Episodes
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In this episode I talk about the missing drum kits within modern pop music.
I miss hearing the sound of real drums being played in modern music and I was reminded of just how much I miss it when I heard En Vogue's 1997 single 'Don't Let Go' being played on the radio at a shopping mall.
Long live real drums!
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In this follow-up episode I answer 20 more questions related to music and me.
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This episode of 'Music Worth Hearing' puts a spotlight on the album 'Wildcard!' by Sananda Maitreya.
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In this episode I answer 20 questions related to music and me.
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In this episode I share the many reasons why I still listen to much of my music on the compact disc format and why I can't seem to get rid of CDs!
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This episode is a continuition of the key music that has shaped my life. Moving on into early adulthood, I experienced many changes with respect to what I was listening to.
New worlds were opening up, my horizons were expanding, my tastes were gaining more depth and flavour, and many ideas about what music was were being blown apart.
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Have you ever gone to a live concert on your own? If yes, then good on you for making the decision to actually go and experience the music of an artist or band that you love.
Don't miss out just because someone else's schedule doesn't align with yours or no one else likes a particular musician that you do. Go your own way! (Pardon the Fleetwood Mac reference).
Live music is one of the great things that you can experience, irrespective of whether you are attending solo or with friends. When you go solo, you are not really alone anyway, because the minute you arrive at the venue you are surrounded by people. You are part of a community that wants to be there, a community of music lovers who are all there for the same reason and to experience the same thing.
Don't hesitate the next time someone is playing live in your city, if you really want to go and see them. Get there, be there, and be part of the real thing that is live music.
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In this episode I talk with Arthur Turnbull, the lead voice of The Music Snobs Podcast.
We explore many topics including the definition of a music snob, generational differences in music taste and discovery, the evolution of music and the influence of TikTok.
You can follow Arthur on Twitter and Instagram.
And you can follow The Music Snobs on Twitter and Instagram.
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In this episode I talk with Daniele Bolelli, host of The Drunken Taoist and History On Fire podcasts.
Daniele is also a writer and university professor with a passion for philosophy, history and music.
We explore the interesection of those subjects in this episode of OBM.
You can follow Daniele on Twitter and Instagram.
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This episode is about the first music I heard as a child, what I listened to as I was growing up and the music that has shaped me.
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This episode of 'Music Worth Hearing' puts a spotlight on the album 'Rough And Rowdy Ways' by Bob Dylan.
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Good and bad music, what does that even mean? Does bad music exist? Are these terms we should be using to describe music?
I think the idea of anything creative being seen as 'good' or 'bad' is just plain wrong. In reality, it's an irrelevant type of assessment. Who decides what makes a piece of music good or bad?
It's a trap that's easy to fall into and by using those words, we can get stuck in a loop of assessing things from simplified perspectives. Doing so also limits our dialogue with each other. It doesn't allow for nuance when talking about music. Moreso being overly simplistic in referring to music that we do or don't like, makes things too binary.
We all generate opinions based on our personal tastes, and taste is the great differentiator. But it's all relative and subjective.
I think saying that you like a piece of music (and trying to articulate why) is more accurate and meaningful than just placing a stock 'good' or 'bad' label on things.
We have a personal reaction to the music that we experience and that which moves us most. So we're better off thinking about music in terms of how much we enjoy it and why we do, rather than describing it as inherently 'good' or 'bad', because those terms are too basic and somewhat meaningless in the subjective world of music listeners.
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AI and ChatGPT is changing our world and it’s creeping into creative art forms such as music. Maybe it’ll potentially benefit some artists, but there is a fear that it could impact both artists and creative industries negatively as well.
Take this instance for example, someone has made a fake episode of the the Joe Rogan Experience podcast using AI technology! Things are getting out of control and I'm asking the question ‘what the heck are we doing?’ This type of action raises huge questions of legality, ownership of copyright and the world of the creative arts as a whole.
AI technology is already capable of using voice recognition to create voice duplication. This allows it to reproduce the voice of your favourite singers. Pieces of music are being generated with artificial voices singing lyrics that were generated by a computer. Some of these AI voices sound scarily close to the voices that you know and love, like Taylor Swift, Arianna Grande, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Frank Ocean or Bruno Mars.
I'm arguing that this is wrong. It’s the wrong way to be utilising this technology. It’s also blatantly disrespect and in poor taste to mimic other people’s voices, other people’s work, in such an egregious way.
But the cat is out of the bag and its opened up a bag (or can) of worms. This is the biggest technological change in society since the advent of the internet. And from a creative arts perspective, this is arguably the biggest technological change ever.
This is going to change the trajectory of not only us as a species but also of our creative endeavours. From now on, there will be the pre-AI period and the post-AI period.
When considering the history of music, we can draw a line in the sand and say that basically everything created up to the year 2023 was made by people without the overarching influence and impact of AI. So that means that all the music we've had until now is irrefutably human, in the sense that it'll always exist as an entirely human creation. It'll always be there and those original recordings will always exist.
The future will be different - it will likely be an amalgam of our human creative intelligence combined with some sort of an artificial kind. Utimately, there'll be music made of an entirely artifical nature and I find that concept both unfortunate and abhorrent.
But one thing is for sure, our human-created music up to this point is now set in stone and it will last as our enduring human legacy forever.
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In this episode of the Obsessed by Music podcast, I explore the question of whether music is primarily an audio medium.
I reflect on my own habit of dedicating time each week to simply listen to music without any other distractions, as opposed to streaming music on a phone, which is basically a distraction-filled device.
I argue that music is primarily an audio medium, but that visual elements like album art can enhance the experience of listening to music. Even so, I suggest that you should try closing your eyes while listening to music in order to deepen the experience - without any distracting visual stimulus.
Ultimately, music is a remarkable medium that can elevate us, heal us and enrich our lives, and it can do all of that through sound waves alone.
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This episode is about why music is not a commodity.
Music is important. It's a vital part of human creativity. It provides so much value to people. People live with music, dance to it, work out to it, use music to heal, to party, to live with. It's the universal language of the world.
Without music, our evolution as a species would not have occurred in the way that it did, it's a part of our evolution and our DNA.
However, the unfortunate reality is that in some instances music can be produced as a commodity, and in my view, music that can be described in that way isn't worth listening to.
Ultimately, music is not just here to be bought and sold, but a fundamental human expression that transcends any economic or commercial value.
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Daytime is not the best time to listen to music. Why not? Well, there are a number of reasons.
There is comparatively much more background noise during the daytime as compared with night time. At night, peripheral and environmental noise is typically reduced. Noise you have inside your home, that's also a factor. The less of it you have, the better it is for listening to audio.
Why is this important for music listening? Well, becasue you want to ensure as much quiet as possible to create what is called a 'black background'. Like when an artist paints on a black canvas, the colours, or in this case 'sounds', appear more alive and truly pop!
But it's not just about the quiet. Something happens to the body and the mind when the lights go down and the sun sets, when you're in a darker room and when there's less visual stimulus. It takes the edge off. You relax, unwind and focus more on the music you hear.
Listening at night is a much more intense and visceral experience. It's a completely different thing to listening during the daytime. It's chalk and cheese. I guess you could say it's night and day.
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This episode of 'Music Worth Hearing' puts a spotlight on the debut album of Leonard Cohen.
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This epsiode is about the idea of people listening to music that they may not truly enjoy. That is, pretending to like particular artists and albums because doing so seems like the right thing to do.
Surely not everyone in the world loves Sgt. Peppers and feels it is the greatest album of all time, right?
Choosing music that you want to listen to is not a popularity contest!
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In this episode I chat with Randy from the CheapAudioMan YouTube Channel, which is where he reviews audio equipment and helps people find the best value in hifi and home theater.
We talk about why he started his channel focused on reviewing affordable hifi, the music that has shaped him, the impact of a good audio system, live concerts, and lots more.
You can follow the CheapAudioMan at Youtube and Instagram
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In this episode I talk with Michael Fremer - writer, editor and reviewer of all things related to HiFi audio. Michael is notorious for his expertise in the world of analog audio and vinyl records.
We have a wide-ranging chat about the current state of audio, vinyl, the magic of listening to records and the music that he loves playing.
Michael is Tracking Angle.com editor and also editor at large at The Absolute Sound.
You can follow Tracking Angle on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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