It's a whole new ball game!

[Scruffydog777]

Many of us have tried in vain many times to get radio stations to play some of Alizée's music here in the States. We were hampered by the fact that her songs in English were about 3 or 4 years old when we first found out about her, plus the fact that MF didn't do such a great job at re-writing some of the songs into English.

But now we have a new song, Les Collines. I think this song really has a shot at being played here. It would've helped if there were a few more lines in English, but the fact that it's about New York city I think is a tremendous plus. I think a lot of stations there would want to play it just for the fact it's complimentary of their city. I think it would be, with a little remixing to get rid of the slow parts a great song for all the dance clubs there.

We would need someone from New York to organize our efforts at calling radio stations and such. Now who in this forum is from New York? Could it be Ben!

Another thing I think we should have now is a forum of it's own for this subject. Right now it's a sub-forum under news. I'm sure it gets overlooked at times and now with this great new chance we have, it should be on the front page. I think it should be Ben who should come up with a name for one.

I was reading a post today where Sir Wood left a shortcut for a site called Fox all acess, http://fox.com/blogs/foxallaccess/on-the-radio/ where you can call and leave a request for a song or e-mail in a request. It's a great idea but I'm sure not many people will see it because of where it's posted. By the way I called in a request (they recorded it) and e-mailed a request. Their telephone # is 1-877-COUNT-15 and the e-mail address is allaccess@fox.com.
I think anyone who requests this song should mention the fact that it has both English and French lyrics and is about New York city.

[FanDeAliFee]

Many of us have tried in vain many times to get radio stations to play some of Alizée's music here in the States... Sir Wood left a shortcut for a site called Fox all acess, http://fox.com/blogs/foxallaccess/on-the-radio/ where you can call and leave a request for a song or e-mail in a request. It's a great idea... I called in a request (they recorded it) and e-mailed a request. Their telephone # is 1-877-COUNT-15 and the e-mail address is allaccess@fox.com. I think anyone who requests this song should mention the fact that it has both English and French lyrics and is about New York city.

Done! I endorse your recommendations, Scruff.

Also, by using an e-mail, I could easily point them at the YouTube video for <i>Les Collines</i> at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k30jNZcul2E As I write, it has 25,075 views and a 5/5-star average rating, which will commend it to the Fox people! I also mentioned how attractive the young (25) singer is and how for a year during this decade she was the #1 female recording artist in France.

I abstained from telling the Fox people how Alizée is the ultimate fox (Zorro in Spanish), but you and I know she is anyway! Those who doubt this can click <a href="http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Alizee/2009Dec/AlizeeMous3.jpg">here</a>.

[Karlalizee]

unless she releases the album here, it will not get played. sad but true. :(

[Future Raptor Ace]

Many of us have tried in vain many times to get radio stations to play some of Alizée's music here in the States. We were hampered by the fact that her songs in English were about 3 or 4 years old when we first found out about her, plus the fact that MF didn't do such a great job at re-writing some of the songs into English.

But now we have a new song, Les Collines. I think this song really has a shot at being played here. It would've helped if there were a few more lines in English, but the fact that it's about New York city I think is a tremendous plus. I think a lot of stations there would want to play it just for the fact it's complimentary of their city. I think it would be, with a little remixing to get rid of the slow parts a great song for all the dance clubs there.

We would need someone from New York to organize our efforts at calling radio stations and such. Now who in this forum is from New York? Could it be Ben!

Another thing I think we should have now is a forum of it's own for this subject. Right now it's a sub-forum under news. I'm sure it gets overlooked at times and now with this great new chance we have, it should be on the front page. I think it should be Ben who should come up with a name for one.

I was reading a post today where Sir Wood left a shortcut for a site called Fox all acess, http://fox.com/blogs/foxallaccess/on-the-radio/ where you can call and leave a request for a song or e-mail in a request. It's a great idea but I'm sure not many people will see it because of where it's posted. By the way I called in a request (they recorded it) and e-mailed a request. Their telephone # is 1-877-COUNT-15 and the e-mail address is allaccess@fox.com.
I think anyone who requests this song should mention the fact that it has both English and French lyrics and is about New York city.

I have tried calling up and emailing Z-100 http://www.z100.com/main.html (biggest radio station in NYC) and nothing has gotten through. The truth is man, what your saying is good on paper but NYC radio stations have so many listeners that they are not going to take a chance with some unknown person requested by a few people.

[Scruffydog777]

Well I think I might have found the perfect station. Over a year ago I stumbled across the fact that a privately owned radio station WUSB, owned by Stony Brook university and located on Long Island, New York, had played J'en ai marre back in april of 2008. It is run by students and faculty. Their signal reaches most of Long Island, parts of southern Connecticut and parts of New York city. This is an almost perfect location for this purpose.

I tried requesting music back then, but I think for reasons I mentioned in my original post. They never got played.


Here's a link to one of their pages and a picture of it.


http://wusb.fm/about

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6751/wusb.jpg (http://img521.imageshack.us/i/wusb.jpg/)

You can click on the links on that page or click on the programs heading, where it will show you a list of programs, some are talk shows, some music, and you can click on the different d.j. names. In some cases the next page will have contact info for that particular one, or you can click on the playlists heading and it will take you to the page where they have playlists run by different d.j.s who feature a certain type of music and the date of the month when their playlist will be played and again is shows the name of the d.j., most of them have contact info.

One of the best parts about this site is there are numerous dj's we can contact. It's not just one e-mail address for the station. I'm sure if we contact a bunch of them, we'll stumble across someone who loves Alizée's music.

I'll start tomorrow. Too beat right now. I want to take my time and make a good post. I will also keep a list of who I contact.

[FanDeAliFee]

unless she releases the album here, it will not get played. sad but true. :(

UNLESS... some lunatic fans SEIZED a NYC radio station and played the same song over and over and over again 24/7 until the cops could retake the building, at which point they'd commit Masada-style mass suicide by swallowing goldfish!

Don't you think that the newspaper stories the next day would name the song, so that even the people who didn't normally listen to the station would learn about it?

Um... just askin'...

[Scruffydog777]

Well I sent e-mails to 5 different dj's at WUSB this morning, they only let you contact so many per hour so I'll hopefully add some more later.

[Deepwaters]

unless she releases the album here, it will not get played. sad but true. :(

Available for pre-order on Amazon.com (U.S.) at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Une-Enfant-Du-Siecle-Alizee/dp/B00383YC2S/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1266850169&sr=1-22

:)

[wildfire]

At this point, white noise and burping would be an improvement to whats played on LA's 97.1 ghetto AMP Radio. Bleech...

[Future Raptor Ace]

Well I think I might have found the perfect station. Over a year ago I stumbled across the fact that a privately owned radio station WUSB, owned by Stony Brook university and located on Long Island, New York, had played J'en ai marre back in april of 2008. It is run by students and faculty. Their signal reaches most of Long Island, parts of southern Connecticut and parts of New York city. This is an almost perfect location for this purpose.

I tried requesting music back then, but I think for reasons I mentioned in my original post. They never got played.


Here's a link to one of their pages and a picture of it.


http://wusb.fm/about

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6751/wusb.jpg (http://img521.imageshack.us/i/wusb.jpg/)

You can click on the links on that page or click on the programs heading, where it will show you a list of programs, some are talk shows, some music, and you can click on the different d.j. names. In some cases the next page will have contact info for that particular one, or you can click on the playlists heading and it will take you to the page where they have playlists run by different d.j.s who feature a certain type of music and the date of the month when their playlist will be played and again is shows the name of the d.j., most of them have contact info.

One of the best parts about this site is there are numerous dj's we can contact. It's not just one e-mail address for the station. I'm sure if we contact a bunch of them, we'll stumble across someone who loves Alizée's music.

I'll start tomorrow. Too beat right now. I want to take my time and make a good post. I will also keep a list of who I contact.
hate to break this to you bud, but I have a lot of friends who go to SUNY Stony Brook and even they dont listen to their school radio station. College radio stations are barley listened too by their students, yet alone the outside community so even if they did play Alizee it wouldn't really get us anywhere.

[Scruffydog777]

hate to break this to you bud, but I have a lot of friends who go to SUNY Stony Brook and even they dont listen to their school radio station. College radio stations are barley listened too by their students, yet alone the outside community so even if they did play Alizee it wouldn't really get us anywhere.

You're probably right. It was a tremendous waste of time the last time I tried something like this. Why should this time be any different?

[wasabi622]

hate to break this to you bud, but I have a lot of friends who go to SUNY Stony Brook and even they dont listen to their school radio station. College radio stations are barley listened too by their students, yet alone the outside community so even if they did play Alizee it wouldn't really get us anywhere.

You're right on about college radio stations.. heck, I didn't know we even had one!

Though bothering other stations like 101.9, B96, or 103.5Kiss FM haven't really gotten anywhere either.. they're all too busy playing mainstream music. :(

[lefty12357]

I think some artists in the past got their start by being played first on College radio. I don't know how well that's working recently. I've mentioned this before, but there's a radio station in my area called The Current (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/) that is part of Minnesota Public Radio. They program the music locally, they have played Yelle singing in French (she was a regular on their playlist) and are known for being open minded. Every Saturday night is request night and I have requested Alizée, but to no avail. I even sent them a Psych CD along with translations of all the lyrics. Still no luck.

Most radio stations around the country have been bought up by a few big companies and they are almost impossible to influence. This is definitely a hard nut to crack because the American media is extremely narrow minded, in my opinion. They are not interested in promoting music or doing anything for the art's sake. These people have absolutely no imagination. It's all about money. I wish I had the answer or knew how to proceed from here.

[Scruffydog777]

It's kind of depressing to see more discouranging posts than encouraging. I think I know how Ed Harris fealt in the movie the Abyss, when he was trying to revive Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and everyone around him was telling him she was gone. One good thing about a station like this, where it's run by students and faculty, there's probably a high turnover rate in the people who work there. There must be some different people there than there were the last time I tried. What if only one of them would turn into an Alizée fan if he checks out this song. It's a slim chance, but I'll keep trying. It just wont be tonight.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UHkB1rJHEGA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UHkB1rJHEGA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[Deepwaters]

The solution would seem to be to use new media rather than old. Internet radio stations catering to an audience for indie music, maybe? I wouldn't know where to look for that, but I'll bet it's out there.

On the whole, I agree with Scruffy that this is a new ballgame and the prospects are better than ever. We just have to find the right avenues for publicity.

[djwise]

It's kind of depressing to see more discouranging posts than encouraging. I think I know how Ed Harris fealt in the movie the Abyss, when he was trying to revive Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and everyone around him was telling him she was gone. One good thing about a station like this, where it's run by students and faculty, there's probably a high turnover rate in the people who work there. There must be some different people there than there were the last time I tried. What if only one of them would turn into an Alizée fan if he checks out this song. It's a slim chance, but I'll keep trying. It just wont be tonight.

As somebody who works in a college radio station, to not try and get them to play the song would be foolish because the college radio station is your best bet. And I don't know what's up with the college radio stations y'all have up there, but the ones here in North Carolina are listened to quite a lot, by both students and regular people. I, myself, will try and pass the song around to other DJ's at my radio station and see if they wish to play it. But keep pushing it, constantly. You got my support in doing this. =]

[user472884]

If it's any consolation.... if I were a host of a popular radio show/podcast you guys know what would be the intros/outros.

In all seriousness, I'd be shocked if Les Collines doesn't get played on the radio...

Freaking, driving to school through the snow this morning listening to some random-ass frequency, they played a Swedish song... WTF

[lefty12357]

It's kind of depressing to see more discouranging posts than encouraging. I think I know how Ed Harris fealt in the movie the Abyss, when he was trying to revive Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and everyone around him was telling him she was gone. One good thing about a station like this, where it's run by students and faculty, there's probably a high turnover rate in the people who work there. There must be some different people there than there were the last time I tried. What if only one of them would turn into an Alizée fan if he checks out this song. It's a slim chance, but I'll keep trying. It just wont be tonight.

I don't mean to sound so discouraging. But I honestly don't know how to break through the wall. I would definitely keep after that radio station. I tweet Alizée updates to the radio station I mentioned, sending them links to her web site and the new songs. I will keep it up until they block me. :) And when they do that, I'll cancel my membership.

As far as alternative avenues go, such as internet radio, I'm not sure if we can make further advancement with that route in the USA, but it's definitely worth a shot. The only reason I say that is that Alizée has already had an incredible amount of internet exposure for a number of years, and yet has only garnered a small number of CD buying fans in the USA. I have to believe that a large number of Americans have run across her videos. Maybe people are just too lazy to make the effort to find where her music is being sold. Or maybe they need to hear her on mainstream radio, because someone "official" has to endorse Alizée and tell the sheep what is OK to like and to buy. Or, (hopefully not) maybe her music just doesn't appeal to very many Americans.

I don't want people to give up. But we seem to need some new ideas and strategies or some media insiders to help us get on the right path. But until that happens I'd go with the college stations and the internet stations like Deep suggested. And I might send a CD to my local newspaper and see if they will review it.

[Chuck]

hate to break this to you bud, but I have a lot of friends who go to SUNY Stony Brook and even they dont listen to their school radio station. College radio stations are barley listened too by their students, yet alone the outside community so even if they did play Alizee it wouldn't really get us anywhere.

You're probably right. It was a tremendous waste of time the last time I tried something like this. Why should this time be any different?

SCRUFF'S IDEA IS GOOD. Deep and Lefty say so, n'that's good enuf for me. (Besides, I love "The Abyss".) Lots of us have been thinking something like this, but just wondering which station to target. This WUSB Scruffy mentions sounds like a great place to start!

...I mean, sure, F.R.A. says college students don't "barley" (;)) listen to college radio. But a lot of other people DO. And if this one reaches NYC, then that may be just where we want to be.

Furthermore, I think that the ChartsInFrance "assault" proved that if we unite, we might make an impact... Best of all, "Limelight" or "Les Collines" might be just cool enough and techno enough for this WUSB to actually give a try.

But if we learned anything else recently, it's that we need planning. And some degree of coordination - if we all e-mail them 5 times on the same day, and then nothing after that, we'll be pretty obvious and thus our petitioning will be pretty easy to dismiss.

So let's discuss! For at least a few more days. Figure this out first. Then...

[Ruroshen]

But if we learned anything else recently, it's that we need planning. And some degree of coordination - if we all e-mail them 5 times on the same day, and then nothing after that, we'll be pretty obvious and thus our petitioning will be pretty easy to dismiss.

The key is to approach it the same way we've attacked all the web contests Alizée's been up for. Because people will POUNCE on those things like her life depends on it.

Seriously. People will set timers, sit at their computers en masse for hours or days on end, and even go to some unscrupulous lengths to press a little button over and over to bombard a site with votes and propel her ahead of others.

But for some reason, getting those same people organized and enthused about an email-writing campaign that might actually have an impact is like herding kittens.

I think it's because the voting thing is a) virtually effortless, if time-consuming and b) instantly gratifying, in that (in most cases) you can see right away how your vote is helping Lili to catch up, overtake, and then dominate. The goal is clearly defined, and the result is right up there for everyone to see. (Granted, this wasn't the case in the MTVLA thing, which MANY people turned out for regardless, although it might also explain why we lost.)

So I think the trick is to make whatever we do a) require very little effort and b) at least as exciting as voting in one of these contests.

Maybe the trick is to set a goal? Send X number of requests to station Y by the end of the week/month/whatever? Or divide the participants up into teams, see which team can get the most requests submitted in X amount of time? Set up a widget with progress bars or whatnot to make it visual...

Anyway, that's me just tossing stuff out off the top of my head. Your mileage may vary.

[FanDeAliFee]

Having designed things, I know it is important to understand what your user base needs and wants, rather than assume it is at all like you. That's why I don't imagine my habits bear upon helping Alizée get auditions with the general public or sell them CDs <i>et cetera</i>.

That said, I was happy to e-mail the broadcast network Scruffydog named.

In recent months I came across some interesting writing concerning listening habits and music selling which I now share with you.

CNet <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10389788-27.html">writes</a> on a small-sample study of US adult media consumption habits. I was surprised at how many people it claims still listen to radio, and how few listen to a digital audio player. This is not for serious want of the latter:

<center>http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireless-Internet-Use/7-Appendix/~/media/720CE4CFFEAA4644935E2743DE4D5AB7.jpg</center>

ZDNet <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=22862">writes</a> briefly about music sales by vendor and medium.

Personally, for what it's worth, now there is so much good talk available online on demand (BookTV, Research Channel, <i>etc</i>.), plus the ability to have machine-readable text spoken via TTS, that I probably listen to vastly less music, especially sung music, than I ever have in anything like normal times. When I want to listen to music of which I don't own copies, I turn to <a href="http://www.pandora.com">Pandora</a>. or sometimes YouTube. It was through the latter that I discovered the Ajaccio girl in <a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=Alizee&ctab=0&geo=us&geor=all&date=all&sort=0">early 2006</a> and landed up buying her stuff - the first I've purchased since 1991, when I bought a couple hundred consigned discount CDs as a group. (I hope Alizée is honored by her ability to ravish my virtually "revirginated" medium keep!)

A large majority of US households now have broadband Internet access, so I would think YouTube is a great way for them to sample music which a friend or other trusted source recommends for audition. So why not e-mail your friends the links to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k30jNZcul2E"><i>Les Collines</i></a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Une-Enfant-Du-Siecle-Alizee/dp/B00383YC2S/">Amazon order page</a> for <i>Une Enfant Du Siècle</i>?

<center>http://www.pewinternet.org/Static-Pages/Trend-Data/~/media/Infographics/Trend%20Data/July%202009/Internet%20and%20Broadband%20Adoption%207%2015%200 9.jpg</center>

[Chuck]

http://blog.omy.sg/dingan/files/2009/04/spockvulcan.jpg
Fascinating.

But for now on I strongly recommend we NOT begin spamming WUSB until we've all decided how to best coordinate our efforts. See Ruroshen's post above. (And maybe mine, above that.) With this station, we could make an impact, or we could just look like annoying fools.

To paraphrase Dr. T.V., "it is important to understand what your (target) needs and wants, rather than assume it is at all like you." Charts and statistics might be nice for some folks, but most people's eyes will glaze right over. :blink:

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hey, to all these people we are sending requests, we need to let them know that the song has an official musc video. And, I have found hope that America is ready for half French/half English songs in Lady Gaga. While I can't stand her, my sister was listening to her, and the song was English, but she sang French for like 20 seconds. And though I hate her with a PASSION, I agree with Simon Cowell that she is the most relevant artist in America. So maybe America really is ready! I hate Lady Gaga, but I must thank her for opening America's ears to this most beautiful of languages! According to my cousins, both female, one is 14, one 15, so the are probbly prettybreliable, it is bad romance. Correct me, please, if I am wrong!

[FanDeAliFee]

In recent months I came across some interesting writing concerning listening habits and music selling which I now share with you.

CNet <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10389788-27.html">writes</a> on a small-sample study of US adult media consumption habits. I was surprised at how many people it claims still listen to radio, and how few listen to a digital audio player. This is not for serious want of the latter:..


I've always wondered how many people like me there were. Now, at long last, I will <a href="http://www.theonion.com/audio/demography-today-magazine-targets-demographer-demo,13300/">find out</a>!

<center><img src="http://paradoxoff.com/files/2008/04/02-escher-hands-laptop-cove.jpg"></center>

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

With Alizée's recent statement of her dislike of lady gaga (and she kinda confirmed t to me on fb;)), scew that plan. But at the mall on thursday, I heard 'All the Things She Said'; the informed will know this was an I'm Fed Up-style remake of a Russian song, though I can't remember the Russian title, or the girls' names. But this is probably the most popular foreign song in the US inrecent memory. It at least shows Americans aren't biased against foreign artists; just foreign languages. But NLY is half English anyways. It really could gain a bit of popularity. But we have to convince Institubes it would be worth it, and wouldn't just be a joke like the 'Numa Numa' (not the real title, I know, but can't remember it now) song; every American has seen that just about.

[rj.bagby]

A progressive rock station in Portland oregon has a 30 minute program that features bands from across the pond. Its on 94.7 and the program is called passport approved. They talk about the featured band and then play about 4 songs. I have heard some pretty obscure music on there. I will have to research this some more and then get back with a request email address ect. Whatever you guys come up with for the NYC station, maybe can be used to get the Portland station to play our girl.