23-04-2012, 02:59
SteveO Wrote:Keef, by obscure I mean underground or avant garde...something you're not going to hear and see on MTV and on the usual FM music radio. I consider say..Adele as mainstream and Biosphere as obscure...not sure why you would say there's no distinction for you.
Well, we're getting into a discussion then of how it's consumed. Why would one go to MTV or FM radio for music? Don't those entities just exist to advertise to you? Are they really about music or about advertising? Does MTV even have video shows anymore? I haven't even considered these since about 1983 or 1984.
Music for me comes from a lot of sources -- usenet, junodownloads, beatport, internet radio, shoutcast, creative commons, tribalmixes.com, actually going out to see shows, and friends. I subscribe to last.fm and di.fm as well, having found spotify and mog completely inadequate, since they require you to base your choices off of performers and their personalities. I don't think of my method as greater or better, but there's more through these channels than I can possibly keep up with, and the variety is astonishing. I'm such a music fan that I haven't bothered to own a television in 30 years. And when I say "music fan" I mean I'm interested only in sound from point A to point B in time -- I'm not really interested in artists other as a way to mark style -- e.g. okay here's Grooverider, it's going to be drum & bass, okay this will be good for the next couple of hours. I've heard Adele as well as Biosphere this way but for me they're completely on equal footing, just as likely to come up as anything else.
When you say mainstream I think of the old model where you went to the record store and hung out and bought an album when you heard something you liked. I don't miss that at all. It strikes me as a stagnant, circular way of consuming, rather than a journey. I much prefer the immense choice I have now.