Sydney Durbin

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #10

“You can be scared of being perceived as being preachy, but the fact of the matter is, in times like this, art is way more important. It just is. People need to accept and do something about that. We’re going to try and do something about that.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-1975-made-political-statements-with-their-music.html/

In an interview with Showbiz CheatSheet, Healy shares that it is an artists job to use their platform for more than just making music. This was included as the final quote because his message is just that, artists need to be using their platform for more than just what it is intended. 

Healy speaks out with his music, at his shows, in his interviews, and he draws a lot of attention to the things that he says. Help your audience be heard. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #9

“If we are the liberals, if we are the left, if we are the young, the black, the Muslim, the gay, whatever we are, we have to understand that all of this, these paradigms of race and all this kind of stuff, it seems to make sense but that’s not really what it’s about. A lot of these people who voted against what I believe the majority of us stand for, most of those people felt so disenfranchised by political systems that they wanted a change and it’s our responsibility yes to be pissed off but to be not patronizing and be compassionate and be understanding. This song is about all those things.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.nme.com/news/music/1975s-matt-healy-speaks-young-people-us-presidential-election-brexit-1913794

Healy shared this remark at the O2 in London, before playing the song The 1975 has dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, “Loving Someone”. While this quote is from 2016, the message reigns true forever. 

Healy has a different approach when it comes to American politics, Brexit, and all other things that he often addresses. He shares constantly that he wants those that believe in the same ideals as he does to approach change in a positive light. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #8

“There’s people, men in the active government actively comparing the harrowing difficult life choices of female American citizens to the Holocaust, to the Holocaust. That is a disgrace. If you think the Holocaust is analogous to those things, people will call you a monster, but I will tell you, you are fundamentally uneducated.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-1975-matty-healy-alabama-abortion-ban-hangout-837122/

Healy and The 1975 were touring in the United States at the time the abortion ban was passed across the states, and for many shows following that, Healy spoke out about the topic on stage. He shared these same opinions with Rolling Stone. 

The importance of musicians, and any non-politician, talking about such a hot political issue is clear. He spoke out about the ban in many Midwest states prior to shows, including just days before it was passed in my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. He is dedicated to not only performance, but education as well. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #7

“It’s like the Palestine/Israel thing – I would go and play both places. Not because I’m taking a side but because there are young people there who are not representative of the government, and I believe that in countries that may be war-torn or separated due to political ideologies, the only thing that unifies people is culture and art.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-1975s-matty-healy-i-would-play-both-israel-and-palestine-2542193#wkGFtezIYyiYqY9f.99

Touching again on the fact that young fans in different countries are not representative of their government, Healy tells NME that the one thing that unifies us all is culture and art. 

Healy has made it clear in many instances how much he cares about all of his fans equally, but it is evident that his young fans who have something to say have a special place in his heart. His goal in the end of his own career is to know that he was able to unify people, even if just for a second. It isn’t about the money or the fame, but what he was able to do with his time on a social platform to help progressive ideals move forward in our future. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #6

“We’re rubbish with like protest music nowadays as a society. Look at like after 9/11, that was so hard for the country to deal with. Everybody’s listening to fucking Jack Johnson, Norah Jones. Cause people didn’t want to deal with reality. We have to deal with reality now. So seeing that guy from Imagine Dragons getting onstage the other week at Billboard Music Awards and start talking about conversion therapy and saying how it was bullshit and we need to stop it, I thought, “There you go! Good! Use your platform!” I’m not gonna slag you off for that.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.spin.com/2019/07/matty-healy-imagine-dragons-beef-continued/

Healy discusses the importance of musicians facing reality in their art in an interview with Spin Magazine. 

After some internet beef with band “Imagine Dragons” regarding the nothingness of their lyrics and the concept of producing music that will be well received rather than producing music with a meaning, Healy praised the frontman of Imagine Dragons for talking about the horrifying nature of conversion therapy at the Billboard Music Awards. 

This is our world and not only do we have to face it, we are the only ones with the power to change it. Why not use every outlet we have to promote that change?

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #5

“We sit in 2018 and we don't really care about that idea, and it just really affected me because if you're writing about relationships and how they're mediated in the modern world, you are inherently writing a record about the Internet. And there's kind of a coldness to that.” -Matthew Healy

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/670820177/the-1975s-matty-healy-negotiates-with-the-world

In an interview with NPR, Healy talks about music in the modern world and the differences it poses. The 1975′s newest album “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships”, a majority of the tracks address the topic of our society and it’s online habits and the specific ways that, in Healy’s own words, “modernity has failed us”. 

This is not a topic that is often addressed by artists. Our entire lives, and their entire career, is based on the internet. Healy has talked in the past about the pointlessness of writing about love and breakups over and over, but how little artist realize that when they do that, they are close to breaking the ice on the issue of online relationships and what they have done to us as a society. 

We have almost become out of touch with face to face interaction because of the online world and what it has become and that has changed so many things for the best and for the worst. That is rarely addressed in music, let alone someone writing an entire album about it. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #4

“Make art and stand by it. Don’t make art that’s not political then expect us to listen to you. I see artists and their main projection isn’t related to their music...It’s easy to learn the rhetoric of the left. Of course racism’s bad, of course women must be heard. Let’s make something inspiring that isn’t just part of this stream of fucking talking, right? Do I sound like an arse?” -Matthew Healy

https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/interview-matty-healy-of-the-1975.html

Art and politics go hand in hand according to Healy’s interview with Vulture. The 1975 knows exactly how little impact music without a meaning can be, even if its well received. Their first and second albums hardly, if at all, touch on politics. And while those albums had success, they were nothing compared to the impact of their third album, “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships”. 

Since The 1975 have started using their platform in a different way, people can’t shut up about them. And while all of the press they are getting from their new way of making music may not all be positive reactions, all press is good press, right? Not only have they gained more of a following since changing the way that they pose themselves online, on the radio, and in interviews, they have also given their fans a voice. 

Many musicians stand up for what they believe in, but there is far more impact when those words are being spoken on the radio, on a curated playlist from Apple Music or Spotify, playing on Youtube shuffle. Their message is getting so much more reach. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #3

“No, if we’re going to get censored, we’re going to get censored for verbatim quoting the leader of the free world. That is the song in its essence. How weird is reality?” -Matthew Healy

https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/the-1975s-matty-healy-dissects-every-song-on-a-brief-inquiry-into-online-relationships/  

Healy talks about censorship in finishing previously mentioned song, “Love It If We Made It” with Pitchfork. The 1975 often fights censorship in their music, but especially in this song. Full of swear words and blows pointed at United States President, Donald Trump, Healy would rather produce the song and have it censored specifically because of the irony of it all. 

The last line added to the song was the one on the chopping block. A direct quote from Trump, “I moved on her like a bitch.” When it came to radio play with this track, Healy thought the irony of being censored for directly quoting Trump was far more powerful that the lyric being spouted through speakers around the world.

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #2

"This whole thing of [people saying] 'stay in your lane' - well, we will stay in our lane but our lane is socially and politically informed pop music, it's a big lane. People who have a platform should use it, that's just bitching out if you don't.” -Matthew Healy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/39065308/the-1975-why-musicians-need-to-speak-about-political-issues

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Healy talks about the importance of an artist using their platform to speak on the political and social ideas that they believe in so that their voice, and the unheard voices of many others, may be able to provoke change. 

Healy is certainly one to use his own platform writing lyrics like, “Consultation, degradation, fossil-fueling masturbation, immigration, liberal kitsch, kneelin’ on a pitch. I moved on her like a bitch! Excited to be indicted,” and “Selling melanin and then suffocate the black man. Start with misdemeanors and we’ll make a business out of them.” on their track “Love It If We Made It”. He stresses the importance of the need for those who have voices and platforms to use them. 

To him, it is more than just the music. It is about promoting social change in the world that we live in while we he has the chance. 

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Ten Times Matthew Healy Proved Musicians Can Use Their Platform For Far More Than Just Music - #1

“I wouldn’t go to America if I thought Americans were representative of their government. I’m always going to side with people.” - Matthew Healy

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/20/matt-healy-of-the-1975-im-not-scared-of-myself-any-more

Known to be a leftist political firestorm heavily involved in politics around the world, especially US politics, Matthew Healy never fails to speak his mind on the platform his music gave him. 

In an interview with The Guardian, Healy poses an interesting idea here when asked about if it was fair for musicians not to travel to specific countries because of the politics or adversities going on within that country. He answers smoothly, though. An artists job is not to punish their audience because of the place they reside. With a band as political as Healy’s, The 1975, they certainly are not playing to those that do represent the United States Government either. 

Though an interesting concept, Healy goes on to explain that it is not a musicians responsibility to punish anyone, but to give their ideals a voice on a bigger platform and create a wide outreach to promote change rather than regression. 

[sydneydurbinpr]

The 1975, Kings of Marketing.

If you don’t know who The 1975 is, before reading this post search them on Youtube & do some research on front man, Matthew Healy, then rejoin us. 

For those of you that do know who they are, you probably know exactly where I’m going with this. 

The 1975 is a British Alt-pop-punk quartet led by Matthew, or Matty, Healy. You may know them from their catchy tune, Chocolate, or their breakout album from 2016, I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It. 

Either way, they are kings of marketing to their audience and letting their audience help carry their voice all over the world. Their first album, titled The 1975, appeared in 2013 and they grew from there. It was catchy, punk, and played into their original audience in Manchester, England. Songs began to catch on in the United States as well, especially with their sophomore album. This was the plan for the quartet, and since then their music has gone from heart breaking lyrics about love and drugs to groundbreaking music about politics and our corrupt society and the drive to “wake up”. They are no longer making music that caters to the masses, they are playing different sounds with a message that means something to them. 

From lyrical bashes quoting United States President, Donald Trump, to poking fun at Kanye, to making a music video publishing a good bit of their bad reviews from music articles, The 1975 built a platform that appealed to their audience and used it to write music that will hopefully make a difference. They built an audience that loved them and, truthfully, would do anything for them, and used their voice among others to speak out against injustice and corruption.

Isn’t this what we all want to do?

 To quote Healy, 

‘’If you’re that big, if you’re like the biggest alternative band in America radio-play wise, and you’re saying nothing in your music — if you’re just saying words, what's the point...use your platform!”

This comes back to every profession, every career, use your platform and use it wisely. Find your audience, trust in them and let them trust in you, and you can move mountains. It is so important to stop catering to only what the masses want to hear or see, creating content without meaning, message, or thought, just to create a following. Eventually your audience will get bored and move on to the next fast paced content creator. Find your audience and let them help boost the voice or the content that they want to be heard and find your path through truth. At the end of the day, there is not much room for nothingness left in this world, and eventually it fades away too. 

Front man, Matthew Healy, with Environmental Activist and partner, Greta Thunberg. 

https://www.spin.com/2019/07/matty-healy-imagine-dragons-beef-continued/

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Job applicant’s bikini photo shamed on Texas company’s Instagram. Then she fired back

Emily Clow says she applied for an internship to Austin, Texas, marketing company Kickass Masterminds, and the business shamed her bikini pi

Sometimes I wonder, how much do employers really care about your personal social media accounts? But this article really made me think. Did you think the company crossed a line? Even if they don’t approve of your posts, I think they took it a step too far. What do you think?

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Improving Your Content

Something that was really hard for me when it came to posting on my professional social media account was trying to figure out what to post and when to post it. I felt that everything I tried was lackluster and I did not know how to improve. The best thing that I have found so far on my personal social media journey is that simplicity is key. When I looked at successful social media accounts, I noticed that they do not go overboard with their captions nor their content. People want something fast and something that draws the eye. When it came to “When should I be posting?”, I tried to hone in on my specific audience. Who are they? What are they doing this time of day? Are they on their lunch break or are they working overnights? When I thought about the specific audience that I am projecting to, then I was able to realize the best time for my content to be posted. You have to consider your audience, what they want, and when they are most likely to be browsing the internet. I had to stop thinking so deeply about the logistics and do what has the best results for me!

[sydneydurbinpr]

The Importance of Visuals

Recently I read an article about the importance of visuals in a PR pitch and I found it really interesting. The article focused on the importance of video in a PR pitch and that was something I had not ever really thought about. Reading this article by Dmitry Drageliv can help you in your next PR pitch, so check it out! 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337622

[sydneydurbinpr]

This week I did a project that evaluated the quality of big social media pages and the content they were posting. Over the week, I found that Starbucks has some of my favorite content across the app. What they are posting is relevant to the brand, aesthetic, and does not push making money at all. I love what Starbucks is doing and want to integrate their ideas into my own brand!

[sydneydurbinpr]

Boosting Social Media Interaction

Social media interaction is one of the most sought after, non-tangible items in our society. But how can you boost interaction? Recently I tried the “promote” feature on my business Instagram. While it gained my post a lot of likes, I did not gain as many followers from the promotion as I had hoped. Where I did gain a lot of followers though was just following different people in the industry, following friends and family of mine that I want to share my business with, and just following random people in my suggested. I have gained more profile clicks and follows simply from doing that than I did based on the insights from my promotion. So follow, follow, follow! 

[sydneydurbinpr]

Currently trying out the “promote” feature on Instagram on my last post about #SpaceParty! I have to admit, I was skeptical at first but so far I have been very pleased with the results and the ability to see my insights from the promotion I am paying for! Well done, Instagram!