Video of a two-song Arcade Fire show,
Video of a two-song Arcade Fire show, one of which is sung in a freight elevator and the other in the middle of a Parisian crowd through a megaphone.
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kottke.org posts about music
A tale of two hoes
Snoop Dogg recently explained the difference between the language used by old, white radio announcers and rappers:
It’s a completely different scenario. [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about hos that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing shit, that’s trying to get a n***a for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we in the same league as him.
What Mr. Dogg is arguing here is that it’s ok to refer to actual hoes as hoes in the service of artistic expression but it is not ok to refer to college basketball players as such for the purpose of demeaning people. As we’re currently engaged in another go-round on the issue of speech, political correctness, and its potential enforcement, it’s not hard to imagine that someday an argument like Snoop Dogg’s will be deployed in a court of law. I wonder if anyone will buy it?
Duncan Watts on the results of a
Duncan Watts on the results of a study which show that a cultural product’s popularity is partially determined by inital social adoption patterns. “This means that if one object happens to be slightly more popular than another at just the right point, it will tend to become more popular still. As a result, even tiny, random fluctuations can blow up, generating potentially enormous long-run differences among even indistinguishable competitors — a phenomenon that is similar in some ways to the famous ‘butterfly effect’ from chaos theory.” The effort to explain why popular things got popular is probably impossible…working your way back from effect to cause in non-linear systems is tough.
Audio demonstration of how two Nickelback songs
Audio demonstration of how two Nickelback songs released two years apart are actually, to a rough approximation, the same song. “You bastards, you’re taking advantage of those tone deaf MTV brainwashed twats who are too thick to notice you’re releasing song that are EXACTLY THE SAME as ones your recorded earlier.”
Hip-Hop Pop-Up combines pop-up web advertising with
Hip-Hop Pop-Up combines pop-up web advertising with product mentions in hip-hop songs. “For example, at 2 minutes and 38 seconds into the song Big Poppa when Puffy asks Biggie, ‘How ya livin Biggie Smallz?’ his reply, ‘In mansion and Benz’s Givin ends to my friends and it feels stupendous’ would then pop-up the URL www.mercedes-benz.com.” To try it out, be sure to disable your browser’s pop-up blocking first. (thx, jonah)
Fascinating stuff: the Washington Post hired a
Fascinating stuff: the Washington Post hired a world-famous violinist to play for spare change outside a D.C. Metro station to see if anyone would notice and how much he’d make. “In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?” (thx, karan)
Update: A NYC subway musician’s take on the article: “The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how to busk.” (thx, greg)
Logical, linguistical, and infographical analysis of the #1
Logical, linguistical, and infographical analysis of the #1 single on the Billboard chart, This Is Why I’m Hot by Mims. “Mims is hot because he’s fly. But it raises the question: Does being hot guarantee one’s being fly? […] It would appear that fly and hot are interchangable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren’t at least one, you are neither.” (via khoi)
Apple and EMI jointly announced earlier this
Apple and EMI jointly announced earlier this week that the iTMS would offer EMI’s music without DRM and at a bitrate of 256 kps instead of 128 kps. Twice the bitrate = twice as good, yeah? Not so fast…you might not even notice the difference.
This is brilliant: the weird video of
This is brilliant: the weird video of Dick Cheney lurking in the bushes during a press conference at the White House with Radiohead’s Creep playing over it. “I want you to notice when I’m not around….” (via cyn-c)
A Stradivarius fetched $2.4 million at auction yesterday
A Stradivarius fetched $2.4 million at auction yesterday but anyone with the proper chops got to take a climate-controlled test drive before the auction. The violin’s minders at Christie’s screened potential players, in part, by looking for “the telltale bruise under the jaw that comes from resting on the chin rest of the violin”, which Lilly calls a “violin hickey”. There are several theories as to why Antonio Stradivari’s instruments sound so wonderful, but no one has cracked the mystery yet.
Apple will begin to sell DRM-free songs
Apple will begin to sell DRM-free songs from EMI via the iTunes Music Store in May. The songs are higher quality but will cost slightly more ($1.29 vs $0.99 for the DRM version). It’ll be interesting to see how many people choose to buy the non-DRM stuff at the higher price. My feeling is that typical consumers won’t care that much…lower price will win out over slightly higher quality and some nebulous future flexibility. I bet EMI is even half-hoping for failure on this thing: “see, customers *want* DRM…”
Interview with New Yorker music critic Alex
Interview with New Yorker music critic Alex Ross about, among other things, his upcoming book on 20th century music. “Why, when paintings of Picasso and Jackson Pollock go for a hundred million dollars or more on the art market and lines from T. S. Eliot are quoted on the yearbook pages of alienated teenagers across the land, is twentieth-century classical music still considered obscure and difficult? In fact, it’s better known than most people realize. Post-1900 music is all over Hollywood soundtracks, modern jazz, alternative rock.”
50 50 is a compilation of 50 videos of people
50 50 is a compilation of 50 videos of people singing 50 Cent songs.
(via your daily awesome)
Simlish is the fictional language spoken in
Simlish is the fictional language spoken in the Sims games. Several music artists have recorded songs sung in Simlish.
Video of a live performance of Creep
Video of a live performance of Creep by a Radiohead quite different than today’s version.
The Golden Ratio and its appearance in
The Golden Ratio and its appearance in the music of Nintendo’s Zelda games.
A dad sings NWA’s Fuck The Police
A dad sings NWA’s Fuck The Police to his young son using some creative realtime censorship. “‘Cause he’ll tickle you ‘til you’re giggling.” (via the grumpiest)
A 666 tribute to David Fincher featuring video
A 666 tribute to David Fincher featuring video of 6 of his commercials, 6 of his music videos, and 6 of his movies.
List of sampled songs used by Daft
List of sampled songs used by Daft Punk. Here’s a video of some of them.
Beatboxing flautist + Super Mario theme song = YouTube gold.
Beatboxing flautist + Super Mario theme song = YouTube gold.
A list of unboundedly long songs, songs
A list of unboundedly long songs, songs that “continue until the singer decides (or is forced) to stop”.
Neat music video by a band called
Neat music video by a band called The Longcut that uses infographics to tell the story of a boy and girl falling for each other.
Complaints choirs…that is, groups of people
Complaints choirs…that is, groups of people who sing their dissatisfaction in front of live audiences. “In Helsinki the most favourite topics were ring tones of mobile phones, people who smell in public transport and the fact that Finland always looses to Sweden in competitions: in Icehockey and in Eurovision.” (thx, nancy)
Steve Jobs’ thoughts on music and DRM.
Steve Jobs’ thoughts on music and DRM. Sounds like he’d rather that music sold via the iTMS didn’t have DRM built in.
“iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that
“iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that monitors your music library and generates a personalized calendar of upcoming concerts in your city.” (thx janelle)
Music industry: CD prices are being driven
Music industry: CD prices are being driven down by $9.99 albums on iTunes Music Store. “Physical retailers are pressuring the labels downward on price (of course, Wal-Mart is the biggest culprit) because they don’t want to be undercut by iTunes 9.99 on all single albums. We’re rapidly moving to a 9.99 world on the big sellers (the ones stocked in Target and Wal-Mart and Best Buy).”
OhMiBod is the ultimate iPod accessory: a
OhMiBod is the ultimate iPod accessory: a vibrator that hooks up to the iPod and buzzes in time with the music. “I will never listen to music the same way again.” Don’t miss the playlists compiled specifically for OhMiBod use. NSFW. (thx, tania)
Wikipedia explains R&B: “She orders
Wikipedia explains R&B: “She orders a milkshake and begins to blow bubbles into it (a possible allusion to oral sex). She continues to prance throughout the restaurant and walks into the kitchen, ‘helping’ the chef remove biscuits from the oven as she purposely moves her buttocks (which the biscuits are shaped like) near his face to possibly make him wish to have sex with her, yet he shows no interest in her and she leaves in dismay.”
A list of 16 genuinely good Oscar-winning songs.
A list of 16 genuinely good Oscar-winning songs. As noted in the comments, Lose Yourself by Eminem should have been included.
Music video for Rock Me Amadeus by
Music video for Rock Me Amadeus by Falco. Not to be confused with the Dr. Zaius song from The Simpsons.
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