Introducing … The Single
Jun 4, 2010 Random Ramblings, Uncategorized
Posted by
JohnHampton
It looks like the up and coming generation has finally redeemed itself with the grandest of grand concepts. Leave it to kids today to just reach down deep into that creative grab bag of life and bring the novelest of novel ideas to fruition. It’s called … (drumroll) a SINGLE. It started a while back, actually, when iTunes geniuses decided that if you wanted, you could just buy one song off of an ALBUM of songs by a recording artist. Wow. There’s a novel concept.
Although we really know it wasn’t a recent development at all, it really, REALLY IS a lot different from the single our moms and dads started up way back in the olden days. In those days, pop music was just that. POPular music. An artist would think up a song, write it, record it, and put it out for us to buy. If we liked it, it became popular, and sold a bajillion zillion copies. Then, the popular artist would write another song, and put it out. If it also became popular, the men in the big cities would come around, snatch up the artist for their company’s big roster of popular artists, figuring they have a golden goose here. So THEY would release an ALBUM of his/her popular music, plus a few more that the listener could … enjoy. That was great! Except, I don’t know about you, but I could hardly ever afford a $12 album, and many times, the stuff I liked wasn’t available as a single. So … what’s a kid to do?
I could not get immediate satisfaction, unlike these kids today. Noooooo! I had to wait (WAIT?!?!) …wait until I had saved up enough ca$h to finally go get the album. But crap! I didn’t like every song, just two or maybe three tops. In fact, I got pretty good at playing D.J. because when my friends came over, I would only play those two or three songs, and that’s it! Een if my pals wanted to hear others, I RULED my musical domain with an iron fist.
Enter …. the new media.
Digital everything. Digital recording, digital CD, digital this, digital … heck, I bet they are thinking up digital shoe polish as we speak! A digital download, though, is how we get our music now, right? (I personally like the CD, and REALLY the 12″ vinyl) … But by and large, we get our music online. So doesn’t that mean we don’t have to buy an album ever again? I do believe it does mean that. AND that is precisely what the bulk of the world is doing. They hear a song or two, like them a lot, and download them from iTunes or CD Baby or Bob’s Record and Bait … in the end, they don’t buy a whole album. Period.
Enter the artist. He/she’s not stupid, (is he/she?) Why bother recording ten or twelve songs if, for the most part, only one or two will bring in some NLM dough? (No Laughing Matter) So, a lot of my work now is recording 2 or 3 songs on a weekend or weekend +, and in four to five days, we have product. Ready to upload and hit the globs.
But you know, as I grew older I really got into those ten or eleven songs. The artist could take me on a sonic safari for an hour almost, and I always came out on the other side a better, more edified listener. And many, many times, I ended up looking forward to the artist’s next record.
Is the entire experience slowly, or not slowly, going away? I will really be saddened if that experience goes away. I THINK I would end up in a much lessier place if that were the case. (Thanks to the Hatter for that line). And this one:
I don’t want to end up in a much lessier place. The Hatter knows there’s a lot to say about the much muchier place. We must hang onto the concept of the album of songs. If for no other reason, just so that “these kids today” can develop into better, more edified listeners. They may just wake up someday and be a little less into that instant gratification thing. And wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing.
Next question…
June 4th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Concept albums. My friend has a 29 minute long song on one of their works, think they have a CDBaby listing.
Albums as art, for arts sake.
That is a journey, in and of itself, to venture upon.
What would Axis: Bold as Love be, as a single?
Anyways, my plan to take the world over, one single hit at a time, still drags along. Still trynna set up the PO box for the BMI publisher domain, etc.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Finally got this Windoze XPS to load the songs, by putting them on a memory plug and loading. Who says actually having a drive that functions in reading CD is even necessary? Not available on iTunes yet. Could use a bit more polish on the cut, but the stuff is strong enough to stand on the merits of playing and the mix.
Besides the EQ for WiMP player in this version will not allow me to use that on playing outside of the device for importing it.
The second cut is bringing back a lot of memories. Playing through until we found the second wind, after everyone was exhausted we took a break and resumed the assault immediately upon getting everyone on the same groove. That was the seventh take, paid more than half their going studio fee to the engineer in cash, extra, for his waiting it through and being patient enough to go with this. I love it when a plan comes together…
Finally finding it, that’s the feeling! Everyone letting our lead guitarist(we had two of them) stomp around like Godzilla with red eyes, breathing six string fuzzy Marshall/Strat fire, then coming back to a four/four frontal fireworks bombardment, before another launch into orbit that was a speed metal riff he skated into being from his days in high school.
There’s so much squeak on the first(vocal) song from the tape condition. There’s one other cassette version I know of intact, it’s in an Austin attic. Who knows the shape it’s in after several summers. The noise reduction setting did not address the item. Basically sounds like a MC scratch being laid over the music, same speed and meter,etc. It still bleeds out some really intricate guitar fireworks.
Lacking the funds to take care of that at this time, it will be something to schedule that way in a great studio after an initial market run.