At many pop concerts, the audience is so busy filming and recording the experience with their cell phones, they forget to pay attention to the music. “As a performer, it’s frustrating to look out and see a sea of cell phones instead of faces. There’s definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment.”
Tag: 05.12.08
How To Hit It Big On YouTube
“The brightness of many of YouTube’s original stars (Brookers, LisaNova, thewinekone, et al.) has waned, making it seem more difficult for homegrown stars to succeed on clever writing and talent alone. Now it’s turned into a kind of contest about who can hit the high note at just the right moment to grab a microsecond of collective attention. And a group of five Belgian filmmakers/pranksters/activists may be one of the early masters of this game.”
Livent Fraud Trial: Contractor Says He Was Told To Inflate Ticket Sales
A witness tells the court that Livent officials ordered the men to charge “what has been claimed as up to $1.7 million on their personal credit cards to purchase tickets for the Los Angeles run of Ragtime. This was done, the Crown Attorney claimed, not only to paint an exaggerated portrait of the show’s success, but also to increase the amount of fixed assets on the Livent balance sheet.”
Actors Vs. Hollywood Sign Of Media Industry Remaking
“The debate is the latest example of how the economics of traditional media are being upended by the growing popularity of video-sharing Web sites like YouTube, and how audiences’ tastes and habits are being transformed in the process. According to Internet marketing research firm comScore, 134 million Americans view online videos each month, with YouTube alone attracting 80 million unique visitors monthly.”
Outer Circle Critics Honor Broadway Shows
Lincoln Center’s revival of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific and Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County topped the list of honorees at the Outer Critics Circle Awards Sunday night.
Singer Coverting NY Building Into Giant Instrument
David Byrne is transforming New York’s Great Hall of the Battery Maritime Building by “connecting devices to beams, pipes and other structural features. At the heart of the ‘instrument’ will be an antique organ which will control vibrations used to make the sounds.”
How Old Music Is Transforming Remote Bolivia
Perhaps in few places on earth is music transforming the lives of a new generation more than in this remote low-land section of South America. The biennial baroque festival, which wrapped up last week, draws artists from across the globe who perform a repertoire of classical music that always includes at least one piece from the impressive, sacred archive, begun by the missionaries in the 17th century. It has spurred many of the region’s kids to gravitate toward the world of Bach and base clefs. In recent years, some 2,500 youths from area towns, many of them indigenous, have enrolled in music schools, choruses, and orchestras.”
How Our Brains Detect Others’ Emotions
“People who are good at interpreting facial expressions have ‘mirror neuron’ systems that are more active, say researchers. The finding adds weight to the idea that these cells are crucial to helping us figure out how others are feeling.”
Bands Finding That Free Music Downloads Pay Big
“Coldplay has become the latest band to discover that giving away your music – even a little bit for a little time – may, in the long run, end up being worth more than the conventional model of only selling it.”
A New Look At Duke Ellington’s Opera
“Duke Ellington’s Queenie Pie, the jazz opera he left uncompleted at his death in 1974, some infectious music, a strange libretto and a satiric opera buffa style pose a considerable challenge. The consistently ambitious Oakland Opera Theater has taken it on in a fitfully engaging, overstuffed production, under Tom Dean’s artistic direction, that opened over the weekend at the Oakland Metro Operahouse.”