Live from SXSW: Nick Adler, Strategic Brand Manager at Stampede, on why Far East Movement blew up

Nick Adler:

"Look, there are a couple factors. First, with Asian Americans you're looking at a demographic that's experiencing massive growth and that's been neglected as an audience for a long time. MTV, that was created for and caters to a certain audience. BET, that was created for and caters to a certain audience. No one ever said, 'Hey, there's this Asian American audience out there, and they speak English, and they were born and raised here, and they listen to music.' So then YouTube came along. And all of a sudden, artists could speak to people directly. Guys like Ryan Higa, he has millions of followers, and when he puts a video up, he gets 10 million hits. You look at that, and you say, 'There's an audience.' There's a clear path there. But Far East Movement, they were the first artists to really break through on the back of that [YouTube] audience — because they weren't like most artists who say, 'Hey, I gotta go do YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, because that's what you do if you're an artist.' That's where they're from. They were doing that from day one."

Speaking on a panel called "From the Blocks to the Blogs," described as follows:

Since the social media burst in 2004, Hip Hop Industry tastemakers and artists have embraced these platforms as an essential tool to connect with fans and to extend their brand. These early adaptors learned to engage fans, disseminate content and create brand awareness. What are the new trends and next steps for Hip Hop and social media?

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