How I plan to kill the guilty feelings
I read a blog many moons ago, back in my south isle days, by a guy who was trapped in the new technoworld of having anything and everything (of a musical nature) you ever wanted RIGHT NOW. He wrote about how this apparent abundance of instant access file sharing actually lessened his experience of and appreciation for the music he was listening to. As he collected more music song by song, measuring success by the size of his iTunes library, he lost the intangible benefits of the tangible things like album art and liner notes, or just the experience of hearing the music the way the artist intended: from first song to last, a trip through a sublime musical garden, carefully plotted to provide a distinct aural journey. With the occasional bonus of an unlisted final track hiding behind 17 minutes and 47 seconds of silence... the kind of surprise that leaps out from your speakers right when you had forgotten the album was even playing in the first place.
His solution to this problem of over-abundance was to go on a musical diet of sorts, self-enforced scarcity. He decided to, for the period of 1 year, purchase just 1 album a month, and to listen to that album, start to finish, and that album only, until he knew it backwards, frontwards and sunday-sidewards. Or until he got thoroughly sick of it and the month-meter ticked over and he could buy a new album. I really would have liked to repost his blog here, but unfortunately my forays on the googlator have produced no results of relevance, just a shit-load of economic forums, god-loonies and random hypnosites (you will obey the hypno-toad!).
Basically, I had completely forgotten about his blog. It made an impression on me at the time, but I had recently purchased my first iPod (the white shuffle, $220nzd for 520mb, it was early 2005 I think?) and was only just discovering the unearthly delights of Limewire+Broadband+iTunes. Since then I have embraced file sharing with the gusto of a gourmand in a Tuscan deli... no song was too random, no artists work free from my desire to pillage and plunder the hard-drives of my fellow audiophiles. I eventually got jaded, hitting the "What's New" tab more and more often to find something fresh (an 80 year old ragtime song complete with background hiss, that's mad cool!) something tasty (Norwegian gansta rap totally lacking in irony, awesome!) something I hadn't heard before (wait, is that Arabic or Aramaic?). My iTunes reached critical mass and my Mac Mini suicided. Not to worry, by then I had a 30gig iPod video, juuuuuust big enough for my music collection, but only if I removed all other file types and podcasts... so I did. I had a problem.
I then moved back to Australia, and into a household where music was regularly purchased and constantly played. My iPod was the little engine that could, and did, despite repeated interactions with the downside of gravity and two replacements of the battery. I got a laptop, transferred my multitude of files (bolstered by the addition of housemate music) and promptly had my iPod stolen from my (stupidly) unlocked car.
**for the person who stole my iPod, I really hope you appreciated what you got with that little powerhouse and didn't just sync it all away**
So this brings me up to the last year or so of musical laxity. I have been most remiss in following anything other than the loudest musical trends. I love the new 'more 80's than the 80's' sound, and I love a lot of what is happening in NZ/OZ music, but my latest iPod (8gig nano) suffers from the inability to hold my entire collection. So I have reverted to the high-rotation of about 200 songs, most of which have been downloaded as just that 'songs'. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. I think it was 2006, Blunted in the Backroom by The Nextmen. Or even the last time I listened to an entire CD start to finish, maybe Xmas 2007? The Fratelli's or early Kings of Leon.
My point here, and I do have one, is that I am now aware of what that guy was trying to say (and do) with his blog. I think I have it all, and I really just have empty musical experiences, songs absent of context.
Then there is the file-sharing = stealing argument. Recently this exploded into a minor war of tweets on the twatterverse, with Lily Allen as frontspiece for the "independent artists" vs nasty little downloaders and "big ticket musicians" who give it all away. Some independent artists have come out in favour of the file sharing system and some big ticket musos have put their 2 cents behind the labels. I still don't have a definitive view on downloads, but... I do think that I have lost when I thought I was winning. And now to my point. I too am going to go the lo-fi way. My guilty tummy rumbles shall cease and desist as I hereby state, with the interweb as my witness, that, for a period no shorter than 12 months, I will NOT download music. I will then one-up my simmering conscience by following this with the decree that, finances permitting, I shall purchase one (1) album each fortnight, and shall listen to that aforementioned album as its creator intended, start to finish, high rotation. I may even have to down-tech to a discman to achieve this aim (can you still buy discmans?), so be it!
The third and final caveat in this challenge to my voracity is that the purchased album shall be by either a Kiwi or Aussie artist. I have no sympathies for Jay-Z and his 99 problems, 'cause I just know his album sales ain't one. Lily too can wave the flag of independence all she likes, but it don't change the fact that her "dragged up from the mire of MySpace" story was complete EMI engineered poppycock. Canadians may get an occasional look-see, or indeed anyone from the smaller isles (scilly, man or sark for example). Oh fudge it, basically NZ/OZ get initial attention, then all others are open for the running except for US/UK. Nah, I will take anything I like the sound of.
Oh, and I shall post a review of each album on here after having given it a complete and thorough "listening to". Watch this space.
Yours in musical perpetuity.... The Born-Again Downloader. (TV shows however... game on).
Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com
His solution to this problem of over-abundance was to go on a musical diet of sorts, self-enforced scarcity. He decided to, for the period of 1 year, purchase just 1 album a month, and to listen to that album, start to finish, and that album only, until he knew it backwards, frontwards and sunday-sidewards. Or until he got thoroughly sick of it and the month-meter ticked over and he could buy a new album. I really would have liked to repost his blog here, but unfortunately my forays on the googlator have produced no results of relevance, just a shit-load of economic forums, god-loonies and random hypnosites (you will obey the hypno-toad!).
Basically, I had completely forgotten about his blog. It made an impression on me at the time, but I had recently purchased my first iPod (the white shuffle, $220nzd for 520mb, it was early 2005 I think?) and was only just discovering the unearthly delights of Limewire+Broadband+iTunes. Since then I have embraced file sharing with the gusto of a gourmand in a Tuscan deli... no song was too random, no artists work free from my desire to pillage and plunder the hard-drives of my fellow audiophiles. I eventually got jaded, hitting the "What's New" tab more and more often to find something fresh (an 80 year old ragtime song complete with background hiss, that's mad cool!) something tasty (Norwegian gansta rap totally lacking in irony, awesome!) something I hadn't heard before (wait, is that Arabic or Aramaic?). My iTunes reached critical mass and my Mac Mini suicided. Not to worry, by then I had a 30gig iPod video, juuuuuust big enough for my music collection, but only if I removed all other file types and podcasts... so I did. I had a problem.
I then moved back to Australia, and into a household where music was regularly purchased and constantly played. My iPod was the little engine that could, and did, despite repeated interactions with the downside of gravity and two replacements of the battery. I got a laptop, transferred my multitude of files (bolstered by the addition of housemate music) and promptly had my iPod stolen from my (stupidly) unlocked car.
**for the person who stole my iPod, I really hope you appreciated what you got with that little powerhouse and didn't just sync it all away**
So this brings me up to the last year or so of musical laxity. I have been most remiss in following anything other than the loudest musical trends. I love the new 'more 80's than the 80's' sound, and I love a lot of what is happening in NZ/OZ music, but my latest iPod (8gig nano) suffers from the inability to hold my entire collection. So I have reverted to the high-rotation of about 200 songs, most of which have been downloaded as just that 'songs'. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. I think it was 2006, Blunted in the Backroom by The Nextmen. Or even the last time I listened to an entire CD start to finish, maybe Xmas 2007? The Fratelli's or early Kings of Leon.
My point here, and I do have one, is that I am now aware of what that guy was trying to say (and do) with his blog. I think I have it all, and I really just have empty musical experiences, songs absent of context.
Then there is the file-sharing = stealing argument. Recently this exploded into a minor war of tweets on the twatterverse, with Lily Allen as frontspiece for the "independent artists" vs nasty little downloaders and "big ticket musicians" who give it all away. Some independent artists have come out in favour of the file sharing system and some big ticket musos have put their 2 cents behind the labels. I still don't have a definitive view on downloads, but... I do think that I have lost when I thought I was winning. And now to my point. I too am going to go the lo-fi way. My guilty tummy rumbles shall cease and desist as I hereby state, with the interweb as my witness, that, for a period no shorter than 12 months, I will NOT download music. I will then one-up my simmering conscience by following this with the decree that, finances permitting, I shall purchase one (1) album each fortnight, and shall listen to that aforementioned album as its creator intended, start to finish, high rotation. I may even have to down-tech to a discman to achieve this aim (can you still buy discmans?), so be it!
The third and final caveat in this challenge to my voracity is that the purchased album shall be by either a Kiwi or Aussie artist. I have no sympathies for Jay-Z and his 99 problems, 'cause I just know his album sales ain't one. Lily too can wave the flag of independence all she likes, but it don't change the fact that her "dragged up from the mire of MySpace" story was complete EMI engineered poppycock. Canadians may get an occasional look-see, or indeed anyone from the smaller isles (scilly, man or sark for example). Oh fudge it, basically NZ/OZ get initial attention, then all others are open for the running except for US/UK. Nah, I will take anything I like the sound of.
Oh, and I shall post a review of each album on here after having given it a complete and thorough "listening to". Watch this space.
Yours in musical perpetuity.... The Born-Again Downloader. (TV shows however... game on).
Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com