Rokk Clothing

Joe Jacobs – CEO Rokk Clothing

Q) How would you describe the clothes in your line?

A) We [Joe and his brother Dan] tried to make the shirts look like vintage band tees. The logo is ROKK and it looks like 80’s flying V guitars.

Q) Why did you want to start this line?

A) My brother and I both wear old band shirts all the time and we wanted to find a way to make them cheaper and better quality. Before this I could only find expensive vintage shirts selling on ebay or something.

Q) How much are you selling the items for?

A) Shirts are selling for $24 and headbands are $11

Q) When did you make the line available to the public?

A) October 1 we started the online store and within two days we’ve already gotten 40 orders.

Q) How did you publicize to get so many orders already?

A) Dan has been using his name to get the word out on Atreyu, his band’s, myspace and website, I’ve been publicizing on my myspace and we started a myspace for Rokk also. We sponsored Trivium, a metal band from Europe, and Dan wears a Rokk shirt at every show his band plays and throws a headband out to the crowd at the end. At the last show the guy who caught it sold it for $100.

Q) Are the clothes only available online or do you have plans to make them available elsewhere?

A) Dan is gonna try to get some UFC fighters to wear the clothes and we’re looking into Hot Topic also.

Bringtherokk.com

Myspace.com/rokkclothing.com

Radiohead Revolutionizing Record Sales

Radiohead’s seventh studio album, “In Rainbows”, was made available on the band’s website to download October 10th. The band has embarked on a new marketing strategy that allows the buyer to name their own price in a pay-what-you-feel-it’s-worth situation.

“I didn't pay anything to download Radiohead's ‘In Rainbows’ last week. When the checkout page on the band's web site allowed me to type in whatever price I wanted, I put 0.00, the lowest I could go. My economist friends say this makes me a rational being,” said Eduardo Porter of the Herald Tribune.

When Radiohead announced it would allow fans to pay whatever they wanted, about a third of the first million albums paid nothing, although some paid more than $20 according to a British survey.






The members of Radiohead are relying on their reputation and music to sell their albums instead of advertising and marketing. Even though a third of the records are being given away for free their record sales won’t be hurt too badly. Radiohead has a die hard fan base that will buy everything they release, including an upcoming deluxe edition enhanced box set — which ships December 3 with bonus tracks, double vinyl, and extravagant art for $80.

Industry insider and Fader magazine founder, Jon Cohen, says, “In Rainbows' unique distribution and cost methods represent a huge ‘screw you’ to the majors.” From his point of view, the independent launch tells the majors, "We don't need you. We have no faith in your methods."

Some economists have said Radiohead’s new marketing strategy is essentially just the universal idea of tipping.

The only complaint so far is the low bit rate of the downloads available. If you’d rather pay the full amount for “In Rainbows”, the album should be available on shelves in 2008.



Sources:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/critics/blog/2007/10/thoughts_about_the_dying_recor.html
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-10-18/music/in-rainbows-leads-to-a-digital-pot-of-gold/
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0742,harvilla,78082,22.html

NEIGHBORHOOD MUSIC FESTIVAL

Neighborhood Music Festival was big this weekend in LA. This indie fest flocked hipster kids to LA to watch mostly underground performers in the club scene and some bigger names like Mickey Avalon and The Faint, Spank Rock, DJ AM, A-Track, Kid Sister, Steve Aoki, Aarron Lacrate, Guns N Bombs, Funeral Party, Young Americans, DJ S!n to name a few. Click the title to go to the main website or check the myspace here
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NEW BLOG

Instead of continuing my fashion blog from a year ago I will be starting a new blog topic. Music in LA/OC will be the new focus of this blog so get all your local updates here!

Last Post

I'm pretty disappointed with the substance and consistency of the fashion section in the two online newspapers I've been covering. I know fashion isn't the most important topic to cover daily but weekly at least. The articles are so far apart it's barely worth ever checking fashion news in the newspaper. This is what magazines like Vogue are for.

LA Times

"Coming soon to prime time-A Walmart Clothing Line"

This article starts out with an immediate identification of who, where, and why. It is an adequately written article but a little scattered in information. The article gives a lot of information after you get past re-reading the first two paragraphs to understand what it is about. Wal-Mart is hooking up with a big name brand called Metro 7 for affordable yet stylish clothing in Wal-Mart. The article goes on to give facts about sales in the past year and gives stats and numbers. There is one weak quote near the end of the article.

NY Times

There was no article on fashion today. Most articles in the fashion section were based around new trends, night life, and food.

Post 4

Fashion and Style sections on online papers are weak

LA Times

"A Bright Idea Worth Repeating"


The article is written with a poor lead using the word "thing" in quotes too often and trying to have an interesting lead into colorful prints and patterns on shoes and hoodies. There are two quotes side by side at the end of the 3 paragraph article. It gets the point across but it could be more substantial.

NY Times

"Bag Ladies"

I get my hopes up with the NYT to give me good fashion news after following it for sometime and I am let down with a one paragraph teaser article about Chanel purses. This article gave me information that I found interesting and actually brought up in conversation later in the day but I wanted to know more about the item and that information was not given to me. There was only a who where and what in the article and no in depth information at all.

Post 3

As I compare the two papers over a few days I realize that there isn't a story written every day or even every other day in the fashion section.

LA Times

"Who won what at LA Fashion Awards"

This article opens with who hosted the awards and where it was hosted. This is not a very interesting story because it is written in a list format where it's just names and titles. There is no photo for this story and it goes on to list guests and who won what awards. Poorly written in my opinion.

NY Times

"Still Rocking His Own Look"

This article is about Mick Jagger and his own unique personal style. Jagger is legendary and since there were no other articles that match up with the two newspapers, Jagger makes the cut. The first paragraph uses colorful language that gives the feeling that the writer is a Jagger fan. The rest of the article goes into other rock icons such as Bowie and what their personal style is like. Apparently Jagger has pushed the limits with his style and I almost couldn't read the article because of all the descriptive words used for Jagger. The New York Times is not as traditional as I thought it was going to be and I like it a lot better than the LA Times.

Post 2: Sunday

LA Times

"One Department Store That's Going Out in Style"

This story, "One Department Store That's Going Out in Style", is about how the Robinsons-May on Wilshire Blvd is going out of business. The first line starts, "The once-glamorous, now-shuttered Robinsons-May flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard will soon be demolished to make way for a $500-million condo project." It starts right away with the "what", "where", and "why"of the story. The author writes about the store as if it was an old lady and uses the pronouns "she" and "gal".

NY Times

Many of the stories are the same as Saturday and none really cover the topic of fashion as much as they do culture and music.

Post 1

First and foremost I would like to explain a big difference among the NY Times and the LA Times online and print versions of their newspapers. The NY Times online has a very good section on fashion and style as well as their print version. The LA Times, however, only has a section in their print version called "Calendar". This is the section about arts, entertainment, fashion, etc. The Calendar on the online version is lacking an adequate section on fashion and style so I will make do with what I have.

NY Times

"For A Fresh Mix, The Retro Kids Hit Rewind"


This article is called "For A Fresh Mix, The Retro Kids Hit Rewind". It is about a new fashion line put together by black men. The beginning of the article starts with comparisons to architecture, hair, clothes, and the Reagan administration. It continues with quotes from the group about how people perceive them and doesn't get into actually explaining what the article is about until the fourth paragraph.
This article is an example of just one of the many articles similar in the NY Times. All these articles have some comparisons in them, but most of the articles are about style and what the trends are with music, the arts, and just plain being a person living in pop culture.

LA Times

Today there is one fashion entry in the LA Times online.

"Herrera Takes a Look at Herrera"



This article starts with a quick one sentence paragraph about boutiques on Melrose Place and goes straight into the who of the story in the next paragraph. The story is about fashion and how it is evolving and growing with boutiques and individuals.

Journalism: Print Writing Styles

Having a new found interest in journalism and fashion, it seems only appropriate to combine these two topics together to create their lovechild in form of a blog. This blog is being created for Ms. Heloiza Herscovitz' journalism 120: Writing Across the Media class at California State University Long Beach. It will scrutinize the difference in writing styles among the more traditional New York Times writers versus the Los Angeles Times in the area of fashion and style.