ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT for performing or portraying something or getting in front of an audience or getting in front of a crowd : if you ’ re able to build that muscle , when you ’ re in your adolescence , and you ’ re really comfortable with public speaking and comfortable with portrayal , that is going to benefit you for the rest of your life .”
After graduating with a degree in English from Fordham University , Blackwell began writing music reviews for magazines . His skills as an editor led him to founding the culture and music brand Death & Taxes in 2007 , which Spin Media acquired in 2014 . Blackwell became CEO at Spin Media and went on to build a career in entertainment analytics , now serving as CCO at Luminate .
Somewhere along the way , Blackwell realized being in a band wasn ’ t for him , but he is grateful for all the chances he had to be on stage . “ When I started founding companies and becoming an executive , the transition to public speaking was very easy for me because of all those years of performance at a very young age ,” he noted .
Blackwell considers himself lucky to have worked with people in the industry who have contributed to his diversity of experience . At one point in his career , he realized that learning enough HTML and CSS to be able to communicate with engineers was important . He compared the realization to Metallica ’ s attempt to write music for string instruments without knowing anything about writing classical music . “ You can be a multimillionaire rock star and not be able to speak the basic language of music ,” he wrote in a Medium article over ten years ago .
The variety of experiences that Blackwell came to enjoy at Fordham Prep was made worthwhile through the collaborative culture and healthy competition he felt was facilitated amongst his classmates .
“ I have been blessed to work at the intersection of technology and entertainment , whether that is music or film and television or a combination of both , throughout my entire career ,” said Blackwell . “ As much as I would love to portray myself as an outstanding technical practitioner , I ’ m not ,” he laughed . “ I learned as much as I could to pick up the lingo and be able to speak to people who were extremely talented technical practitioners . And that ’ s been another very fortunate thing for me in my life . I have come across and have the good fortune of working with really , really elite talent ,” he continued .
The variety of experiences that Blackwell came to enjoy at Fordham Prep were made worthwhile through the collaborative culture and healthy competition he felt was facilitated amongst his classmates .
“ I think one of the things that Fordham Prep did a really good job of when I was there , and probably still does to this day , is that it created a collaborative environment amongst peers ,” he began . “ It also created a lot of healthy competition amongst peers , whether that ’ s academically or otherwise . I think for anybody to thrive , you can ’ t just have collaboration — you need collaboration and competition , simultaneously . I felt that my high school experience was tailored and curated in a unique way that made us want to compete , perform , and win ,” he continued , adding , “ I think all of those qualities are really important to whatever field you ’ re going to dedicate yourself to .”
ABOVE : At a Loss band members ( left to right ) Aaron Bumpus , Stephen Blackwell ’ 99 , Greg Insero , and Jeff Butkowski ’ 99 .
WINTER 2024 VOLUME 44 , ISSUE 1
19