The 21st Century also brings us to our latest round of technological advancements. I now have a few personal media playing devices where I used to rely on cassettes then Compact Discs. My media players automatically sync with my media library and it is easy to load them up with hundreds or thousands of songs to take with me on the road or to our cultural fishing trips. When used in conjunction with an FM transmitter, I use them in the car. I also have a portable sound system that allows me to bring my music to share while my media player stays safe and dry inside a water resistant housing. Aric’s truck has the Sync system which allows him to load up a ton of music for his drive to Strawberry. Our media players have become great tools for playing the music we have.
Amazon is a great tool for buying music. In many cases, you can play some samples of the songs and the vastness of Amazon means that they have just about anything you are looking for. The nature of the sales model also meant that you’ll be able to find Compact Discs for incredibly low prices. I’ve purchased CD’s for a penny. Sure by the time you tack on shipping it comes out to 2 or 5 bucks but still. Remember when CD’s first hit the scene, they were $18.99. We’ve come a long way. Amazon makes it easy too search, sample, ship.
Yeah but how do I find music? We’ll applications like Shazam allow you use your smart phone to record a segment of a song. The segment is compared to a database of billions of songs and it can find the match and fill you in on the details. Where I used to have to search for a lyric that I remembered or the commercial where I heard a song, now I sample, submit and see the results. These kinds of music identification services have resulted in a few of the CD’s I’ve purchased this year. I’d be in a store and something is playing on the overhead speakers. I use Shazam to find out what it is and then pick it up on Amazon.
I’ve used YouTube more this year than I ever have before. I knew about YouTube but never really spent much time there. By doing this project, I’ve discovered that YouTube is a huge resource for music research. It is not quite as informative as the old news groups were but they cool thing is that if you search for a video by an artist you like, YouTube will recommend other things that are more or less related. This can lead to some cool musical discoveries. I’ve picked up more than a few artists simple by clicking those related videos and checking stuff out.
Antoine Dodson – Bed Intruder Song – This is a clever adaptation of a news interview that is sampled and turned into music. I appreciate the skill and cleverness required to pull this off.
Before
After
Rebecca Black – Friday – I like it! Who know why? I can’t help it
The O Zone – Dragostea Din Tei
Serebro – Mama Lover – Totally fell into this by accident but what a cool beat.
Eduard Khil – I Am Glad, ‘Cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home – I can’t look away
Wesley Willis – I Whipped Spider-man’s Ass