kineticfactory, posts by tag: poll - LiveJournal

The question of Myspace keeps coming up. The few times I've looked at it, I've found it irritating and uninviting. The fact that Murdoch owns it (and the rumours of branding tie-ins with The Sun, undoubtedly bringing more Burberry-clad idiots into it, probably won't help). OTOH, it seems to be the standard place for putting up pages on musical projects and MP3 files; thanks to a savvy bit of marketing, when someone wants to check out a band these days, the first thing they do is look it up on Myspace, meaning that whilst you can avoid it, there is the risk that someone else will register a page in the name of your project and get 99% of the public exposure for that name.

Recently I've spoken to people from various positions: one (on a music-related message board) abhors Myspace and refuses to have aught to do with it, and appears to see having a Myspace page as a sign of a character flaw in another person. Meanwhile, at the Gossip gig last night (which was excellent, though the first support band were a bit ordinary), I struck up a conversation with two kids who were starting an electro night, and who insisted that I should get a Myspace page; presumably it's a badge of citizenship amongst the kids these days. Hence, a poll.

Feel free to inveigh in the comments if you have anything to add.

I'm now listening to Nada Surf's cover of OMD's If You Leave. It's rather good. (Thanks, trayce.)

Entirely by coincidence, a few days ago, I ordered "Pretending To See The Future", the indiepop tribute to OMD, from the Shelflife $1 CD sale, along with a stack of other discs. It should arrive within a week.

The first OMD song I remember hearing was Dreaming. It was playing, quietly, on a ferry on a school trip to Tasmania in 1991. I didn't know what it was, but remembered it when I next heard it. It appealed to me for the same reason that New Order did: the combination of polished electronics, catchy pop melodies, and the human condition. My favourite OMD song now, though, would probably be Souvenir; nicely understated, in exactly the way that the shiny, sassy Pepsi Pop of today isn't, with a good pop melody, and notes of various things (closure, regret, bittersweetness), yet sufficiently enigmatic to not stake its territory in any one small part of the human condition. Brittle Stars' cover of it is also good, with a cello and some shoegazey touches, and Moby's remix/cover is surprisingly non-sucky.

It looks like there is now a new version of that semi-naked-rubber-mannequin flash toy from a few months ago: