No Song Left Behind
I was obsessive-compulsively tagging my iTunes collection with the proper album, track number and album art details when I came to an awful realization (and no, it wasn't how this was such an utter, bollocks waste of time).
Most of the tracks in my collection have never, ever been played. They've never seen the light of day (or since we're talking about music, they've never disturbed molecules with their vibrations). I was committing wholesale discrimination in my iTunes collection by favoring particular artists, tracks and albums while ignoring the great majority of whom I had painstakingly bothered to download. My conscience was hit hard by this shameful musical apartheid.
So because I'm big on egalitarianism, and since I'm a fan of affirmative action's power to provide underrepresented constituencies with a fair shot, I decided to set my iTunes on 'play' and go through all my tracks, from A to Z by album. I figure this is the best way to let those previously undiscovered artists and tracks a shot at getting some share of mind.
I'm currently on M, and I still have 3 to 4 days' worth of music left to go. In the process, I've discovered Oprah really is superior to Kanye, which is saying a lot because she can't sing for jack (a joke only
maharhar,
freeallangels and Sushil will understand). I've also uncovered some musical gems that were lying fallow in my collection, from two unique French bands to a British soul singer and a Welsh vocalist, to an Irish rock duo who doesn't get the mainstream respect that they should.
Where did I find all of them? Soundtracks from your favorite TV shows have some great songs, which help explain why these shows are so compuslively watchable. From The OC to Six Feet Under to Grey's Anatomy, I think TV producers have some of the most astute, unique musical tastes in popular culture today and their shows are a gold mine for expanding your aural universe.
Why haven't I listened to them before? The simple answer is: BitTorrent. It's so easy to download whole folders of music when you're just looking for one particular song/artist that you tend to just dump it all in to your iTunes (or maybe it's just me and my innate laziness?). The upside is that some artists have amazing albums, and some compilations are compulsively playable. The flipside is that I've had to listen to an hour's worth of Kanye West; not only was every second excruciating, it was a reminder of why the only party music I will dance to is house.
*****
Speaking of house music, listen to the mainstream radio stations and you'll be hearing more and more of it. They've been playing Chicane's 'Stoned in Love' on RX; even more surprising I heard 'No Ordinary Morning' on K-Lite, which is supposed to be an alternative-rock format station. RT, which was the local pioneer of electronica with Anton Ramos's Chillout Project, has the Power Lunch program which plays all house from 12nn to 1pm.
On one hand it's nice to see that we're finally tilting towards a broader base of dance music as opposed to the misogyny, thuggishness and gutter-mindedness that is hip-hop. On the other hand since I'm thinking this surge of popularity is based on Ever After's mainstream breakthrough last year, I shudder to think of how long it will take before the whole genre swarms over with jologs.
Most of the tracks in my collection have never, ever been played. They've never seen the light of day (or since we're talking about music, they've never disturbed molecules with their vibrations). I was committing wholesale discrimination in my iTunes collection by favoring particular artists, tracks and albums while ignoring the great majority of whom I had painstakingly bothered to download. My conscience was hit hard by this shameful musical apartheid.
So because I'm big on egalitarianism, and since I'm a fan of affirmative action's power to provide underrepresented constituencies with a fair shot, I decided to set my iTunes on 'play' and go through all my tracks, from A to Z by album. I figure this is the best way to let those previously undiscovered artists and tracks a shot at getting some share of mind.
I'm currently on M, and I still have 3 to 4 days' worth of music left to go. In the process, I've discovered Oprah really is superior to Kanye, which is saying a lot because she can't sing for jack (a joke only
maharhar,
freeallangels and Sushil will understand). I've also uncovered some musical gems that were lying fallow in my collection, from two unique French bands to a British soul singer and a Welsh vocalist, to an Irish rock duo who doesn't get the mainstream respect that they should.
Where did I find all of them? Soundtracks from your favorite TV shows have some great songs, which help explain why these shows are so compuslively watchable. From The OC to Six Feet Under to Grey's Anatomy, I think TV producers have some of the most astute, unique musical tastes in popular culture today and their shows are a gold mine for expanding your aural universe.
Why haven't I listened to them before? The simple answer is: BitTorrent. It's so easy to download whole folders of music when you're just looking for one particular song/artist that you tend to just dump it all in to your iTunes (or maybe it's just me and my innate laziness?). The upside is that some artists have amazing albums, and some compilations are compulsively playable. The flipside is that I've had to listen to an hour's worth of Kanye West; not only was every second excruciating, it was a reminder of why the only party music I will dance to is house.
*****
Speaking of house music, listen to the mainstream radio stations and you'll be hearing more and more of it. They've been playing Chicane's 'Stoned in Love' on RX; even more surprising I heard 'No Ordinary Morning' on K-Lite, which is supposed to be an alternative-rock format station. RT, which was the local pioneer of electronica with Anton Ramos's Chillout Project, has the Power Lunch program which plays all house from 12nn to 1pm.
On one hand it's nice to see that we're finally tilting towards a broader base of dance music as opposed to the misogyny, thuggishness and gutter-mindedness that is hip-hop. On the other hand since I'm thinking this surge of popularity is based on Ever After's mainstream breakthrough last year, I shudder to think of how long it will take before the whole genre swarms over with jologs.