The Lessons Glee Teaches Us

I’m not a pop music fan, but for whatever reason Fox’s hit series Glee is like crack to me.  As soon as the episode is up on Hulu, I have to watch it.  Being that I am so far from a mainstream music fan, it suprised me how much I could relate to last week’s episode “Britney/Brittany.”

In the beginning of the episode, everyone’s favorite chior teacher Mr. Shuester tells the glee club that they will be singing songs from the easy listening genre.  The club is not excited.  Instead, the club suggests that they cover Britney Spears songs for a students assembly.  Mr. Shuester refuses, and then the club made an interseting argument.  They argued that America’s youth (I would say that this includes my age bracket) grew up with Britney Spears.  She is the voice of our pop music history, even more than new acts like Lady Gaga.

Begrudgingly, I have to admit that I agree.  I was in the last years of my elementary school and the beginning phases of my middle school year when Britney was having her hay day.  I can not begin to even count the number of times my friends and I jammed out to Britney Spears, or watched her wonderfully terrible movie Crossroads.  Even as we grew up and moved on to other genres of music most people my age still love Britney.  Britney Spears reminds everyone I know of an easier, more free time.  Finally, Mr. Shuester realized this and let his glee club cover some Britney tunes.  All was well in the world.

Top Three Halloween Songs…High Fidelity Style

I watched High Fidelity about a month ago.  The best thing about this movie is all of thier “Top 3″ lists about the most radom parts of life.  Since it is the season of Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, I will do my top 3 Halloween songs.

1.  The Misfits’s Halloween

2.  Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Time Warp

3.  Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Response to Michael Masnick’s 2009 State of the Industry address (MB200)

First and foremost I have to say that the presentation was really distracting and annoying.  They either needed to show the speaker, or Masnick should do something more than just put words on powerpoint slides.

Now, a response to the actual presentation topics:

I agreed with everything that Masnick said.  It is no secret that the old forms of marketing for the music business needs, or more accurately, needed to change.  Masnick says that the idea of just “selling music” needs to change.  With p2p networks, its more convenient for people to download songs if it is music and music alone that they are looking for.   Masnick, in essence, is telling the fine people of the NARM confrence to connect with fans and create and sell content, rather than selling just music.  Giving your customer’s a better reason to come back besides just music is the new way to market.

It was a good presentation–definitely well put.  However, this is not a new idea.  Music and extra content packages are becoming more and more popular.  We all know about Trent Reznor’s success with tiered priced packages with Ghost I-IV.  We’ve seen this concept work again and again (Amanda Palmer’s Radiohead cover album jumps to mind).   He did use some examples that I didn’t know about, and the best thing about his examples were that he purposely used artists that didn’t have a big following, unlike Reznor and Palmer.  While it was a good presentation that I could appreciate, he really wasn’t saying anything groundbreaking.

Forgotten Loves 2.0 (MB200)

If you haven’t already discovered this, I do this blog a lot of the time, for school.  I did a compilation of forgotten loved albums awhile back, and I’m doing part two for another class.

1.  The Loved Ones‘ Build & Burn

The Loved Ones’ sophomore release on Fat Wreck Chords is too short.  From beginning to end the songs are amazing, which makes the short run time of the album depressing.  ”Selfish Masquarde” and “3rd Shift” are easily my favorite songs on the album.  The Loved Ones have found the perfect balance of being a West Coast punk band without sounding too much like a West Coast punk band.  Its a great album to pop in on a summer drive.  Entertaining and exciting, everyone should check out this album.

2.  Neko Case‘s Middle Cyclone

I love Neko Case…end of story.  I think that Neko Case is the best female vocalist ever.  Middle Cyclone is not necessarily her best album as a whole, but there are so many great songs on this album.  Songs like “Prison Girls” and “The Pharoahs” are beautifully written, performed, and engineered.  Sonically, the album has the great big sound only an amazing echo chamber can give.  The last song on the album is a field recording of frogs croaking outside of Case’s home, and it somehow seems to fit.

3.  The Decemberists‘ Picaresque

I once read on article comparing Colin Meloy, The Decemberists singer and chief songwriter, to a high school drama teacher gone crazy.  I feel like that is a great way to describe the reason behind songs on Picaresque.  The songs all tell a beautiful, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, always comprehensive story.  If you can get down to folk…give the Decemberists a listen