shameless self-promotion fizzles
Well, I’ve pretty much run out of things to promote. VOD/AX will be doing its final release soon, a CD-R version of the upcoming Dreamdate 7” single, but that won’t be available for a little while. Hopefully I can put up the JLS flash site pretty soon, because it’s “rad.” Maybe sometime next week? Anyway, since I have nothing to promote at the moment, I’ll just do yet another weird, lame entry (because, for some reason, those seem to be more popular anyway (comment-wise, at least)).
While channel-surfing the other day, I ran across an infomercial, co-hosted by Barry Williams (you know him… his real name is Greg Brady). I was utterly hypnotized by his demeanor. He had this really warm, really fake smile that turned on and off like a light bulb, so obviously detached from any genuine emotion. Oh yeah-- the infomercial was for a Time Life compilation of hits from the seventies. I hadn’t really heard most of the songs, or if I had, it was only because of a commercial. Oh yeah-- it all sucked, too. But I’m guessing a big evil company like Time Warner knows what they’re doing. These bland collections of bland pop music, although they make no real artistic impact on our culture, must make them a ton of money.
I cleaned my room and organized my music collection the other day, and got around to listening to some stuff I hadn’t heard before. Including a few Time Life record box sets! My sister bought them for me at some estate sale a while ago. They're from the late sixties/early seventies: a couple 20th-century classical compilations, and a comp dedicated to the swing era (which was the years 1936-1937, if you didn’t know). Marketed towards a similar crowd as the 70’s pop comp, I’m sure, but I suppose I can tolerate, or even enjoy, the compilations if the music’s done by people like Fletcher Henderson or Paul Hindemith; at least these pieces were edgy in their own time. It does make me wonder about the person who once owned the box sets, though. It’s kind of depressing, the way I’ve increasingly looked at music in terms of demographics lately, to the point where I can barely tell the difference between Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. I think mass production somehow removes the subversive elements from such music.
Speaking of mass-produced subversive music, I am getting sick of this gold-diggin’ “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” song. It was okay the first couple times I heard it, but I’ve had enough. You’d think our political situation would be fucked-up enough to inspire a thousand of songs like this, thereby eliminating the need to over-play the enjoyment out of one of them. On the other hand, I’m not too into political music in the first place. Except for that Beatles tune, “Revolution”… you know, the one from that Nike commercial?
While channel-surfing the other day, I ran across an infomercial, co-hosted by Barry Williams (you know him… his real name is Greg Brady). I was utterly hypnotized by his demeanor. He had this really warm, really fake smile that turned on and off like a light bulb, so obviously detached from any genuine emotion. Oh yeah-- the infomercial was for a Time Life compilation of hits from the seventies. I hadn’t really heard most of the songs, or if I had, it was only because of a commercial. Oh yeah-- it all sucked, too. But I’m guessing a big evil company like Time Warner knows what they’re doing. These bland collections of bland pop music, although they make no real artistic impact on our culture, must make them a ton of money.
I cleaned my room and organized my music collection the other day, and got around to listening to some stuff I hadn’t heard before. Including a few Time Life record box sets! My sister bought them for me at some estate sale a while ago. They're from the late sixties/early seventies: a couple 20th-century classical compilations, and a comp dedicated to the swing era (which was the years 1936-1937, if you didn’t know). Marketed towards a similar crowd as the 70’s pop comp, I’m sure, but I suppose I can tolerate, or even enjoy, the compilations if the music’s done by people like Fletcher Henderson or Paul Hindemith; at least these pieces were edgy in their own time. It does make me wonder about the person who once owned the box sets, though. It’s kind of depressing, the way I’ve increasingly looked at music in terms of demographics lately, to the point where I can barely tell the difference between Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. I think mass production somehow removes the subversive elements from such music.
Speaking of mass-produced subversive music, I am getting sick of this gold-diggin’ “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” song. It was okay the first couple times I heard it, but I’ve had enough. You’d think our political situation would be fucked-up enough to inspire a thousand of songs like this, thereby eliminating the need to over-play the enjoyment out of one of them. On the other hand, I’m not too into political music in the first place. Except for that Beatles tune, “Revolution”… you know, the one from that Nike commercial?