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So I went to a get-together with Mitch last night and there I met a YahooMusic guy who insisted I would “loooove” Pandora.com. And you know what? It’s okay. But it suffers from the same problem talking about music with real people suffers from: genre does not good taste make. Like, Pandora seems great for electronic because taste is defined by concrete generic parameters. What BPM do you like? Sawtooth waves or square? Handclaps, hi-hat or bass drums? Uptempo or downtempo. Trance or glitch? The genres of electronic have do with how the technology itself creates subsets of sound. Therefore, Pandora says “Oh, you like Fabric 27? You’ll love Paul van Dyke’s Global mix.” Part of that is the “various artists” aspect of house discs–they mix not artists but moods and thematic similarities.
But for musicians, actual people, Pandora doesn’t work at all. I type in Morrissey and Pandora says I’ll love Fountains of Wayne?! Thanks. Rock music seems personality driven, hanging its appeal heavily on what you’re looking for in terms of ineffable qualities like attitude, rhetorical stance, cultural influences as translated into sonics. It comes down to people, not machines.
That said, Paul van Dyke, here I come.
The problem facing reporters who cover the Middle East is one of two irreconcilable realities, argues the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. J.J. Goldberg spoke Thursday at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism about the challenge of covering the Israel-Palestine conflict because he said, “In the Middle East, there essentially is no reality, there are two realities.”
[Note: this is the beginning of a larger piece that will hopefully run on the OJR; I just wanted to get it up while the news aspect is still remotely fresh.]
By now, we’ve all read the buzz. The creators of the “Lonelygirl15″ videos—which garnered massive popularity on YouTube—revealed themselves Tuesday. The Internet community which followed “Bree” had long suspected her confessional video blogs to be too well-edited, too well-produced and above all, too intriguing to be nothing more than a young girl with a webcam.
So it came as no big surprise when the videos turned out to be a hoax. What was unusual was that it wasn’t a big corporate marketing campaign. It was three guys with a concept. Previous viral storylines that set the Web ablaze, such as the alternate-reality games used to promote Halo 2 and A.I., had major corporate marketing engines behind them. And of course, they were selling something.
Curious Web snoops turned up evidence that emails supposedly sent by Bree had their source on servers belonging to Beverly Hills talent firm Creative Artists Agency. That connection lead to an Encino law firm’s application for a copyright on the name Lonelygirl15. The supposed “fansite” for Bree’s videos turned out to have been registered before her first post. Father-son blogger team Tom and Matt Foremsky appear to be the ones who broke Bree’s true identity: 19-year-old New Zealand actress Jessica Rose. Finally, the jig was up when the creators of the video blog series revealed themselves to the Associated Press.
The President addressed the nation Monday, marking the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Bush said that America is safer, “but not yet safe.” In reference to the recent congressional report which clearly stated that no connection existed between Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq and Osama Bin Laden, the President said that “Saddam’s regime posed the risk the world could not afford to take.” Transcript.
A new report claims that 43 million children are unable to attend school because of violent conflicts worldwide. Save the Children’s new findings are aimed at leveraging leaders to help get global youth into school in crisis-stricken regions. It hopes to get three million children into classes by 2010. Read.
Warner Music got slapped with a lawsuit over footage that one of its artists distributed over the Internet. LA rockers Buckcherry posted digital video of the teenage plaintiff exposing her breasts, writhing and kissing another female on their mySpace website and now she’s suing for emotional distress. Spokespeople for the label deny any wrongdoing. Read.
The director of the Delaware State marching band has been charged with according to Dover police. Miguel Bonds, 31 has been charged with second-degree rape and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct. According to the alleged victim, a 20 year old male student, Bonds invited the student into his home, offered him an alcoholic drink which made him feel “dizzy,” and then performed oral sex on him as he lapsed in and out of consciousness. Read.
Rapper Sean Combs lost the right to call himself “Diddy” in the UK. London music producer Richard “Diddy” Dearlove sued Combs over the moniker and won Monday. The lawsuit came on the heels of the rapper’s recent decision to be known as simply “Diddy” rather than “P. Diddy.” Read.
A recent study showed that though more than 90 percent of Americans claim they believe in “God, a higher power or a cosmic force,” their definitions of what that meant varies into four distinct categories. The poll by Baylor University’s Institute for the Study of Religions established that Americans’ beliefs fall into “authoritarian, benevolent, critical or distant” notions of the almighty and that which God someone believes in also appears to be connected to how they vote. Read.
The Web is abuzz with speculation over the so-called “LonelyGirl15” YouTube videos. Since June, “Bree,” a fresh-faced young woman has been posting video blog messages about topics including romance, rebellion and her hyper-religious—and possibly cult-involved—home-schooled life. But is it for real? Many suspect the videos are a viral marketing campaign or an independent film project—and messages have even been posted on forums claiming to be from “The Creators” of LonelyGirl15. Whether Bree is truth or fiction, she’s captured the attention the 2.3 million people who’ve viewed her videos according to YouTube. Read.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas forged an agreement Monday to share political power with Islamic Hamas. Dedicated to the destruction of Israel and considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., Hamas won a majority over Abbas’ party Fatah last January. Now the two are working out a compromise in hopes of convincing Israel and the West to reopen the flow of aid money to the struggling nation. Read.
Congress has ordered computing giant Hewlett-Packard to turn over records related to its internal leak investigation. Authorities are hoping to discover whether HP broke the law when it hired undercover consultants to gather phone and email information about journalists and its own employees. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn may be voted out by board members as a result of her involvement in the leak probe. Read.
A Harvard study showed Monday that lifestyle factors contribute more than income to a person’s longevity. Some groups in America have expected life spans of over 80 years, while others have expectancies of less than 60, comparable to citizens of developing countries. Rather than income, the elements that determined lifespan are (in order): tobacco, alcohol, obesity, high blood pressure, diet and physical activity, according to Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray who headed the project. Read.
In other news, I have mastered the html dropcap. Hurrah.
Inverted Warhol Theory
September 16, 2006 in Blog, Commentary | Leave a comment
Well, it stayed “indie” for about 15 minutes.LA Times: Lonelygirl? Not any longer
An appearance on Jay Leno, possible “huge agent” representation…it appears that there’s nothing new here. The Internet acts as a huge open audition where netizens do the difficult legwork of finding interesting acts and then the mainstream snaps them up, polishes them and remarkets. It will be interesting to see if the Lonelygirl15 storyline keeps up at all, or if Jessica Rose, et. al. will immediately be put on another project while the hype is still hot.