After my “Facebook for Kids” post, I got an email from my friend Kelley, who shared some extremely enlightening insight on her recent exposure to the Warped Tour:

By Kelley Hagen

As a marketer by trade and a sociologist by study, I found the Warped Tour to be a fascinating study in youth pop culture.  In my day-to-day life I am focused on what is cool to adults between the ages of 21 and 35 – where to go, what to do, what to watch – that sort of stuff.  But I have totally ignored the uprising of a completely different group of people who are just a few years away from my target demographic.

When I arrived to set up at Warped Tour at 9:00 a.m. there were thousands of kids (referring to people between the ages of 13 and 20) waiting outside the gates to get in.  Mind you the gates did not open until 11 and the music started at noon.  From a distance these kids looked like an amazing assortment of neon-colored ants.  Literally from their heads (with hair that was usually dyed pink, purple or blue) to their multicolored feet, you could not miss these kids.

As they got closer I could see they were a unique hybrid: one part hipster, one part 80’s punk rock.  Take your typical hipster skinny jeans and amp them up with your neon flavor of choice.  Take your hipster, ironic v-neck t-shirt make it black with neon writing – or add your favorite 80’s cartoon, movie or video game image.  Take your boring black hipster chucks and add hot pink laces, colorful drawn on rainbows or just purchase them the brightest color available.

The most important thing I noticed was that these kids KNEW THEIR MUSIC, were passionately dedicated to their favorite bands and it was their sole mission in life to get as many of their friends to like these bands too.  Every person had ARMFULS of merch and literally ½ of the venue was packed side by side with vendor tents selling shirts, hats, sun glasses (perhaps the most important accessory and should be the style of Tom Cruise Ray Bans in Risk Business…but of course NEON).  There were lines hundreds of kids long for signings and meet and greets.  All of this for bands that I have never heard of.  These bands aren’t spun on the radio but they had diehard fans.  Thousands of them moshing, crowd surfing and fainting in the heat for their chance to pump their fist in the air and bang their heads to their favorite artists.

When I got home I called my sisters (17 and 19) and asked them about these kids and they knew exactly who I was talking about.  They are “scene kids”.  I researched a little more and found this wiki article titled, “How to be a scene kid”:  HYPERLINK “http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Scene-Kid” http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Scene-Kid

As a marketer, I found the most interesting part of this article rule number 3: Become active on social networking sites.  This article recommends you are active on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter – whatever it takes because, “the more sites you are on the more popular you are.”  Another rule states: “Take of the scene writing style”.

Since you are communicating and expressing yourself solely in a digital platform you have to add your “scene” personality not only to the words that you chose but how you chose to write them.  Adding extra letters to words (heyyy), misspelling (luuvvvvv uuu), using short hand (brb, lmao), using “!” as “I” (!’m f!ne) are just a few ways to communicate your affiliation.

What does this tell me?  From a marketing perspective I need to not only be on these social networking site, I need to figure out how these kids are using them, what is relevant to them and how I can offer them something useful via their media outlet of choice.  Notice there wasn’t a rule: Watch cable, read the newspaper, by this magazine – online is part of their ethos.

I shouldn’t be surprised this culture emerged.  When I was in middle school I shaved the bottom ½ of my head, wore brown lipstick, oversize flannels and baggy jeans just to look like Kurt Cobain.  But what is fascinating is that so much of youth culture is influenced by the music of the moment.  Is this genre a flash in the pan? Maybe, but in the meantime it is the heart and souls of a distinct part of this generation.

What I need to determine is how my marketing industry will grow with these kids.  They won’t have tight pants, blue hair and tattoos forever (well I’m afraid they are stuck with the tats).  But just like us grunge kids grew up to work in office buildings (even if we are listening to Foo Fighters at our desks) these scene kids will be there before we know it, looking where to go, what to do and what to watch.  And if I’m smart, I will provide the solutions.

I got a “friend request” the other day from my 7 year old godchild, Lola. At first I thought this had to be some funny ploy her big sister was doing, but then I got a phone call from her mom, who confirmed, indeed it is Lola who wanted her own Facebook page, and she is very active with her other second grade friends….input, record player scratch here, WAIT A MINUTE! Facebook is not for kids!!! Or is it? Let’s all remember that the current biggest social networking site on the planet, once required a valid college email address to sign up.

However, if you look at this from a generational stand point, this makes some sense. Facebook, and offshoot of MySpace, currently dominated by tweens-thirty somethings? This is the generation that also “tweets” first, creates digital versions of themselves, in online reality games like Planet Cazmo, uses Limewire, etc. This is the generation that has been taking Computer class from the time they were in kindergartern. It wasn’t until much later that older generations started to take notice, and thus led this whole new slew of folks claiming to be “Social Networking Directors” blah blah blah. As with all technology, in a few years Facebook too will be overtaken (gasp!), but it will make room for some new and cooler application.

I watch Lola and her little brother Hank play on the computer constantly. Their favorite games involve creating digital pets and farm animals….I cannot help but to wonder whether perhaps in order to stay ahead of the game of “New Media Marketing” I need to start joining in on these games.

So here is my question to all of my loyal readers:

What sort of new waves in music marketing do you think will come to fruition in the next 5 years? 10 years? Have you been paying attention to any children lately?

As if it is not already hard enough, UK’s The Guardian, just wrote an article pointing out, that the music industry is full of men, and women are scarce in the industry, Where are the Women in A&R.

There was even a comment left by some random, stating that the majority of women get into the music industry to sleep with musicians! As if! Are we still that completely of an archaic society, that women cannot be in the music industry, and be respected for knowing what they are talking about! For all of you girls that want to be in the industry, here is my advice to you: I am extremely fortunate, to have a woman mentor, who has seriously kicked ass in the music industry for the past 30 years. She is known for having some of the best “music ears” in the business, and has broken more bands than most.  She is not hard as nails, or mean, instead she is confident, and does not second guess herself.

The music industry is ego driven, perhaps primarily because it has been male-led for all these years…but I must say watching Leslie Fram, so calmly work and make decisions, and then watching people gravel at her feet, has led me to believe, that of course there are women in the industry, and in fact they are everywhere, they just don’t where a badge saying “Hey look at me, I’m in the industry, and I’m important!”

I am so lucky to be working in an industry that I truly love….Music has been the only constant in my life for as long as I can remember….it is what feeds me…Future women in the industry, we have our work cut out for us, because of articles like these, that want to make us look like we are not on the same par as men. Learn from Leslie Fram, always stay calm, make a decision and stick with it, always stay honest, and say what you mean, and never ever, second guess yourself. Hard work and humility always succeed….always

It is no secret that I love Malcolm Gladwell, and I guess while we are on that note, SEth Godin, David Meerman Scott, and the rest of the little gurus out there….It’s funny Seth still seems to be king, and in my industry I literally am seeing several different companies, directly quoting tidbits that show up in our inbox every morning (Seth Godin), and here I am working on my “masters” of becoming a Director of New Media Marketing & PR, and I cannot help to forget that the only way I am going to be truly successful is be an Outlier, and recognize the opportunities that present themselves to me….I have always been confused by people who claim to want to work in the music industry….They claim they love it, and yet they are not willing to put any sort of grunt work  to become great…

My cardiologist told me today that I was so physically stressed out, that my heart was squeezing itself…obviously not a good sign…He told me that it would be a good idea for me to lessen my work load, and start enjoying time. I couldn’t help but to think about a book that I am reading right now called \”The Last Lecture\” (this is a must buy, for all of those who have a soul). The main character is a professor named Randy who is only has a few months to live, and decides to give  one last life lecture….He speaks many truths that are resonating within me that I want to share:

1. Hard work is the equity for success

2 .Luck is where preparation meets opportunity

The second one really seems to be sticking with me. It reminds me, that Outliers are never concerned with fitting into some box, they are true renegades and are willing to put in the hard work and sweat that is needed to SEE the opportunity that no one else is able to see.

Hey guys, I apologize for my site being down the past 24 hours. I’ve been trying to get it updated with a new format and without all of those annoying advertisements (thanks GoDaddy). Anyways, I’m back up and running and I’ll be posting my archives back up soon.

Thanks-

Eileen