The mp3 player is one of the greatest inventions by mankind (imo, at least). I remember thinking when I was little that I wished I could program my own radio station to play only the songs I wanted it to, and not have to listen to all that talking in the middle. Then I thought that was practical enough that surely someone would come up with that some day. Good call. Now we have that, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could. Currently, my budget limits me to an mp3 player with only 2 gigs of memory. I love my player (I would just say iPod, but I don’t actually own an iPod), but it is oh-so-frustrating that it can only hold a little over 300 songs, when I’m sure I have at LEAST a thousand that all absolutely have to be on my player (and that number only grows every day, so I’m sure I would need more than that). However, sometimes money IS an object, so getting a player with more memory is a little ways down the priority list right now. :(
As great as the mp3 player is though, it’s definitely not the only thing you need to experience all the great music there is out there. It plays what you tell it to play, so you still need something that doesn’t to hear what’s new. So, I’m still a radio fanatic. XM/Sirius is another great invention. Every genre, every era, all the time. Too bad I can’t afford that right now either lol. But there’s still the local radio stations. Besides, I think it’s important to support the local guys anyway. The one local station that I do listen to on a regular basis claims to have a “modern rock” format. However, I would definitely say that they lean way more into mainstream rock than modern. It’s a great station, but it’s disappointing that a lot of favorite bands and songs don’t receive any airplay on it. If any of you haven’t heard of KROQ though, hop on the band wagon, will ya? They’re probably THE most famous modern rock station in the nation, and they’ve even got a little bit of world renown under their belt, and they truly are a “modern rock” station. It’s broadcast out of California, so you have to go online to listen live, but it’s worth it. I wish I could combine KROQ and the X, that way I could get my fill of modern and mainstream at the same time. If I have an mp3 player, why am I complaining about what the radio stations play? Because that’s a big part of how I hear what’s new. A new song comes out, the radios add it to their rotation, then I get to hear it, and I’m a girl who’s always out to find new music, so that process makes me happy.
Which also brings me to YouTube, another great invention of today. I can’t possibly count how many hours I’ve spent surfing YouTube for music videos, live performances, band interviews, etc. It’s great because it’s all right there, at your fingertips. As soon as I hear a song I like on the radio, I head straight to YouTube to listen to that song about a thousand more times. I hear about a band that I haven’t heard of yet, I go to YouTube and look them up. Imagine my disappointment when that whole fiasco with Warner Music Group took place. For those of you who don’t know, I’ll sum up that story. All the major record labels stem out from four main labels: EMI, Warner, Universal, and Sony. A few months ago, Warner decided that they weren’t getting enough money from google/YouTube so they pulled ALL of their bands off of YouTube. Suddenly, a fourth of the music industry couldn’t be found on the site. I found this move to be incredibly stupid. Not all of the bands on the label are big names that everyone has heard of. YouTube is a great medium through which people can discover these little known bands, and Warner has been cutting them off. The users have been fighting this though and have started to win under Fair Use laws. Many of the lost videos are slowly making their way back onto YouTube, but it’s still going to be a long process. Warner didn’t stop there though. They’ve also decided they’re not getting enough money from MTV Games to use their songs in the Rock Band series, but I’ll save THIS one for another blog.
That's all I have to say for today, so I'll leave you with this:
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