Soulfege Band Leader, Derrick Ashong, speaks his support for Barak Obama

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On Jan. 31, Derrick Ashong, a 32-year-old musician and leader of the band Soulfege,  was carrying a sign for Barak Obama outside the Hollywood theater at the Democratic primary debate taking place that day.

Derrick's sign said “¡Sí, se puede!” (Yes, we can!), and he joined a crowd milling around in the street. Then a guy carrying a video camera came by and began asking Derrick a series of very pointed questions about why he supported Barak Obama.

“So why are you for Obama?” he asked. It was clear from his approach that he expected a shallow answer.

As it turned out, Derrick was glad to be asked, and held forth for almost six minutes — which is a very long time for regular broadcast television. — on universal health care, single-payer approaches and public-private partnerships.

Now this may seem like what could have been rather dull fare but here’s the cool part: On Feb. 2, the video interview was posted on a YouTube channel called “The Latest Controversy,” where supporters of both Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Obama are asked very aggressively to justify their choice of candidates.

The video blew up, drawing more than 850,000 views. And after getting such a large response Derrick decided to post his own follow-up video that was posted Feb. 11 and received  300,000 views.

So here is an independent musician, who was looking to (anonymously) show support for a candidate, drawing more than a million views with an impassioned but reasoned pitch.

Derrick clearly appealed to the youth movement that is shaking up the 2008 campaign. While his video could have been lost among the YouTube clutter, an editor at The New York Times heard about it and a Youtube hit was made.

Part of what happened is that the original video was contrary in format to the 'regular' sound bite news format. Neither the camera guy nor Derrick played by the rules. The journalist is never seen and is extremely aggressive in asking questions, while Derrick, does not so much take the bait as reel in the guy setting it out there. It is a classic viral moment. Derrick was quoted by the New York Times, saying: 

“Certain types of discourse are better suited to the Web. There has been so much talk about how this campaign is all about style and no substance, and this video contradicts that. There are reasons that we support Obama, and it has to do with the issues. You can’t get that on CNN right now, you can’t get that on MSNBC right now, and young people saw it on YouTube and they took it.”

It turns out that three of the dozen most popular videos on YouTube this month are about Barack Obama, not Paris or Lindsay or Britney. As noted in the NY Times:

"Many long-held beliefs are taking a beating during this election, chief among them the idea that if you want to connect with young people, you’d best keep it short, funny and stupid."

Thanks to Derrick and the Soulfege crew for exploding this myth...

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Comments

[Mohamed S. Kamara aka Laustinejay]

I love your band the Soulfege, is geat. continue the good work...