Touched Something Hollow

Saturday, 24 December 2011

Bookshelf

Aren't they pretty? Some of the books I've read this year, I'll put some more up when I remember what else I've read this year (anything beyond June is quite a struggle)

As featured on the Amazon/Kindle add. At least it wasn't Apple. And they still couldn't afford to put to gether and actual video.

A brief opinion share on Indie musicians selling their music for commercial purposes. It's increasingly common these days, the list is fairly endless - Los Campesinos, Herman Dune, Kurt Vile, Feist, The Walkmen, The Generationals, Modest Mouse, Interpol (if they still count), The Magnetic Fields, The Shins.... this list could probably drag on to cover 40% of the indie-sphere. Clearly there are a lot of musicians who either see nothing wrong with their music being used on an advertisement, or the benefits simply outweight any moral consternation they might be suffering from. It looks like it is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. I was most surprised when I heard the Generationals on an Amazon/Kindle ad. Mostly I was surprised because I feel fairly certain I'm the only person in the UK who has actually heard the Generationals. I thought about the fact that they probably don't (didn't) make much money from their music, and how timely a cash injection in the approach toe christmas would be. There is also something complimentary towards the genre as a whole in its frequent use for commercials. Mostly it is old 'classics' and contemporary indie music that are the favoured choices for sountracking adverts, there is a distinct absence of contemporary chart music. One could suggest that this would be too expensive to buy the rights to, however, it doesn't take that many sales to get into the charts, and chart songs will soon be shipped out to every complitation disc released for the next two years. Certainly they could afford to purchase the rights for at least some chart tunes. Why don't they? Well, I think it's testament to the fact that most chart music is essentially a-melodic and virtually unlistenable, cuased by the ridiculous attemps of superstar producers to create something that sounds 'contemporary' and combines 'all the genres'. So when an advertising exec actually wants to sell a product, they want to use a song that actually sounds nice - step in indie (especially the nu-folk scene). I'm dubious that selliing music to commercials stifles and artists creativity, in fact it probably lends them an increased sense of independence from their label (if they have one), I'm more than happy for them to get some extra cash in their pockets, and, frankly, I imagine I would do exactly the same thing in their shoes. I'm not anti-commercial, nor anti-capitalist, and I don't think most people are. Certainly in the age of free downloads, the ways in which artists renumerate themselves are increasinly diverse, but not less legitimate because of that. Essentially they are still just making a living by producing art, it seems to me that any artist should be allowed to do that.

Submariner

The biggest mystery surrounding this film is not that the British film industry has finally produced a good film about youth, specifically middle-class youth (as opposed to working class pikey kids who joins gang/young Colin Firth-esque posh boy goes to Eton), but that Alex Turner made the nice music which accompanies it. Which begs the question, if he can make pleasant music, why are the Arctic Monkeys so abysmal? It's a great film, and I think I can finally begin to empathise with all those weird welsh kids now.