I'm gonna speak on something iwanted to discuss a while ago, just never really had the time. This is going to be somewhat of a long post, but ipromise its worth the read. Let me start off by saying that its obvious that the music industry has been struggling when it comes to album sales. Since 2000, its been said that record sales have been down 10%. Even though this may be true, ithink some artists today aren't doing what they are supposed to so they can at least have a platinum album. Any artist who sells 1,000,000 records (Platinum) ihave respect for, but when an artist sells more than 2,000,000 records (multi-platinum) ihave the UP-MOST respect for them. This is because they have been taking the steps they needed to take in order to achieve this type of success. PROMOTING is in my opinion the #1 reason why artists now a days cant even go Gold in less than three months. ibet half of you dont even know that your favorite artists like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Brandy, Monica, Aaliyah, etc. did not start off at the top. Jay-Z's first album Reasonable Doubt peaked on the Billboard 200 chart at #23 & still sold over 1,000,000 copies. Beyonce's first album with Destiny's Child peaked at #67 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 500,000 copies, though the album did not go platinum, The single "No, No, No" went platinum. Brandy's first album peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200 chart and managed to sell over 4,000,000 copies domestically. Monica's first album peaked at #36 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 3,000,000 copies domestically. Aaliyah's first & second albums peaked at #18 on the Billboard 200 chart and both sold over 2,000,000 copies domestically. Obviously you get my point, a strong first week isn't always what matters, if you promote your album well enough, you can damn sure pass that 1,000,000 mark. Chris Brown is the BEST example by far. His album dropped last year and flopped like crazy, this doesn't mean he cant redeem himself; he should be promoting, touring, doing interviews & what not but he is in Paris watching fashion shows? BTW ihaven't even heard his label drop another single from his album since "I Can Transform Ya". I'm not doubting his album at all, all I'm saying is why aren't you promoting Chris? how do you expect your album to be successful if you don't promote it? that's like expecting a plant to grow but your not watering it. Rihanna's album is barely Gold right now, though she gets a lot of promotion from her single "Hard" she hasn't been doing much either. iDont see her performing live unless its an award show, & ihaven't heard of her touring at ALL. she does an interview here & there, but is that enough? NOOOO! She should be trying to make this album go multi-platinum. Amerie's album dropped last year as well, & peaked at #46 & sold a dreadful 12,000 copies in its first week. First week shouldn't discourage an artist that much but thats a really LOW mark. In case some of you don't know, Rihanna & Amerie are both signed to Def Jam, iguess Def Jam decided they were going to spend all their promoting money on Rihanna and leave Amerie somewhere in the dust which is not right because ibelieve Amerie is more talented than Rihanna. Anyway Amerie's album does have the potential to be her 1st platinum selling record, but she has to promote which iHAVENT been seeing her do at all. ijust felt that ishould use some artists in the industry to prove my point. Even though the industry itself is struggling, doesn't mean you have to. On the Positive side you see artists like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, & Alicia Keys promoting like crazy and the result is that their album sales are THROUGH THE ROOF! like seriously, where is the promotion? its like the Artists now a days feel like they should only promote heavily throughout their first week and then vacation & relax for the rest of the year. Artists back in the day used to be all over the place, you couldn't forget to buy Jay-Z's album back in 96' cause you'd see him somewhere on TV, or being interviewed by someone while you were across from Sam Goody.

even though im not a G-Shock fanatic, i'll post this one for the G-Shock lovers. Glamb has teamed up with G-Shock for their "Shock The World" movement, they have reworked the black, pink, and white models, and splashed them with paint. it isn't anything extraordinary, but seeing that these are rare with only 50 pieces per color, its something to look at. *BTW: Glamb is a Japanese Label.