1.7.12 Music Video News, The Tonight Show, more

Fair warning - scroll bar for all those who want to avoid strolling along my late night musings written to the backdrop of music by the unknowns, in this case 'Young the Giant' and streamed via Sophie Radio.

An eternity ago, or about 2 1/2 years ago to be exact, I fell over my first Upright Cabaret video of an artist I had never heard of, but who was creating all kinds of media buzz.

Until then I used to expect very little of myself when it came to pop music or even solo singing performances of modern music in general. Listen for minute, start yawning, stop the video utterly bored, move back to whatever was going on prior to the detour. Rock, classical music? That was different, there the chances were better, but in pop (in the widest sense), that was pretty unheard of.

Then Adam made me detect the replay button and taught my fingers how to find it blindly. He made me sit up and LISTEN. Through background noise, bad recording, waiters serving drinks, whatever it was, his voice, his lyrical interpretation, his performance style just came piercing though right into my shattered set of expectations.

And with that my trip down the rabbit hole began. One thing that I knew I would find down that rabbit hole was MUSIC AGAIN. Music I could be exited about, music that was worth listening to with attention, music that was worth talking about. Music that was not only background noise, but that would move me, as in take me from one place and drop me off in another. There were other elements to the journey, but this musical journey was certainly a big part of it.

I began with all the originals to the music Adam was covering or talking about, his own list of musical influences, things other Adam fans were recommending and bit by bit my music horizons got widened more than I ever could have imagined even months earlier.

One important discovery for me was that while Adam was compared to or measured against the divas or the present list of pop stars, I personally found that I could or did not want to transition in my musical interests to what they were singing - I still often barely last longer than 1 minute with their songs. But on the other hand I have found again and again that certain Indie music captured my interest quite easily. While nobody compares to Adam, lol, at least it allowed me to tune in where otherwise I had tuned out a long time ago. Musically, Adam has more in common with lots of the indie music out there than with the commercial crap on the charts. And the charts have started changing too, Adele and Bruno are sounding different than what we heard in the first decade of the millenium and probably leading ahead. But acts like Foster the People, Bon Iver on mainstream radio show that things have started to change. The only hurdle with indie music is to find the best fishing grounds in the huge pond that they are swimming in.

I noticed too that Sophie below has stopped putting Adam up against other big artists who might be disappointed or hurt to be "slaughtered" by the glam voting army. Now Adam is put up against artists who are unknown in the mainstream pop world and Sophie is with this serving a crossover function between these often way too separate worlds of label vs indie.

They have decided to use our attention for something good, which is to introduce certain indie music acts to us. What a great idea and what a gift to us for our loyalty of visiting them with regularity.
They have made me listen up and especially today with Young the Giant, I found the music quite enjoyable, not earth shattering in a change the world kind of way, but worthy a listen or a hit of the replay button.

So, I find it interesting that this discussion today led others down the same path. Hoopla, really enjoyed your post too, but I'm not quoting it, because it would make the quote huge, but it sounds like you also found new music there. 8-)



So, I have today decided to buy some songs that I like via their provided links. Adam may be getting the 97 % on these polls, which for me starts to have the character of "going there to leave my mark - tell them they are still having my attention", but truly I have started to branch out and find other music that interests me.

Adam has not yet got his sophomore album out, but he has changed my music world well beyond just FYE and has brought all kinds of musical influences to me and I know I am not alone with that. While we wonder how much Adam over time will change or influence the pop music scene or where his own musical direction will take him, he indirectly has already taken his fans to new music.
So for me my vote on Sophie is done with interest and enthusiasm. I find that a worthy cause, which to be honest, I have a hard time seeing in what Q102 is doing with their nonsense polls.

Ooooh - can I play? Here's one of my favorite Sleepwalkers, from Singapore promo. It cracked me up and made me smile cuz I love that crowd. Also, a fascinating pre-GNT acoustic version:



okay, finally figured out how to embed!

Thank you! This made me think of my favorite Mad Wold performance and I could never find the one where you can SEE him but your post led me to it.

He takes this version to church starting at around 3:00. Holy jesus. All three of them were on fire especially Adam and Longineu.

I wonder why they never did a version like this again?

Mine too, the radio station finally released good video/audio of some of the songs Adam sung here, but faded them out to intersplice their interview with him in their online video. :(

I caught myself seriously wondering if we could bribe them to post the full audio and video versions of the songs since they have them recorded. I'd contribute to that kickstarter, ngl.