Today's Shuffle: 02/13/05


Someone calls me on my "podcast-killer" post, and he's right! Podcasts are a medium, just as blogs are.

A few days ago I posted my 'Today's Shuffle' for 2/8/05, and commented that music was the "podcast-killer" for me.

Eric Rice promptly commented, and then expanded in this post, that I was thinking of podcasts as a genre, rather than a medium.

He's completely right, and it's ironic that I should make the mistake since I'm the one who's always harping on the concept that "blogging" indicates a tool and technology, and not some monolithic definition of the content contained within. In my defense, I read a ton of blogs...and the ones that talk about podcasts seem to harp on the same few talk-oriented ones, rather than music-oriented ones.

Having thought about Eric's post, I did realize that there is one downside to my insular iPod-controlled musical life...I'm not hearing as much new music. Now, every week I go to iTunes and look at the long list of New Releases. I dutifully download their Free Single of the Week, which is usually from a New Release. I still read about music in a couple of magazines. And of course I talk to people. And I'm the kind of music consumer that will automatically buy the album if I like a song, or automatically buy at least something from an artist recommended to me by a trusted source. iTunes certainly makes that much easier.

But it's true that if you're not listening to the radio, you don't hear new music as often or as regularly.

So what kind of podcast would appeal to me? One with no talking...which would then mean it would have to be annotated with the song information, right? One with no advertisements. One almost entirely based on new releases. And while I have a very diverse music collection, I would prefer a podcast that had some music-genre-consistency. Why? Well, if I'm working at home I might want to listen to my adult alternative podcast, but if I'm about to drive up to the City I might want a rock, dance or hip-hop podcast.

So all you people who are podcast aficianados out there...do such podcasts exist? And if so, what motivates the podcast creators? No talking, no ads...do they do it just for the love of sharing good music? I promise I will check out any podcast that meets my perhaps unrealistic requirements!

And with that: here is today's shuffle, a nice mix of American and International music today. Seriously, if you are not familiar with either Johnny Clegg or Youssou N'Dour I cannot begin to tell you what you are missing out on.

Cold Comfort by Luka Bloom
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times by The Beach Boys
Mama, You Got a Daughter by John Lee Hooker
These Days by Johnny Clegg and Savuka (iTunes only has Clegg's earlier work with Juluku, which is also worthwhile.)
Grey Blue Eyes by Dave Matthews (Such a bummer Matthews won't work with iTunes.)
Annie by Vanessa Carlton
M'Lady by Sly & the Family Stone
Marie-Madeleine La Saint-Louisienne by Youssou N'Dour (This song reminds me of Michael Jackson in his good "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" days.)
I Bet You're Mad At Me by Erasure
Violently Happy by Bjork

Posted: Sun - February 13, 2005 at 09:39 AM       EmailFeedback

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