Area 224 Ltd.

Content + Communications Consulting

You are here: Home / Archives for Dave

Dave

Top Songs of 2024: Part One (Honorable Mentions)

These are the Honorable Mentions: Songs outside the Top Ten but worthy of a listen. Let’s Go!

Here’s 2024’s Year-End Fiesta of Music. We’re talking about songs released in 2024 that went from “worth a listen” to “earworm city” to “wow, this is amazing.” You should know that these picks are subjective as heck.

A little about the format, which differs from past years. This year, ‘m doing THREE posts. First up is going to be a list of “Honorable Mentions,” which are songs just outside of my Top Ten. Second, songs 10-6 — we’re “countin’ ’em down” — and third will be songs 5-1.

I’ve had fun with these in past years and, as always, your mileage may vary.

Also, as usual, we’ll be casually referring back to a few items here or there from past posts. This is the…checks notes…third straight year we’ve done this; and the first year we’ll cross-post on Substack. If you want to see last year’s, here is a link: Top Ten Songs of 2023. And for 2022, here you go: Top Ten Songs of 2022.

The Honorable Mentions

HM(a): Pearl Jam, “Waiting for Stevie”

It’s a fun story: the band was going to hang out with Stevie Wonder, but Mr. Wonder was late, so they had some time to spend and decided to write a song.

The result is, according to me, the best song off of an above-average — but not S-Tier — Pearl Jam album, “Dark Matter.”

HM(b): Dexter and the Moonrocks: “Sad in Carolina”

In the circles in which I operate, this song might have had the most potential for being played into the ground. Or maybe it’s just that cognitive bias that causes you to see the same model of the car you just bought everywhere.

Anyway, this little ditty is kinda fun and kinda catchy and kinda rock all the same time. Points scored, though not enough to make this year’s Top Ten.

HM(c): Jack White, “Archbishop Harold Holmes”

Another Jack White song made my Excel Spreadsheet — which is called “Song Database of Fire” — but this one, also off the “No Name” album, is even more “Classic Jack White” than the other “Classic Jack White” song.

Behold, “Archbishop Harold Holmes.”

HM(d): Tunde Adebimpe, “Magnetic”

Solo stuff from TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe *just* dropped; gotta say I really LOVED the video, if for no other reason than I’m jealous of Tunde’s ability to grow a beard, and a gray one at that.

HM(e): The Wombats, “Blood on the Hospital Floor”

The Wombats — remember them? — are back! This song, too, just dropped within the last few weeks. It’s gold, Jerry, gold.

HM(f)*: Out Come the Wolves, “One in the Same”

This falls into my “Snoop On The Voice” category: I hit the subscribe button after the first couple chords.

The reason for the asterisk: this is completely under the radar. Like 79 subscribers to the band. 1000 views of the video.

I have a couple guesses as to why: the guys look middle-aged, the video looks lower-budget, and the song — to me — says Alt-Rock-But-Harder-Than-Usual.

I got it after the first view, and I still get it after the first dozen views. This is a good song.

HM(g): Squid, “Crispy Skin”

I’ve heard this song at least a half-dozen times in the three weeks since it dropped. I still have no idea if I’m listening to experimental prog rock from 1976 or a commercial for a Japanese furniture superstore.

Thanks?

HM(h): Katrina Ford, “World on a Wire”

This, our final Honorable Mention, falls into the category of “foreshadowing.” You will hear from Ms. Ford again in our year-end posts.

Stay tuned for the next two posts.

On Gender Differences, Being Dispassionate, and Meeting The Steel Man

“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” — Ben Shapiro

Gotta be honest with ya, I love a good debate. It’s great to see two really smart people go toe-to-toe, each presenting facts and packaging them into convincing arguments that lead me to see both sides of an issue, and think differently about it when they’re done.

Realizing that I haven’t seen one of those since the Internet was invented, I have to accept what passes as a debate these days: Twitter threads, or memes about political candidates, ad hominem attacks, or dripping condescension. (With a nod to the late, great Bob Newhart, condescension is when we need to lower ourselves to your level to explain something.)

Guilty As Charged

I lifted that meme from the Internet. If you’re following this particular thread, apparently, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who is Donald Trump’s running mate, may have made some positive comments about Diet Mountain Dew at one point, thus drawing the ire of anyone who (1) leans Left and (2) likes a good meme.

To prove we’re equal-opportunity here, let’s share something from the Right: Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking with reporters after the release of hostages a couple nights back.

Neither of these above memes are arguments. They’re both…just…things. One’s a meme, the other’s a tweet. Neither are gonna help you do anything other than cement the thinking of BOTH your argument — “Vance is a douche!” “Harris can’t speak on her feet!” — and your opponent’s — “Vance is cool, not a douche.” “Harris brings the calmness the moment demands.”

So now that the “Both Sides” presentation is out of the way, time for the point behind this here article: you have tools at your disposal to be really REALLY good at winning your argument. We’ll share two of our favorites here, and we’ll use a current controversy to do so.

Let’s get to work.

Tool #1: Being Dispassionate

“What are you passionate about?” Heck, I don’t know. And I’m not sure that’s your business, anyway.

If faced with an issue to dissect, and an argument to win, maybe it’s time to channel your inner Ron Swanson, remove any feelings, and figure out what’s going on in the most laissez-faire manner possible.

In other words, become “dispassionate.”

So our example is ripped from the headlines:

A boxer from Algeria, Imane Khelif, won a preliminary boxing match in the Women’s Olympic boxing competition against an Italian boxer named Angela Carini. The match ended abruptly after Carini withdrew from the fight at the 43-second mark.

Carini claimed later that she had never been hit so hard in her life; the reason was that Khelif had previously been banned from competition for “failure to meet eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition.”

If you’re not familiar with the rest of the back story from the Olympic boxing controversy, you can read up at this link from a site called Reduxx. Also worth reading is the statement from the International Boxing Association. Some careful study of the issue is necessary and, to borrow from the line above, find some facts that don’t care about your feelings.

Using logic, here’s our best Occam’s Razor explanation.

First, how did we get to this week:

  • The Algerian Boxer was banned from competition because testing by the IBA revealed that the boxer had male sex characteristics
  • The boxer in question was raised as a female by her family, but
  • Algeria, being an Islamic country, would not have allowed for a transgender individual to compete
  • Therefore, the boxer, while raised as a female, has enough of something (either testosterone or XY chromosome or actual genitalia) to be technically biologically male.

Having been declared “male” by a governing body (the IBA) that is charged with protecting competitors, the International Olympic Committee, bowing to PR pressure, decided to reframe the argument:

  • The boxer was raised as a female
  • The boxer’s passport reads “female”
  • The IBA is not qualified to make a determination; or, more accurately, we are deemed more qualified to make a determination
  • And we cannot keep females from competition against other females.

It’s then possible to draw a dispassionate conclusion:

The Algerian Olympic Boxing Team went along with the assumption that, despite testing from a recognized governing body, they had a potential medalist on their team. The IOC went along with the assumption that keeping people from competing — despite compelling reasons to do so — is not right.

The blowback from this decision has been…severe.

That particular “tweet” (which is what we used to call a post on X, now it’s a…”post on X”) has nearly 300 million views. (Or, accurately, some people are really passionate about the issue.)

Removing Empathy, Replacing it with Logic

One explanation of a dispassionate argument is this: take out any and all empathy, replace it with logic.

Empathy, here, may ask you to feel bad for the Algerian boxer — how must she feel to be subject to this negative publicity? — and the Algerian team and the IOC for having to deal with all the scrutiny.

Logic, though, can still have you feeling bad for *at most* the Algerian boxer; it is highly likely — based on the available evidence and the recent testing from the IBA — that Khelif has something called “Differences in Sexual Development,” or DSD. Khelif should not have been allowed to proceed to the Olympics if it was determined that rules for qualification could not be met.

Tool #2: The Steel Man

The Steel Man

You’ve heard of “Straw Man” arguments — where one side completely misrepresents what the other is arguing, or refutes a different argument from the one being presented — but you may not have heard of “Steel Man” arguments.

The easiest way to explain is this: if a “Straw Man” is flimsy, think of a “Steel Man” as the opposite of flimsy. Try to find the strongest case on the opposing side of your argument, and see what holes you can poke into that case.

Using our current events example, a Steel Man argument for the Algerian boxer might go like this:

  • Khelif has been female from birth, as evidenced by photos of Khelif as a youngster wearing female clothes and presenting as a female
  • Khelif’s passport identifies her as female
  • The IBA test has remained secret and, despite the IBA ruling against Khelif’s eligibility, the IBA has since been discredited by the IOC
  • The IOC, as the governing body behind the Olympics, should be the final arbiter of fairness
  • Any perceived differences in fast-twitch muscles, strength, or stamina should be attributed to superior athletic ability and better training.

The important thing here is to use the Steel Man to try to figure out whether the other side has a good argument, and to use what you learn to potentially bolster your own.

Where To Next?

My goal here is not to tip my hand too much about how I feel about this particular situation — though you can probably guess where I fall on this issue; it’s a shame that Olympians have lost out on opportunities to compete when the IOC has failed to recognize the IBA testing, especially in a situation that logically looks like they’re letting a male compete against females — but to ask you to do two things with the next argument:

  1. Become Dispassionate. If you remove feelings — knowing that someone’s will always be hurt — and thing logically, you’ll likely have more clarity around your own point of view.
  2. Consider the Steel Man. The other side has to have some benefits to their argument, right? If you poke around and look for them, you’re likely going to find out why the other side thinks like they do. And you may even find ways to beef up your own argument.

Here’s to some clarity for us all.

Price’s Law; Or, Make Yourself Indispensable At Work

Remember Pareto’s Principle? He’s So 2006.

If you’ve been anywhere around business or business books or hustle culture or anything related to GSD (“Getting Stuff Done”) at work, you’ve heard of the Pareto Principle.

The 80/20 Rule.

80 percent of [THING] will come from 20 percent of [GROUP]. Simple, really: if you sell something, 80 percent of sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. If you take a category — like, for instance, music — you’ll find that 20 percent of the artists produce 80 percent of the songs that actually get listened to.

For a while, this was canon in business and you couldn’t go into a work meeting without trying to use that to sound smart. “Boss, why don’t we fire 80 percent of our clients so we can just sell to the 20 percent that we spend all our time with?”

This ignores…well…EVERYTHING about whatever business you’re in, but points scored for simplification!

Introducing Price’s Law

THE ECONOMY is in weird shape; Note that your job might be at risk if you aren’t deemed to be productive. However you slice that at work — look busy! be at your desk! — at some point you’re gonna start looking around and asking the question: Am I Getting Stuff Done?

Price’s Law is “stupid simple:”

The square root of the number of people in any enterprise will produce 50 percent of the productivity.

Let’s apply this to your (hypothetical) team at work and figure out what that means for you.

If it’s a small team, it of course makes sense: in a team of 4, the square root of 4 — which is 2 — will do half the work. (I was told there would be no math.)

But in a bigger team Price’s law starts to have…bigger impact.

Raising Your Hand At Work

In a (hypothetical) team of 50, let’s call the square root 7. 7 People are getting stuff done, the other 43 are working at roughly 50% capacity. In a sales-driven organization, that doesn’t bode well for the other 43.

Now start to look around: are you one of the 7?

Probably pretty easy to answer that question in a lot of organizations. You have a little success on a project and then you have another project assigned to you. You open the door to sell something to a company and all of a sudden that company asks you to help them solve a different problem. You write a piece for the company blog and it clicks and then management realizes you should do more blog writing.

You are pretty obviously one of the 7.

Making Sure Your Department Is Productive, Too

Your job as “one of the 7” is pretty important when management starts to look to…well, how do we say this…cut the dead weight. These are sometimes the “get me the low performers” discussions, but they, too, are sometimes the “which departments can we do without?” discussions.

Yeah, that’s right. If marketing isn’t producing, marketing can easily be cut. Well, let me edit that: If marketing isn’t seen to be producing, marketing can easily be cut.

Your goal, then, as one of the 7 is to make sure that your department works on — and ONLY on — high-impact projects. If 20 of the other 43 are assigned to the Penske File and all they’re doing is moving the contents to an accordion-style file folder, that’s a low-impact project. If the other 23 are working on monthly TPS reports that don’t go anywhere, that’s a low-impact project.

Your Book of Business

It’s an insurance industry thing: the Book of Business. Or your portfolio. You should have a sense at all times of what that means for your personal situation: what are the clients you’re bringing in and/or responsible for? What are the projects that you are working on and how are they tied to the business and its bottom line?

What is your department doing on those days when they’re not planning or navel-gazing or working on Penske Files and TPS reports?

Your Book of Business should actually be yours. You should be able to discern where you have the most impact, and, if they show you the door, you should be able to say “hey, I was one of the 7 and here’s how.”

Or you should be able to say “here’s what the other 43 were working on, it added no value, I helped with the things over here that did add value, and I’m indispensable.”

You can thank Mr. Price.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Dave’s Substack on March 3, 2024.

The Top Ten Songs of 2023

We’re counting them down, just like Casey Kasem. We’ve done this before — here’s a link to last year’s post: Top Ten Songs of 2022 — and we like to think we keep up with the trends, within reason.

Please note a couple things from your friendly wannabe music critic:

  1. I rarely listen to terrestrial radio for music. When I do, since I’m in suburban Chicago, it’s either the alternative station or the rock station or the…whatever that other combination alternative and rock station is. (That reminds me of a song from a band called Das Racist.)
  2. I get most of my new music from a SiriusXM channel called “SiriusXMU,” with “Alt Nation” coming in second. (Yes, Pearl Jam Radio is one of the presets, too.) Shout out to Josiah.
  3. I trend away from anything related to Taylor Swift. Nothing against those who love Taylor, but…I really can’t get into her music.
  4. I listen to a good chunk of what I find on YouTube and what I see on Twitter.
  5. Finally, I get music recommendations from a chap I call “Canadian Steve;” he’s the one who broke down Oasis for the blog. Sometimes it’s an email that should be a Substack, and sometimes it’s a WhatsApp message. Probably the guy more of a sense of what’s going on with the combination of Alternative, Rock, Pop Rock, Indie, and Everything Else than anyone I know.

Before we hit the Top Ten, here are the Honorable Mentions, ranked (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) for no reason.

HM(a). Queens of the Stone Age, “Emotion Sickness”

On my list of all-time favorite bands, QOTSA is up there. But, as we’ve pointed out before — notably in our piece on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 songs — “favorite” and “best” are often two different things. And that’s where I land on this particular QOTSA piece: one of my favorite bands hasn’t done its best work here. It’s a song that’s…fine. It sounds a little too much like other QOTSA stuff, and now they’re on the fine line between “Distinctive Sound” and “Every Song Sounds the Same.” But…well, we’re gonna keep listening to the album and here’s the track in question.

HM(b). Nilufer Yanya, “L/R”

This one gets an Honorable Mention mostly because I didn’t discover this song until 2023, but it was released in 2022. Nilufer Yanya is from England and of Turkish, Irish, and Barbadian descent. This song is pretty darn good and would have made last year’s Top Ten had I known it existed. (Shame on me.)

HM(c). Vacations, “Midwest”

For a band that calls its kind of music “Woozy guitar pop,” and is from Australia, why are they singing about places like Colorado? Dunno. Nice song here.

HM(d). Men I Trust, “Billie Toppy”

We like Canadians. You’ll see that below. In this case, a French Canadian band that released a song in September of 2022. It became an earworm for this reporter late last year and throughout a good portion of this year, too. Can’t chart it due to a technicality because it was last year, but oh well. We have our principles here. It’s a darn good tune.

HM(e). Maneskin, “Honey (Are You Coming?)”

What’s NOT to love about an Italian band with a Scandinavian name? This song is brand-spanking new…to me at least. But the radio station and Alt Nation are both giving it the “here’s the brand new song from Maneskin” treatment at the end of November, so let’s go with that. It’s a hoot. Big fun. Had to make the list as an Honorable Mention.

That’s enough of the Honorable Mentions, especially if we want to hit our December 1 publish date. Let’s go…Top Ten time!

10. Little Dragon, “Slugs of Love”

Clever dance-ish pop/alternative track from a band called Little Dragon. I dig, you may as well. Enjoy.

9. The Beaches, “Blame Brett”

Dave, what is it with you and Canadians? This all-female outfit from Toronto is back with its fourth album, Blame My Ex, and this particular track has picked up steam in the US, ending up on the playlist of at least one of the Chicago stations (and reaching 35 on the US Alt charts).

8. Noah Kahan, “Dial Drunk”

This song got some major airplay in 2023, and I’ll admit to being late to the party. But the lyrics! Dangit, this is a tragic story. Watch the lyric video and feel for the guy.

7. Lovejoy, “Call Me What You Like”

This song is pure fun. Lovejoy probably has the second-most mainstream success (or maybe third-most) of any song on this particular list — you’ll see when we talk up number one — and this song got all the way to number 5 on three charts, including LTU, which is “Lithuania.” There’s a joke there, possibly from the movie “Singles.”

6. Suede, “The Sadness in You, The Sadness in Me”

Pretty much every year I’ve been doing this, a song drops late in the year, stops me in my tracks, and makes the list. (Happened last year, take a look here: 2022 Top Ten.) Suede did the trick and I heard this song for the first time right before Thanksgiving and Oh. My. Goodness.

5. Brigitte Calls Me Baby, “Impressively Average”

There’s a band from Chicago channeling The Smiths? IN THIS ECONOMY?

4. Depeche Mode, “Ghosts Again”

What amazes me about Depeche Mode is how they can release something that sounds simultaneously like it’s fresh AND from 1990. Stunning in its beauty and its pain, this song is downright phenomenal.

Now…time for a female-dominated Top Three.

3. Cherry Glazerr, “Ready for You”

This song went into heavy rotation as soon as I heard it. It shall stay in heavy rotation likely for the next couple years.

2. Blondshell, “Salad”

I spent most of 2023 thinking it would be impossible to hear a better song this year. And, were it not for the top song (according to me), this could have been the year for Blondshell.

But let’s face it, this probably WAS the year for Blondshell. For instance, a network television debut on Jimmy Fallon’s program (below). Criminally underwatched — only 45K views? WHAT? — but a slick live performance. A tour (that I missed because I was traveling). A debut album that clocked in at Number 11 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 100 Albums of 2023. And freaking moxie, people.

“Look what you did, you’ll make a killer of a Jewish girl” is the line that caused the multiple rewinds of this song (thanks, SiriusXMU).

TBH, the lyric video is preferred in my book because you can see how good a songwriter Ms. Teitelbaum is. Three links below (Fallon, official video, lyric video).

https://youtu.be/nUiFV1v674Q?si=37_49w6ZCe2h3MPG

Also, before we get to the Number One Song (According to Dave) of 2023, might make sense to give you the last couple years’ picks. Eh? (Because everyone should have a ten-year plan, I’m already charting “Top Songs of the 2020s.” Set a calendar item for 12/1/2029.)

The Top Song of 2022: Hemlocke Springs, “Girlfriend”

Yeah, this was the Top Song of 2022. Now, 2.9 Million Views Later…Still slaps.

The Top Song of 2021: Glass Animals, “Space Ghost Coast to Coast”

Before “Heat Waves” became a hit but actually after “Heat Waves” was released…

The Top Song of 2020: The Districts, “Cheap Regrets”

If pressed, this is the Best Song of the Decade (So Far). Released during the height of the pandemic — a pandemic that robbed us of so many live music experiences — were I to check my YouTube stats, this would no doubt be my most played since 1/1/2020. The video is awesome, the vibe is off the charts, the guitar is crazy good, the lyrics stick with you — “Didn’t know what a mirror was til I went to LA/Jacuzzis, an Uzi, a Land Rover ride/That’s what the money’s for/Bikinis, Bellinis, and pate” — and if any song cost-justified SiriusXM and my ability to rewind and hit play over and over in my Kia, this was the song.

Now, without further ado…

1. The Last Dinner Party, “Nothing Matters”

A debut single off a forthcoming album from a band that just launched getting this much street cred? Something MUST be amiss. The Guardian breaks down the brouhaha here.

But they toured, they opened for — Brits like to say “supported,” but that reminds me a little too much of David Brent supporting Texas (the band, not the state; IYKYK) — Florence and the Machine, and they’ve been really REALLY busy on that side of the pond. And the hype is, indeed, warranted.

The Last Dinner Party’s single, “Nothing Matters,” has everything you were looking for in a launch into the stratosphere. Justin Hawkins — who, we assume, STILL believes in a thing called love — hilariously breaks it all down (video below).

To wit, the video is macbre enough, and goofy enough, to work.

The song might be the catchiest thing you’ll hear this year. It’s already getting airplay in Chicago — edited, of course — and it’s just this band’s FIRST SINGLE.

Below, enjoy Justin Hawkins’ video (NSFW: Blue Language), then the band’s official video (NSFW: Blue Language), followed by a SFW performance for the BBC.

It’s the Song of the Year. At least, according to me.

There you have it. Let the debate begin!

A Holiday Blog Post About AI Strategy for Marketers

Your holiday season would not be complete without an obligatory blog post that tells you how artificial intelligence can make your holiday marketing and PR content better. That’s right, there’s no sense in doing everything yourself. Automate! Use AI!

For instance, you could go to Bard, like I just did, and type in a prompt like this:

Oh my, this is gonna be brilliant. Here’s suggestion 1 of 7 — SEVEN!!! — to help you along:

1. Embrace nostalgia and evoke emotions

Taylor Swift is known for her ability to tap into nostalgia, and her holiday campaigns are no exception. She often references holiday traditions and classic Christmas songs, which resonates with her fans and makes them feel connected to her.

For your own holiday content, consider using nostalgic imagery and language to evoke emotions in your audience. You can also use storytelling to create a sense of warmth and connection.

Disclaimer: The above was written by AI. I couldn’t come up with something so banal by myself. I need inspiration.

But wait, it gets better…here’s item number 5. Because you can always shoehorn SOCIAL MEDIA into your holiday content!

5. Leverage social media to reach a wider audience

Taylor Swift is a social media pro, and she uses her platforms effectively to promote her holiday campaigns. She often shares photos, videos, and exclusive content on her social media channels, which helps her reach a wider audience and generate buzz.

To maximize the reach of your holiday content, make sure you’re promoting it on your social media channels. Use relevant hashtags, share engaging content, and run contests and giveaways to attract attention.

Disclaimer: Okay, enough already. Seriously.

Another Tip: Become the Master of Absurdity

Yes, you should try to weave in as much absurdity in your Holiday Marketing. Is it absurd to consider the Bing AI Generator to…

Well, first you need to start with Thanksgiving, and Football, and the old phrase “Stick a Fork in [INSERT TEAM NAME], they’re done!].” Ask AI to create an image like this…

And the winner is…

Thanksgiving’s Over, Move on to Black Friday

Oh, this is gonna get good.

If you follow our Substack, you might have seen that we’ve played around enough with AI to figure out that the image maker thing can’t spell. In this case, you spot it “Black” and “Friday” and it somehow finds a way to fail.

Or it drops a couple letters.

But at least the ad looks sorta modern.

What’s The Point?

Everywhere you turn, you seem to see something or someone telling you that generative AI is going to change your life for the better, immediately. And sure, being able to run tons of options through a machine is great, or asking for a machine to create a bunch of words that you can then turn around and make mad bank from is also great.

Until it’s not great. Until you outsource the thinking. Until you just phone it in.

My Absurdity Playground of AI Imagery — I should consider trademarking the phrase “Absurdity Playground” — hasn’t been done for any other reason than amusement. I’m trying to push the limits of absurdity and using AI to do that and it’s semi-clever, but I never plan on “going pro” at it.

So there’s the point: if you want to really make things happen at work — especially as a professional marketer, PR person, or communicator — you need to focus on asking this question:

What Business Problem Are We Trying to Solve?

Are you trying to churn out better content? Great. What problem will that solve? Do you need to book more appointments, or 10x your sales?

Oh, it’s about “Thought Leadership!” That’s the business problem you’re trying to solve, right? Being “out there” as a “thought leader!” Great. Are your thoughts original? If not, are they researched? Do they have a point of view? Or are they just…banal, trying to leverage the next big thing?

Here’s the Advice: Blocking and Tackling

Table stakes for the communicator: there needs to be a reason to do what you do, or else you’re just an order taker, filling out forms, generating words and images to make the bosses happy.

Figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing and things will go a lot more smoothly.

Also, be sure to know how to spell and use punctuation.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...