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growinstablog · 5 years ago

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Instagram Year in Review: Top Trends from 2016

2016 was the craziest year yet for Instagram, and we’ve compiled the best moments, biggest milestones, and the never-ending list of new Instagram features into our annual Instagram Year in Review! Read on to take a trip down memory lane, and see just how much Instagram has grown in a year.

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Popular on Instagram in 2016

Who runs the world? Selena Gomez, apparently! 2016 crowned a new Queen of Instagram, with Selena beating out her bff Taylor Swift as the Most Followed Person on Instagram. But that’s not all: Selena’s sponsored post with Coca Cola broke the record for the Most Liked Photo on Instagram (a huge win for Instagram influencer marketing) and 9 of 10 most liked photos on Instagram in 2016 were by Selena! #untouchable

Not only is Selena Gomez the most followed person on Instagram, but she was also the first (and so far, only) person to gain more than 100 million followers! Her secret to Instagram marketing success? Selena insists that she doesn’t have a social media manager, and creates her Instagram posts herself.

“I try to find a good balance of just being 100 percent myself and knowing when to post a really good selfie with good lighting,” Selena told the Hollywood Reporter. Selena gained almost half of her epic Instagram following in 2016, racking up over 50 million followers this year. She currently sits at 104 million followers, a cool 10 million ahead of Taylor Swift, who is second with 94 million.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Instagram Year in Review: @selenagomez wins most followed person + most liked photo for 2016!” quote=”Instagram Year in Review: @selenagomez wins most followed person + most liked photo for 2016!”]

Top Brands on Instagram in 2016

The three Most Followed Brands on Instagram in 2016 are the same as 2015, with Nike taking a tight lead over National Geographic with 67 million followers. [clickToTweet tweet=”The most-followed brands on Instagram for 2016 are @nike, @natgeo, & @victoriassecret.” quote=”The most-followed brands on Instagram for 2016 are @nike, @natgeo, & @victoriassecret.”]

The hashtag #VSCO, from everyone’s favorite photo-editing app, is still the most popular branded hashtag, and has been used over 100 million times! #VSCO has been hashtagged more than double the amount of times #OneDirection, which came in 2nd place again this year. Learn more: How #VSCO Became the Biggest Community on Instagram

[clickToTweet tweet=”#VSCO is the top branded Instagram hashtag of 2016, beating #OneDirection” quote=”#VSCO is the top branded Instagram hashtag of 2016, beating #OneDirection”]Top Instagram for Business Trend in 2016

By far, the biggest trend we saw on Instagram in 2016 for businesses was all about planning your Instagram feed. As Instagram evolves, so do our tastes: last year was all about getting away from Instagram filters and improving the quality of photos with other editing apps, and this year it’s all about stepping back from the individual photo and looking at “the feed” as a whole.

Instagram users are placing more and more importance on the aesthetic of their Instagram feed, which means that businesses should be caring about creating a cohesive, curated Instagram feed too. With Later’s new Visual Instagram Planner, you can easily preview your feed and re-arrange or swap out photos to find the perfect balance for your Instagram feed, before you post.

Free Visual Instagram Planner

Trending on Instagram in 2016: Quitting Instagram

Ironically, the most popular Instagram trend of the year was actually “quitting” Instagram. It all started when Justin Bieber, who was the most followed person on Instagram for years, suddenly deleted his Instagram account after a war of words with…you guessed it, the Queen of Instagram herself, Selena Gomez.

Since Justin’s abrupt departure, both celebrities and regular users alike have followed in his footsteps. Kim Kardashian is still on a complete social media hiatus after being robbed in Paris, Kendall Jenner deactivated her Instagram account for an “Instagram detox,” and Gigi Hadid took an Insta-break too.

Before you get worried that people will start quitting Instagram in droves, it’s important to note that so far, the only person to truly stick to their word of “quitting” has been Bieber. The trend of “quitting” Instagram is more like doing a “detox,” and in 2017, expect a lot more conversation around the amount of time people are spending on Instagram and how it is affecting our mental health.

New to Instagram in 2016

The biggest Instagram stories of 2016 were actually about Instagram itself. At the end of 2015, Instagram had won over the hearts of marketers, but it was still extremely difficult to manage an Instagram for Business account as the app lacked the major features that made Facebook marketing so successful.

In 2016, Instagram released over 20 features! The first half of year was focused on playing catch up as they rolled out basic tools that were essential for wanting to use Instagram for Business, while the second half of the year was focused on innovating Instagram and bringing some major changes to the app.

Not only did Instagram majorly “grow up” in 2016 with the addition of new business features and analytics, it also went back to it’s youthful and fun roots in order to compete with Snapchat’s growing popularity. Below is a look at the major changes we saw to Instagram this year.

Join 600,000 other marketers and easily stay up-to-date with all the latest Instagram features in 2017:

Subscribe for Instagram News

Manage Multiple Accounts (February 2016)

Instagram kicked off the year by releasing a much-needed feature: the ability to manage multiple Instagram accounts! Long gone are the days of manually logging in and out of Instagram accounts, and now we live in a world where you can easily switch between 5 Instagram accounts. This was also our first breaking story of the year, and Later’s newsletter subscribers were the very first to know of this feature!

Instagram Algorithm (March 2016)

OMG, the Instagram Algorithm! In March of 2016, all anyone was talking about what what the new Instagram algorithm would mean for your Instagram account. The algorithm was announced in a New York Times article, and was slowly rolled out to all Instagram users over the next few months. Users were not on board with this change, and a lot of them still aren’t, but at least now we know how to hack the Instagram algorithm.

Instagram Business Profiles & Analytics (May 2016)

Later was the first to break the news about Instagram’s New Business Profiles and Instagram Analytics in May of 2016, which may not be the most exciting Instagram features of the year, but they’re definitely the most practical. And those Instagram analytics on the demographics of your followers? Pretty much priceless.

A New Look for Instagram (May 2016)

Instagram revealed a new Instagram logo and complete app re-design in May, 2016 to mixed reviews. Some people hated the new logo, some were too attached to the old one, and most of us just don’t like change. Whether you loved it or hated it, chances are you have completely forgotten about it by now! One of my favorite Instagram reads of the year was this piece by Ian Spalter, head of Design at Instagram, about their creative re-branding process.

Instagram Stories & Live Video (August 2016)

Arguably the biggest change to Instagram in 2016 was the introduction of Instagram Stories, and later Instagram Live Video. A Snapchat-clone, Instagram Stories will only be getting bigger and more popular in 2017 as the social networks battle it out to be the story destination of choice. We have to say – this is definitely a feature we never would have predicted for 2016! Instagram Stories really shook up Instagram as a whole, and we’re excited to see where it goes next year. The coolest new feature for Instagram Stories? Instagram added clickable links for verified users, a trend that we’ll hopefully be seeing more of in 2017.

That’s it! What a huge year for Instagram, marketers, and business owners alike, we can’t wait for what 2017 will bring!

Never miss out on Instagram trends again. Join 600,000 others and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the best strategies and tips about Instagram:

https://growinsta.xyz/instagram-year-in-review-top-trends-from-2016/

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thatshighlyoffensive · 8 years ago

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THAT’S HIGHLY OFFENSIVE: MET GALA 2017

Well, well, welcome to the annual skewering of Dummies with Money Pretending They Care About Anything Other Than Themselves AKA the Met Gala 2017 (or as Drew Jordan called it, “a party for relatives of famous people.” I hate most of the people that attended this year, plus my supply of fucks is as depleted as my bank account these days, so the positive reviews are scarce. Cat and I watched the E! red carpet coverage together and tried really hard to care, but it never happened. We were passionate about one thing though: Whoever manned the camera tonight should be fired and exiled to a country where they only photograph people from the shoulders up and then seek treatment for his obvious battle with Parkinson’s. HIGHLY OFFENSIVE. Enjoy!

Giuliana Rancid (who is obviously not at the actual event because she would never be invited to anything other than a Ruby Tuesday’s salad bar ribbon cutting) spent the evening with a bunch of other nobodies in a studio on the west coast and chose to drape her Antz body in the milky exoskeleton of one of her albino brethren.

I hate Katy Perry almost as much as I hate Lena Dunham, so the fact that she has dated my future husband John Mayer is something that whittles away at my black heart daily, and whatever the hell I’m looking at on the red carpet right now just took out another big chunk. I literally cannot, so that’s all.

Lily Collins looks like the Berries ’n’ Cream Starburst guy on his way to a Sophia Coppola sponsored transgender formal.

Kendall Jenner would be 100% perfection if she’d done something different with her hair. Those legs, MY GOD.

Kylie Jenner (as always) looks like Bruce Jenner in a Pretty Woman wig with a Kris Kardashian’s worth of plastic surgery in a girdle and pair of Steve Maddens.

Rose Byrne: The sun’ll come ouuuut tomorrow! Actually, it saw you tonight and decided not to.

Brie Larson looks like the love child of Babette the feather duster and one of my hand bells from middle school church choir in Dorothy Zbornak’s footwear.

Lily James looks like Natalie Portman from Black Swan wrapped in a Swiffer Wet Jet.

Rihanna looks like two Jimmy Dean sausage links wrapped in red licorice, stuffed into a clotted human heart piñata.

Naomi Watts looks more like Nicole Kidman every day. But probably my favorite look of the night.

Celine Dion looks like Jenna Lyons wrapped one of her old, bedazzled J. Crew tees in the Oscar gown she pulled out of Angelina Jolie’s trash can and secured it with the straps from one of the antique electric chairs Billy Bob is afraid of. #teamjolie

Bella Hadid- I don’t love all the weight she’s lost since becoming an ‘it’ girl/I’m insanely jealous, but her look harkens back to the origins of the MET ball aka the OG supermodels and the designers that loved them, so I give her look an A.

GiGi- While I really do appreciate your channeling of Christy Turlington (whether you meant to or not), I can’t say that I fully understand your look tonight. The color is that of a gout ridden tuna, the shape is that of a sushi wrapped tuna, and your panty hose are reminiscent of someone wrapping tuna in seaweed at Hibachi Express. Sanitation grade: C+

Chrissy Teigen looks like she always has: bloated and wild. Her outfit looks like a cotton gin exploded next to a L’eggs factory.

Lupita Nyongo looks like the Toucan Tropicana Barbie and that is all.

Ruby Rose is channeling some ‘She Sells Sea Shells by the Jersey Shore’ shit.

Miranda Kerr looks like a walking, glossy, coral reef, made up by Bobbi Boring Brown, as usual.

Rami Malek went to the Ball as a Twizzler. Or was it a Red Vine? #redvinesfamily

Zendaya: Mac-OW.

Paris Jackson: I have never been so offended by someone. First of all, she has about as much of Michael Jackson’s DNA in her as I do. Secondly, she looks like she put as much effort into her appearance tonight as I did when I dialed Dominos earlier. Also- Express’s formal collection has never looked worse. Also, also, your tattoos rival the mess of ink on a backstreet water rat.

Madonna- I didn’t think I could be more offended by a poseur than Paris Jackson, but again, I’m proven wrong. Her gap-toothed, fake-British bullshit can’t be hidden by all the camo in the world, and certainly not by one hideous dress.

Zoe Kravitz- Big Little Lies made me love her and this outfit does nothing but add to my new obsession. I could do without the sleeve contusions, but I’m obsessed with the rest. Like the finale of BLL, she’s channeling Audrey Hepburn like a boss.

Kate Hudson- Yo ass has looked the same every damn year. This year is the same, just more boring and like you’re trying to channel a Kartrashian aka HIGHLY OFFENSIVE. But also- i love you.

Gwyneth Paltrow looks like she ate Chelsea Handler and borrowed Titus’s pumps.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen: Two canoodling Weimaraners.

Lily Rose Depp: I actually love this. All of it. I am ashamed.

Sarah Paulson: And the cockatoo cried ‘Nevermore.’

Cara Delevigne: The Tin Man and The Nanny Named Fran had a baby. And it was ugly.

Rita Ora: Wasn’t it nice of Russell Stover to cater the red carpet?

Maggie Gyllenhaal: If Dorothy Draper, the Jolly Green Giant and a footless grandpa had a baby.

Halle Berry: Barnacles never looked so good.

Reese Witherspoon: Alexis Carrington would be proud. But that ponytail… She’d snatch it off.

Amy Schumer: So you ate Tonya Harding and then stole some kid’s Scarlet Witch cosplay outfit from their Orlando double-wide and threw it over your hamhocks? You belong IN a trash bag, not wrapped in one.

Kim Kartrasashian: An OB tampon at a Renaissance Faire. That is all.

J. Lo- You’re channeling Jennifer North and I love that, but your horse hair ponytail is highly offensive. And I’m not sure I get the color. But I think you and A. Rod make a perfect couple.

Karlie Kloss- Your shiny face is offensive. Stop. Your shoes are on point like a mosquito’s knee. Stop. Your dress is half terrible/half almost there. Stop. Put on a damn necklace. Stop.

Kerry Washington- Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard with a lisp. Also- your lace front is almost as off-putting as Johnny Travolta’s. OFFENSIVE ON ALL COUNTS.

Blake Lively- I don’t know how someone makes golden chain mail with a peacock’s ass attached to it so boring, but you’ve done it. Also- you’ve done the braid/ponytail to death and made me want to follow suit. Death’s, not the hairstyle’s…

Jessica Chastain- Queen EleaBore of Land O’ Lakes called, she says you look melted.

Hailey Baldwin- I don’t know how dressing like a slutty piece of salt water taffy turned state’s surprise witness in a dog collar makes you a top model, but best regards and kindest wishes.

Nicki Minaj looks like Chun Li’s evil twin going to prom in Cleveland, Ohio.

So, Elle Fanning The Chinless Wonder thought tonight’s gala was an audition to be another boring ass Disney princess?

Mandy Moore- I love you more than anything because you are Rapunzel but NO. You are not Anjelica Huston in Addams Family.

Salma Hayek- you are naturally STUNNING and tonight you look OFFENSIVE and like a character from one of my brother’s anime shows. And not in a good way.

Selena Gomez made my eyes roll out of my head, onto the floor, out the door, into the street, and under the tire of Rachel Leigh Cook’s Volkswagen Rabbit.

Emma Roberts looks like a Jennifer Garner drag queen auditioning for the role of Jessica Rabbit in a high school production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Priyanka Chopra is literally just wearing a trench coat. #carmensandiegoworeitbetter #andwithahat

Kate Bosworth always looks like a creepy Victorian doll with alopecia.

Worst dressed: Daisy Ridley, hands down. She looks like someone sewed fabric from the bargain bin onto one of those built-in-bra pajama dresses from Target and threaded a wonky hula hoop into the bottom. Hideous hair. No jewelry? HIGHLY OFFENSIVE.

BYEEEEEEEE

#metgala #metgala2017 #thatshighlyoffensive celebritiesaredumb

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heynael · 8 years ago

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May, the first, 2017. Celebrities, models and designers are stepping into the most famous red carpet of New York: the annual MET Gala, aimed at raising funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. Every year, tons of familiar faces go through the overwhelming experience of respecting a specific dress code. Isn’t a designer gown enough of a dress code for the red carpet, you might ask if you’re not familiar with the MET Gala. Because this enormous event also stands for something bigger: the opening of a major exhibition at the Costume Institute. This year, the museum honors Rei Kawakubo in ‘’Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between.’’ And guess what: the dress code was hardly respected.

Americans don’t understand Comme des Garçons

Or was it hardly understood? Rei Kawakubo could easily be dubbed ‘’the maker of today’s fashion.’’ Alongside with Kenzo Takada (Kenzo) and Yohji Yamamoto, they changed the perception that the West had about fashion in the 80s by taking their brands and aesthetics to Paris. With new proportions and patterns, an ancestor of the mix’n’match, lengths and volumes, they curated a totally new visual environment that set the foundations of many designers’ careers. Kawakubo’s playful and conceptual aesthetics came at a time when France was seeing an over-sexualized woman, a warrior of sensuality, on the catwalks of the likes of Montana and Thierry Mugler.

Comme des Garçons Fall Winter 2001

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 2017

Comme des Garçons Fall Winter 2016

Comme des Garçons Fall Winter 2001

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 2016

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 1996

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 2017

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 2016

Comme des Garçons Spring Summer 1996

Comme des Garçons Fall Winter 2017

Photos: Vogue. Click for the collection’s date.

Comme des Garçons is the cubism of fashion just like Schiaparelli was the surrealism of fashion. It resonates in many minds for it always brings something totally innovative – some might call it insane – with inspirations and aspirations bigger than words. Just like your reflection in the mirror what you see in Comme des Garçons is highly personal. However, despite this individual approach to Kawakubo’s work, there are a few facts that are universal: the visual codes of Comme des Garçons are not of your regular red carpet gown and having Rei Kawakubo as a ball theme, boy, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to cut it loose and play the wildest cards of your fashion deck.

Karlie Kloss in Carolina Herrera. Vogue.

But your favorite Victoria’s Secret angels probably didn’t fully read the invitation. Or is it that they don’t know who Rei Kawakubo is? When I woke up this morning to find the Vogue slide of the soirée’s looks I was super excited to see pans of fabrics flying in the air, dark tulle coming out of unexpected places, large outfits that look as though they were sewed in clouds. And much more wowing sartorial performances. But all I saw was ignorance. Or disrespect. I would rather the former. Are we French more familiar to Kawakubo’s legacy?

Back to the late 70s/early 80s when Japanese designers came to Paris to seek expansion. Close to 40 years later, these names are now part of our environment, we appropriate Japanese fashion as a familiar art, something we relate to easily. And maybe Americans don’t? (Yes Kendall Jenner, I’m talking about you). This aesthetic of playful experiments has been brought to the American landscape several times though. Thom Browne is one of Kawakubo’s heirs in that he constructs in fashion not like clothing but like sculptures and pieces of art. Some of the MET gala attendees who respected the rules proudly wore his work.

Solange Knowles in Thom Browne. Vogue.

Rei Kawakubo never made a Disney movie

Taylor Hill in Carolina Herrera

Gwyneth Paltrow in Calvin Klein

Kim Kardashian West in Vivienne Westwood

Joanne Moor in Calvin Klein

Natalia Vodianova in Versace

Photos: Vogue. Tap for details.

You don’t have to wear Comme des Garçons to reference the work of Rei Kawakubo. You just have to avoid mermaid gowns (that’s for you Blake Lively), Spice Girl stage outfits (No, Gwyneth, you can’t attend a Comme des Garçons night out with a baby pink dress), or Disney princess gowns (thinking of you Taylor Hill). A classic house can also perfectly do the work. Chinese model Fei Fei Sun resorted to Alberta Ferretti yet found her way into the crowd.

Fei Fei Sun in Alberta Ferretti. Vogue.

The best surprise of the night? H&M. Or custom H&M. Which saved the looks of Ashley Graham and Jourdan Dunn. The awareness of Dunn was all the more obvious next to her friends: with Behati Prinsloo going for a Topshop wedding dress of the 90s, Joan Smalls wearing another Topshop creation which had more slits and glitters than Comme des Garçons references, Selena Gomez and her all-American Coach luxury bridesmaid dress, or Karlie Kloss in her very corporate Carolina Herrera black and white mini-dress, Dunn appeared highly conscious of what fashion is about today.

Ashley Graham in Custom H&M

Jourdan Dunn in Custom H&M

Joan Smalls in Topshop

Behati Prinsloo in Topshop

Selena Gomez in Coach

Bella Hadid in Alexander Wang

Photos : Vogue. Tap for details.

Is the MET Gala another contract

Let’s focus on models here. Or on what we call models today: society girls who appear to be tall and beautiful. Deep inside, we always knew that red carpets were business. But has it always been that obvious? When you see a Kendall Jenner sporting a La Perla dress or whatever it is at an event that calls for smart tailoring and proportions, you’re prone to ask a lot of questions. Especially when it comes after Gigi Hadid stepped the red carpet in a golden Tommy Hilfiger dress a year after launching a special collection for the American brand. Now let’s play a little game: close your eyes and think about it, of the two pictures above, focus on each face and each dress. What do you see? Dollar bills (if you don’t, do it again until you do). We know about exclusivity, sponsoring contracts, and all this but did the MET Gala, a fundraising event for god’s sake, become Instagram too?

Gigi Hadid in Tommy Hilfiger

Kendall Jenner in La Perla

Photos: Vogue. Tap for details.

Money flows in the fashion industry and models receive more exposure than ever thanks to social medias. Of course brands would pay thousands if not billions to have their products promoted by the most sought-after model of the time. But shouldn’t this kind of events stay authentic given its nature? Remember, the MET Gala opens the annual exhibition at the Costume Institute, a tribute to a designer or a movement that was groundbreaking, that changed the way you dress and live. It’s even sadder to see how religiously previous themes were respected – then again, the crowd was not the same. When you ask models whose careers have been based on social media engagement and virtual money making, I guess you can’t expect them to embody a generation that is totally foreign to them. You can’t take away the financial power of these women, and in that they’re extremely relevant to our society: power girls making it big with high figures, encouraging little girls to study computers, doing charity works, we always need more of them. But to fashion, I’m not sure they can bring something. Especially given that the current years are that of change for fashion, that of creating a more responsible future based on solid foundations that, if not properly understood, might collapse. That’s something we can discuss (see below).

The biggest regret I have is that Rei Kawakubo had to see this (she’s the only one, with Yves Saint Laurent, to be honored with an exhibition at the Costume Institute in life).

Scroll below for other looks that paid the best tribute to the Comme Des Garçons legacy and for discussion.

Tracee Ellis Ross in Comme des Garçons

Rita Ora in Custom Marchesa

Rihanna in Comme des Garçons

Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy

Katy Perry in Maison Margiela

Janelle Monae in Ralph & Russo

Do you think that the tribe of Victoria’s Secret heiress models are relevant to the fashion industry? Do you think they have an understanding of what they are in? Let’s discuss in the comment section below or on Twitter. You can also subscribe to the blog for upcoming fashion and beauty discussions.

Was the #MetGala2017 a Joke? May, the first, 2017. Celebrities, models and designers are stepping into the most famous red carpet of New York: the annual…

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savetopnow · 7 years ago

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2018-03-16 03 CELEBRITY now

CELEBRITY

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#celebrity

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mrmichaelchadler · 7 years ago

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Dear Roger: I Can't Believe Our Film Festival is Twenty Years Old!

Dear Roger,

I find it hard to believe that our film festival is 20 years old! In the beginning there was Cyberfest and the birthday party for Hal 9000, the computer from Stanley Kubrick’s movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” And then Dean Kim Rotzoll and Nancy Casey in the College of Media at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign asked you to hold a film festival for one year that would reflect what you would find satisfying. You brought in gems of independent movies, and all manner of genres from silent black-and-white films to 70 mm masterpieces. Of course once you had done it for one year, you considered it a tradition, and so there we were planning for the next year on our ride back home. And here we are twenty years later.

When you took your "Leave of Presence" on April 4th, 2013, I had a very difficult decision to make about whether to continue the festival. Actually, the decision the first year wasn't too difficult because by then we had the festival organized and we were making plans for you to attend. But once we learned you wouldn't be there with us, Nate and I took a look at the somewhat unusual line-up you insisted upon, with a choir of singers onstage for Orson Welles' "Chimes at Midnight" followed by a melancholy short video by Grace Wang about a woman mourning her dead lover, and then segueing into "The Ballad of Narayama" about the villagers who took its old people up the mountain to meet the gods when they were 70 years old (you were 70 years old). We had Paul Cox's elegiac "The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh" and your beloved Tilda Swinton with "Julia." And with each screening, we realized that you knew you wouldn't be there. It was so sad that it left us all in tears, including me and Tilda sobbing in each others' arms, as she had recently lost her mother. We concocted a plan to cheer things up and Tilda, Goddess that she is, led the whole auditorium into a dance-a-thon. We pranced and swirled and clapped our hands and danced around so joyfully that it changed the mood to one of a celebration in a great Temple of Cinema.

This film festival production definitely takes a village. I am so grateful to Nate Kohn, the festival director who has been with us from the beginning, and for the unwavering support from your alma mater, the University of Illinois, including Interim dean Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, President Timothy Killeen and his wife Dr. Roberta M. Johnson, and Chancellor Robert J. Jones. Huge thanks to the beautiful movie palace, the Virginia Theater and the Champaign County Park District. We have some amazing supportive donors and sponsors both old and new including Betsy Hendrick of Hendrick House, the Robeson Family, Marsha Woodbury, Champaign County Alliance for Inclusion and Respect, Shatterglass Studios, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Brand Fortner, Steak N' Shake, the African-American Film Critics Association, Carlton Bruett, Roger and Joanne Plummer, Glenn Poor's Audio Video, Laurel Leone and Steve Bellamy, LA Gourmet Catering, SAG-Indie, Fandor, The Welch Family Foundation, Brenda Robinson and Greenberg Glusker, Busey Bank, Jeanene & Rick Stephens, Fandor, Chipman Design Architecture, the Daily Illini and the News-Gazette and many more too numerous to name here. We couldn't have existed for twenty years without our loyal audience and of course our special guests of filmmakers and film critics and scholars who all have contributed to making this one of the most satisfying of film festivals. And last, but certainly not least, eternal gratitude to our illustrious Volunteer-troop. I am so proud of this festival.

We collaborated and experimented with various types of films and guests, and stage cues, and indeed we have had to change some things over the years, but the goal has remained the same, to bring together a community of film lovers to celebrate cinema under some of the best conditions possible, in the hope that we would emerge from the theater slightly better than when we entered it. The enthusiasm of festivalgoers each year—both return customers and new faces—has exceeded our wildest expectations. And I daresay you would be thrilled at this year’s line-up.

But before I tell you about the films, I want to honor four people who passed away recently who were important to us at the festival. First, Mary Frances Fagan, whom you dubbed our “Guardian Angel,” because as a spokeswoman for American Airlines, she helped to bring in guests from all over the world at a crucial time in the festival’s development. She passed away in February surrounded by many friends and family who loved her. Her Memorial Service took place April 14th in Chicago at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. We are also saddened at the deaths of Leonard Doyle and Sharen (Sherry) Slade who greeted us so cheerfully over the years. They were among some of the best and most devoted Volunteers at the Virginia Theater, and were both pillars of the community. We will bestow prizes in their names at the festival this year to keep them close in our memories.

And just this past Friday, one of your oldest and dearest friends from the University of Illinois, the revered sports writer William (Bill) Nack, left us. You were close pals during your time at the Daily Illini when you were editor and you remained life-long buddies. Bill was one of the finest writers around, not just about sports, but about everything. He loved quoting the last chapter of The Great Gatsby, in fact he did so at our wedding. And he did it on the stage of the Virginia Theater in your honor after you left us. He loved Ebertfest and he will be missed.

Roger, a seismic change has taken place in Hollywood starting with the reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful men like studio head Harvey Weinstein. It evolved into the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which we hope will contribute to the dignity of human interaction, and will also lead to more transformative and equal opportunities for women and people of color. In a nod to those movements, we are spotlighting the work of extraordinary female directors and performers this year. Six out of twelve of our movie selections were directed by women.

We are proud to present a trio of filmmakers I’ve dubbed the Three Queens of Cinema: Ava DuVernay, Julie Dash and Amma Asante. They will be joined at Ebertfest by three more exceptional female directors: Martha Coolidge, Shari Springer Berman and Catherine Bainbridge. For the full line-up of our scheduled guests, make sure to check out our two-part list (click here for Part One and here for Part Two). We will also be highlighting great performances from women such as Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Haley Lu Richardson and the 25th anniversary of Jennifer Lopez’s star-making role as “Selena,” not to mention an avant garde actress in a silent classic. I’ll tell you a bit more about each of those later…

Opening our festival this year is one of the greatest cinematic love letters to the city of Chicago ever crafted, Andrew Davis’ 1993 edge-of-your-seat thriller, “The Fugitive.” Adapting the hit 1960s series for the big screen, Davis cast Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, a man wrongly accused of his wife’s murder who must prove his innocence, all the while being pursued by the dogged Deputy Gerard (played by Tommy Lee Jones in an Oscar-winning performance). In your four-star review, you praised Davis for transcending genre and showing “an ability to marry action and artistry that deserves comparison with Hitchcock, yes, and also with David Lean and Carol Reed.”

We are welcoming back director Gregory Nava to Ebertfest with his film, “Selena,” the biopic of the Texas-born Tejano singer who rose to the top of the Latin music charts before being murdered by the president of her fan club at age 23. This is the film that made Jennifer Lopez a star, and her riveting portrayal never ceases to move and inspire audiences. You wrote in your three-and-a-half star review, “‘Selena’ succeeds, through Lopez’s performance, in evoking the magic of a sweet and talented young woman. And, like Nava's ‘My Family,’ it's insightful in portraying Mexican-American culture as a rich resource with its own flavor and character.”

Roger, you would be happy to know that Jeff Dowd, who inspired the iconic character of Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges in the Coen Brothers’ cult sensation, “The Big Lebowski,” will be with us. You once wrote of him, “I have long known Jeff Dowd. I can easily see how he might have inspired the Dude. He is as tall, as shaggy and sometimes as mood-altered as Jeff Lebowski, although much more motivated. He remembers names better than a politician, is crafty in his strategies, and burns with a fiery zeal on behalf of those films he consents to represent.”

Once again, the Alloy Orchestra, our friends Terry Donahue, Roger Miller and Ken Winokur, are planning to wow us with a rarely seen silent landmark, this time from Japan. Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1926 picture, “A Page of Madness” is a drama with a surrealistic dash of horror, following a man’s attempts to free his suicidal wife from an asylum. Kinugasa was part of an avant grade group of Japanese artists dubbed the “Shinkankakuha” (a.k.a. “School of the New Perceptions”), and the original story was credited to future Nobel Prize-winner, Yasunari Kawabata. Lost for 45 years, it was rediscovered by the director in a storehouse, and will be presented at the Virginia Theatre in a pristine print with an all-new live score courtesy of the Alloy Orchestra. (Click here to read Jasper Sharp's article about the film at Midnight Eye.)

One of the most thrilling big screen events at this year’s Ebertfest promises to be the 70 mm print of Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning 2014 epic, “Interstellar.” Matthew McConaughey plays an astronaut who volunteers to travel through a wormhole to ensure the survival of his family—and humanity itself. To me, this film illustrates not only empathy for other human beings but empathy for the planet. In fact, the Ebert Center will present an inaugural symposium on Empathy and the Universe in October of 2018, at the University of Illinois.

Nominated for three major prizes at this year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature, writer/director Kogonada’s “Columbus” charts the budding relationship between Jin (John Cho), the Korean-born son of an architect, and Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young woman resolved to being a caregiver for her mother. RogerEbert.com critic Sheila O’Malley marveled at how Kogonada and cinematographer Elisha Christian “blend the background into the foreground and vice versa, so that you see things through the eyes of the two architecture-obsessed main characters. Watching the film is almost like feeling the muscles in your eyes shift, as you look up from reading a book to stare out at the ocean. From the very first shot, it's clear that the buildings will be essential. They are a part of the lives unfolding in their shadows. Sometimes it almost seems like they are listening.”

The first of our six women directors, Ava DuVernay, first met you outside of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during rehearsals for the Academy Awards when she was 8 years old. Currently, she has become the first African-American female filmmaker to direct a $100,000,000 movie, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which is a love letter to girls everywhere.

In 2011, she released her first feature, the documentary “I Will Follow,” which you praised as “an invitation to empathy.” Two years after the success of her 2014 Best Picture nominee, “Selma,” DuVernay returned to the nonfiction realm with “13th”, a scathing exploration of injustice in the U.S. justice system. Awarding the film four stars, our critic, Odie Henderson, wrote, “Director Ava DuVernay takes an unflinching, well-informed and thoroughly researched look at the American system of incarceration, specifically how the prison industrial complex affects people of color. Her analysis could not be more timely nor more infuriating. The film builds its case piece by shattering piece, inspiring levels of shock and outrage that stun the viewer, leaving one shaken and disturbed before closing out on a visual note of hope designed to keep us on the hook as advocates for change.”

Julie Dash’s 1991 classic, “Daughters of the Dust,” is a work of pure cinematic artistry that explores how African mores flourished on the sea islands off the coat of South Carolina and Georgia, where the Gullah culture remained preserved in the 20th century. Since its release, the film has gained a reputation for being one of the greatest independent films ever made, and also loosely inspired Beyoncé’s “Lemonade.” Julie Dash led the way for other woman directors.

When Amma Asante’s “Belle” premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, it was clear that a star had been born both in front of and behind the lens. This was only the second directorial effort of Asante’s career and it affirmed her status as a major talent, while providing a stellar showcase for its leading lady, Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She plays the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral in 18th century England who is raised by her aristocratic great uncle (Tom Wilkinson). Though her social standing is high, her skin color prevents her from being fully accepted. As she fights to end the scourge of slavery, she falls for an idealistic young man (Sam Reid) who just might be her match. Bilge Ebiri of The Playlist wrote that the film is as much about “being a woman as it is about being black.” Amma Asante did what no one thought was possible, bringing a Jane Austen sensibility to topics of race and slavery.

Hail Martha Coolidge and her 1991 film, “Rambling Rose”, which succeeds in making history with Diane Ladd and Laura Dern becoming the first mother-daughter duo to earn Academy Award nominations for the same film. You hailed their performances as two of the year’s best, saying, “Laura Dern finds all of the right notes in a performance that could have been filled with wrong ones. Diane Ladd is able to suggest an eccentric yet reasonable Southern belle who knows what is really important.” You also noted that the film likely benefited from being directed by a woman. “Men, I think, are sometimes too single-minded about sex,” you wrote. “Bring up the subject, and it's all they can think about. Coolidge takes this essentially lurid story and frames it with humor and compassion, putting sexuality in context, understanding who Rose really is, and what stuff the family is really made of.”

The so-strange-it-must-be-true life of file clerk Harvey Pekar served as fodder for his comic book alter ego in “American Splendor,” a rigorously unsentimental self-portrait. The 2003 film adaptation of the same name, directed by Shari Springer Berman and her husband, Robert Pulcini, made the inspired choice of juxtaposing the real Pekar with an actor portraying him. That actor turned out to be Paul Giamatti, and the role proved to cement the actor’s status as one of American cinema’s most cherished performers. In your four-star review, you wrote that this “magnificently audacious movie” allows “fact and fiction to coexist in the same frame.”

Continuing our musical Sundays at Ebertfest, we are happy to present Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana's documentary, “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World”, which earned major prizes at festivals such as Sundance and Hot Docs. It’s an exploration of the crucial and under-appreciated role Native American artists have played in the music industry. Our critic Glenn Kenny writes, “the music of the Shawnee, the Choctaw, the Mohawk, the Apache, and so many other tribes, is in a very real sense the first American music. Race-mixing between African-Americans and Indians resulted in a cultural consciousness that enabled a melding of African music and Indian.” He also believed Link Wray's 1957 guitar instrumental, “Rumble,” is “to modern rock music what the monolith was to those primates in the ‘Dawn of Man’ section of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’”

In your honor, for the twentieth anniversary, we are hosting a panel on the future of film criticism and inviting a critical mass of your fellow film critics such as Claudia Puig, the first Latina film critic to head the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; your partner, Richard Roeper, Leonard Maltin, Michael Phillips, Carrie Rickey, Rebecca Theodore-Vachon, Monica Castillo, Matt Zoller Seitz, Brian Tallerico, Matt Fagerholm, Nick Allen, Peter Sobczynski, Sheila O’Malley, Susan Wloszczyna, Nell Minow, Angelica Jade Bastién, Scott Mantz, Sam Fragoso, and Chuck Koplinski.

In addition to the Critics Panel, we will present other stimulating academic panels such as the one about destigmatizing mental illness through the arts led by Professor Eric Pierson and the Alliance for the Promotion of Acceptance, Inclusion and Respect; and Leveling the Playing Field in the Age of #MeToo, and Dr. Richard Neupert’s Cinema History. You would have no doubt been eager to participate in each of these.

And finally, on your behalf, Roger, I want to thank Donna and Scott Anderson, and the artist Rick Harney, for the magnificent sculpture of you outside the Virginia Theatre. I thank them and the festival-goers for honoring your memory and keeping your legacy alive. In your spirit of inclusiveness, I encourage everyone to gather around the sculpture to greet each other Friday night when we have the big Street Party with a band and cake and ice cream on the plaza to celebrate this auspicious anniversary. I know, somehow, that you will be there.

Love,

Chaz

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wiremagazine · 7 years ago

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CELEBRATING 33 YEARS OF WHITE PARTY WEEK

By Rafa Carvajal

Welcome to the 33rd annual White Party Week! It is time to enjoy all the parties, DJs and live entertainment brought to you by Care Resource in association with URGE Miami. Once again, my friends Luis Morera, Billy Kemp and Hilton Wolman of URGE Miami bring their expertise and experience producing some of the best parties and events for the LGBTQ community to the production of White Party Week 2017. Join us to party with a purpose and enjoy 33 years of celebrating our community amongst friends in Miami and Miami Beach while raising money for Care Resource, South Florida's largest and oldest HIV/AIDS service organization.

In order to give you a preview of some of this year's White Party Week parties, I sat down with Luis Morera, DJ Cajjmere Wray (DJing at this year's Muscle Beach party), international recording artist Anton Ewald (performing live at this year's Muscle Beach party), and DJ Joe Gauthreaux (DJing at this year's White Splash Pool Party).

Luis Morera

Rafa Carvajal: Who is producing this year's White Party Week events? Luis Morera: We've assembled a really powerful team this year. It's Care Resource in association with URGE Miami (Luis Morera, Billy Kemp and Hilton Wolman).

RC: What does it take to produce White Party Week and a week of events of this magnitude? LM: There's so much that goes into it. You have to know about vendors, permits, marketing, talent, etc. But for me, the most important part is having real knowledge of today's party scene. It changes day after day, with technology, apps and the web. You need to really be current and savvy, but also operationally disciplined. It's a lot.

RC: What parties are you most looking forward to? Why? LM: It's so hard to choose one because every event this year is different. You can't really compare them. We have XLSIOR from Mykonos and Arena from Mexico, and those are on top of the awesome classic parties! Every single event features something really different, whether it's a big DJ, a huge party brand, or just a chance to party with all your local friends, tourists, promoters, and circuit personalities. I really can't pick. We've got something for everyone this year.

RC: Some of our readers are asking if there will be a "White Party" this year. Please explain why not. LM: This year is sort of a transition year for Winter Party Week, as Care Resource moves into a temporary location, while they build their incredible state of the art facility. Now they're the biggest HIV foundation on the East Coast! That's huge for them, for us, and for our country. It's an amazing milestone. So, instead of finding a quick location that would be too expensive for our guests, we'd rather take a year off and have a huge launch of the new Care Resource facility next year. We think our guests deserve that, and I think Care Resource really deserves that moment too. Honestly, aside from that, our guests and even our friends in the industry (hotels, bars, clubs) are still trying to work around the damage this hurricane season has left. South Florida saw some serious damages and we are grateful to those people that are still supporting us with donations or by buying tickets. It's amazing how resilient we are as a community, always ready to help. But paying for another event that would be subpar isn't what we want to offer. The city needs time to rebuild. I think a huge celebration for Care Resource next year is the way to go.

RC: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers? LM: I just want to say thank you. I don't think we can say it enough. Not only to the volunteers and sponsors, but the officials in the city of Miami Beach that helped move this festival forward; and of course everyone who attends and has attended WPW for the past 32 years. We also want to remind everyone that this festival really does have a great cause. We are essentially partying with a purpose, and that's a great thing when your dollars are going towards something good. We also want thank everyone for the continued support. That's it, thank you.

DJ Cajjmere Wray

Rafa Carvajal: How did you first get into DJing? DJ Cajjmere Wray: 23 years ago, it all started when I began spinning at straight clubs. Since I was underage at the time, the managers used to sneak me in and out of the back doors of the clubs so any potential undercover cops wouldn't spot me. I worked my way into the gay club scene around the year 2000, and slowly clawed my way up the ladder.

RC: What sets you apart from other DJs? CW: As I've been told, seeing that more than 60% of my set is music that I've produced myself, this greatly sets me apart from other DJs. I do enjoy playing from the pool of other producers, but I craft my sound very carefully, hence why I choose to produce much of my own work and play it at the events I perform. Having officially remixed for many artists over the years allows me to recycle timeless vocals and breathe new life into them from time to time.

RC: How would you describe a typical Cajjmere Wray set? CW: Very energetic, lots of percussion and a splash of vocals to always keep things interesting.

RC: Who would be your dream collaborators? CW: Unfortunately, my dream collaborator passed away in 2013. Peter Rauhofer was the man who brought me into the gay side of this business when I produced for his Star 69 Records label back in the day. Even though Peter supported my work and taught me pretty much everything I know in the studio, we never had the chance to work on a record together. That would have been magical had it been able to happen. I miss him dearly.

RC: What can we expect to hear from you at the Muscle Beach party? CW: A really good day party that will ooze drama from the speakers, so I have plenty of goodies up my sleeve for this event. The hand fans will be clacking pretty much all afternoon, ha-ha. I can't wait!

RC: How are you getting ready for your Muscle Beach party set? CW: I have been in the studio for several weeks putting new music together for the Muscle Beach party. I am eager to debut these tracks.

RC: What are you looking forward to the most about DJing at the Muscle Beach party? CW: Spinning at this event is a privilege that I'm thankful for, so I'm looking forward to celebrating the camaraderie, and seeing everyone together in the sunshine, getting their life and enjoying what brought them there in the first place – the music. Putting music in the front seat where it rightfully belongs is very important to me.

RC: What is one track that never gets old for you no matter how many times you hear it? CW: Oh, this is a tough one. I'd have to say Donna Summer "I Feel Love." Moroder is a genius, and Donna's vocals transcend time and space.

RC: Where can we go hear your sets online? CW: My recorded sets and a variety of my official and private productions, including free downloads for DJs and fans/followers, are available on my SoundCloud page at soundcloud.com/cajjmerewray.

RC: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers? CW: I just want to remind everyone to keep supporting music and real talent, and to always party and play responsibly. #fortheloveofmusic

Anton Ewald

Anton Kim Ewald is a Swedish singer-songwriter, choreographer and record producer. He was born and raised in Sweden, and appeared in a number of television shows as a star choreographer. In 2013, Anton rose to success when he entered the show Melodifestivalen as an artist with his single "Beggin," which hit number one on iTunes and led him to becoming a 3x multi-platinum artist in Sweden. Anton joined Selena Gomez on her 2013 world tour as the opening act. Soon after, he released his EP entitled "A" which sold gold. He was also a Grammy nominee for Song of the Year, and an MTV EMA nominee for best Swedish act. Anton also became a self-taught music producer and songwriter for himself and other artists. His latest single, "L.I.L.Y." is a funky, eighties tinged electro pop release.

Rafa Carvajal: What type of music do you sing? Anton Ewald: I sing pop music.

RC: What kind of records do you like to produce? AE: Producing is a process. I believe it requires a force from within that drives your inspiration. Life, its emotions and experiences are the mirror of music. I like to produce anything that I feel emotionally and/or mentally connected to.

RC: Describe your experience being on tour with Selena Gomez. AE: Incredible! It was an amazing experience being part of the journey of such a huge influence in pop culture. Sharing with other artists, specially Selena Gomez, brings me another dimension of inspiration and knowledge that bounces back and forth. It is amazing.

RC: Tell us about your latest single "L.I.L.Y." and what it's about. AE: "L.I.L.Y." was inspired by my wife Victoria (a native Miamian from Cuban descent). This is a song that I wrote during the early stages of romance with her. "L.I.L.Y." is about loving in a way that is genuine, unique, special and personal. Not loving more than you can, but just as you are. Loving perfectly, without boundaries. "L.I.L.Y." stands for "Like I Love You." Before I met my wife, I had fallen into a plateau in my producing career. She gave me an emotional and inspirational boost that led me to write and produce this song and a few other hit singles in Europe.

RC: Which artist would you love to collaborate with? Explain why. AE: Drake! I really think he has broken the mold in the music industry. He started a new movement in hip hop culture that influenced and shaped this genre through poetic lyrics and eclectic rhythm. A new inspiration for artists all around the world.

RC: How did you become involved with White Party Week? AE: Raul Vegas, a dear friend involved in the local LGBTQ community, sparked the idea in me and presented it to Luis Morera, who graciously made efforts to make it happen. White Party Week is an important platform that celebrates equality, love and freedom and I am privileged and excited to be a part of it.

RC: What can we expect during your performance at this year's Muscle Beach party? AE: My passion… which is my music. I hope that everyone has fun and enjoys my performance.

RC: What are you looking forward to the most about your Muscle Beach party performance? AE: The crowd and I can't wait!

RC: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers?AE: I hope I get to meet as many of you as possible. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this moment with the LGBTQ community and get to inspire everyone with my music.

DJ Joe Gauthreaux

Rafa Carvajal: How would you describe the Joe Gauthreaux sound? Joe Gauthreaux: My sound is upbeat, driving, melodic, and always with a house rhythm that keeps you moving. It can vary, as I do big rooms or outdoor events. But there's always a drive to my music, a hook that will keep you dancing or singing, and a tribal beat that you can't stop moving to.

RC: Who would be your dream collaborators? JG: I'd love to collaborate with Dolly Parton. I love her voice, always have.

RC: What can we expect to hear from you at the White Splash Pool Party? JG: I just finished a new official remix of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross with my producing partner, DJ Leanh from Brazil. I'll be featuring that in my set, with lots of other surprises.

RC: Will you be debuting any new songs? JG: Always. You will have to come and listen to find out what they are.

RC: What are you looking forward to the most about DJing at the White Splash Pool Party? JG: White Party Week is always an amazing experience. Guys come from all over because there is nothing better than being in Miami during Thanksgiving. The beach, the atmosphere – it's magical. Miami and all of South Florida holds a special place in my heart because I play there often, and know a lot of the people in the crowd beyond just a face or body. It's that close connection that keeps me coming back more excited than the last time.

RC: If you could be eternally stuck in one year's music scene, which year would it be? JG: That's an easy one – this year! I love the music I'm making and producing right now, and never really look back. It's nice to go down memory lane every now and then, but the thought of being stuck in a certain sound or era has never appealed to me. I'm all about what's happening right now, and right now is White Party Week!

RC: Where can we go hear your sets online? JG: I have a podcast at joegauthreaux.podomatic.com, my soundcloud at soundcloud.com/joegauthreaux and you can also go to djjoeg.com for everything else – my website has all of the information you need!

RC: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers? JG: I can't wait to see you guys in Miami for White Party Week! Nothing can keep me from you.

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 45.2017

#wire magazine #wiremag.com #wire #miami #miami beach #south beach #sobe #fort lauderdale #wynwood #wilton manors #gay #lgbt #glbt #WPW #White Party Week #White Party #DJs #Anton Ewald

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ladyburksn-blog · 7 years ago

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Marketing Tumbler Blog

Marketing Blog Tumbler Post Big Hit Entertainment

Intro: Big hit is a Korean entertainment company. They produce good music and are home to some big name artist. The most famous being The Bang Ten boys or BTS as they are better known by their fans. I think social media is essential for what they do because it allows the company to get their name as well as the artist name out as well as spread the word about different types of music they are working on right now. In turn this builds up their cliental and their artist fandoms grow and more of their music albums to be sold. They are in the Korean music entertainment industry quickly making a name for themselves overseas and globally particularly here in America as of lately. Many Entertainments companies find it essential today to use social media to market their music artist and Big Hit is no different. In fact if anything I would say this is one of Big Hits’s strongest marketing tools and one of their greatest strengths as a company. Big hit has a whole team whose sole purpose is to use various social media sites to het their name and the name of their artists out to as many people as possible at one time. They do this by updating their artist fans regularly by posting about their everyday activity on both Big Hits social media sites as well as the group of artists individual social media sites. They encourage themselves to frequently update the SMS as well as the fan café online encouraging them to post selfies and go live. This is accomplished using the V app an app which allows one way video chat and answer questions or just talk to fans normally allowing their fans to have a small peak at their being the scenes in their life. As often as possible leaving their fans the ability to connect to them. Big Hits is really good about using every social media tool there is at their disposal.

Overall social media use: Big hit entertainment company that was founded by Bang Si Hyck back in 2008 -2009 has been using social media since as early as 2010 to promote their up and coming groups. I have found footage that dates back as early as 2011 of the now members audition to get into their company. Although in recent years it has become clear that Big Hit has defined their practice of using social media as an effective marketing tool, which is probably what lead to their biggest KPOP group winning best social media artist in the 2017 billboard awards. This was a first for a KPOP group like themselves a huge feel considering they had to beat out a lot of big name artist like Selena Gomez, Arianna Grande, & Justin Bieber. This group uses twitter, instagram,Vapp,onlinefan café, you tube, facebook, and snap chat it has also been rumored that a couple of BTS has some secret fan accounts on these platforms as well as tumbler used to interact with their fans. As far as I can tell the company use both their Twitter & Instagram accounts the most when it comes to the promotion of themselves. They use You tube, the V app and fan café a lot. Their strategy seems simple use the media sites for promotion of the group and its activities and use the other media outlets to build fandom and increase the sales of their merchandise and sales.

Big Hit seems to use a lot of marketing strategies whether it be promoting their albums with contracted marketing firms to promote a certain album or just using their connections with local radio programs and various music shows and variety shows at local broadcasting stations to promote their artist current activities and keep their name on the front of people’s minds to generate buzz and interest in their groups . This causes an increase in album sales, revenue, and builds fandom which increases concert sales, merchandise sales, and sales for future concerts. The marketing strategy seems to be the use of social media along with its various platforms to promote their artist as well as their products. For example when BTS released their Wings album back in 2016, Big Hit released multiple mini clips of each member with a dramatic back story along with a small snippet of a song each lasting about 30 seconds a piece and the fandom went nuts trying to figure out what was going on.BTS became a hot topic on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even you tube as several people began to debate what these teasers could possible mean as these theories were circulated around #’s related to BTS began generating more specifically BTS fans. Now this was not a first for Big Hit as they did a similar mini story release when BTS released their third album in their “The most beautiful moment in life trilogy titled “The most beautiful moment in life Forever Young” which included a dramatic video that took the whole fandom by surprise and the result was a storm of comments and theories circulating around the fandom along with multiple hashtags about the video again. However like the mysterious video teasers they had used to promote the wings album. This video preluded a whole dramatic back story that left the fans asking one question. “why? What happened? This was a good move on Big Hits because it peaked everyone’s interest it got everyone asking about upcoming Album and MV release. In fact the interest was so much several you tubers even add videos about both of these campaigns to share their own theories. Even Big Hits current campaign for BTS newest album “Love Yourself” was first introduced with a highlight reel featuring a different back story for each member. All of which were very cute and memorable due to the cute meets the members had with girls featured in their reel and it got the fans talking about who these girls were and how they related to the album as BTS rarely use female actors in their MV’s again this album was released two weeks ago was met with much anticipation and numerous hashtags has managed to top the chats of all the KPOP charts and music shows and has made it on to the Bilboard top 100 here in the US. So you know if to determine the most critical relationships necessary for Big Hit and their success. I would say it is probably the relationship they have with Korea’s various broadcasting stations and music shows like music bank and mnet countdown as the various entertainment variety shows. The relationship they share with local radio stations who often play the boys music their relationship with various news reporters and online news sites who are always writing articles on their activities, success, and their own relationships with different brand sponsors who see their artist model things which currently include puma, BBQ chicken, smart uniform,SK Telecom.

Data : Facebook BTS’s official Facebook page has 5,223,675 people following on their page and 5,144,119 likes on their page there is a link on this page to Big Hits home page which hasn’t been set up yet so I wasn’t able to see how many people had visited it. But seeing as it was pretty high up in the search bar when I googled it so I think it is pretty safe to assume that I am not the only one interested in this company. However I did find their Wikipedia page & was able to gain a ton of useful information from there. Big Hits facebook page has 1,595,756 followers and 1,573,413 likes There are featured videos and articles about its artist. I’m pretty sure it’s the same stuff that appears on BTS page only Big Hits is in all Korean, while BTS’s has been converted to English for their overseas and international fans. Wikipeida: Big Hit which is a south Korean entertainment company founded in 2005 by Bang Si- Hyuk and is currently home to to kpo idol group BTS and Musical duo Homme, although it previous groups include 2am,8eight,Glam and Lim Jeong-hee, and its more notable former trainees includes Hwang Eunbi (SinB) and Jung Eunbi (Eunha) of well know upcoming female kpop group Gfriend, well know rapper Iron who was featured on popular television show “sshow me the money” Jin Hyo-sang (kidoh) and Kim Sang-gyun (A-tom)of well know male Kpop group Topp Dogg, Park Seung-Jun (seungjun) and Jung In-Seong (Inseong) of popular up and coming kpop group KNK, Jo So-Jin (sojin)of popular female kpop group Nine Muses, Kim Joo- mi (Zumy) of famous and well seasoned female kpop group Ladies Code, and Ahn Hyung-seob a former contestant on popular audition program Produce 101, season 2. Big Hit which is a private company has 52 employees and has an annual operating income of 35,500,000,000 won as of 2017 and is located in Seoul Gangnam-gu, Nonhyeon-dong, 155-010,10-31 Cheong-gu bldg,2F, South Korea. Twitter:Big Hits Twitter has over 3.6 milion followers and seems to be updated frequently , and is used to promote not only Bighit as a company but their Artist as well. Their most recent tweet which was tweeted just 12 hours ago was used to share an article written on Naver.com about their group BTS and how they took first place on Music Bank for the second week in a row. The Article goes on to say that BTS beat out another famous artist I.U.’s song “Autum Morning” with their new track “DNA”. BTS’s official results K-charts was calculated based off the fact that they received 65% of the digital music record votes, 5% music sales, 20% number of broadcasts, and 10 % of Audence preference to give BTS a score of 8,876 points to the 6,376 points I.U. won. BTS historic unseating of Kpop Queen I.U. is just the beginning though . Because this trophy was not the only one BTS has managed to score this comeback. They have also won first prize on MBC’s music show “Show Champion”, and KBS’s 2 TV “Music Bank”, SBS’s “Popular Song” and Mnet “MCountdown” and have secured a spot in Billboard’s top 100, proving that not only are they a very powerful and talented boy group, but that “DNA” is an awesome song and this has already a very successful comeback. (Article is written in Korean, but was translated by @NefariousEunoia and can be found on Big Hit’s most recent Tweet in the comment section, or if you can understand it feel free to read the original article on Naver, link can bee found in Big Hit’s most recent Tweet.) Instagram: Big Hit does have a Instagram in fact it has two… @boys.BigHit which has 2,900 followers, and is believed it is used to promote the Big Hit trainees to promote their activities, although this Instagram page only has 1 post. Meanwhile the other Instagram Big Hit has @BTS.BigHitOffical has 5.8 million followers and has over 346posts each with at least a million likes. Which is why most people believe that this is Big Hits official Instagram, as it is used most often to promote the boy activities. However it is possible that both of these are used by Big Hit as they both have verified and each includes a link to the Big Hit website. (Which again unfortunately has not been set up yet) BTS Amino: This is an app that connected the BTS’S official fan café and its purpose to allow international fans of BTS and other Big Hit group to stay connected to their favorite artist and the company keeping them up to date. Many fans are not able to join the official fan page as its layout is entirely in Korean as is the majority off their uploads. By going through this page which is in English and updated in English (for your language of choice) You can both keep current with events and stay connected to your favorite artist and meet other fans like themselves and even send fan mail via email to the boy and their company. It’s a pretty cool app I had it on my phone in order to research it for this project, but I am considering keeping it as it allows for having fun with it.

Assessments and Recommendations Big Hits over all marketing seem to be a pretty successful one. Big Hit uses all their tools at their disposal which means their music and their main musical group at the moment BTS. Big hit uses their connections with various to secure BTS a spot on the music shows every time they have a comeback, which allows BTS to perform and promote their new song which in turn increases album sales. By doing shows like this in which fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite performer or team it generates buzz online and produces numerous hashtags with BTS as part of the subject line. This in turn generates more fans, more interest in their group by increasing sales of future concerts and merchandise sales. Another thing this does is bring in perspective companies who are looking for bright young stars to model clothing lines or participate in photo shoots which gives another line of revenue through group contracted work in which Big Hit gets a portion. So as you can see social media plays a key role and works hand in hand w Big Hits as well as other marketing tools to help promote their product. Which in ths case shows they have a solid foundation and a lot of potential as a group. Recently it has become a trend to cast popular idols K-dramas and variety shows in turn this reaches a new demographic and a new population. This boosts the drama rating thanks to KPOP fans it draws the prospective Kdrama fans into the KPOP fandom therby once again increasing their sales of merchandise and concerts. In addition to bringing the artist appearance fee plus the fee for singing the show OTS all of which Big Hit gets a cut of it also means it is sure to buzz among the fans of the said artists and groups and KDrama fans everywhere meaning more online articles, mentions, reviews and hashtags ultimately building more revenue coming in as the show fans will purchase the OTS on I tunes if not. Another new marketing concept for Big Hit whom had been using the boys beyond the scenes you tube channel to shoot Bangtan Bombs. Also BTS appears in a similar show back 2014-2015 called “American Hustle Life” it was shot in LA despite the boys of KPOP not being very well known at the time it was received pretty well and most of the episodes can still be found on you tube today all with a pretty significant amount of views as we know leads to more social media posts. Overall I would say that their marketing strategy is a pretty solid one. I don’t really have anything to recommend in the way of changing things, what they are doing seems to be working. I would however say that Big Hit does need to get their website up and running soon.

Citations: www.http://facebook.com/ibighit

www.http://Facebook.com/bts

www.http://Twitter.com/bts_twt

www.http://Twitter.com/BigHitEnt

www.http://instagram/bts.bighitoffical

www.http://Ibighit.com

www.http://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=76&aid=0003159480

www.http://btsblog.ibighit.com/m

www.http://btsamino.com

www.http://youtube.com/bighit

www.http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/big_hit_entertainment

www.http://youtube.comabiz

www.http://youtube.com/vip www.http://youtube.combangtantv

www.http//bbc.co.uk

@necsocialmedia

youtube

#NECSOCIALFINAL

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growinstablog · 5 years ago

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