Friday, May 14, 2010

Now Hear This

Record companies tend to spoonfeed us the overproduced music that they want to market (and that a handful of their "target listeners" have told them they want to hear in so-called market research), as opposed to the music we might actually want to hear.  This mass-market approach to music will eventually become the death knell for commercial radi0--maybe not in the near future, but at some point. Trust me. 

But take heart, music lovers -- really good, original music is still out there; it just needs to be sought out.  Thankfully, the finding has become a whole lot easier with the introduction and evolution of iTunes, XM satellite radio, Pandora, etc.

I suppose that the evolutionary accessibility of wide ranges and styles of music via the aforementioned internet phemnomena could also put the final nail in the coffin of the great American jukebox, as well.  And the fact that it now takes paper money to feed a jukebox doesn't help--remeber quarter songs?!  My cousin and I used to mess around with old 45s that had been in an old jukebox that my granddad used to own, so I've always had an affinity for and a desire to have an old jukebox of my own.  I told a friend about this a few years back, and he held up his Dell DJ and said, "That's essentially what this is - a jukebox."  Shortly thereafter, I got a Dell DJ of my own.  I endured a lot of good-natured ribbing from friends for having an MP3 player without an Apple logo seared onto the backside, but I later upgraded to the iPod when my DJ crashed (surprise, surprise...).  And having had a genuine iPod for more than 3 years now, I am still amazed that I can have 28,288 songs on a single device that's not that much larger than the pack of More cigarettes that my mom used to buy at Food Fair. In essence, I have that jukebox I always wanted, and then some...

Submitted below, for your review and feedback, are some of the more recent albums and tracks (among the 28,288) that have been in rotation on my iPod.  My musical taste changes pretty frequently, and I really believe that music is more subjective than any other form of entertainment, so I won't bother with assigning grades to the tunes.  Just give them a listen and judge for yourself.  Allow me to spoonfeed you for a change (instead of those dull, canned, banal radio stations you have programmed into numbers 1-6 on your car radio):

Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)