DIMINISHING MARGINAL UTILITY/SINGLES
I have grown to dislike the concept behind singles, and I must take some blame for it. I have enough trust in my favourite artists to deliver quality no matter how long it takes for them to create the album. The trust is tested even more when you don’t hear a single from the artist. I have died and resurrected multiple times inside, waiting for an Isaiah Rashad album. I do understand that he is a person with a particular approach to making music, I really do. I have reached the point where I’m begging for a single, spare a single for the needy oh Mr Rashad. He dropped singles prior to releasing The Sun’s Tirade that eventually didn’t make it on the album. I was eternally grateful. Singles that are released weeks, months (artists like Drake) or even years (artists like AKA) before the album release, ruin the album play for me. By the time I hear the album I would have heard the single more times than pleasurable and when I get to listening to the whole album my finger instinctively presses next when the single comes on. I have found that the flow of the album is not how I would have liked it at first listen when I’ve heard the single hundreds of times, ugh. You know when you’re dressed in a store-fresh outfit, everything is new from head to ankle but the shoes you bought 6 months earlier that are now scarred with creases? That’s how it feels. Even when I do draw up the strength to fight my instincts, I half-heartedly listen with my focus drifting away from the album and many times I end up missing the very start of the next song. It’s either the skip button or I locate a local Concerta dealer. But now teasers, well teasers make me ticklish at the neck. You just hear enough to entice you to want more. Tyler’s teasers had me hyped for the album without making it awkwardly flow when I listened to the whole album.
RADIO
Radio for me is probably what churches is to the devil or what brothels are to priests, well lately. I am and will forever be grateful the music it has put me on to and the memories it helped create. However developing knowledge in my identity, I gained an awareness in what kind of music I enjoy, and my self-discovery has led further and further away from radio. Music on the radio doesn’t serve me with any long-lasting joy, as radio exhausts a song’s replay value very quickly. There are certain record labels that control a vast majority of what plays on the airwaves, it’s a market after all. This has created problems though; the pie hasn’t been shared and it has seen a smaller sample of artists getting their fair share of spins on the radio. This system is not friendly to the indie artists who just rely on producing quality music without having the influence on the business side of things. My knowledge of my self-interests in music along with the internet, I determine the quality of what I hear and not 60 year old Jimmy who runs that record label and knows “what’s hip on the streets”.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Hip hop has put me on to a lot of things, but I never thought time traveling would be one of those things. You know when you listen to a song and yeah sure you listen to the lyrics but you caught by the melody incorporated into the beat. You think to yourself “I would really love to hear the whole thing” so you do your Googles and land straight to the whole package. You were listening to the latest rap song now you’re deep in a 70’s jazz wormhole. My music taste was rigid when I was younger, I really wanted to impress my cousin, a deep house fanatic, whose face turned ugly at even the mention of gqom in the late 2000’s. That era was ran by the cool malumz who drove Citi Golfs or Micro Buses usually with 22 inch Alpine or Eagle rims, a dropped suspension, tinted windows and a sound system responsible for many hearing failures. Those speakers would blast deep house in a car packed with girls holding bottles of Savanna or Saritas. Consequently, the teenage boys wanted to be those malumz with the little brothers of those teenagers wanted to be like them. Gqom was seen as childish by both my cousin and I but we were both kids. I later left that pretentious phase and looked for what I loved and out of what I’ve found hip hop has been pivotal in helping me find the others. From hearing my favourite artists reference other artists from the older generation that they draw inspiration from to just loving the sample in my favourite song at the moment. I wouldn’t have explored so much of time through music if it wasn’t for hip hop.
GALILEO
Galileo, in the 17th century, has this hot new theory that he’s been burning to let the people know about. He’s been teasing it for months now “hear ye, hear ye” and whatnot, he’s got the people’s attention most importantly (to you) he also has your attention. Friday morning (I don’t know if Friday releases worked well with the structure of the week back in the 17th century but bear with me) you hear the exciting news that the G has released his theory, you’re now infected with this burning desire to tell people about it too. You take to the streets and tell everyone loudly and proudly. Last week Friday I was also consumed by the burning sensation to let all my friends hear what I heard when I heard IGOR’S THEME. Thankfully when I arrived at school one of my friends had brought their speaker. Sneakily about to connect to the aux another friend jumped ahead of me. My annoyance quickly turned in to happiness when I heard the grainy synths from IGOR’S THEME sadly most of the people around hated that song and soon through insults to Tyler and the aux handler. For some people the world we live in is flat, the maps have edges, the sun revolves around the earth and you get crucified with your idol.