On Music...
I have a mental list of my favorite things in life. It get's updated on a somewhat less frequent interval than my Netflix list, but I do pay it some attention. For instance, I just added Zhang Ziyi to my list yesterday. I don't really keep an exact account but music, while on the list, probably comes in around 62… To be fair, I do have a rather large list since I’m a generally happy person and have many favorite things.
There was a time that music ranked higher. I distinctly remember receiving my first “boom box” for Christmas when I was in 6th grade. It had dual tape decks…and thus began my fledgling career as a mix tape engineer. At first, since I didn’t own many tapes, I perfected my ability to tape songs from the radio without getting much of the DJ’s voice or commercials in the recording. I remember Bon Jovi and Genesis “Land of Confusion” being pretty prevalent on those tapes. I remember listening for hours thinking that every song on the radio was speaking to me.
Of course, I graduated to a higher level of mixed tape engineering with my first real stereo system. That baby had dual cassettes and a CD player. My first CD was R.E.M “Green”…I was cutting edge. My tapes had meaning in those days…possibly even some angst…usually highly influenced by whatever girl I was obsessing over at the time. It is possibly during this time period that I even started to name my albums with esoteric meaninglessness like “Month of Mead” and “Flaccid Angst Muffin”.
Somewhere along the line I lost the bubble. I can name one protagonist in my musical decline: high school band. Specifically, the marching band. That was the first time I associated music with physical pain rather than just emotional. It’s not that I can’t take pain; it’s just that I prefer it not to have a soundtrack and specifically not one that I have to produce. It also required practice. Instead of me appreciating the rigors that artists go through to make music, it just made me tired.
I think the last mixed tape I made was in college. I may have even given one for Valentines Day. I think the shame of that also hastened my movement away from music.
That’s not to say that I don’t still purchase a CD from time to time. I even have a rather large MP3 collection on my home computer. I enjoy going to the occasional concert. Oh, and movies (which are significantly higher on my list of favorite things…I’m not sure if you were aware) would be nothing without a good soundtrack.
However, music is primarily a car activity now. Sometimes I’ll put some music on while surfing the web or even on the rare occasion that I work from home. I'm just no longer one of those people that plays music while I'm going about my business around the house. I certainly don't sit in the dark contemplating life while listening to the Garden State soundtrack. There is no closing of eyes to let a message seep in... I prefer to stay firmly in the land of the shallow thank you, and that land doesn't have background music.
It is with all that background that I finally get to the point of this post. Through a forum I visit I found out about Pandora.com. Specifically, this website was put together by music lovers…the kind of people that would generally tire me out…who put together the Music Genome Project. Basically, the bottom line is that you can type in a musician or song and the website will create your own “radio station” of music that is like what you originally input. I’m listening to it at this very second in fact. I typed in Oingo Boingo…what?…and all sorts of musical nirvana started to come to me. You can even create multiple “radio stations”.
I guess if you hear something you like you can download the song direct from Itunes, or even Amazon. Sure, that means this sight has a corporate angle, but whatever. The only downside I found is that you have to register. You can do the free version, which will have advertisements from time to time (on the website I believe) or you can pay a monthly fee to not have those. Regardless, any website that does the work for me is primo in my opinion.
So see, don’t say I never gave you anything…
There was a time that music ranked higher. I distinctly remember receiving my first “boom box” for Christmas when I was in 6th grade. It had dual tape decks…and thus began my fledgling career as a mix tape engineer. At first, since I didn’t own many tapes, I perfected my ability to tape songs from the radio without getting much of the DJ’s voice or commercials in the recording. I remember Bon Jovi and Genesis “Land of Confusion” being pretty prevalent on those tapes. I remember listening for hours thinking that every song on the radio was speaking to me.
Of course, I graduated to a higher level of mixed tape engineering with my first real stereo system. That baby had dual cassettes and a CD player. My first CD was R.E.M “Green”…I was cutting edge. My tapes had meaning in those days…possibly even some angst…usually highly influenced by whatever girl I was obsessing over at the time. It is possibly during this time period that I even started to name my albums with esoteric meaninglessness like “Month of Mead” and “Flaccid Angst Muffin”.
Somewhere along the line I lost the bubble. I can name one protagonist in my musical decline: high school band. Specifically, the marching band. That was the first time I associated music with physical pain rather than just emotional. It’s not that I can’t take pain; it’s just that I prefer it not to have a soundtrack and specifically not one that I have to produce. It also required practice. Instead of me appreciating the rigors that artists go through to make music, it just made me tired.
I think the last mixed tape I made was in college. I may have even given one for Valentines Day. I think the shame of that also hastened my movement away from music.
That’s not to say that I don’t still purchase a CD from time to time. I even have a rather large MP3 collection on my home computer. I enjoy going to the occasional concert. Oh, and movies (which are significantly higher on my list of favorite things…I’m not sure if you were aware) would be nothing without a good soundtrack.
However, music is primarily a car activity now. Sometimes I’ll put some music on while surfing the web or even on the rare occasion that I work from home. I'm just no longer one of those people that plays music while I'm going about my business around the house. I certainly don't sit in the dark contemplating life while listening to the Garden State soundtrack. There is no closing of eyes to let a message seep in... I prefer to stay firmly in the land of the shallow thank you, and that land doesn't have background music.
It is with all that background that I finally get to the point of this post. Through a forum I visit I found out about Pandora.com. Specifically, this website was put together by music lovers…the kind of people that would generally tire me out…who put together the Music Genome Project. Basically, the bottom line is that you can type in a musician or song and the website will create your own “radio station” of music that is like what you originally input. I’m listening to it at this very second in fact. I typed in Oingo Boingo…what?…and all sorts of musical nirvana started to come to me. You can even create multiple “radio stations”.
I guess if you hear something you like you can download the song direct from Itunes, or even Amazon. Sure, that means this sight has a corporate angle, but whatever. The only downside I found is that you have to register. You can do the free version, which will have advertisements from time to time (on the website I believe) or you can pay a monthly fee to not have those. Regardless, any website that does the work for me is primo in my opinion.
So see, don’t say I never gave you anything…
posted by Beeley at 2:04 PM
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