Talk About Me If You Please

Talk about me if you please.

One thing I love about my life is the fact that I am always gigging. Every weekend, if not every day, I am doing what I love most, and that is playing the drums. I joke with people and tell them that I could probably write a book about some of the things I have seen/experienced while travelling. This past weekend, I was able to add something new to my list of gig surprises.  I had to play in Gastonia, NC on the 25^th of this month. When we walked in, we realized it was the normal, church setting, bunch of different groups, as it was a benefit concert. There was a group singing gospel artist, Fred Hammond’s, “Blessed” as I was setting up my equipment. I paid no attention to them, until I heard something rather strange. The leader of the group was using Auto tune through the entire song! Never in my life, had I heard someone use auto tune to such an extreme in this genre. As you can imagine, this became the talk of the night, weekend.

That’s when I had an epiphany. As foolish as it was, it was almost ingenious. It reminded me of this year’s Grammy Award Show and the highlighted performance by Nicki Minaj.

While her performance may have been considered demonic, crazy, foolish etc., the fact of the matter remains that it is still the “talk” of the Grammy’s. I realized that these acts might have been more purposeful than people think. Whether people enjoyed the gospel hit auto tuned and the outrageous wardrobe/performance or even hated it, they still talked about it.  For the artists, this turned out to be great marketing tools for each of them. I believe I can speak for many when I say I will never forget hearing that classic gospel chart being auto tuned.  The same goes for the Nicki Minaj performance.  In a recent interview, Nicki Minaj spoke on her performance and shares how she was strategic in introducing her new movie “Roman Holiday. Minaj said, “I can't do a song like that and stand up there with a microphone and a band behind me - I have to paint the picture and I'm gonna always do that to the fullest."

One thing new and old artists should consider is their personal branding/self-marketing. What part of their performance or presentation really captures the audience and makes them continue talking about them? Once the outlying marketing tool is discovered, find out if it is working as positive or negative marketing. Deciphering between the two will help one see why they receive the recognition they receive.