Note that this is not just about me hearing a song I like. I hear a song I like every time I’m listening to a playlist on my iPod. This is about me hearing the song in the midst of other people, total strangers, who also know the song and are hearing it at the same time. What transpires is a communal, connective experience, even without any words passing between those having it.
This effect is the antithesis of a super-fan moment. The connection to the music is casual; it’s a sense of human connection here that provides the frisson of aliveness. Music in this way can offer a culturally constructed way of feeling at one with the world around us.
From Farewell to the casual music fan.
I read this great, albeit extremely long, article a couple weeks ago by way of Rafi’s Shared Items feed, which has become one of my favorite sources of reading of late. The article makes a number of interesting points about cultural fragmentation and the music industry’s adaptation to said fragmentation. The author argues that the music industry’s shift from catering to the masses to catering to niches is a dangerous turn.
The above idea stuck out in my head. For all my diehard jocking of obscure rappers that only other similarly diehard nerdtastic bloggers know of and my sometimes-elitist dismissal of consensus rap opinions, sometimes being apart of the dumb rap masses is freakin’ awesome. Read the rest of this entry »
