I am so glad that you have struggled with this issue enough to write about it. I am so frustrated with the issue of my relationship to the current music scene that for the last five years I was at Purdue, I would ask students and teaching assistants how they discovered new songs that they liked. Most of them looked at me as though I had sprouted a third eye. The others shrugged and said, "I just go online." OK, but how? Again, the side-eye. The most exhilirating musical experiences I have had came about not through conscious seeking but rather from surprises! I remember making a trip to Menards one Sunday afternoon while "A Prairie Home Companion" was on the radio. I turned it on as I left the Menards parking lot and it happened to be in the middle of a performance by the Wailin' Jennies. I almost wrecked the car--I couldn't remember the last time I had heard harmonies that tight or vocals that ethereal. I have become a big fan. I could give you several other examples like this, but you know what I'm saying. There is, for me at least, no substitute for the rush that comes with an unexpected discovery that sweeps you off your feet. Maybe I'm too much of the old "Top 40" generation, but I do long for those surprises and I still have not started an account on spotify, no matter how many times people tell me it's the only way. Thanks for writing about this subject, Tom! As always, I'm impressed by your determination to use/conquer technology!!
Yo Tom, thanks for the link to the New Yorker story, otherwise I don't know what to say except to pass along this link to my nephew's LIVE music fest near Bellingham -- going on 22 years: https://stringbandjamboree.com/. Cheers ~w.
This one really hit home. It happens all the time that I try and scroll youtube with one finger (ipad 12’) and accidently touch a video, and for the next several months have to constantly see an assortment of dumb recommendations. As far as music, I like that Pandora also attempts to insert new things into my mix, but their algorithm seems extremely basic. For example, click a grateful dead tune and you will now unleash the entire 60’s into your mix, regardless of musical similarity. On the plus side, sometimes I will be at home working and hear a really good song, and go over to see who it is, and find out I already gave it a ‘like’ sometime in the past… and then I silently congratulate myself on my superb musical tastes;-)
I find it so interesting that in your quest to pursue a more authentic and satisfying self, you chose to work with the algorithms, rather than just ignore them and create new playlists full of music that you like and listen to them. It would've never occurred to me to do that because I think the algorithms are inherently flawed. Your authentic self is a self that collaborates with algorithms, mine isn't. This makes me ask, "what is an authentic self, anyway? What is the self?"
You know what's fun? When you and your nine-year old daughter share the account. Spotify doesn't know what to do with that mix of data. Interesting playlists.
I am so glad that you have struggled with this issue enough to write about it. I am so frustrated with the issue of my relationship to the current music scene that for the last five years I was at Purdue, I would ask students and teaching assistants how they discovered new songs that they liked. Most of them looked at me as though I had sprouted a third eye. The others shrugged and said, "I just go online." OK, but how? Again, the side-eye. The most exhilirating musical experiences I have had came about not through conscious seeking but rather from surprises! I remember making a trip to Menards one Sunday afternoon while "A Prairie Home Companion" was on the radio. I turned it on as I left the Menards parking lot and it happened to be in the middle of a performance by the Wailin' Jennies. I almost wrecked the car--I couldn't remember the last time I had heard harmonies that tight or vocals that ethereal. I have become a big fan. I could give you several other examples like this, but you know what I'm saying. There is, for me at least, no substitute for the rush that comes with an unexpected discovery that sweeps you off your feet. Maybe I'm too much of the old "Top 40" generation, but I do long for those surprises and I still have not started an account on spotify, no matter how many times people tell me it's the only way. Thanks for writing about this subject, Tom! As always, I'm impressed by your determination to use/conquer technology!!
Yo Tom, thanks for the link to the New Yorker story, otherwise I don't know what to say except to pass along this link to my nephew's LIVE music fest near Bellingham -- going on 22 years: https://stringbandjamboree.com/. Cheers ~w.
This one really hit home. It happens all the time that I try and scroll youtube with one finger (ipad 12’) and accidently touch a video, and for the next several months have to constantly see an assortment of dumb recommendations. As far as music, I like that Pandora also attempts to insert new things into my mix, but their algorithm seems extremely basic. For example, click a grateful dead tune and you will now unleash the entire 60’s into your mix, regardless of musical similarity. On the plus side, sometimes I will be at home working and hear a really good song, and go over to see who it is, and find out I already gave it a ‘like’ sometime in the past… and then I silently congratulate myself on my superb musical tastes;-)
I find it so interesting that in your quest to pursue a more authentic and satisfying self, you chose to work with the algorithms, rather than just ignore them and create new playlists full of music that you like and listen to them. It would've never occurred to me to do that because I think the algorithms are inherently flawed. Your authentic self is a self that collaborates with algorithms, mine isn't. This makes me ask, "what is an authentic self, anyway? What is the self?"
You know what's fun? When you and your nine-year old daughter share the account. Spotify doesn't know what to do with that mix of data. Interesting playlists.