Stureplan, rather than the much more reasonably-priced Omena Stockholm on Torsgatan that I stayed at the last five days of my nine-day trip in January.
Then, sometime after lunch, perhaps before going over to Fotografiska, I will suddenly "discover" Zara Larsson, Ha! Ha! Ha!
Yes, the amazing 15-year old dynamo with that powerful voice whom I've only been following for nearly four years or so, and wanted to write about on my blog for years. I've followed the ups-and-downs of Zara since she was one of the handful of very talented kids profiled on TV4's very compelling Tuesday night documentary series from 2009-2010 that I wrote about here on the blog at the time, "Jag ska bli stjÀrna (I'll be a star). Except, of course, Zara's already signed a contract with Sony.
poriel2 YouTube Channel video: Zara Larsson - Uncover - Live on SVT's 'AllsÄng pÄ Skansen' in Stockholm. June 25, 2013, the first show of the summer. Uploaded on August 2, 2013. http://youtu.be/undi-9G68Hc
love this. "Schools in Norway move midterms so students can attend Justin Bieber concert" foxnews.com/entertainment/… — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) April 3, 2013
re Justin Bieber -Teen Idols and Teenage Girls' Consumer Power and the Backlash: Signs of the coming Pop Culture apocalypse in Oslo: 5 Norwegian schools are rescheduling mid-term exams around Justin Bieber tour dates, and it's okay according to Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Minister of Education and Research. But other politicians are less sanguine about it, and worry what this sort of govt. response will encourage in the future
And the one thing we know from the mountain of evidence is that the students who would otherwise have skipped school are NOT teenage boys! Interesting that the news media is unwilling to state the facts -that the students who will not show up for school are almost exclusively girls, don't you think?
Art Beat blog
New York Times
Schools in Norway Postpone Exams for Bieber Concerts
Another article about the over-the-top situation is this one that ran on Tuesday, that was dominated by one large photo of a teenage fan's bedroom :
Flyttet tentamen for Justin Bieber, Nedtellinga til konsert i Oslo 17. april har begynt. Da fÄr Kristiane SÞvik (15) se sitt store forbilde - Justin Bieber.
It's like I'm always saying on these pages -twelve-to-seventeen year old girls in Western countries are taking over the world and won't let go of their grip, and as long as they hold sway, pop culture will cease to be a meaningful measure of merit or talent in the way that it often but not always was in the past. That so much of what teenage girls "Like" music-wise is pre-digested corporate filler product is not a positive sign. Old rule of thumb for the blog and his circle of friends is that if the recording artist's album sale or concert is comprised of more than 90% of one gender, they're not really that talented.
Those girls' fingers on their precious cell phones, whether texting or casting votes dozens and dozens of times for no-talents at home, at school or while walking across the street without looking both ways, are like tentacles around real music talent's throat and creativity. U.S. and Western consumer product companies and their print/TV middlemen are completely afraid to call their bluff, too, which is the worst sign of all. That's closely followed by the U.S. Mainstream Media's general cowardice and unwillingness to push-back against the LCD group think that says giving more news time to what's going on with teenage girls and their myriad fads and obsessions, is, actually helping. In many cases, it's pretty clear that the more the media -hard news and general interest- talks about one of these issues -teen suicide, anorexia, bulemia, teen fashion, teens texting while driving- is actually does more harm than good. But publicly you can't tell teenage girls NO anymore, as per the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas cheerleading scandal here in Broward County, where a mob and a mob mentality made the all-female Broward School Board make decisions not based on facts but on their -yes- feelings. For more on that, see my October 8, 2012 blog post titled, Dynamite! Bob Norman adroitly uses facts and context to lower-the-boom on the Broward School Board for their abysmal handling of the purported Douglas H.S. cheerleader coach 'scandal" -and drops School Board member Katie Leach squarely on her head; One month before the election, docs show Donn Korn opponent Franklin Sands funds his race with lots of money from his stepson’s lobbying firm -shocker!; @mattgutmanABC, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/dynamite-bob-norman-adroitly-uses-facts.html The firing of Coach Melissa
By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Oct 07 2012 10:33:04 AM EDT
Updated On: Oct 08 2012 11:16:26 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/The-firing-of-Coach-Melissa/-/3223354/16884040/-/8enkprz/-/index.html Not giving in to upset teenage girls and their emotionally over-wrought mothers actually resulted in a principal being removed! Principals upset over cheerleading coach's firing 'They're furious. They're absolutely furious over this' Published On: Oct 08 2012 06:30:41 PM EDT Updated On: Oct 09 2012 10:16:48 AM EDT http://www.local10.com/news/Principals-upset-over-cheerleading-coach-s-firing/-/1717324/16903370/-/t6vkfa/-/index.html And you certainly can't say aloud in the media that many of their so-called "problems" actually seem much more psychological in nature, and based on their own self-esteem or lack of it, not something physical, otherwise you're labeled as not being understanding. But if these things were physical, shouldn't there be at least some measurable incidence of bulimic or anorexic activity by girls in countries like Pakistan and Iraq, too? But there aren't any. Why the dissonance? Because these groups all have an incentive to not tell these Western teenage girl consumers the truth -that they can't always get their way. They want to sell them something: a product, a fad, an idea... that will make them like themselves better. So, while consumer product companies and the advertising industry falls all over themselves to get in (and stay in) the good graces of teenage girls -because they'll be making the family buying decisions in the future, so they want to favorably shape those opinions ASAP!- the news media just capitulates rather than stand up for common sense or the truth. And they just can't wait to find out the new trend and fad of upscale teenage American and Western girls and obsessively report on it as if it's something more than it is.
My last post on Justin Bieber was an August 31, 2010 post I titled simply,
Examining a music phenomenon: ABC News Nightline's Chris Connelly interviews pop sensation Justin Bieber: "The Business of Being Bieber"
Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) photographed in Rome, 2012, by Alessandro Leone
Later than I originally planned while I was in Stockholm last month, I'm sharing some new Full of Keys and Anni Bernhardnews today, my first of the new year.
While it's not exactly the first thing I thought I'd be writing about Anni this year while on that long SAS flight home from Stockholm, after over eight days there, it's still well worth you knowing about, especially if you are free this Friday night in Sweden, and most especially if you'll already be in Gotland.
The exact details of the BIG NEWS I have surrounding Anni and her band will have to wait for another day, since I've been sworn to secrecy, but trust me, when it comes out, it will beVERYexciting news for her fans and music-lovers everywhere.
In the meantime, though, until the time is right to spill the beans, I'm happy to tell you that Full Of Keys will be performing Friday night in Visby, Gotland, the hometown of singerAnni'sclever and oh-so creative manager,Andreas Jismark.
The performance will be part of an exclusive visit to Visby for rehearsals for what may/could be an upcoming U.S. tour that... well again, Ican't talk about right now.
FoK will be in Gotland during much of the Spring recording its second album and shooting some videos, so if you happen to be minding your own business one day, and happen to come across a very beautiful brunette somewhere singing with verve and style,please make sure that you look around carefully for any film cameras and lighting technicians BEFORE rushing over to say hello to Anni! :)
Friday is my birthday, but since I can't be there for obvious reasons to enjoy the music, be sure to make enough noise to compensate for my absence.
And don't forget to toast me with a cold Samuel Adams!
Hammersmith Odeon Visby, Adelsgatan 33, Visby, Gotland, Sweden
FullofkeysOFFICIAL YouTube Channel video: Full Of Keys - Snow Glass Apples, the first single from the second album. Written by Anni Bernhard & Robin Hirvonen Palmqvist. Directed by Carlo Roberti. Uploaded October 25, 2012.
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