In terms of the last twelve months or so, I don't really think I've changed as a person that much, at least definitely not compared to previous spans of time in my life, going through phases of being obsessed completley with a book or a film for short periods as a kid.
By "changed" I think I mostly mean the things which are important to me. The things I read, the music I listen to, my favourite TV shows - basically the things I do with my time - they're pretty much the same as they were in May of last year.
But I only really considered it now. One of the things that has slowly crept up and ended up important to me is webcasts.
For those unfamiliar, a webcast (or the kind I usually watch) is usually when an artist or band streams something live on the internet for an hour or two, where they'll probably play some songs and talk with fans, who send comments on a chatbox, or tweet, or call in. Usually it's because it's an album release or to raise money for charity, something is being announced. And they're brilliant because although they're no substitute for a real concert, you're sat at home, interacting with both an artist you love and some other people, who maybe you'll still talk with in months to come, on Twitter, on Facebook, somewhere else. It's the weirdest kind of intimacy.
And they never seem like it at the time but I've done some really stupid things to watch things live on the internet in the last few months. Live4Pakistan was some time last summer, an event organised by Imogen Heap and Thomas Ermacora raising money for the Pakistan floods, and my best friend and her sisters and I spent an entire afternoon sat on the couch listening to Josh Groban and Kaki King and Kate Havnevik, and then after I went home I tuned back in, and sitting alone at my desk singing along when Amanda Palmer played "Creep" is still a really clear memory I have.
There've been times I've set my alarm at four AM on a Thursday for things, or put off doing an essay until late because Kina Grannis is announcing tour dates, once I was waiting for an Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley show broadcast from somewhere until I was nearly twenty minutes late for school and I had to run.
And it's funny, because I hadn't even acknowledged the things I'm willing to give up for these things up until just now. My mum offered to practise my German speaking test with me, which I'm really in no place to pass up on at the moment, and I told her just now I'll do it on my own later instead, but thank you.
"Why?" she said.
"Oh... well, Charlie Fink is doing a web-chat at 7, that's when we were going to do it."
"Is that a thing on the internet?"
"Yes..."
And I understand how stupid it sounds, to her and also to me. I understand how much of a nerd I am. But these things are my favourite sort of escapism, and there's not a lot I would miss this for.
Showing posts with label the internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the internet. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Music and the Internet
In interviews with my favourite writers, musicians, and just most creative/productive people, one of those things that comes up all of the time is how much the internet has changed things, especially music.
A know this topic is getting old, almost, but I still want to talk about it.
In some ways, I really disagree with the idea of downloading, even legally through iTunes. I was looking through someone's iPod the other day with mostly mainstream musical tastes, this has happened a few times recently, and you can't help but notice that there are almost no complete albums on there. I don't know whether this is good or bad, it's just different - every song they have on their iPod is a one-hit wonder, a single they downloaded because it's what they want to hear right now.
I couldn't do that, often music to me is a whole record, but I can understand why people do. Often I'd like to buy just one song by a band or artist, but often it's so unaccessible that I just buy a whole record.
In some ways, I'll be the first to admit that the music I listen to is quite restricted: I have those artists and bands that are beloved and mean everything to me, which I can probably count on two hands and possibly a foot. Then, occasionally, I'll hear some music and buy an album because I really like two or three of the songs on it, and just never really listen to the rest. Maybe iTunes is good for that. But I really hate the idea that we're moving away from the album. Every so often I think/hope all of us experience an entire CD which we'll love, memorize the order, get to know in and out and every single song is just good. No songs we skip past because they're boring or not as good as the rest, just forty minutes, or an hour, or maybe two of complete, uninterfered bliss.
The other thing the internet's come in useful for is spreading the word about music, and I couldn't be more for this, because it's helped me in a route I can trace exactly.
Maybe two years ago now, I looked up a song on Youtube called "1234" by Feist, because the video was on a TV advert and I liked it a lot. I then found a singer called Kina Grannis' cover of her song and began to love her music, both her originals and the covers she did, whether or not I knew the song.
I was already following Imogen Heap on Twitter, for some reason or other, when Kina sang "First Train Home" and I decided to listen to her a little more, after she was featured on the Youtube front page and I saw some of her vBlogs. The first song I fell in love with was "Half Life", and so I bought Ellipse just for that, and it sounds stupid but it's one of the best things I've spent money on, ever. I remember the woman in the shop telling me it was great and they'd played it in the store the other day, and I didn't say much but how much more I would now. The other 3 albums I got for Christmas, and I realised I'd known "Let Go" since I was around 10, just never known who it was by. You know those songs you just subconsciously sing in your head sometimes?
And through her I found all these other artists and bands. Some, like Amanda Palmer, I'd heard of before, just never fully listened to. Some had collaborated with each other and led me down paths, like going from Imogen Heap, to IAMX, and I even listen to Robots In Disguise sometimes.
I won't go on about this, I remember I even drew a map one time.
Artists like Amanda Palmer use Twitter to say "I'm doing a gig in *place*, just turn up and bring me some cash." For musicians whose music isn't played on the radio, who people don't know about automatically and have no other way to find a fanbase, it's both worked wonders and broken that blockade of a record company being the middle man between an artist and his or her fans. It's given us communication. The internet brought me to music in the first place, and I couldn't be more grateful.
Other stuff - yes, I know I'm more behind and totally failing and this but I'll run into March. Yesterday was my birthday and some of my friends turned up so we released Chinese lanterns in the park and they let me watch Everything In-Between, because it was my birthday.
So yay. No more stories about fighting with the woman at the cinema desk for not letting me see Black Swan.
See you soon.
Lizzie xxx
Sort-of:
A know this topic is getting old, almost, but I still want to talk about it.
In some ways, I really disagree with the idea of downloading, even legally through iTunes. I was looking through someone's iPod the other day with mostly mainstream musical tastes, this has happened a few times recently, and you can't help but notice that there are almost no complete albums on there. I don't know whether this is good or bad, it's just different - every song they have on their iPod is a one-hit wonder, a single they downloaded because it's what they want to hear right now.
I couldn't do that, often music to me is a whole record, but I can understand why people do. Often I'd like to buy just one song by a band or artist, but often it's so unaccessible that I just buy a whole record.
In some ways, I'll be the first to admit that the music I listen to is quite restricted: I have those artists and bands that are beloved and mean everything to me, which I can probably count on two hands and possibly a foot. Then, occasionally, I'll hear some music and buy an album because I really like two or three of the songs on it, and just never really listen to the rest. Maybe iTunes is good for that. But I really hate the idea that we're moving away from the album. Every so often I think/hope all of us experience an entire CD which we'll love, memorize the order, get to know in and out and every single song is just good. No songs we skip past because they're boring or not as good as the rest, just forty minutes, or an hour, or maybe two of complete, uninterfered bliss.
The other thing the internet's come in useful for is spreading the word about music, and I couldn't be more for this, because it's helped me in a route I can trace exactly.
Maybe two years ago now, I looked up a song on Youtube called "1234" by Feist, because the video was on a TV advert and I liked it a lot. I then found a singer called Kina Grannis' cover of her song and began to love her music, both her originals and the covers she did, whether or not I knew the song.
I was already following Imogen Heap on Twitter, for some reason or other, when Kina sang "First Train Home" and I decided to listen to her a little more, after she was featured on the Youtube front page and I saw some of her vBlogs. The first song I fell in love with was "Half Life", and so I bought Ellipse just for that, and it sounds stupid but it's one of the best things I've spent money on, ever. I remember the woman in the shop telling me it was great and they'd played it in the store the other day, and I didn't say much but how much more I would now. The other 3 albums I got for Christmas, and I realised I'd known "Let Go" since I was around 10, just never known who it was by. You know those songs you just subconsciously sing in your head sometimes?
And through her I found all these other artists and bands. Some, like Amanda Palmer, I'd heard of before, just never fully listened to. Some had collaborated with each other and led me down paths, like going from Imogen Heap, to IAMX, and I even listen to Robots In Disguise sometimes.
I won't go on about this, I remember I even drew a map one time.
Artists like Amanda Palmer use Twitter to say "I'm doing a gig in *place*, just turn up and bring me some cash." For musicians whose music isn't played on the radio, who people don't know about automatically and have no other way to find a fanbase, it's both worked wonders and broken that blockade of a record company being the middle man between an artist and his or her fans. It's given us communication. The internet brought me to music in the first place, and I couldn't be more grateful.
Other stuff - yes, I know I'm more behind and totally failing and this but I'll run into March. Yesterday was my birthday and some of my friends turned up so we released Chinese lanterns in the park and they let me watch Everything In-Between, because it was my birthday.
So yay. No more stories about fighting with the woman at the cinema desk for not letting me see Black Swan.
See you soon.
Lizzie xxx
Sort-of:
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