Pharrell was honored with the Golden Note Award for his extraordinary contributions to music at the 25th Annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Beverly Hills on Friday. Following congratulatory messages from his collaborators including No Doubt, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and Pusha T, the humble hitmaker accepted the award with his parents, protégée Leah LaBelle, and fellow Neptunes producer Chad Hugo by his side.
“When Chad and I first started out, we never thought it was gonna turn into any of this,” said the N.E.R.D. frontman, who also acknowledged his fellow honoree Quincy Jones. “Quincy Jones is everything that every producer wants to be when we grow up. … I only aspire to have the music that Chad and I make one day stand somewhere near his music and his work.” –Rap-Up
There is a fabulous feature that will help you highlight the things that happen throughout your life an career that you would like to post onto your Facebook Page.
This is a phenomenal tool for going back in time and recording important things in the history of your personal life, your band life, or anything you would like to have highlighted.
For artists that have histories with other bands this is doubly amazing because you can go back and create milestones for practically anything, and really build your story.
Here are a few things you can add:
Past tour dates
Past album release dates
Past press placements & radio add dates
The day you saw an amazing concert that inspired you
The day you were signed to a label
The day you were dropped from a label
The day you got your publishing deal
The day you recorded your first song
The day you entered the studio
The day you had your first vocal lesson
Etc.
Anything that was important in the history of your band and your life and your music can be added as a milestone.
Here’s how to create a milestone on your timeline in 5 easy steps:
Step 1: Login to Facebook, go to the Status / Post Bar and click milestone
Step 2: A box will appear. Input all the information – Fill out the event name/ location and date
Step 3: Tell a story about the milestone- Why was it significant?
Step 4: Add any photos that relate to the milestone
Step 5: Click Save and your milestone will be published on your timeline
TIP: Make sure when you create a milestone to add a photo, a little story or blurb, or a link to another site that helps to tell the story of that particular milestone.
Now your entire timeline will be robust and look amazing!
TIP: Note: If you are going to be adding multiple milestones at once I suggest that you check the box that says “hide from your newsfeed” so that your fans do not receive a whole bunch of notifications at once. –Music Think Tank
Recently I read a good article by Stephen Carmichael on Music Think Tank called “How Google And Search Engine Optimization Changed The Music Industry.” In it he puts forth the premise that search engine optimization has changed music because it emphasizes good SEO technique as a means for high search ranking, which in turn means that “quality music” usually takes a backseat to what happens to be currently popular.
One of the examples he shows is how Rebecca Black’s viral hit video/song “Friday” still ranks highly on a innocent search of the word “friday.” If you were living in a cave last year, “Friday” became a huge hit mostly because it was so bad that you had to experience it at least once. Unless you were a 13 year-old girl. Then you probably thought it ranked right up there with Justin Bieber in the pantheon of greatest music of all time.
And that’s the problem when we try to define “quality music” (or quality anything for that matter). As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Skrillex’s music might be nirvana if you’re into EDM, but it might be the depths of audio hell if you’re into Nirvana the band. And likewise if you’re a big dixieland fan or marching band fan, or classical music fan, or hip-hop fan……. you get the point.
That’s one of the reasons that I try to never make blanket statements like “This is bad,” “This is good,” or “This is mediocre” when doing the weekly song analysis on my Big Picture production blog. What I consider good or bad is probably exactly the opposite of someone out there, and who am I to say that they’re wrong?
Music is something that you can’t touch, but it can touch you. It’s all about how it speaks to you and makes you feel. It might be a hook, an arrangement, a melody or lyric that has that special spark that only you hear, even if the rest of the world doesn’t. It’s your special connection that takes you to another dimension that maybe only you can get to, and only from one particular song. Who is any one else to dare comment on that connection?
That’s why it’s so important for an artist to keep searching for an audience, because regardless of what kind of music you’re playing and your proficiency level, your audience is out there. It may be just a dozen people, but they’re waiting for you to find them. The music you make will be really important to them, even if the rest of the world doesn’t get it.
Making a hit is really, really hard, even for the best hit makers. When a song becomes a “hit” (meaning that some group of people immensely dig it), it’s happened for a reason. There’s magic that’s involved that should at least be appreciated, even if you can’t get your arms around it. Any music that touches the heart of another is special. The smartest in our business know enough to learn from that and apply it to their own work. Because in the end, music quality is a moving target. Hitting the bull’s eye is the tough part.
