sure, one could say that the writer, not the album, makes the book, but this list just screams ‘WE’RE COUNTING ON THE ROCKISTS TO PROP UP OUR FAIRLY SAGGY BOTTOM LINE.’ bleh.
“For brands on the web: if I don’t see your sources (what you read, watch, and listen to) and which things you think are important enough to pass on, then I don’t know who you are.” - Mike Arauz (who is an ad planning guy if you can’t be bothered to click the link)
“Pop music in our minds is about passing on information - we were trying to create an alternate world. These are our heroes, this is what we’re into, this is what we want to share with other people. Julian Cope was one of the few people who was very open about what he was into – Tim Buckley, the Seeds, etc. The Smiths too, obviously.” - Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne, talking about how the band were percieved as elitist.
My new column on Pitchfork, linked here because the features tab doesn’t seem to be quite working yet so it’s very easy to overlook. This month: fan fiction, answer records, music-as-conversation.
I have just read a completely straight-faced and serious business blog post entitled “In an age of personal branding, are we losing our authenticity?”
After five and a half years, my Popular project (reviewing all the UK’s #1 hit singles) has reached the 500’th number one.
I’m not actually halfway yet. But I hope you’ll permit me a bit of self-promotion anyway.
Wir Sind Helden - “Eindlich Ein Grund Zur Panik” German retro Neue Deutsche Welle from 2007. Fun-loving!
“Songs posted exactly 30 years after their initial release.” Must follow tumblr alert!
Such a great idea that it’s a real shame about the narrow genre focus. Parallel development of disco, hip-hop etc. would be awesome! But hey, it’s not my blog, and still well worth a look.
Is back. Back. BACK!
Best jukebox ever. (I will be doing stuff for this in future but not until my ridiculous workload clears up some.)
Best rhyme ever.…At about the point where Kanye, in a trademark gratuitous guest spot that will probably turn a mediocre song into a single, rhymes “OMG” with “woe is me.”
Virginia Astley - “Out On The Lawn I Lie In Bed”
It’s Virginia Astley weather at last!
Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving newspapers demanding to know “If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.
Clay Shirky, being very very smart, as usual.
I need to read that printing press book!
“Snark is seeing an earmark for “beaver management” and teeheeing without regard to whether the underlying policy goal is sound or not”
I fear I may fall short of the highest moral standards on this.
NB: I’m not American, and I have never watched anything before now on Comedy Central, but the Stewart/Cramer stuff has just been riveting. How anyone could dismiss it as snark is completely beyond me.
Me blogging about an awesome MR James ghost story.
“So they’re aware they’re in a ghost story, and as such make efforts to game it, by photographing and monitoring events. But the story gets the better of them…”
Yes yes it’s a marketing link with all the crimes against language that implies, but hold yr nose and there’s some interesting stuff in here (esp. as relates to “indienomics”)
“Although self-reported opinion leaders were quick to adopt the new drug, they lagged behind the sociometric leaders identified by their colleagues, the study found. The researchers speculate that this was because the self-reported opinion leaders, identifying themselves as having above average status, are less interested in what others are doing. “The people who believe themselves to be opinion leaders are less affected by others,” Iyengar said. “These are guys who say, ‘I know I’m important. I don’t need to care about what other people are doing.’”
& the specific issue with the Sundance Channel value proposition (having watched the vid) is that all the influencers here are influencing ONE ANOTHER: they don’t necessarily want wider influence, in fact there’s an anxiety of influencers effect which accounts for some of the style churn Maura was talking about. The “tipping point” model indienomics is based on assumes influence is a Ponzi scheme (1 uber = 1000 norms = 1000000 scumbags). Which I guess it might be!
