Musical Holocron

This rolled past my feed today. This is a list of the first 50 videos that played on MTV when it was debuted. I was already aware that "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles was the first video, but was not sure what else might have come next.

Found via Facebook.

It's got me thinking. How long before MTV was a thing had musicians and labels been making music videos for their songs? I mean, where did the idea come from that in addition to audio output, they would also produce a video to accompany the song. According to my quick search, music videos are as old as the 1960s at least. The earliest music video may be Tony Bennett's "Stranger in Paradise" from 1956. Stuff like that was produced for American Bandstand and other TV shows. So I guess the practice was gaining traction for a while.

But really, the question I'm asking is who knew there would be a need to fill 24 hours of time with music videos before MTV announced they would be starting it? I guess you can't make an MTV unless these videos already existed and you could use them. I look over the list of the first 50 and see four Rod Stewart songs, four REO Speedwagon songs, and two each by Pat Benetar, Iron Maiden, Lee Ritenour, Pretenders, Styx and The Who. Some of these songs were ridiculously popular chart toppers and hold up well today. Some of them I've never heard of. Who told these artists to make sure they produced music videos to go with their songs? To me it felt like an art form --the creation of music videos-- that didn't have an outlet anywhere prior to MTV landing.

The answer to my question seems to be that there had been a lot of music videos produced prior to the 1980s. Some of them were made as "promo videos" for the songs. And although there wasn't a station that was showing them 24/7, there were plenty of outlets on various programs around the world. The videos were sometimes clear advertisements designed to promote the songs, with perhaps no "art" value on their own. Read more about the history of music videos here.

I slapped together a Spotify playlist of all of the songs from this list I could find (44/50). It might make more sense to create a YouTube playlist at some point, so that it includes the actual videos, but I'll save that as an exercise for later (or someone else). Check it out here or below.

Labels: history, MTV, music, music/artists/iron-maiden, music/artists/lee-ritenour, music/artists/pat-benatar, music/artists/pretenders, music/artists/reo-speedwagon, music/artists/rod-stewart, music/artists/the-who, video

# posted by ArcoJedi : 19:49  0 comments

What do you know about this French sextet performing "I'm Crazy About My Baby" in the square at Saint Sernin, in Toulouse?

Fantastic.

Labels: busking, genre/jazz, music, music/artists/ramène-ta-trompette, music/banjo, music/clarinet, music/trombone, music/trumpet, music/tuba, music/washboard

# posted by ArcoJedi : 18:28  0 comments

Well this came as a shock when I saw this post today. But I guess it's true.

John Williams conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a memorable performance of his "Imperial March" from Star Wars during a gala to celebrate his 90th Birthday in 2023.

John Williams conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a memorable performance of his "Imperial March" from Star Wars during a gala to celebrate his 90th Birthday in 2023.

It makes me think of the future and the artists we will eventually lose. What an important contribution he made to the world. What a legend.

Source: Imgur.

Labels: genre/classical, genre/soundtrack, music, music/artists, music/artists/john-williams, star-wars

# posted by ArcoJedi : 02:04  0 comments

I present to you... this weird hold music that I had to identify.

Labels: genre/instrumental

# posted by ArcoJedi : 12:45  0 comments

TikTok user @realityshowreject (L. Rodgers) posted a great ~2 minute video talking about the Christmas hymn Oh Holy Night and how it is an abolitionist Christmas song. She explains more and also sings a beautiful rendition of one verse and chorus.

@realityshowreject Merry Christmas Y’all #fyp #christmas #oholynight ♬ original sound - L. Rodgers

You can read the full lyrics of this song, in a version by CeCe Winans here:

At our house every Christmas, our favorite rendition that must be played on high volume is this one by Josh Groban.

However you celebrate...

Labels: genre/christmas, genre/hymns, history, holidays/christmas, music, music/artists, music/artists/josh-groban

# posted by ArcoJedi : 15:03  0 comments

Let me quickly tell you about a new website I learned about called Music-Map. You can type in the name of an artist and get a variety of similar artists in a simple, visual relationship cloud. The closer the two names are, the greater the probability people will like both artists.

Let's try a few examples, just off the top of my head:

Tool

Metallica

The Beatles

Jace Everett

Blue Öyster Cult

Most of the major streaming services, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and so on, all have built-in recommendation engines. You listen to one song or one artist or play a playlist of your favorites, they have an additional 10 songs for you to add. As a manual music recommendation engine, Gnod's Music-Map is pretty interesting because it shows you visually the relationship between different bands and artists, allowing you click from one to the next through degrees of separation. It's more interactive and purposeful and it fulfills a research role as well. The major streaming providers could learn a thing or two here and incorporate something similar into their paid services. But regardless, check out Music-Map.com.

Found via Imgur.

Labels: music, music/artists, music/artists/beatles, music/artists/blue-oyster-cult, music/artists/jace-everett, music/artists/metallica, music/artists/tool, streaming

# posted by ArcoJedi : 22:34  0 comments

Rob Kindle, who was at one time the guitarist in a band with me called Dirty Soap, has himself a YouTube channel and has been posting himself playing bluegrass and acoustic guitar music. Check it out.

Labels: Dirty Soap, friends, genre/bluegrass, local, local/saint-louis, music, music/artists, music/artists/rob-kindle

# posted by ArcoJedi : 20:52  0 comments

@patrickhicks82 Attention you must pay #musictok #musicstory #musichistory #80smusic #80shiphop #oldschoolhiphop #hiphophistory ♬ original sound - Patrick Hicks Music Stories

Found on TikTok.

Labels: genre/hip-hop, genre/rap, history, music, music/artists, music/artists/salt-n-pepa

# posted by ArcoJedi : 21:37  0 comments