BERRAND Values

Rob Campbell in his early days
(Blogosphere in-joke)

As an avid follower of a variety of different genres of music, I've been a regular reader of Kerrang for about 10 years. It's always been a reasonable barometer of what is interesting and exciting in the world of rock, metal and alternative music, but with a good sense of history, remembering the greats of the past and how they influence the present.

The thing that struck me this weekend though, is how inconsistent the values of Kerrang appear to be when moved into other media, and how balancing mass appeal with loyalty to your core values is a tricky thing.

On the way 'Dahn Sowf', we drove through Brimingham, and we tuned into Kerrang Radio to see if would play decent music during the day (as opposed to the trite enforced retro blandness of most local radio).

What I heard confused the hell out of me. I listened for about 8 songs, which included The Kooks, The Police, Blur and Coldplay. Fucking Coldplay. On Kerrang.

Never in a million years would Kerrang even consider writing about Coldplay (unless they have taken an unexpected death metal turn on the next album). Yet here it was being played out attached to the Kerrang brand. One of the trailers then said 'we don't play the same pop as everyone else, we play rock'. Not on this listen you didn't.

I'm not expecting them to go all out: "You're listening to the Kerrang morning show, coming up we have Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, and Cradle of Filth." But under any appropriation of the Kerrang brand the stuff they were playing just does not fit.

The Kerrang TV channel has always been somewhere in the middle. Playing decent stuff in the early hours, but suffering from an obsession for soft rock at all other times. I used to switch off because there was only so many Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters and sodding Nickleback tracks I could take.

It's a brand that in print has always felt like it had a solid set of values and yet in TV and radio it always feels like it is compromising those values in the name of a bigger audience. I wish Kerrang TV and radio would decide what they are, and either change their content or change their branding.

Why Newspapers Will Survive and Planning Will Change

Note: This is theory in progress, it may be flawed!!

People are still decrying the death of tv, the death of magazines, the death of newspapers. That they are history in our instant worlwide 247 internet world. But for the same reasons that social media is a pain, I expect that they will survive and that my job might change a lot as we go forward.

Here's why:

Now I can chat to everyone I have ever met. Hang on a minute, you were a tosser... I don't want to speak to you. Who is that? Social media burnout anyone (Marcus got there first btw)

I don't want everyone I know contacting me.

As I discussed at a social media panel a few months ago... the key word for the internet has become and will remain Filtration. Seperating the millions of pages of guff and giving us the bits we like. It's already taking over via feeds and selective grouping.

It's what we use search engines for. But increasingly we have to do it with our viewing of the sites we then find.

So.

Newspapers and magazines will survive because as well as liking tangible things, when there is too much data to read, we need filters. We need editing and selection. Print media can become these things.

I already do it, I read videogames blogs and news sites; but I trust Edge magazine to select the important bits and look at them critically. Just like I trust NME to do so with music.

Publications that become the critical filter instead of the news breaker might thrive.

So how does this change my job?

Well. Traditionally planning has involved lots of finding data, analysing it and interpreting it. Yet as we move onwards in web technology, we are finding more and more data from more and more sources. If this carries on then filtration of data will become a more prevalent part of our daily work. Web researching means its already easier for brands to commision research and provide more data.

Like I said, this is thought in progress. Feel free to shoot it down if you disagree.