The Shocker Sound Machine has expanded its sound and image to a whole new audience on Instagram, thanks to the help of sophomore photography major and Shocker Sound Digital Media Manager Kaylyn Brundage.
Brundage, who’s been doing multimedia work since she was 14, volunteers her time to the band and has reached hundreds of people off the court.
“We’ve added some 150 (or) 200 followers this season, which is nice,” Director of Athletic Bands and assistant professor Lucas Hulett said. “So whatever’s going on, I think is the right direction.”
The most successful of the Sound Machine’s new posts is a series called Mic’d Up, where Brundage mics up members of the band as they play during rehearsals or performances.
“The first Mic’d Up I posted, it was one of our first reels, I was really nervous because it wasn’t like anything we’d posted before and it wasn’t like anything I had ever done before,” Brundage said. “And I think it’s at 600 likes now. It just completely took off.”
Before posting, Hulett gives the content a final pass, but other than that, Brundage is given complete control of her work.
“They pass everything through me. They ask if it’s okay to post stuff, but that’s been a big driving factor for me in the way I run my band anyway, is ‘What do you guys really want to do?’” Hulett said.
When looking for inspiration, Brundage likes to be spontaneous.
“Anything the band is at, I am at, and then I just take pictures,” Brundage said. “I kind of let the creativity flow and just kind of see what comes where. And then with Reels, a lot of times I’ll just be scrolling on my own personal time and I’ll see something that’ll give me an idea or that I think we should recreate.”
Overall, Brundage hopes that doing social media for Shocker Sound Machine will lead to bigger opportunities in the future.
“I mean, my hope is to go into doing something like this in the future — the media managing, the production of the photography and the videos, and just all of that stuff,” Brundage said. “I’ve learned that it’s something I get a lot of joy out of, just the process of taking the pictures and editing videos.”
