U Tube Rules!
I've been reading this book by Alex Ross called, 'The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century', and without utube, I wouldn't have finished the first chapter. The book is mostly about post-modern classical music: the atonal, forbidden tritone (diabolus in musica) variety. Since I don't know that music well, it would be a real slog reading The Rest Is Noise without the ability to instantly reference these older, relatively obscure pieces of classical music. Seriously, if you don't know the music well, there's no other way to appreciate the book. Utube rules! Well, utube and Wikipedia both. My verdict on the music? Awesome.
Utube has also helped me build a huge play-list of favorite music. It's funny, but any website that sells music, like amazon, only provides soundbites of songs; but (I guess) since utube is considered strictly a video website, the music, any music, flows freely simply because it is used as background noise for video. Funny. Awesome, but funny. And all the more valuable to me. Now, when I'm working, or anytime, I'm not searching for CDs to play or downloading songs from itunes, I'm listening to utube. The only drawback is that sometimes videos are pulled, but that's usually no problem because there are multiple postings of just about everything. Most of the video is amateurish, but some of it is interesting, like the one that accompanies Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Deodato: the animation that plays with the music is well worth watching. Mostly, though, I just listen to the music.
Another favorite search for me lately is interview clips of my favorite contemporary musicians telling funny or interesting stories. Sometimes, like this clip of Chris Squire, the stories are both funny and interesting. So I'm blogging this one mainly to share it, but also so I can watch it myself without searching for it. It's kinda long, but well worth the time if you've got a few minutes free. And probably much more enjoyable than my favorite Shoenberg clip. I'll post that later!
I've been reading this book by Alex Ross called, 'The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century', and without utube, I wouldn't have finished the first chapter. The book is mostly about post-modern classical music: the atonal, forbidden tritone (diabolus in musica) variety. Since I don't know that music well, it would be a real slog reading The Rest Is Noise without the ability to instantly reference these older, relatively obscure pieces of classical music. Seriously, if you don't know the music well, there's no other way to appreciate the book. Utube rules! Well, utube and Wikipedia both. My verdict on the music? Awesome.
Utube has also helped me build a huge play-list of favorite music. It's funny, but any website that sells music, like amazon, only provides soundbites of songs; but (I guess) since utube is considered strictly a video website, the music, any music, flows freely simply because it is used as background noise for video. Funny. Awesome, but funny. And all the more valuable to me. Now, when I'm working, or anytime, I'm not searching for CDs to play or downloading songs from itunes, I'm listening to utube. The only drawback is that sometimes videos are pulled, but that's usually no problem because there are multiple postings of just about everything. Most of the video is amateurish, but some of it is interesting, like the one that accompanies Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Deodato: the animation that plays with the music is well worth watching. Mostly, though, I just listen to the music.
Another favorite search for me lately is interview clips of my favorite contemporary musicians telling funny or interesting stories. Sometimes, like this clip of Chris Squire, the stories are both funny and interesting. So I'm blogging this one mainly to share it, but also so I can watch it myself without searching for it. It's kinda long, but well worth the time if you've got a few minutes free. And probably much more enjoyable than my favorite Shoenberg clip. I'll post that later!
Chris Squire telling a funny story.
posted by Sidewaysagain @ 3:41 PM
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