Raleigh Convention Center Records Song, Produces Video, Induces Widespread Nausea!

It’s not “New York, New York” or even “We Love L.A.”, but for a promotional video, it will do.
I guess it’s a case of put up or shut up. There are plenty of open doors for anyone out there who wants to write a great Raleigh song.

Put up or shut up? Who says we even need a Raleigh song? I’d rather they have spent the money on something else.

WOW, what is that horrible twang in the background, sounds like a gun fight scene in a “B” rated movie. This song does not represent Raleigh or the Triangle (this area is youthful, has leading edge universities, RTP, great pro and college sports and unlimited downtown potential if we bring in world class downtown developers).
Note: I agree with Chris, we are suppose to be a high tech area, not one of the local websites associated with Raleigh or Downtown Raleigh are interactive (not to mention they are never updated or current)

Why “put up or shut up?”
I can’t write a song or sing one. But I don’t think a terrible song is better than none at all. I don’t like the country twang in the song.
Few of the idiosyncrasies of Raleigh are explained. “We have restaurants!” (Or more accurately, we have signs for resturants.) What’s good about THESE restaurants? It’s not explained.
They call the downtown “dynamic,” which is overstating it a bit. Yes, it’s growing and improving, but it’s not impressive to anyone who’s visited another city. Go to a Canes game and then you have to drive downtown to a bar? Or start at a downtown restaurant and walk to what entertainment?
It just seems really generic to me. On whom would this video have a positive impact? I think the best we can hope for is no impact at all.

Funny, I didn’t see any clips or pans of Wilmington Street.

yuk…
YouTube comments were disabled when I played it after a half dozen pretty negative ones.

Awful. Do the leaders in this town want people to think we are a bunch of backwater yocals? Its a miserable cross of 80s schlock and Nashvillewood country. Its funny with the references to high tech industry with this low-tech garbage.

With all due respect, Dana, what are you talking about? I don’t know that anyone ever asked us to write a song about Raleigh, but even I with positively no musical experience or talent could come up with something better than that dreck in about ten minutes. Songs that are created for something like this are rarely any good, though. The best songs about a city are written by artists out of a special connection to a place, not because they were commissioned by the Better Business Bureau or whoever.
This doesn’t create nausea so much as it just causes widespread embarrassment for pretty much anyone living in Raleigh. Maybe Durham and Chapel Hill will get a good laugh out of this one, but they kind of get lumped in with us by anyone living outside of the area, so they shouldn’t laugh too hard.
I find it endlessly amusing that they have already disabled commenting and rating on this abomination over at YouTube. Someone realized very quickly that they had produced a stinker, but it’s too late now that it’s been released into the wild.
Poor production value, an extremely annoying song and a general lack of focus and cohesiveness – the images all seem to be chosen and placed at random. The various “honors” and rankings flash across the screen, but almost none of them are #1 slots. This just positions us as one of dozens of other mid-size cities with nothing unique or specific to offer. The video is an exercise in mediocrity and generic “attractions” of our city – the ultimate of banality. Letting other humans see it will have absolutely no positive effect, and a whole lot of negative.
I shudder to think how much money was wasted on this, and how many ways those funds would have been better spent.

Video is no longer up (removed by user).
It was pretty bad though… they could have at least gotten the Connells to come up with something for Raleigh. I mean they even managed to get Broughton on MTV!

Looks like the description of the YouTube post explains a lot:
“Event Sales Manager Michelle Boyette belts out lyrics by Sales Director Laurie Okun, with Boyette’s band, Citizen Jane.”
Was this even serious?

Wow, up and down in a matter of one day.
Sabotage!!
I wish I could have had the opportunity to bash this…ah well.

bad doesn’t even begin to describe that. i felt like i was watching a promo video done by a 3rd rate melissa etheridge wannabe. someone was a little too inspired by the closing credits to “an inconvenient truth” and they didn’t represent the area too well either. i agree, they definately should have spent that money elsewhere.

http://www.raleighconvention.com/index.php/homepage/shine-video
Here’s the new link to the video. Like I said, the video is what it is. A couple of people trying to promote the new convention center to potential conventioneers. Music and movie making software are easy enough to use that if anyone wants to do a better production, the convention center would probably welcomed their entry.
While earning two degrees at UNC I concluded that the weakness of that university is simply its lack of enthusiasm. The constant chatter on message boards and by its own head coaches (publicly) try to address the problem the university has with “cool” people who are actually hindering success. Don’t let that happen here. Self-limiting shame cycles don’t create success. Risks and enthusiasm do.

wral.com has a video story online with the creators and showing clips from the video.

Yeah, I agree… the video means well, but the song just kills it. Would have been fine if it was 50% shorter, had a better soundtrack… oh well… shoulda got myriad media to do it, LOL.

For appropriate clarification, this is a project led by the Raleigh Convention Center … not the Greater Raleigh CVB. Do know however that the convention center and CVB have successfully partnered to bring many future meetings and conventions to the area that will ultimately provide an additional $259 million of spending in Wake County the first five years the facility is open. Now that’s something to be excited about!!!

Martin – yes, that is good news.
But the video is horrible.

I’ve seen worse, much worse. For example, the App. State “Hot, Hot, Hot” video.
The intentions are great. Has good information about the area. Shows some sights that draw attention around here, but as most others said, the song really kind of kills the mood. How about just show the video, have a narrator read off information about the area, and just use instrumental music in the background. I think that would work a lot better!

Really bad. Really, really bad. And we wonder why this city can’t get ahead? This is just an example of the same mentality that told a world-renown artist like Jaume Plensa, “Thanks, but no thanks.” I mean this artist CHOSE our town over all the other cities in the world to do something great and we just….. I can’t get started on that dead horse again.
It’s really frustrating. We do some of the things necessary to get downtown thriving, but there are those in leadership positions that just don’t get it. They don’t know how to market it. They think, “Woohoo! We opened up Fayetteville St and we’re spending more money everyday on a convention center! Surely the floodgates will come crashing open.” No! Get out there. Talk to the people of this town that are passionate about living here (i.e. Dana, Chris and probably most of the visitors of raleighing). Find out why thousands of people have chosen to make this their home. Chances are, those reasons will be ones that keep others visiting and staying too.
Sigh.

Short and Sweet:
1.) Song is pathetic and I have to agree with those who say the quasi-country thing is the wrong message for Raleigh.
2.) The whole thing reads better as a “move here” video, not a visit/meet here video.
3.) Where are the video clips of Alive After 5′s, etc? Conventioneers might actually be able to go to them since they are downtown.
4.) I like the fly-in posts regarding national rankings but let’s highlight the ones that speak to visitors and business people…People want to go to fun and cool places with things to do.
5.) With all due respect to the locals who wrote and performed the music, watch the video with the sound off.

Marshall Brain once pondered why Raleigh is seen as lame. Things like this don’t help. What an embarassment.

Well, one positive note is that it’s much, much better than the Applachin State Hot! Hot! Hot! video

“Do know however that the convention center and CVB have successfully partnered to bring many future meetings and conventions to the area that will ultimately provide an additional $259 million of spending in Wake County the first five years the facility is open”
- By additional, do you mean over and above what the old convention center would have generated? How has the lost revenue due to construction been factored into this number?

The video isn’t too bad at playing up raleigh’s plusses.
But they would have done a lot better using “Jefferton Alive” instead of that crap country song.

As a friend implores, “Don’t be a hater.”