Wurlitzer World

I would just like to say - well done everyone from MSTU2000 - some of the blogs have transformed into fantastic sites. Many are difficult to read, some difficult to follow at times, but strangely fascinating (he he he Mr Consumationist)... Many I have wanted to leave comments on, but your comments function didn't seem to be working.

This course was a lot of fun. Music and subcultures still seem to both excite me, confuse me, and astound me... what's the point of listening to music? Why collect music? (when it mostly just gathers dust on your shelves after 5-10 listens) Is consuming music a fundamental part of our existence? Does anyone remember Debbie Gibson?... Her hat?... the 'Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe?...

Imagine if you will a world where no music existed, maybe not even sound - (don't get too technically critical of this - just imagine)... Then along came John Farnham who opened his mouth and sang, "Take the Pressure Down" or more fittingly, "You're the Voice"... wouldn't the new creation/genesis of music just blow us away, wouldn't we all be John Farnham fans.... until we discovered that others could make music, and that John wasn't no longer so good in our mind. What's the point of this hypothetical scenario? I don't know - I'm just trying to capture the special quality of music in my mind... John - come and give us another farewell tour and we could play out this fantasy in our minds...

Firstly, a great blog, with many useful music links. I'm slowly working my way through some of them.

Secondly, not much use for my work, but for those looking at file sharing, here's an interesting article and site.

Finally, for all the music nerds out there - complete your status, by voting on all your favourite CDs/vinyl/burnt CDs etc, and let the world know what you own and why it's good...RATE YOUR MUSIC I couldn't resist and now keep my complete music collection on-line by using this system. This was because my spreadsheed file corrupted - cataloguing, the ultimate proof of music nerd-dom.... Here's mine.

Fans won't play here no more... too much fighting on (anyway)...

The ink has dried up. As I need to redirect this work into a specific essay question, I'm going to stop and think until it comes to me.

This link provides a quick once over about Post-Rock.

I wish I'd read this article before I emailed critic Simon Reynolds asking him for links to sites/articles on Post-Rock. I mentioned in my email that I thought "Post-Rock" was a bad term that in some respects is meaningless. He then advised me that he was the writer who came up with the term...

Triple J have a site where you can make your own fan site. According to a Danny Yau, "A fan site helps to bridge the gap between the star and their fans. Put a message on the messageboard, and the band might answer it. Better still, ask a question and you have hundreds of other fans who might help you, or me who might dig up the answer."

They have a quiz where you can test 'what sort of fan you are'.

I just discovered Simon Reynold's blog. Simon Reynolds, for those who don't know is a well-respected writer on many kinds of popular music. I believe he writes for many British magazines such as Melody Maker, Uncut and Spin. I also found his home page.

Here's an interesting link I've found about musical genres. I have only had a quick read through of it so far. More later.

I did my first subcultural analysis on Krautrock, focussing on it's key artists: Can, Faust and Neu!. I would like to come up with a different subculture for the second assignment and have so far stuck with post-rock. However, the leap from Krautrock to post-rock is not that far... maybe I should go with something completely different.

These are some of the artists that I would consider key post-rock bands: Stereolab, Tortoise, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Talk Talk, Slint, the Sea and Cake, Sigur Ros, Mouse on Mars, Add N to (x), Laika, the High Llamas, Trans Am and Sonic Youth.

Some Australian examples could include the excellent Sydney-based Prop and the Dirty Three.

Broadcast are another fascinating mix of melody, electronics and crazy drums. They could be classified as post-rock.

Meanwhile, I'm still no clearer as to what direction my essay will take. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep linking band sites.