Give me Another "Hit"!

Give me Another "Hit"!

I love building playlist. Or rather, I love letting iTunes build playlist for me. The Genius button is awesome! Especially because, well, I hate to admit this, but I suppose there's nothing to be done. I own music I've never heard. *Hides face in shame* I know, I know! Why do I have it if I've never heard it? In my defense, anytime I'm offered free music by labels or through special promotions, I take it. I don't care if it's a band that never managed to make it out of the garage, or a genre I don't really care for, I'll take it. Proof yet again that I'm a music junkie. There's never enough music, I can fit more on my hard drive, sure Mr. music promoter, I'll listen to the band you're pushing. I always need another "hit". I rationalize this by saying, "You never know where you're new favorite song will come from!" It can lead to some funny moments like, for example, I decided I wanted that Hellogoodbye song "Here (in your arms)" because the video amused me. As I went to purchase it, iTunes had to tell me that I already had it. It had been apart of a promotion that they'd had some time before where they gave out free music through facebook. (Free on iTunes group) At first music like this would just sit on in my hard drive collecting virtual dust unless it would randomly come up in an accidental shuffle or random search. Then one day, iTunes came out with a new update. The shiny new button called to me and I decided to check it out. I turned on my genius option, knowing full well that it's true purpose was to find new ways to sell me music and really, I didn't need help in that area. I let iTunes gather information about what music I owned with a little unease because well, it's a little unnerving how much information can be gained in that process, but I let it happen. The results were awesome! I clicked on a song and then took the mouse cursor down to that right hand corner and pressed that little atom symbol. Voila! Instant playlist! With these playlist I began to discover new music... that I already owned... but never heard... um... yeah... anyway! One playlist would bring out a few songs I hadn't heard and at least one of them would be a song that I'd particularly love. I would then use that song to build yet another playlist. And so, a cycle would begin.

Other places I have found free LEGAL music are on Amazon and RCRD LBL. It's mostly all Indie Label stuff and extremely random, but that doesn't mean bad (and if you ask a few people that means something likely to be very good). One group that I found on RCRD LBL is The Like. They are a very fun band with a fantastic 60's Mod style of music and presentation. Not only are they talented, but they also use a Hammond B3 Organ! (I don't know about you but I find that awesome!) Their song "He's Not a Boy" is a fun song that leads you to bounce to the beat and "Release Me" (also the same name as the album) reminds me of those fantastic songs from the great 60's female groups but does so without sounding dated. According to their MySpace page they are going to be touring around the globe but spending some time in the UK, so if you're out that way, I recommend catching them if you can.

Music is My Drug

Music is My Drug

In a bout of restlessness, i found myself searching through some things. First, my box of books which contained a book of poetry that I've carried around since 8th grade (and on what I blame the coming little thought). The second thing was one of my 2 200 disc capacity CD cases. I came across a CD that I bought the year it came out and probably only listened to it for a month or two after I got it, and that was in 1996. I've been listening to music solely off of my computer or some listening device for so long that if it hadn't been for that strange urge to open my CD case, I wouldn't have even remembered owning it. It wasn't that is was a bad CD, it was just that time moves on and there are new songs that came along and new ways to listen to music but in the beginnings only so much room to hold it. So I picked and chose my favorites and others began to fade in memory. I decided to pull the CD out, listen to it again, and load it up onto my now larger external hard drive. And because I had already found one, I wanted to load up others, and so began my new "old music project." In the mean time, while I was embarking on this discovery of music that I bought and "had to have" however many years ago, my friend Voc was having her own encounter with her love of music. She tweeted a message conveying her own adventures in being a "music junkie" and after reading it and completely understanding her situation, considering I was elbow deep in my own music adventures, I decided to retweet her comment and this is all that followed.

Carron: RT @voc: There are necessities that I am needing to buy urgently, but I end up spending my money on music. #musicjunkie./ yeah... Ditto

Voc: zomg you retweet my tweet! ♥

Carron: It's because it's true of everyone who is like us... It's why I own a bunch of CDs from one-hit wonders that no one else knows but [I] still love. Why we love movies for their soundtracks. Why we can hear the song that's playing in a loud restaurant and no one else can. Why we always have a song in our heads or coming out of our mouths. We spend hours listening to music and finding new songs while cherishing old ones. We announce to the world when we find a new band who moves our hearts, souls, or even just our feet. We live, eat and breathe the melodies that others just hum. We need that piece of music that makes us remember that time when we were small, proud, happy, sad, discouraged, encouraged... We understand that those crafted notes are more than just notes but tones to resonate within and without. We are junkies... Music is our drug...

Voc: Well said dear, well said! :)

When I read her tweet, all the little things about my life that revolve around music just flowed to the forefront of my mind. First, I was, at that very moment loading CD's of those one hit wonders that I mentioned onto my external hard drive. Second, I'm always noticing the music that's playing wherever I am. In restaurants, stores, commercials; it doesn't matter, I hear it and I sing along. My sister marvels at this crazy little talent of mine (and sometimes she is annoyed by it too). Third, even as I write this, I find myself with a song playing in my mind as I try to form words for the "paper" (which isn't always very conducive to such ventures, but hey, what can I say, I have an inner soundtrack as oppose to an inner monologue). Fourth and finally, I'm actually attempting to gain a degree that focuses on trying to make more music in the world.

Flash forward a couple of weeks later, I open facebook up to see another friend quoting lyrics to "Tiny Dancer" and because she left it hanging and that should never happen with that song, I quoted the next line, and then another friend followed after with the line after that. Her "old" boss responded to us young ones with comments of us not being old enough to know the song. Which, as music junkies, we of course had to defend our love of Elton John. Each recalling times when music moved us. I enjoyed the kinship I felt with my fellow junkies as we talked about our drug and how we consumed it, be it concert, record, or CD. We took in the music and it became part of who we are and how we think and see things. We became altered by the experiences that music gave us and we wanted more.

So, here we are, music junkies. Consuming and being devoured by music like the drug that it is. Do we need an intervention? Sometimes I think we do, but really, I just don't want one. I love my drug.