Monday, February 8, 2010

*TRIFECTA*

>HELLO WORLD Post

First and foremost, welcome to Fist Pumps & Club Drugs, a blog site dedicated in bringing you the funk and the realness with no preservatives or artificial flavors. I'll be posting the grade-A best electronic on the net, whether it's a golden oldie, a hidden gem from a known artist, or discovering the next big thing, you'll have all of your guilty electronic pleasure fulfilled here; we don't discriminate, just appreciate.

Not only will I be providing the bass for your speakers but I will be blogging on the hot and controversial topic surrounding the electronic music genre and culture. You might be asking yourself, "what controversial topics could come from electronic music?", well the answer is a ton many to list. From issues ranging from internet piracy to copyrights and ecstasy usage at raves to controversial images broadcast in music videos. Some of the issues involved in the electro-scene are heavily political; piracy, copyrights, remixes, original works, pre-released material, creative rights to digital and unofficial releases. Many of these aforementioned issues are scarily current because the laws haven't been decided on a lot of issues dealing with creative rights to digital media and who owns what, and more importantly who gets paid. Other issues that arise from the electronic music genre are the incessant murmurings about drug usage involved with raves and just how regulated or "safe" are these electronic music festivals. This issue is more social than political, concert promoters with lax security and a "no-look, no-tell" policy make it hard for strict drug policy to be enforced even though the law mandates strict event regulations. These issues are far and many and we hope to delve into a few of them while we keep supplying blaps (slang for awesome song) all day.

Why Fist Pumps & Club Drugs? That's a no-brainer. Two words. JERSEY and SHORE. These fun-loving guidos have made fist pumping synonymous with eruo-trash techno and I thought it would be good for the publicity of the blog site to play off MTV's absolute HUGE hit TV show. And now to explain the club drugs part... well the electronic music genre is notoriously associated with frequent drug usage at electronic concerts (raves) and drugs and racy and controversial so I decided to throw that in there to spice the name up. And frankly the whole phrase sort of rhymes and is like a nice little catch phrase.

"Oh what did you do this weekend Broseidon, God of the Brocean?"

"Just chilled and went on Fist Pumps & Club Drugs, the net's premier electronic music blog site, duh."

That's just a model conversation that would happen between two followers of the blog, hypothetically speaking of course. Either way there's my long-winded explanation as to the name of this kick ass blog.

What makes my perspective different? I'm not JUST a band-wagon fan or occasional listener of electronic music, I live, breathe, eat and electronic music. Yes, I breathe and eat it. I've been a fervent fan of the genre ever since its inception (some might say Daft Punk, others say Soulwax, we can discuss that later) to its recent popular emergence in the mainstream. Because I have kept up with the genre from the beginning till now I feel that makes me fairly qualified to discuss electronic music. I am also a frequenter of raves so I've seen my fair share of electronic artists live and I am also constantly following new music and artists on other music blog sites. I am also an amateur DJ that pretty much exclusively spins electronic music sprinkled in with a touch top 40, so I keep up new mixes, remixes, etc. on the regular.

What makes this blog different? This isn't your typical pompous hipster blog site that lauds itself for posting the most rare and exclusive mixes on the internet, but rather a comprehensive music and culture website that will not only post amazing music, both new and old, provide relevant social commentaries on the genre, the making of the music, the music industry, and the "rave" scene. This blog will combine an introspective look into the world of electronic music and be voiced by a college aged music lover that is deeply entrenched and involved in the genre itself. Also, all genres of electronic music will be posted on, from trance to electro hard house and drum & bass to dubstep. Some of many favorite electronic artists include The Bloody Beetroots, Crookers, Deadmau5, Boys Noize, John Roman and Rusko. Some other bands that I like that aren't electronic include Bloc Party (the greatest band ever in my humble opinion), XX, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Empire of the Sun, Animal Collective and Pheonix. Comment on what you think, what you expect, what you want to read about and other bands/artists that you love.

>BLOG PROFILE Post

Who wants to DANCE DIRTY all night long? Well, today’s post is going to profile another electronic music blog that is better known and is more frequently visited, Gotta Dance Dirty. The blog is written by an anonymous poster that goes by the name of Jonah, other than his name no much else is known about the author. Knowing the author’s credibility or authority on the topic is relatively unknown since the author does not disclose any personal information. This blog is related to mine because it pretty much covers the same topics as my blog will cover minus the music culture and discussing of controversial topics that surround the genre of electronic music. The blog has a new post every 2-4 days and they usually discuss new artists, songs, remixes, music videos and other trends or newsworthy topics surrounding the genre. The blog is pretty popular, but to know exactly how popular is difficult because the blog does not have a hit counter and is not rated on technorati.com. However, this blog must be fairly well known because the website exclusively promotes several club events that they coordinate and put together. These Gotta Dance Dirty showcases which feature several up and coming unknown DJs have been a hot ticket to get in Los Angeles. Also, since the majority of the events occur in LA, I’m going to assume that the author is a native of the LA greater area.

This particular blog relates well to my blog because like stated earlier it encompasses the same things that I am going to discuss except the social commentary. This blog is not scholarly or academic but is fairly professional. Legitimate songs from artists are sent to this blog site so their songs can be heard online by fans and the blog is aggregated by a lot of other music blogg aggregators that only aggregates the top hitting blog sites. The posts themselves are not that detailed or rich, they are more like small descriptions of the songs, albums and artists that they post about. The posts have a little bit of personal opinion since the author interjects his own thoughts on the posted material on top of the description that the author provides. Here is an example post:
Sorry for the late post this week guys! We are having an unbelievable night tomorrow night with the amazing master of warehouse soundZodiac Cartel, along with one half of new electro duo Bass Weazal, Will Bailey.Circuit Freq and Mr. White will both also be doing sets in the big room as to promote the new track "The Filth" which was remixed by all acts that will be in the Avalon tomorrow night. Check out all of the new remixes on Beatport. I have posted the Mr. White remix in this post if you want to check that one out for free :)

Tomorrow night all you dirty dancers that are over 21 will be entering through the Honey Lounge entrance which is the left side entrance if you are staring at the front of the Avalon. All you youngin's still enter through the main entrance and there will be a GDD™ list there for you as well. We will not be doing The House Party room but rather we will be teaming up with our good friends at BBE and Everyday in the Legit Lounge to give you the best music experience possible. Bring your danceypants!
Here the author is talking about an event that the website, Gotta Dance Dirty, put on in local LA venue, The Avalon. Not that detailed, primarily descriptive, but also nice and short and to the point. The audience that this blog is reaching out to is anybody that is a fan of electronic music and enjoys hearing new artists and going to concerts that the blog site puts on.

This blog will primarily feed my music interests and have commentaries on new music releases, upcoming concerts, and the author’s opinion on new material. My site is going to differ in the sense that not only will I be discussing new music and artists but the culture surrounding the electronic music genre and provide a fresh commentary on what I think about it and hopefully create worthwhile material to read about.

>USING VOICE Post

Voice is what separates good authors and great authors. More so than simply seeing who’s storytelling abilities are better, voice creates a sense of personality that the writing itself can exude and portray. Voice is what makes an author seem relatable and personable, instead of a cold narrative James Earl Jones-like voice we can capture the distinguishing characteristics of the author and feel the words that they are saying, rather than just listening to the words and going through the motions.

There is a blogsite, earmilk, that is similar to my blog in that it is also an music blog (covers all genres) but rather than just post new music the blogger is able to capture the audience better by talking to them instead of just writing and informing. The author was promoting his website’s Suicide Sundaes where he posts extra hard electronic music. Here is a sample of his writing:
A time when bangers were big, remixes were bigger, the bassline bled, and we didn’t care about anything as long as came in kicking and left screaming. To hell with sketchy sunday, we want to shove another dragon down the hole.
The author does several things in this quote to add voice to his writing. I thought the personification of the bass line was stylish and the quote just oozes a mantra of “fight for our right to party” and not caring much about anything else besides raging as hard as possible. The phrase at the end, “we want to shove another dragon down the hole” perfectly captures the idea of wanting ear-splitting bas and pulse-pounding rhythms by comparing taming a wild dragon to listening to some new hard electro-music.
We’re going to melt you faces off with enough mashed up music to make you wanna slap yo’ mama.
Here the author’s use of slang and colloquialisms conveys his voice as he describes the type of intense music and sounds the listener/reader is about the experience.
We will try to bring you one “chill” track every day. This is for when you get home and you are trying to unwind. You reach for that glass of wine or that unlit Black & Mild or maybe you reach for something more herbal. This track is for those times. We will try to bring you at least one a day. We are just your milkmen and I’m here to make a delivery. Chill…...
In this quote the author’s description of a “chill” or relaxing is what really portrays his personality and voice. For him, a relaxing night is having a glass of wine and enjoying a smoke, while for others it could be reading a book or spending time with family. His youthfulness is felt through this description because his methods of relaxation are the ones used by younger people. Also more of his voice is used when he describes himself as a “milkman”, one who delivers something good on a regular basis, to further fortify the idea that his blog is bringing quality material for his audience.

The author is able to use a variety of mechanisms to portray his voice; personification, personal anecdotes, vocabulary, use of slang and colloquialisms and word choice. The author portrays his voice as one having a good time, witty and urban-cultured, all things you would expect from your neighborhood hip music blogger.

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