I am quite tickled that Justin decided to steer today's "Justin Plus One" discussion toward music in his last post regarding the scorched ear phenom, as it will give me the opportunity to highlight a bit of news I discovered this morning about music and social networking. It will also rather nicely continue in the vein of comparing something done really well with something done not quite so well.
I have been a fan of Imogen Heap for many years, from her work as half of the duo Frou Frou during the early part of this decade, to her more recent lush, vibrant solo projects. What I admire nearly as much as I admire her amazing voice and her talents with a staggering array of musical instruments and post-production mixing is her consistently growing use of social networking sites with which to interact with her fans.
Imogen has been extremely active on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace for quite awhile, now, using all of the social networking services to broadcast news and new music and videos to her fans. But Imogen has taken a very significant extra step that most celebrity users of popular social networking sites do not often take: she actually interacts with her fans via social networking sites in a very genuine way. She even recently began using the video status updating service 12seconds in the same manner. A post by Ze Frank yesterday on his blog further highlighted Imogen's work with fans on the social web, specifically in preparation for the production and release of her upcoming EP:
:: Her new blog will be collaboratively written using Twitter :: She recently released all the individual elements of a track and asked fans to remix them :: Her YouTube Channel remains charming and personal and incudes some snippets from the upcoming album as well as a call for album cover artwork ::
In a time during which most celebrities are using social web tools to simply broadcast information to their public, with little to no interaction with any other users beyond their small elite circles, Imogen Heap is utilizing the tools in such a way that those who admire her creative output feel more of a genuine connection with the artist. It is rather heartening to see celebrities using social networking platforms to communicate with their fans in this more genuine, meaningful fashion.
Ze Frank, incidentally, concluded his blog post with the admonition to search around YouTube for Imogen Heap gems, and includes a link to the embedded video below: fabulous footage of Imogen recording the soaring "Just For Now".
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6 comments:
I LOVE imogen heap. I discovered her - get this - through the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA SOUNDTRACK.
Whatever, I say! I found her and that's all that matters.
Oh, and all of this talk of music and social networking made me think of this video case study on Trent Reznor's brilliant use of social networking and the web in general.
LMFAO! I think that's brilliant, and whatever, indeed! What's important is that you discovered her eventually!
And that Reznor case study is awesome, as are the ways in which he is using the web, as well. (I just wish I didn't get a barrage of IMs and DMs from my friends who are fans of his every time he tweets about tweeting while wearing no pants. *wink*)
Um...so I wrote earlier that I love her - which I still do, but that video is amazing!
Watching her create that in a live setting is SO FRICKIN COOL!!! It's like a choreographed dance
I wonder if she ever hits the wrong button?
So THAT'S how she does it! I find it endlessly amusing that everyone creative is using Macs, and everyone else is, well... not being creative. ;)
@Jeremy: I know, right?! That's why I simply had to embed that video for people to watch it, because it's so awesome. I mean, the song is beautiful just in itself, but to actually see her creating and adding all of the layers of the song? Shivers, seriously.
@Laura: Well hello, my dear! Welcome to Justin Plus One! Hope you're enjoying it so far! :-) Yeah I know what you mean about Macs and creatives. I'm beginning to regret my own defection to the Windows dark side earlier last year. :-/
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