We here at IQ don’t do a whole lot of non-jingle related posts, but the passing of Michael Jackson has become an especially momentous event for us.  Emotional even.

After seeing all the news drama unfold, the ensuing flood of clips of old classic MJ footage, the emotional outpourings from fans, and listening to impromptu tribute shows on the radio devoted to the pop music master, etc., it made a composer or two here at IQ reflect for a second and realize just how much he’s influenced our own music - Both commercial and otherwise.

Besides having the brilliant help in production and writing from Quincy Jones on some of his most influential records, Michael’s performance, conviction and delivery of songs changed the music world forever.  There’s only a handful of souls in this world who have that kind of magic.  Michael is one of those people.  He was our generations Elvis. Or John Lennon. Or Charlie Parker.

RIP MJ.

P.S - The next time I find myself at a casual club residency gig somewhere. And it’s 1:45am. And we’ve all had probably a lot too much to drink. And for a lark, we start playing an impromptu cover of Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, nothing will have changed…  People are gonna get down and dance their M*th*rF*ck*n’ asses off!!!!!!  Thank you Michael.

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And now for something uplifting and inspiring from the Kansas City Star:

I guarantee you: This will blow your mind and get you to think twice before you judge a person by what they look like.

This week the three judges for “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show - including the crotchety Simon Cowell - were stunned by the audition of a frumpy, unemployed, “never been married, never been kissed” woman named Susan Boyle.

As the 47-year-old Boyle walked onto the stage, you could hear the audience snicker and Simon rolled his eyes as she told him that she wants to be a professional singer.

And then, she opened her mouth and the most angelic sound poured forth. Hear it here.

The audience sprang to its feet as Boyle sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables.” Cowell watched in disbelief. His two co-judges choked back tears.

“Without a doubt, that is the biggest surprise I’ve had in three years of the show,” said one of Cowell’s co-judges, Piers Morgan.

Boyle received three perfect scores and is the early favorite to win on the hit reality TV series.

In just three days, the clip of Boyle’s stunning performance is closing in on 3 million views on YouTube.

“I’ve always wanted to play before a large audience,” she said before taking the stage. “I’m going to make that audience watch.”

We’re all watching now, Susan.

From

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We noticed Heart’s website had a featurette on the launch of their new imaging. Here is a link to the site’s mini-section containing a photo gallery, fun statistics about the package and even download Heart ringtones!

 

This little movie clip featuring photos and stats also popped up this week.

Heart Network Imaging Launch from IQ Beats on Vimeo.

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It’s been brought to our attention that this nicely produced video featuring the Main Theme from the LBC 2008 custom music-imaging package is kicking around YouTube. Check ‘er out:

The Seattle Symphony was thanked… Where’s the love for the boys at IQ? Ha ha.

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IQ Beats is proud to announce our latest custom music-imaging package for LBC, our third in a longstanding relationship with Executive Producer Chris Lowrie and the first under the ownership of Global Radio. LBC is London’s premier News/Talk station on 97.3 FM and across the UK on DAB digital radio.

Composers Patrick Napper and Steven Scalfati worked closely with Programme Director Jonathan Richards and Mr. Lowrie to produce a package bringing together a contemporary, authoritative and confident sound to reflect LBC as a ‘news talk’ station and live orchestrations, using strings and horns, to reflect the emotion of real and honest conservations. It is a winning combination not previously found in any other package and is designed to confirm London’s premier talk radio station as bold, modern, confident and proud.

The package is a true achievement and is the culmination of 4 months of focused composition, communication, coordination, scheduling, production, recording, editing and mixing made possible by the talent of Steven and Patrick, the clear vision laid out by Jonathan and Chris at LBC, and the 80 other persons instrumentally involved in the package.

Chris Lowrie had this to say:

We are delighted with this exciting new sound for LBC 97.3, making us stand out from the rest of the market. It’s fresh and distinctive and reflects LBC as the best talk station in London.

Chris Lowrie, Executive Producer, LBC 97.3 FM

The package is diverse with themes for: Daytime, Nighttime, Top of Hour, Travel, Breakfast, and 911 News. In addition, there is an absolutely majestic Main Theme as well as a huge workpart kit of atmospheres and Logo ID’s.

Head to IQ Beats.com to hear the vast majority of the the new LBC 2008 Package, or click More to view video and images from behind the scenes. (more…)

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Ok folks… Last week we announced we were taking open auditions in the hope of finding the hottest new singers on the planet. Well, we thought surely you’d be able to detect that it was a simple ruse, but alas, the emails and phone calls poured in from eager singer beavers all over our doomed planet.

The ironic thing about all of this is that we may have just stumbled upon what might be the best singer (n)ever. The discovery manifested itself as a result of an unspecified IQ Beats crew member having a beautiful 3 year old daughter that exposed said IQ member to more than his fair share of listening to the soundtrack of Little Mermaid. This experience has given the un-named IQ personna the innate ability to actually determine whether or not an off-the-cuff performance of Ariel’s song of yearning was for real or bogus. This is for real.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the soothing sounds of goonieman86 (the latest target of an IQ blog spoof):

So when goonieman86 dropped his Little Mermaid gem of “Part of Your World” in his confident and convincing falsetto, there were those of us that took exceptional note. Goonieman86 got the goods!

We’re not making any promises, but the next hot Country package or fully instrumental custom that you hear from IQ Beats may just feature the seriously deep falsetto vocals of this wunderkind scraped from the bowels of YouTube. And for the record, our lawyers need us to say again just for the record, and ad nauseum, that none of this is to be taken seriously.

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Any reputable jingle production company can never have enough vocal talent, so we have been holding open auditions at the studio all week. If you know of any viable candidates, please send them our way (your granny, 12 year old cousin, etc.). Here is a clip of the most promising prospect thus far.

** EDITORS NOTE **

It’s with sad and certain disbelief that we find ourselves in the position of having to explain that this post is a TOTAL JOKE. The accompanying YouTube video is some random piece of found video depicting a situation we would likely never find ourselves in.

Put your Mr. Microphone back its sheath and leave the jingle singin’ to the professionals. Haven’t you all seen the Carlos Santana Shreds video? What?! You don’t get that either? Isn’t this the kind of post that the British would refer to as “Taking the piss”?

DON’T CALL. DON’T COMMENT. DON’T EMAIL. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE. THIS IS A SPOOF.

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Is it just us or has one of our musical logos escaped from the hard drive, left the building and made it’s way to BBC TV Centre in London? Recently BBC Two television relaunched with a brand new set of logos and whilst watching the other night, one of our spies nearly spilled his tea when this ident played:

Listen to the first three notes and it seems like a little IQ LBC logo has run free and is now making a guest appearance on a TV set near you*
*UK Residents only!

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, Kip found a behind-the-scenes account of the process involved in making the clip. Egads that looks like a lot of work.

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As you may or may not know, IQ’s Kip Beelman has been SERIOUSLY bitten by the photography bug. One of the blogs he frequents to hone his skills had an interesting post today that he’d like to share. Granted, it has nothing to do with the world of radio jingles, but about 85% of Kip’s life doesn’t either (See this post about the diversity of the people at IQ Beats).

How does something like this get put together? David Hobby, the generous and wicked-smart Baltimore Sun photojournalist behind the Holy Grail of photography lighting blogs called Strobist.com, surmised:

I find myself wondering how they pull this off. The consistency between frames is just amazing. Then it occurred to me that they probably shoot a frame, then shoot the next frame and chimp back and forth between the two. If it flows well, they move on to the next frame. If it doesn’t, they delete the current frame and re-do it.

If you’re ever in the mood to have your whole focus in life altered by stumbling across a blogpost about a DIY $10 Macro Studio, spend some time at Strobist.com and learn how easy it is to start making dynamic images.

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