Category: Social media

The explosion of K-Pop

Posted on by Brian Lee

YouTube has launched the careers of musical artists such as Justin Bieber and Arnel Pineda (current lead singer of Journey). Now’s it launching an entire genre of music called K-Pop.

I bet more people are familiar with K-Pop–which is pop music from South Korea–than they realize. Just turn on the radio or go online to hear/watch PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” which the New Yorker calls the “Macarena of the moment.”

These videos have high-quality production and dance choreography, which certainly helped them go viral worldwide (the No. 1 rule for viral marketing is to have good content). So far, “Gangnam Style” has more than 600 million views, Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” has 90 million and Super Junior’s “Mr. Simple” has 50 million.

K-Pop’s popularity is an example of the ever-evolving digital landscape. Previously, you typically discovered new music through the radio and/or by watching MTV/VH1. Now, by the time a song hits one of those media, you’re already familiar with the song through YouTube, Spotify or iTunes.

What does this mean for the notoriously greedy record industry? Besides using these new avenues, record executives need to remember it’s okay to give away something for free. Recent sold-out K-Pop concerts in the United States and huge record sales prove this.

And if something is worth sharing, people will share it.

#firstworldproblems

Posted on by Emilie Buckman

Sometime I think our internet savvy, hyper-aware generation can be too detached for its own good.  Need an example? Look at the twitter account @firstworldroblems.

Don’t get me wrong when I first saw the tweets I thought they were entertaining. And I am definitely guilty of complaining about trivial inconveniences associated with living a country of abundance. (The other day I started whining about how my phone always freezes up when I am in Instagram than someone pointed that was an first world problem.)

I started rethinking the accounts humor when I saw this viral video for WATERislife, which has Haitians reading actual tweets from the popular accounts. Their organization helps provide clean drinking to impoverished residents of Haiti.

After seeing the video I felt both incredibly happy, while also feeling like a huge jerk. (It’s hard not to feel bad living in a society that has so much, yet complains about small problems. If you don’t feel like a jerk I am pretty sure you don’t have a soul.) But my happiness outweighs those feelings because I know what good WATERislife can do with this video.

The video is so simple yet to so effective. In my opinion, a great way to connect with this shrewd generation is to show the highlight the juxtaposition of their indifference. This is one video does just that! Here’s hoping it goes viral!

Think before you tweet

Posted on by Emilie Buckman

Ugh, Michael Vick. If I am Michael Vick, you better believe I am going to edit any and all information I send out to avoid even the slightest reference to dogs. So when I hear about a picture he posted on Twitter, in which an astute online follower noticed a box of Milk-bone dog biscuits, I was disappointed. Not because he has a dog – though I truly believe he should never be able own another pet – but rather, I am disappointed in his carelessness in keeping it a secret. Without question Vick’s publicist (and every other person in his life) must have warned him to be cautious about making any allusion to pet ownership.

But the internet does not exist to make it easy for celebrities to hide from their past improprieties. The only people who get to enjoy anonymity online are the lowly internet trolls, who are out to catch mistakes like a Milk-bone box in a photo of a known associate of dog-fighting.

While I am all about “live and let live,” Vick doesn’t have that luxury. I hope Vick is preparing answers for how to handle the inevitable and persistent questions about dogs he is bound to encounter. One can only hope he comes up with better answers than how unfair it is to his kids. Let’s get one thing straight, having a dog is a privilege and not a right. Your kids will be fine.  My parents didn’t give us a dog when we were little and we turned out just fine. (Also they didn’t participate in dog-fighting so I think I had more reasons to feel deprived.)