Roxanne Blanford

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Roxanne Blanford is an African American freelance journalist, marketing communications officer, publicist and music reviewer born and based in New York City (Brooklyn, to be exact) and affiliated with several online music sources including All Music Guide, MusicEmissions.com, and the independent Impact Music Publicity and Journalism 'Zine.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Career
2 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Blanford, the youngest of seven children, was born in Brooklyn, New York to an interstate truck driving father and a stay-at-home mother. Blanford attended elementary school P.S. 260 in Brooklyn, New York, on a full art scholarship and the Packer Collegiate Institute's upper school on a full academic scholarship through A Better Chance, known for granting scholarships to academically high achieving minority students. She went on to New York University, The New School for Social Research, City University of New York, City College, and State University of New York, Empire State College, emphasizing communications, liberal arts, cultural studies, history, psychology, philosophy, drama and literature.

[edit] Career

While working full-time in publishing, advertising, Internet sales, event promotions and marketing, she embarked on a freelance career in the mid-90's as an entertainment journalist writing reviews, interviews, profiles and bios, covering music, then expanded to film reviews. Blanford's first published musician interview (with The Phoids) appeared in the pages of Extreme Magazine, a Canadian-based rock music 'zine, in 1998. Since then, she has interviewed artists such as Kittie, Sondre Lerche, Ben Jelen, Nile Rodgers, Godsmack,[Train],OK Go's Damian Kulash, My Morning Jacket, The Beta Band, and singer-actress Mandy Moore (when Moore was just fifteen years old). Blanford had also been a frequent press attendee at the College Music Journal Marathon.

In the late 1990s, Blanford initiated her own music publicity and promotion venture, Impact Music Publicity, where upon she successfully marketed and promoted independent musicians from Columbus, Ohio. She then narrowed her focus to concentrate primarily on artists from the New York City area. Subsequently, Blanford branched out into the field of business and corporate marketing communications. In 2007, she was the online content editor and marketing communications coordinator for Link2GlobalLuxury.com, a luxury brands advertising portal, during its launch phase. Citing technical issues, as of January 2008, the website had not yet gone live.