Kidz Bop: A Kid-friendly Alternative for Entertainment

       For many years, children have desired various forms of entertainment. In particular, music and film topped the list for children and teenagers, until the video game craze took over and became a formidable force within the entertainment industry. Consequently, the music, TV, film, and video industries were forced to become more creative in order to remain popular in the minds of teens and kids. One example of this is the Kidz Bop brand that was originally launched in 2000 to provide alternative versions of pop songs mainly for young people aged 5-12 years.

      What better way is there to keep children, tweens, and teens interested, other than to insert them directly into the equation? The idea that the Kidz Bop founders Cliff Chenfield and Craig Balsam conceived, to have young people perform covers of current pop hits, was a brilliant example of such. Chenfield speaks to Pacific Standard Magazine about the CD series that has morphed into a million-dollar multimedia business, and he stresses that their intention is to further “kid-cool and parent-friendly” entertainment content for all ages. Kidz Bop is a total hit, as evidenced by the fact that the albums consistently debut high on the Billboard 200 and their website following of over 900,000 youth. Kidz Bop now includes Kidz Star USA Talent Search, which is a national talent search competition for children under the age of 15. The winner wins a major RCA recording contract, cool prize packages, and an appearance in a Kidz Bop commercial and music video. Today, Kidz Bop has become a safely moderated social networking and video site that features games, contests, photo and video uploads, fan pages, and a music-listening forum for kids to have fun and be creative. Kidz Bop even has: books; magazines; clothing; toy instruments; DVDs; a pop dance group; a Wii video game; an iOS app; and even a weekly SiriusXM Radio show called Kidz Bop Block Party. Chenfield mentions on Radio.com that the Kidz Bop success has carved out other opportunities that may include finding, promoting, and developing child stars in the future. By connecting to kids directly from the Internet, and broadening their media offerings, they definitely have the foundation for these endeavors.

      Despite this brand’s success, there are of course people who are anti-Kidz Bop because they feel that the original pop songs are being ruined because of the watered down, kid-friendly versions. I disagree because, as a parent, I do not want my child listening to some of the inappropriate lyrics that many pop songs currently contain, despite the catchy hooks and melodies. The Kidz Bop songs and website provide an outlet for them to enjoy versions of the songs they enjoy that are not harmful to their emotional or social development; as well as social networking that is safe from predators or bullies. For these reasons, Art of Audio Productions would be honored to produce audio for media similar to Kidz Bop’s. It would be amazing to be a part of something that has proven, and continues, to be a positive experience for many, many kids who need entertainment that is tailored just for them! Why not ask a kid what they think?

Audiobooks: An Important Resource for Students

      As an avid reader, I can certainly appreciate the benefits of using my sense of sight for entertainment and/or learning when reading a book. However, as an audio professional and musician, I can also see equal benefits from using the sense of hearing by listening to audiobooks. When you read a book, you are completely reliant upon your imagination to fill in the gaps concerning the details that the book might have left out. For example, although a book can certainly describe a character with great detail, it is up to the reader’s imagination to create the sound of that character’s voice in order to make the story come alive. The beauty of an audiobook, however, is that there is no need to do this because it is already done for you! Listening to an audiobook can be very exciting and can also speed up the process of covering book content, because listening to a book often results in more chapters being covered than reading the traditional way. Additionally, listening to an audiobook can also be done while doing something else simultaneously, such as ironing, cooking, exercising, or getting dressed. This gives you the ability to multitask and get more things done while also being entertained. These are benefits for just about anyone of any age, but what about the importance of the benefits for students?

      On Reading rockets, which is a website that provides resources for teaching children how to read or how to improve reading, it is mentioned that some people do not consider listening to audiobooks part of the reading process. When you read, you should be able to summarize what was read by: providing the character, setting, problem, and solution. Furthermore, that summary indicates that you were successful in comprehending what the book was attempting to convey. If you listen to an audiobook and are able to provide a sufficient summary of what you heard, is that not the same as reading? I submit that it is, and for a young person, it may inspire a greater desire to read books in the traditional manner as well. This is just one possible benefit of listening to audiobooks. Reading Rockets provides a comprehensive list of the many benefits of listening to audiobooks for students, and developing critical listening skills is one of them. Changing Minds gives a definition of critical listening, which involves evaluating what was heard in order to form thoughts, opinions, or judgment, and this is very important for young readers to be able to do after reading any text.

      Young people are easily distracted and are prone to quickly becoming bored. Therefore, it is imperative that the media they are listening to be engaging enough to keep their attention, especially when there is nothing that is visual to accompany it. For these reasons, it is critical that the audio for audiobooks is professionally done in superb quality; that the voiceover actors/actresses are skilled; and that the audio production is creative, entertaining, and fascinating. Audiobooks are becoming increasingly readily available and more affordable for the public, which should increase the consumer demand for this type of media and hopefully make it easier for schools to purchase more audiobooks for school libraries. Consequently, it is the aim of AOAP to consistently create memorable and exciting audio for audiobooks, in order to contribute to the growth and development of students worldwide, because listening is fundamental too!

Audio Engineering Society (AES): A Great Affiliation!

      Considering the services that my company, Art Of Audio Productions, will offer in the future, there are various professional associations that I could and probably will eventually join. However, the very foundation of everything lies in my expertise as an audio engineer, so investigating the Audio Engineering Society seemed to be my first logical choice for professional affiliation.

      This society originated in the U.S. in 1948, and grew internationally to unite, not just audio engineers, but also students, scientists, and creative artists, all over the world. This is accomplished through providing and promoting new information, education, and research about audio technology. AES currently has over 75 professional and 95 student sections worldwide, and over 14,000 members, which offers numerous opportunities for both personal development and networking. These sections host various activities such as: demonstrations, forums with guest speakers, social functions, technical tours, and other similar events.

      What I really like the most about AES, is the fact that education is of great importance to them, and in more than one aspect. Education is key to success in any field, and is especially important when one is doing something that requires technical skill. First of all, AES serves the educational needs of their members and the audio industry as a whole, through a wide spectrum of publications, technical gatherings, and equipment demonstrations. Their conventions are held annually in the U.S. and Europe, with additional ones (plus regional summits), held regularly also in Latin America, Asia, North America, and Europe. Secondly, the AES presents many research papers at these conventions, which end up being published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, which is peer-reviewed and available for members in the AES E-Library for a small fee. Additionally, other educational resources are available in this section as well, such as tutorials and technical documents. The AES also has an educational foundation that awards grants to graduate students who are studying audio or a related field. Finally, the educational program that I find the most relative to the goal of aoap, is the AES Student Recording Competition, because it allows students to gain recognition and feedback for their audio production work.

      In this particular competition, there are four different categories that allow students to enter and showcase their work in basically every genre and technique of recording, at the AES international conventions. This is significant for the audio industry because these students are the future audio engineer professionals of tomorrow, and mentoring them is extremely important. With feedback and positive encouragement for their audio production work, these students can be inspired to reach greater heights in audio, and to achieve other awards, like a Grammy or an Oscar! At the very least, it should be the catalyst for student audio engineers to strive for greatness with their audio work, and to continue building their audio network of professional audio engineers. You can review the recap of the past winners of this competition at the 134^th AES Convention here. 

      The AES is also involved in maintaining and creating international standards in various areas of audio, such as digital/analog audio engineering, media preservation, and acoustics, to name a few. Therefore, AES serves a very important purpose for the growth and development of the audio industry as a whole, and joining either as a student or professional audio engineer, certainly has its merits. Additionally, being an AES member should also grow the personal and professional network of any audio engineer, as they connect with the thousands of other AES members, either online, at meetings, and/or at conferences.

      This professional association easily gets thumbs up from this audio engineer, and I cannot wait to become a member! Will you join me?

Annie Lennox: An Inspiration For All

      In the year 2013, it is really easy for people to forget about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially if this disease affects no one close to you. Furthermore, we don’t see as many ad campaigns as we did in the latter eighties or early nineties, when the disease was still relatively new and fresh on everyone’s minds. This is why the The Annie Lennox SING Campaign  and her story from Ted.com are so poignant and significant in continuing to raise awareness.

      In Annie Lennox’ speech, she describes how she became aware of Nelson Mandela’s launch of his new campaign, in 2003, called 46664. This led her to learn more about how the HIV/AIDS pandemic is seriously affecting women and children in South Africa, and it inspired her to join the fight as well. She talks about how she met the founder of Treatment Action Campaign, Zachie Achmat, and how she became involved in helping them obtain comprehensive quality medical care for those living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Lennox also gives information about how Mandela’s country has one of the highest transmission rates of this disease in the world. She also talks about how as a woman and mother this issue touched her heart very deeply, and as a result, she became committed to raising money and awareness for this cause through using her notoriety as a pop singer as a platform.

      She has given numerous talks, speeches, and seminars all over the world as an appointed UN AIDS Ambassador, in an effort to help eliminate, by 2015, the transmissions of this virus from mother-to-child. Specifically, she tells the story about an orphan child that they filmed in South Africa, who was born with the virus because her mother passed it to her, and who was suffering severely due to poor nutrition/health care. At age seven, she had full blown AIDS, had pneumonia, and only weighed what a one-year-old child might weigh when Lennox left after filming her. The hospital doctors/nurses consequently put the child on a special diet and gave her excellent health care in the hopes of reversing her poor state of health. In five months, when Lennox returned, the child had transformed into a completely healthy and normal looking seven-year-old child! This story, along with the before/after the pictures of the child, clearly affected the audience, because almost everyone in the hall stood up when Annie Lennox asked if they agreed with her about a couple of issues. She asked the audience if they agreed that every mother affected by this disease deserves access to good nutrition and health care; and then she asked if they agreed that The Millennium Development Goals (a report disseminated by the United Nations), specifically goals 5 and 6, should be met by all worldwide governments. I was not there to see this speech in person, but it definitely inspired me to want to join this cause!

      As an entertainer, woman, mother, and African-American, I feel that I can and should make a difference with this issue as well. Creating music and sound design are creative ways to entertain, but helping to serve my fellow man would be an even more significant way to contribute my talents, money, and time. Hopefully, this blog post will inspire you, as the reader, to join as well!   

Audio Industry Education: Degree or No Degree?

      The audio industry is creative, complex, and ever changing, so the question of whether or not one would need formal education to be successful is controversial. There are numerous people all over the world who either have their own home audio studio, or who work professionally somewhere as audio engineers or sound designers…and all without so much as even a certificate. These people are either self-taught or they learned through apprenticeship, and they see no need whatsoever for attending school after the fact. I was once asked by someone I met, who was a self-taught audio engineer, why was I wasting my time going to school for audio. In fact, there exist institutes that preach against the need for a degree in the audio industry as well, stating that either a certificate or apprenticeship is all you need if you have the proper connections. This is fine, if you subscribe to this school of thought. However, I happen to be one of those who disagree, because my years of life experience have taught me otherwise.

      Actual experience in the audio industry is definitely necessary. In fact, the more experience, the better your portfolio and prospects for employment or clients. Furthermore, experience coupled with connections, will further increase your chances for success in this field. However, it is my belief that experience and connections, plus a degree, will definitely up the ante for an audio professional. There are in depth technical aspects of audio that really should be taught in a formal educational setting, which may not be conveyed properly in an apprenticeship situation or in a certificate program. Additionally, the varied business aspects of the audio industry and professionalism are subjects best taught in college, in order to gain a thorough and working knowledge of these topics.

      I have two friends, who are professional audio engineers that are recording studio owners, and they both expressed to me their firm belief in extensive audio education. One of these friends attended school in New York years ago, and he trained an apprentice (who had no formal audio education) to work as his assistant engineer. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, he unfortunately found out his apprentice seriously lacked work ethic, and he attributed it to his lack of schooling. The other friend graduated with me from the ILIC Audio Production Bachelor of Science degree program. Although he had years of engineering experience, that he acquired on his own before attending school, he always felt something was missing. Therefore, he obtained the degree to fill in the missing gaps of knowledge, and for further credibility with his clients.

      Whichever school or program you choose, the possibilities for success significantly increase when you have the proper knowledge as a foundation for your experience. Today, there are even more options available for audio degrees, and each school offers it’s own unique program, such as the Full Sail University Recording Arts Bachelor of Science degree program, that can prepare you for a bright future in audio.

      As with many careers, the competition is fierce in the audio industry. Certainly, having a college education will increase your odds for overall prosperity, as explained in an article on AEI, written by education professional Mark Schneider. As one who has been employed both with and without a degree, now that I have a BS in Audio Production, I am convinced that my education will be a pivotal part of my success in the end. As a business owner with a significant amount of proper education and experience, my clients will be sure to have confidence in my ability to deliver the quality audio they need!