Will It Fail? - The T-mobile G1

I think this is a pretty good subject to start with, seeing as how I'm on T-mobile and I'm a bit pissed that I can't get a Blackberry Storm. That said, let's get started, shall we?

Google hopes this phone becomes very popular so that people get exposed to its ad platform. WILL IT FAIL?

Why it won't:
T-mobile lacks a real "iphone killer" like Sprint and Verizon have. The success of these handsets is also debatable, but they weren't terrible flops, so I guess that counts for something.

However, the G1 is a bit better than these phones. It has the G-monster behind it, which hires the smartest people in the US and beyond. G-engineers have shown an amazing ability to know what people want out of their electric anything (Search, Gmail, Chrome). And the fact that the phone has a real browser has to be commended. Besides the Storm, The G-phone is the only product that can challenge the iPhone/Pod in this respect. AND, it has a keyboard, which is a big deal to people who don't really feel like typing on a screen.

Why it will:
An important aspect of having a strong brand is being the first to fill a niche (correctly). Google knows this - they weren't the first search engine, but they were the first to really make it user-friendly. The same with gmail/g-chat/g-maps. However, many aspects of the Google empire couldn't really differentiate themselves from everyone else (Froogle/google video/picasa - multi-fail). The G1 does not seem to really revolutionize anything that the iPhone does, hence why people aren't getting to excited about it. I don't think there will be too many lines for this phone because it isn't as awesomely different from anything else. Even if the phone has the g-monster behind it.

UPDATE: And it has no commercials! What are you doing T-mobile? You know you've got some dough for Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglass SOMEWHERE in your offices.


Verdict:

FAIL...?

In the end, the phone FAILS, but just barely. The iPhone is still the iPhone, and the Storm has the Blackberry name (which is huge after they released the trackball phones). But this phone could still sell to the technophile here and there. Like Sarah Palin, that just doesn't reach enough people.

What do you think? Prove me wrong.

Crank Dat Cultural Unity

MLK's American Dream apparently involves Supermanning that ho.

So (don't ask why) I was watching Hairspray on the plane coming back from Lagos. During the racial discrimination scene placed in the movie for the sake of making it about more than dancing, An extra held up a sign that said "Do The Checkerboard," meaning, of course, let's integrate (gotta keep that dancing theme in there).

It was damn cheesy, yes, I am aware of that. But it got me thinking about Crank Dat Soulja Boy/Superman/Batman/Spiderman/Roosevelt/Captain Planet/McGruff the Crime Dog, and I realized that it's the only dance craze in recent times that has taken EVERYBODY over, probably since Michael Jackson busted out the Moonwalk in '83.

I mean, of the various dance crazes that have come out since then - dances such as the Macarena, the Tootsie Roll, Bankhead Bounce, Chicken Noodle Soup, Lean-and-Rock, etc. etc. - none have never caught on with everyone. Most dances stay within the musical culture in which they develop (urban dance crazes in urban culture, for example).

But anyone you know knows the Soulja Boy. Old people, young people, Black people, Japanese people, heretics, nurses, trash collectors, players, pimps, and priests.

I think this is part of a larger trend of the main cultural forces in popular music - Urban (generally African American and Latino) and Pop/Rock (generally everyone else) - coming together and realizing that people from both sides are cool. I mean, you have Puffy hanging out with Ashton Kutcher, Alicia Keys and Kanye working with John Mayer and Jon Brion, M.I.A. working (somewhat) with 3-6 Mafia, Jay-Z mashing it up with Linkin Park. It goes on and on, and it hasn't been this way since the 80's, when everyone listened to rap and everyone listened to Madonna (but no one listened to The Osmonds).

Soulja Boy's dance is more than idiotic popcorn thrown out there by Mr. Collipark. It's a representation of our nation's new unity (well, on the surface - but the surface is better than nothing, right?). It's like he's a new age MLK.

(pause)

Ok definitely not. But it's good to see thats everyone's doing it, no matter how annoyed people get with it.

Cracked.com presents: As Seen on TV: The 10 Most Laughably Misleading Ads

I think this is a pretty good summation of life here at Digitas:

So I just started my blog and asked my coworker Juliet to help me out with the tracking. I saw that she had an article from cracked.com on her blog (kotobowski.blogspot.com - nothin' like free promotion!). And after laughing for about 5-7 seconds, I asked if she had seen the cracked article that also happens to be the basis for this post. She hadn't. So as I began to visit cracked in my web browser in order to show her said article, she immediately stopped me and said,

"No! Put it in your blog!"

Me: "..."

Welcome to the information age, haha.



Thank God we don't have square mouths.


And now, the article.

Don't Make a Song with T-Pain If You Are A Sucky And Unfamous Rapper.

So here is a test. Please watch these two videos.





Now, did you know who the rappers were in those videos? Probably not. But did you recognize the songs? Of course you did. Will you see these rappers anytime past the next four months? Hell no. And I am here to explain why.

We all know T-Pain. The man that fell in love with inappropriate women back in like 2005 (?) has now become some sort of hood Tour-de-force. Let's take a look at the songs that he has been featured on that have become huge hits JUST IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS:

Bartender (feat. Akon)
Chris Brown - Kiss Kiss
R Kelly - I'm a Flirt
DJ Khaled - I'm So Hood (featuring the population of the Southeastern United States)
Kanye West - The Good Life
Plies - Shawty
Low (Low, low...low.....low)
Who the F*** Is That?

The man has the ever-elusive Midas Touch right now, and cannot be stopped.

Now, those last two songs in the list you probably recognized, but NEVER knew the artist who raps/rapped on them. That's ok, they're irrelevant (but in case you WERE wondering, Flo-Rida - Low, and Dolla - Who). Let's look at the irrelevance formula and figure out why these rappers don't matter:

1) Generally Bad
2) Totally unknown outside of their own families - and as a rapper, even less noteworthy than that
3) Overshadowed by someone else on the song...who is also much more famous.

You can see that the last two songs suffer from all three symptoms on the scale. If Plies was suckier than average and not respected in the state of Florida, he might've fallen to the same fate as these two. But he's not, so he won't (at least for a while). On the rest of the songs, there are enough marquee names to refuse to allow T-Pain to take over the song. And let's not forget some talent. Unfortunately, for Dolla and Flo-Rida, talent is replaced by a hired hookman.

Now, let's not be TOO critical of these two guys...I'm sure their labels figured their songs needed "Dat Monster Hook" and immediately enlisted Thoma's services.

But at what cost?

I mean, does anyone know how these songs go in between hooks? Even when I watch the videos (which is the only reason I know who's songs they are), I dont know what the rappers are saying. The lyrics are so unimportant that all I hear are unintelligible sounds - like someone gave Mushmouth a deal - or better yet - Keak da Sneak. I'm sure when people are in the club all they hear is "Who the f*** is that...bla bla bla something something words more words bla bla bla curse word curse word something words....Shawty got low low low low." I mean seriously.

T-Pain has effectively done what The Neptunes did to Noreaga on "What What" - effectively rendered the other artist on the song sort of useless.

So PLEASE, PLEASE, I'm begging any random rappers or music execs that may stumble upon this blog while searching for "T-Pain" or "Kiss Kiss" in Google blog search - please don't put T-Pain on the hook if the rapper isn't famous and/or talented.

Or you might not last past your first single either...