Thoughts: Emily White's Post on NPR's All Songs Considered

I Never Owned Any Music to Begin With, Emily White.


This is an interesting, discussion-provoking article, though it's another one of those things that doesn't make me feel very proud of my generation. I've been thinking about it quite a bit this week. Mostly because it's not descriptive of everyone in or around my age bracket and, the big annoying thing, it's more fuel for many members of the older generations to make condescending, sweeping generalizations, like "you kids don't appreciate anything" and keep up the bah-humbug "get off my lawn" mentality. (Ahem... who raised us again?) Those are the type of comments the piece initially spawned. Basically, I know this is a vicious cycle, but I'm still tired of my generation getting shit on. And I raise you the old adage "the world sucks, why can't we all just get along?"


On supporting the music...


Plenty of my Tumblr and last.fm friends, whether they're in my age group or not, purchase music on a regular basis—in fact, one of them just went and excitedly ordered an LP, prompted by an audio post I made. When able, my music blog cohorts purchase and support tons of music; we give lots of little-known artists exposure and several of them have repeatedly thanked us. We like going to shows and purchase merch directly from the artists when we can. It's a privilege, one that many of us do feel lucky to have, even while most of our peers are suffering widespread unemployment, underemployment (myself as well), drowning in student loan debt (myself as well), and mountains of other "life stuff." This is a lot of what I see.


Those who download music illegally shouldn't be vilified, and I'm tired of how major corporations and the RIAA are still handling this issue, still kicking and screaming, seemingly refusing to realize that the industry has changed. Mostly, while I think it's unfortunate that countless employees have been laid off, I think it's karma for their decades of corporate greed, ripping off artists with shady record deals, etc. To sort of counter illegal downloading, there are plenty of useful sites that allow streaming and sharing of music, like Turntable.fm and Spotify, that plenty of people take advantage of. Still, I'll say that no vilification is necessary. Sharing music with friends is something that's always happened, whether it's copying a tape, burning a CD, or passing around MP3s. When someone shares an MP3, nothing is really, truly lost by that—there's no money in packaging or anything physical. So, isn't that a better method for sharing? It's just a copy of an MP3; nothing is subtracted from the original. I'm probably mostly speaking for the indies here, but I know that a lot of the musicians I listen to don't particularly mind when people share their music in such a way to get the word out. That leads them to actually sell records and get audiences at their shows that they wouldn't have otherwise had.


In the NPR piece, Emily White does come off extremely entitled, but I want to believe her heart is in the right place, as it appears she supports a lot of the musicians by going to their shows. Most artists tend to make more money off gigs anyway. I know there are plenty of people my age and younger who follow the 'responsible' example when they have the privilege of doing so. For digital music, I don't see the iTunes store folding and Bandcamp is pretty cool (many bands there take advantage of a pay-what-you-want model, which is awesome). For supporting physical music, Record Store Day has been a very successul thing; the stores are completely packed with people of all ages that day. I feel a sense of pride in supporting my favorite musicians and supporting my favorite record stores. A lot of my "fun" money goes toward records. When I can, I buy a lot of records (yes, actual RECORDS) I wouldn't have otherwise heard if I wouldn't have downloaded them. My taste is admittedly obscure, so it's harder to find full-album streams of them on various sites anyway. It's nice to have that large album artwork and those liner notes, to be able to plop the record down on the turntable and slide the needle over. I like the whole tactile experience and I'm thankful of that privilege. I tend to lament on how there aren't many of my peers who partake in this music-listening experience... but we are still here, I promise.


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Also, check out Bob Collins' NPR response, showing the two different types of comments the post has elicited.


Further reading on the music industry:


Courtney Love does the Math (Courtney Love) via salon.com — From 2000, still relevant.


The Problem with Music (Steve Albini) via MaximumRockNRoll — From the early 90s, still relevant.

Reads: Rookie, Quiet, Big Fat Love, and Science Points Out the Obvious Once Again

Rookie: On Competitiveness

"The key to maintaining my competitive streak as just that, a streak, rather than a river running red with the blood of my perceived opponents, is being able to recognize that it’s unreasonable to expect perfection from myself in every realm of my life."

As someone who can be really hard on herself, this is pretty relatable. I've learned to let go on some things, but mostly still have to tell myself to chill out in social situations on a daily basis (that combined with pretty terrible social anxiety = not good) and it's always comforting to hear someone else's struggle.

Also: How to Make Strawberry Jam. This is a delicious reminder to add this to this summer's to-do list.

LiveScience: Morning People Are Actually Happier Than Night Owls

Ah, a no-duh scientific study tells me why I'm a crotch nearly every morning at work and how morning people are generally happier. (In other news: the sky is blue.) It seems odd to study teenagers initially on this sort of thing (well, most studies are problematic in one way or another), but anyway, it's no surprise that our society is better geared toward morning people, from our school years to working adult lives. It's pretty unfair that society isn't nearly as accomodating to night people. (Ah, to be successfully self-employed!) Then we have to combat those chipper morning folks driving us up the wall right off the bat. Waking up the sound of an alarm clock is one of the most unpleasant sounds I can think of, right next to all of those chirp-happy AM birds. My brain is generally screaming something to the effect of "NO! NOT AGAIN FUCK THIS SHIT!" as the bastard alarm wakes me up. I have a half-hour commute and have to be at work at 7am, which I don't think my body will ever properly adjust to. My coworker knows to pretty much just avoid me. I tend to get annoyed at nearly every little thing until about 11 or noon, which is just fundamentally ridiculous when you really think about it. The boyfriend even knows to just go away and let me sleep until my body is ready to wake up on the weekends. My family knows I'm scary. I tend to want to stab somebody in the face in the morning, especially those sunny, chipper morning people. GAH, SO ANNOYING. SHUT UP. IT IS NOT A "GOOD MORNING." Yep, I'm sorry for snapping, but just know that it's best to avoid me and don't ask complex tasks of me in the morning.

Shakesville: Big Fat Love

I love body size positivity posts. They're a bright spot in a sea of relentless (and shameless) Internet (or otherwise) bullying. This is one of those things that should probably be printed out and passed around.


Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

I saw Susan Cain on a TED talk (watch the video here) and enjoyed her presentation enough to check out her book. Plenty of positive vibes for introverted people. There's hope for us yet!

Bonus Video: I'm not much of a music video watcher these days, but I've been enjoying the video for Plateaus' "Do It for You". There's something calmingly nostalgic about it... the lo-fi music in combination with the grainy video quality and the claymation especially. Gives me warm fuzzies of growing up in the 90s, watching VHS tapes over summer break.

Tunes: The Trashwomen

It's hot, it's sunny, and it's humid. It's a good day for surf rock. ...But I'll probably tell you that in a -10° snowstorm.

The Trashwomen were formed in the early 90s by three women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their name is a play on 1960s Minneapolis surf-weirdos the Trashmen. Californians doing surf rock is a no-shit, but not everyone plays/played it with such vigorous, garage-y trashy gloriousness. They're like a more surf-oriented Mummies in leopard print. Same time frame and area of the world.


Lust was a vinyl EP released in 1992; it contains four instrumental tracks. (Well, "Dragula" has vocals if you count the evil Dracula laughs and the girls' shrieks of B-horror terror.) Guitarist Elka Zolot rips. As far as I can tell, it's pretty difficult to obtain said EP, but you can download it in full here. Their LPs, The Trashwomen vs. Deep Space (1994) and Spend the Night With The Trashwomen (1996) followed. Avoid if you can't stand awful sound quality; proceed if you just want to go nuts to some wild rock 'n' roll. Listen to "Nightmare at the Drag" (off Spend the Night) below.

Record sleeve from here.

Style: Hey, how about some China Glaze?

How many self-indulgent bloggers does the world need, you ask? Well, one more wouldn't hurt, would it? I'm not even that funny or interesting, but sometimes I get bored and feel like rambling about things in a public bloggy forum. This is only the hundredth(?) blog I've had. It's a well-known, yet ever strange little compulsion in our tech-dominated society, for better or worse.


So, what's the topic at hand today? O-M-G NAIL POLISH. Seriously, I'm going to do a nail polish post, because I wisely (debatable) ran out and splurged (sounds like splooged) a bunch my hard-earned cash on nail polish like it was *insert highly-addicting drug*. In the giant scheme of things, what a dumb thing to waste money on. I can't even justify it, other than "OMG, I LIKE COLORS AND I SHOULD GET SOME NAIL POLISH 'CUZ IT'S BEEN LIKE TEN YEARS" only not really ten years. Hugely impulsive. Maybe my inner art student poked its head out and demanded that I expand my collection of paints and polishes to rival the glorious swatches of Pantone? (I may have recently bought some watercolor cakes as well.) I suppose it's nice to have a little bit of frivolous fun every once in a while. Besides, the student loan vampires can hold off on collecting my funds for at least a little while. Yeah, that'll show 'em.


Now, let's get right into the thick of it. I am China Glaze-gaga right now. If you go to head2toebeauty, they're $3, but it's only a good deal if you're getting a lot of them, since shipping will get ya. I'm impressed with the wide variety of awesome colors CG has. It's gonna be a 95° weekend here, so here are some summer-oriented colors.


China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Bitchin'. Just bitchin' in the sunlight. A festival of fabulous purple. I'm not generally a huge purple person (scarring images of a purple people eater?), but this purple is pretty, bold, and slightly pink-tinged, rather than blue, which is generally preferable. It went on nicely and looked decent after one coat, but I added a second for good measure. It's kinda BAM! I'M HERE, LOVE ME!, but still cool, hangin' out with its shades on... if that makes any sense. (No, it doesn't. And yes, that is a plush sushi in the last photo.)


China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

Ah, cutesy name... I see what they did there. I did an awful job of applying this one, but I love these pale blue-green minty tones. Maybe they're more spring than summer due to the creaminess, but who's counting? Mint is kinda classy. It makes me feel classy and I'm decidedly not a very classy person, just crotchety most of the time. This takes two or three coats.


China Glaze Lemon Fizz

I was initially concerned about trying a pale pastel yellow. Mainly because colors like that and baby pink do not work on me in any way whatsoever. I don't really love yellow that much usually, so I conveniently drop it into that category of GET AWAY FROM ME with pale baby coo-coo pinks. But, damned if my pasty nothern European epidermis didn't kind of pull this one off. It's a creamy, not overly bright, delicious (eating not advised) yellow, a frosty glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. Mmm. Neon yellow is probably better suited for summer heat, but Lemon Fizz is just where it's at. Definitely took three coats; yellows are tricky.


China Glaze Strawberry Fields

Strawberry fields forever. Talk about succulent in two coats. A wearable hot pink with an orange shimmer. If that doesn't scream summer, then I don't know what does... besides an ice cream truck.


China Glaze Cha Cha Cha

A lovely shimmery golden spring green in two coats. Last photo is truest to its color 90% of the time. Gimme a green any day of the week. When I had this on, I kept getting distracted by its glow. Wowee. The only bad thing is that the metallic-tinged polishes show brush strokes, but I can't resist its allure. The boyfriend even loved it. I tried to get him to agree to a lovely coat of polish, even with the promise that he'd be so very pretty, but no such luck.


I'm discovering the wonders of using a base coat before applying color. I got a bottle of Seche Clear. And I'm trying to figure out how I feel about matte finish nail polish. It makes the nails look crazy artificial or something. I just don't know what it is about it. Add a shiny topcoat and I'll come around, but until then... these mattes are a mystery. Where's Nancy Drew when you need her? Or maybe the Scooby Gang could help, especially if things get a little dicey in a demonic sort of way...