...Asked Rolling Stone magazine this week- Issue 1091, to be exact. And in response, I'm not sure...but probably.
It makes me wonder, however, what exactly is going on in the world of music these days? And where do you even begin?! For example, as I'm writing this I'm listening to lastfm, which has compiled a "station" of music for me based on the fact that I typed in Cut Copy when the site asked me who I like to listen to. So (for those of you who are not familiar with lastfm)this website then scours over tons of music in seconds and finds songs that are similar to Cut Copy's and plays them. I probably have already heard of one-third of the bands lastfm will select, but I can't help but wonder, where do the other two-thirds come from? I consider myself to be someone who keeps up with new music- almost obsessively in fact- and yet there is SO MUCH music out there that I am completely oblivious to. It's absolutely overwhelming. And the ease with which such music is made available makes it worse. If as if the fact that websites like lastfm and pandora exist, and make music so easily available, holds me even more accountable for keeping up with the jones'. If its right there at my fingertips, and free, then shouldn't I (we) be keeping up?
In my (our) defense, perhaps there's just too much music out there.
There are also not enough hours in the day... but that's a complaint for another day.
1 comment:
This post made me think, Julia. You're right. Sometimes it seems like we're fishing for teardrops in the sea with The Music Search. I know what it is like to always want to be on top of the music scene; to know what the next thing is. And I suppose Pitchfork is there for that too, right? But even with a tool like Pitchfork to weed out the shittier artists/albums, it's STILL overwhelming sometimes.
Last.fm and Pandora make me sad sometimes because they sort of do the work for you. I really miss the days of high school and college when talking to your friends was best way to find new music. That wonderful connection that happens when you find an artist or a song or an album that is spot on doesn't have the same exciting follow-through--namely, telling all your friends about it or better, playing it for them--when you merely type IT into Pandora and have a less than enthusiastic reaction (a new list of songs). Gushing is totally eliminated; sad.
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