am/fm

I've been thinking a lot in the past couple of days about the direction I want this blog to take, and Pitchfork today has, not one, but two good pieces on exactly what I've been thinking about. Well, a piece and a quote.

From their review of LCD Soundsystem's "Sound of Silver": "I'm not sure if you rapidly skim the same articles as I do, but apparently 72% of the internet is now made up of free mp3s, while another 14% is accompanying blurbs."

This is decidedly not what I am trying to do.

The other article, Poptimist #2, is a pretty thoughtful meditation on finding new music (and music writing) to love in an age where any song is available to you at any time. There's hardly any time to get to know a given song, let alone write about it compellingly, before its time to move on to the next next big thing.

And, yes, you could say this is a problem created by the oneupmanship culture of music blog snobbery, but it's also an issue created by the democratization of the music industry/removal of big business gate keepers, etc. We're currently living the revolution, and the coming years should bring changes that I for one am not smart enough to predict. But we as listeners will develop strategies to have a meaningful connection with our music.

A semi-related defense of music snobbery after the jump...

-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com

It has always been my dream to get paid to listen to music, and, bully for me, it's come true and I love it. My biggest worry has been that going to concerts, and the like, would start to seem like work, but fortunately that hasn't happened.
There are, however, some unforeseen downsides to my job. One of the more annoying things is whenever I meet new people and tell them what I do, their first question is always, "So what's new? What should I be listening too?"
I hate this question.
First off, I don't know you, I don't know what you like.
But secondly, it takes me a really long time to integrate new music into my regular rotation. Yeah, I can tell you who the latest flash in the pan is, and which style from the '80s they're copying, but finding really good new music takes some time and reflection.
It's basically a process of osmosis, for me. Now there is the rare album that I'll put on and immediately love, but usually it works like this. I'll start hearing about a band — from blogs, magazines, publicists, friends, or because they're playing in town and I put them in the listings — and maybe download a track or load up their CD (from my stack of promos). Then, I forget about it. I'll remember the band next time I read about them, or they play in town, or their music comes up randomly on my iPod. And maybe they stick in my mind a little more, or maybe they don't. And this process repeats itself until I either say, "Yuck, what are these guys doing on my playlist?" or "Hey, these guys are pretty good." If the latter, the band is absorbed into my mental collection of "music I've always liked." So I never actually feel like I'm listening to new music. Of course I've adopted new favorite groups over time (otherwise my musical development would have stopped with The Beatles, which was the only music I listened to in 7th and 8th grade). But my answer to the above question is always, pretty much word for word, "Oh, I don't know. I haven't really heard anything that impressed me lately."

I'll share a secret with you after the jump.

-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com