I recently read an article about country singer, Ray Stevens and all the great protest songs he’s been writing, producing, and performing at TEA Parties, conventions, rallies, etc. Guess what? He’s not alone. Enter…BigDawg Music Mafia – a free social networking site my songmate, “BigDawg” and I (two military veterans with a passion for music and this great country) set up to showcase conservative artists.
In November 2010, I attended a planning meeting for the just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2011) as one of at least 60 Participating Organization representatives present at that particular meeting. When then-Chairman of The American Conservative Union (CPAC host), David Keene, asked everyone to introduce themselves, I got a few audible chuckles in response to my introducing myself as “Lisa Mei Norton of BigDawg Music Mafia” as this was our first time participating in the largest annual gathering of who’s who in conservative circles.
I just smiled, sat back, and listened intently during the two-hour discussion which consisted of reports and recommendations from the sub-committees on potential speakers and panels. At the end of the meeting, David Keene asked if they missed anything to which I replied, “Yes…yes you did. I see nothing on the agenda that addresses conservative pop culture.”
I explained how, in the past two years, having written and performed several original political/protest songs for local, State and National conservative events, I had met many great, conservative, grassroots artists doing the same exact thing, traveling around the country on their own dime to share their conservative messages through their music, books, comedy, etc.
We believe the TEA Party movement underestimates the power pop culture has on influencing the hearts and minds of folks who don’t normally engage in political debate. The left uses this very successfully to promote their agenda. Why shouldn’t we?
I suggested the CPAC committee add a panel to discuss this topic and was thrilled to see at the subsequent meeting that they had taken my suggestion and added the panel entitled “Engaging America Through Conservative Pop Culture.” I was even more encouraged to see a couple other panels addressing pop culture being sponsored by other Participating Organizations such as the Bank of Kev Productions panel, “Getting Started in Hollywood,” and was honored to be invited to take part in that panel as well. That is where I met John Nolte, Editor-In-Chief of BigHollywood.com who wrote a wonderful recap that evening and was very gracious in offering me the opportunity to write a bit about our site and our mission.
BigDawg and I recognized that while each artist brings wonderful, unique abilities to the “fight,” working together as a united front would enable us to make a much louder noise in the name of liberty. With that in mind, we launched BigDawg Music Mafia last August to provide a platform for conservative artists to share their gifts, network, collaborate on projects, keep each other informed on upcoming events, and help ignite a conservative pop culture “revolution” of sorts. We are pure grassroots (no “Astroturf” here, Nancy). Our membership consists of some amazingly gifted musicians, songwriters, comedians, poets, authors, bloggers, photographers, videographers, filmmakers, and more.
Through aggressive marketing via social networking sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube, we have been showcasing our members and their works to our growing list of online friends and followers. Sponsoring events like CPAC, Smart Girl Summit, and the upcoming National TEA Party Convention in Memphis (April 7-9, 2011) has been invaluable in getting the word out about our site, our mission, and our fantastic conservative culture warriors. We also have a fabulous “virtual street team” of “keyboard warriors” comprised of family, friends, and fans who regularly share our site with others on some great conservative sites, blogs, and radio shows.
During CPAC, ten of our members, including former SNL star, Victoria Jackson, Chris Cassone, Bobby Powers, Sherry Marquelle, Brian Futch, Norm Cady, Hi Caliber (Enemy of the State), Robert Mansfield, and Eric Golub pitched in to secure a booth for all three days and a ballroom for a two-hour “Liberty Fest” with live music & comedy. We worked the booth and invited several attendees to join us. And they did!
The networking that took place in those 3-4 days is already paying off. We had several new members join us in the past week due in large part to John Nolte’s BigHollywood write-up and a piece on FoxNews.com; I was invited to write about our site right here on BigHollywood.com; multimedia companies are now looking to us for talent for upcoming projects; radio talk show hosts are asking to use our music, and many other great opportunities are in the works in the coming months.
I would call that a resounding success…but we are just getting warmed up.
Our pop culture must be fought for aggressively if we are to succeed in this battle. It will not be easy but we believe it is essential…and we can’t do it alone. We sincerely appreciate those who share this belief, support conservative artists, and afford us the opportunity to share our mission and our gifts.
If you are looking for some amazing talent from some great conservative artists or have a gift to share and would like to join the “fight” for our pop culture in the BigDawg Music Mafia “foxhole”, we highly encourage you to check out our site and join us at www.bigdawgmusicmafia.com. We are “using the magical powers of music and the arts to make a difference…” and so should you! Rock on! Godspeed, Lisa Mei and BigDawg
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