Now and again, I like to take some time to reflect on why I started PopConversation and my answer to that question would be that I want to use this blog to share my experiences with all the brilliant people that I interact with and all the remarkable content that I chance upon both online and off. One of the best resources that I find myself going back to from time to time is the Internet soul food for men, that is ArtofManliness.com (AOM for short).
PopPersonality is our new segment where we talk about influential personalities in entertainment and lifestyle, and we discuss their creative works, and the impact they have in media and popular culture.
For our very first PopPersonality feature, we thought who better to start the ball rolling than Singapore's very own father of blogging and foremost political and social satirist, mrbrown.
Welcome to PopStat! In this segment, we'll explore and share with you intriguing insights and trends about 1) People, 2) Social Media, and 3) Popular Culture.
There are a ton of mind boggling data and statistics on the internet; this week, we delve deep into the popular networks Google and Facebook, and we uncover interesting tidbits of information that reveal more about Singaporeans and their habits, preferences and lives in cyberspace.
First up, where and how are Singaporeans spending their time on the internet? Well for one... 1) The most popular website in Singapore is...
Popconversation Facebook. (According to Experian Hitwise)The giant social network has a 6.78% share of visits across the internet in Singapore (Google.com.sg comes in 2nd at 5.86%, third on the list is Google.com at 4.25% - if we take that into consideration, Google would be number 1). As of August 2011, Singaporeans were spending an average of 34 minutes and 46 seconds on Zuckerberg's digital playground (as of Aug 2011) which brings us to our next insight-
Flight is the action of traversing through an atmosphere or beyond it by creating aerodynamic lift, propulsive thrust, using bouyancy or ballistics. One can also achieve temporary flight by jumping off tall structures, which brings us to PopConversation's 5 thrilling activities that'll make you feel like a bird/plane/superman (prepare to be captivated by videos that will make you restless in your rotatable office chair #whitecollar).
1) Rope Swinging at Moab Utah featuring Devinsupertramp
World's Largest Rope Swing by vagrant Youtuber Devinsupertramp is making quite a splat splash on the video sharing network, closing in to almost 4 million views 5 short days after its upload. Cinematographer Devin did a top job with the video showcase and he has clearly capture the imaginations of many viewers who think to themselves while watching his video that surely this must be what it feels like to be Spiderman.
Jump out of a fighter jet to shoot people in the face
Ask questions that state the obvious
Take a look at life in Singapore from the point of view of a foreigner.
Epic Gaming Moment Battlefield 3 - Jet Swap by Stungravy
So you're flying around in a fighter jet when all of a sudden you're being tailed by enemy aircraft and ground to air missiles, what do you do?
Well if you were playing a video game, you'd pull your plane upwards into a 90 degree climb to lure your pursuer into a vertical ascent, then you'd jump out of it into a free fall and as you do so, you look through your gun scope, take aim at the tailing enemy aircraft and snipe the pilot right in his cockpit.
This week on PopHighlights, we take a look at an American basketballer of Chinese descent who is taking the world and the Internet by storm with his stellar performance in the NBA.
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Shu-How Lin is a 24 year old American NBA player for New York Knicks. He is currently one of the most talked about professional basketball players in recent times after producing the best five-game starting debut in modern NBA history.
Jeremy Lin highlights of New York Knicks vs Los Angeles Lakers game on 2nd Feb 2012. He scores 38 points, which was then the highest in the season.
An Underdog Story
Jeremy Lin was never offered an athletic scholarship after his graduation from high school, he was also never drafted by an NBA team. After being dropped by 2 basketball teams, Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, Lin joined his present team, the New York Knicks where he sat courtside during the games watching his teammates play.
Makan with Celebrity is a segment on PopConversation where I sit down with a prominent personality in Media, Entertainment, Lifestyle and Marketing for a casual chat about them, the interesting things they do, and the events that are going on in their space.
Our First Guest
My very first guest for our new segment is none other than friend of PopConversation and internet celebrity Dee Kosh. Dee Kosh is one of the most talked about vlogger in Singapore in 2011 and 2012, he has been featured in Yahoo Singapore (in their article about up and coming Youtube Stars), alongside Sam Driscoll, who created the popular 'So Singaporean' series.
To date, Dee Kosh as an online following of close to 24,000 fans on Facebook (as of 16th February 2012), almost 16,000 subscribers on Youtube and 25,866 twitter followers. In all, that's about 65,866 individuals that Dee Kosh is connected to, that's more friends than I'll ever have in one, two, three lifetimes.
Skrillex is the top electronic dance music (more specifically dubstep) producer of 2011. In the past 3 years, starting from 2010 after the release of his first EP (extended play) titled 'My Name is Skrillex', Sonny John Moore (his real name) has been making an accelerated accension into the mainstream club scene and massive popularity with each successive electronic track.
Title track of Skrillex's first production, "My Name is Skrillex", with close to 8M views on Youtube as of 12 February 2012
On November 30, 2011, Skrillex was nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, one of which included Best New Artist. His later productions, 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites' and 'More Monsters and Sprites' have enjoyed significant commercial success; the critically acclaimed title track and his many other equally well received tunes has earned him Youtube views that number in the tens of millions. On the 23rd of December 2011, Skrillex released his latest EP titled Bangarang.
Title track of Skrillex's EP, "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites", with a whooping 63 million viewson Youtube as of 12 February 2012
PopConversation takes a look at how the creative people of the internet and Youtube are reinterpreting their favourite Skrillex dubstep tracks in cool and remarkable fashion.
1) Skrillex vs a Rock Band
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites live band cover by Pinnpanelle
Pinnpanelle is a 4 man rock band (Derek Song, Justin Conway, Jonah Wei-Haas and Nathan Navarro) that looks to create inventive music and covers by blending the heavy electric guitar riffs of rock music with the cold synthetic sounds of electronic tracks. The American band shot to fame after their brilliant sounding live band cover of Skrillex's extremely popular (63 million views) title track of his second EP, 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'.
2011 was one of the biggest year for English singer-songwriter, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, or Adele for short (erm... duh?). She released her second studio album titled 21 in early 2011 and the powerful pop ballads within has all but enraptured listeners young and old the world over.
Adele has received many spectacular accolades for her recent musical works, from being the first artiste to sell more than 3,000,000 copies of an album in the United Kingdom within a year (quite a feat considering how easily music can be downloaded for free these days) and also being named artist of the year by established (since 1894) music publication Billboard.com (there's a probability that it only existed in print format then).
Like her album sales, Adele's following and influence online number in the tens of millions, with 17 million fans on Facebook, 3.6 million followers on Twitter and 17 million video views on Youtube, PopConversation gathered that it won't be difficult to find brilliant and talented people paying homage to the world's favourite contemporary female artist of 2011; we weren't wrong and here's out list of "Adele vs Top Youtube Talents Worldwide" ;)
1) Adele vs the Dancer "Set Fire to the Rain" dance cover by Daniele Sibilli
19 year old contemporary performer, Daniele Sibilli, expertly translates the rich emotions of Adele's sensational song "Set Fire to the Rain" into fluid and snappy modern dance movements. The beautiful looking steps and twists are thanks in part to his choreographer, Ferdinando Arenella, who has been teaching dance at a Regional Centre of Dance in Italy for 9 years.
Daniele's favorite show on television is "So You Think You Can Dance", to which he probably already knows the answer to.
German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once said, "A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?" Well, Facebook, Youtube, Google, iPhone and Angry Birds just to name a few. But the godfather of natural science and relativity makes a valid point in that in the hands of a skilled violinist, this compact (and neck cramp inducing) musical instrument is able to entrall you with its rich harmonics.
PopConversation takes a look at 5 learned fiddlers as they pluck on and draw bows across their string instrument for entertaining performances.
1) The Most Romantic Violinist featuring Jay Cheng and Shane in Singapore
Full-time private violin teacher, Jay Cheng, and his fellow guitarist friend Shane, plays Frank Sinatra's 1954 classic in front of a lift lobby at the rooftop of a multistorey carpark (were the neighbours complaining? But it's such good music, oh well, their loss).
You might not be able to tell from this video (yes, Jay Cheng has many more skillful showcases but we found this particular video to be strangely endearing) that the local string instrument veteran has been playing the violin for over 15 years now (can you say dedication?) and he's travelled and perform with prolific groups like NUS Symphony Orchestra. Keep up the brilliant sounding work :)
2) The Coolest Violinist featuring Bryson Andres in America
Sporting a pair of aviators, a handsome fauxhawk, fitting jeans and jacket, Bryson Andres is probably one of the coolest violin player that we've ever seen. The dashing 21 year old Hawaiian is seen doing a street performance of One Republic's powerful pop ballad, Secrets; he quickly captures the attention of passer-bys and beckons them to reach for their wallet to show their appreciation with dollar notes and spare change. Brilliant!
Our latest PopHighlights features 3 talented individuals across Asia- Singapore, Thailand and China- and we take a look at these youths and their outstanding level of technique and skill that they have in their sport. PopConversation discusses how one's able to roll around in style, give your opponents a black eye, and also how to swing about like a monkey.
1) Freestyle Skating by Daniel Tan (Singapore)
21 year old polytechnic student Daniel Tan says that skating is his life. His video starts with a brief pictorial introduction of him and his friends, and in one of the photos, Daniel and his buddies pose with hand signs to a tagline that says 'Freestyle skating is DOPE'. Well if you freestyle skate like Daniel, you're a gangsta as far as we're concerned.
Soft rock is a genre of music that takes cues from rock music but it focuses on delivering a toned-down accent. Soft rock themed songs more commonly revolve around universal ideas like relationships, love, and everyday life; this genre of music favour the use of acoustic guitars and pianos in accompaniment with more softer style of singing.
PopConversation takes a look at 5 contemporary female Youtube singers and their songs, and we immerse ourselves in delightful sounding melodies.
1) Lyre Lyre Hearts On Fire (Original) by Inch Chua
Inch Chua is Popconversation's Top 5 Youtube Song Cover Artist of January and a singer-songwriter with many notable endeavours and contributions in our local music scene. Her passion in the creative industry (she studied art, plays multiple musical instruments and was formerly fronting an alternative rock band) and strong vocal skills has netted her considerable gigs like opening for Katie Perry and Vampire Weekend during their concerts in Singapore.
