Last.fm: Why Everyone Should Use It

I know there are a load of services that are kind of similar, but i just thought i'd stick a few words out about this one and why i like it a lot!

What is it?:

Last.fm is a music based social media site which basically logs the tracks you play from your devices like PC's and Phones etc... known as 'scrobbling'. The 'scrobbler' attaches as a plug in to all the mainstream media players and uploads the track information on what you play.

Why I love it:

Mainly cause it's a great way of charting my music interest over time and mapping exactly what kind of music i really do listen to compared to what i think i listen to most (if that makes any sense!). I have always been fascinated by stats and so that is why this appeals to me, i like to understand trends in people and with music being able to convey so much emotion i think it can sometimes say a lot when you look at what you listen to. I love the fact it keeps overall records of how many times you listen to an artist or a song in a kind of 'top of the pops' kind of way and looking at the list its interesting to see unexpected artists high up that you didn't realise you spent so much time listening to.

For example, i have listened to 'Senses Fail' 146 times in the last 12 months, the third amount over the whole year but they sit only 35th on 221 plays in my overall chart. This means that you could maybe say my interest in them has increased dramatically over the last year, whereas Ill Nino for example sit 3rd with 745 plays overall but sit joint 51st with Devildriver on just 25 plays over the last 12 months.......from that very quick, limited and basic snapshot look at 2 random bands, you could say my music tasted has possibly become less heavy and more punky over the last year?...........well i find it interesting anyway!

It also has other great features like suggestions on music you might like (a great way to find new music based on fans 'tagging' artists with genres). Another cool feature is the 'radio stations' basically you can pick a band and click their radio station and it will play a track from them and then a load of tracks by similar sounding bands. You can also log gigs you are going to and tag yourself as 'going' which is cool for finding out if other friends of yours are going too. Theres plenty of other features including free track downloads amongst others so there is loads on offer!

I also like the 'Paint it Black' button too (just restyles the site to black rather than red!), the reverse being 'Simply Red', the small things, especially as i design websites too.

Check my profile out and then sign up yourself!
http://www.last.fm/user/Lawrenciumbc

Muse - Madness Track Review and a Change in Opinion?

I might do a few of these, i listen to a lot of music and always have a view on it so why not blog more about something someone might actually care to read about! (or as a businessman might say 'add value to the customer').

Ok so here's the first one....

Track:

Madness

Artist:

Muse

Album:

The 2nd Law
Track Released: 20/08/12

I first heard this track on the way to work one day on XFM and i have to say, i immediately thought 'not another modern day Muse track!', i thought it was slow boring and i let my preconception of how Muse have evolved over time get the better of me.

I used to be quite a big Muse fan 'in the day' and i really appreciated what  Matt Bellamy did with the bands' music, however it all went wrong (in my opinion) when they released Black Holes and Revelations in 2006 i thought it was 'un-muse-ish' and a step away from what i liked about them. I'm sure the album was great, i just didn't like it and so from then on i've always not been too bothered with whats been released since.

As it was a band i always used to like, i knew what they were capable of and i knew how much more popular they had become since they became less popular with me so i felt compelled to give this a chance (the old cliche; 'for good times sake' springs to mind haha!), plus i didn't have much choice with such a poor choice of radio stations available on my car radio, XFM seemed to play the occasional track that i didn't mind, so maybe this could be one.

Eventually they played it over and over again and the more i heard it, the more i liked it. It has this epic ominous build up for the majority of the song and i thought it was very 'Queen-like' in style, reminiscent of 'We Will Rock You'/'Under Pressure'/'Bohemian Rhapsody' esq i thought. Not in tune but in structure. Another section which i really liked is the eventual emotion release by Matt, excuted perfectly with a great melody behind as he sings 'I need to love' practically at the top of his singing voice.

This made me want to discover more and interpret the lyrical theme of the song. My own initial interpretation was that it was about drug addiction (yeah cliche'd I know) where the character was singing about his love for the drug thats pushing him to emotional extremes before realising that its not the drug he needs to fill the gap in his life, he needs to love (or 'loooooooooooove' as Matt puts it). Then i thought maybe it was about two friends, but after reading about it, i t is actually (apparently) about Matt's relationship with Kate Hudson.

Either way, a roll-reversal in opinion on this one but now it's a track i like a lot and am currently regularly listening to. Good video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w

Strange dream!

Randomly the other night, I had a wierd dream; I was out walking in the woods when I met victoria beckham and former arsenal player marc overmars.victoria was pushing a pram with a small child in and marc had put on some weight, grown dreadlocks and had become a builder. As I stopped to talk, get autographs and photos (this is when i found out about marc's employment), jls (boyband) and acted as if they had been with me the whole time.

The dream pretty much ended there, but what what stood out for me was the variation of the subject matters, my mind digging up a football player of whom I have barely thought about (though occasionally) for at least several years since his retirement and putting him in this completely unrelated situation both visually and the fact that he was a builder?! Then bringing in jls who I can only assume were there cause I heard a song of theirs not long before I went to sleep. I thought this mix of old and recent matters indicated an interaction of different brain sections or something mad like that! Victoria beckham, I have no idea why though!