To hear people’s music you used to have to go to the record store. And there in your church you’d put effort into the search for a reward.
Finding music online is no effort and less rewarding. You don’t even get to play outside.
Music has lost a lot of its 20th century associations, ones that gave it extra value but weren’t necessarily ‘noticed’.
In april 2008 I sat in an office watching ducks in the mere. I was a staple jockey and rode a mean photocopier.
I just spent time thinking. And scrabbling into the computer what I thought.
Here’s something taken straight from the disorganised notes i found last week. It’s messy and a bit random but interesting (to me at least) and makes me think more about what’s going on around me at the moment and what music is worth.
The relationships between 2 single elements of a project are important and easy to overlook.
When it comes to the achievement of a project, to focus and shape one element with disregard for its relationships to others could weaken the project as a whole.
When seen as part of the project, elements are not just defined as themselves, but themselves and their relationships to other parts of the project.
If you alter one element, you alter its relationships and therefore the context that the other project elements are seen in.
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about bringing some order to the unstructured mess that is my blog. Not necessarily what you’re looking at but what I’m doing with it. Since I started it 2 people have told me it’s good, which is enough testimony for me to consider I’m not wasting my time. A little more effort may be justifiable.
I scored a documentary on ants recently; it was a student project for a friend’s Masters Degree in Wildlife Documentaries. You can watch it here on the university’s TV Page. It’s really good! Especially considering Liz, the director, has a background in animal sciences (she’ll correct me on that) and had no filming experience up until 12 months ago (I know that’s true).
The final mark for the piece will ultimately be for her benefit but the journey of its creation was rich in rewards for students on at least 3 educational roads. Liz was at Salford University, there was an engineering contribution from Manchester’s School of Sound and I myself was approaching the end of a distance learning course in Music for the Media. (more…)
“Make legendary music and you’ll survive the new world Lily.”
Advice from Bob Lefsetz to Lily Allen.
Lily probably sits in the middle ground of today’s music industry, she’s hardly a ‘global superstar’ but she’s a damn site more popular than me with my ‘0’ fans and 23 twitter followers (24! I just got a 24th). But what has been seen over the past few years is that the gap between big media and small media is getting larger and larger. And emptier.
I’ve learnt and worked in a variety of places over the years; different schools, colleges, offices and kitchens, and one thing always present was a strict imperative to blend in and be like everyone else for fear of negative judgements. The physical constraints of these environments created limited space and people, forcing together those who would often not choose to be so close. Average was a safe preference and this became a strong contributor to the need to conform and restrict your personality, leaving visible a bland middle ground.
So I keep hearing I’m supposed to write a blog, most recently from Steve Lawson who has his own (www.stevelawson.net it’s good, check it out).
1 or 2 posts a month is “active” apparently, talk to your audience.
But I don’t have one…..
The age of idolatry is dead or dying, at least in the music industry. It’s no longer one way communication with stars in the magical Majors protected against real people’s responses.