Saturday, January 08, 2005
One Person's Classic Rock...
by Tom Bozzo
For this one, I explored a new-to-me feature of iTunes: exporting playlists for outside uses. Here's what I got when I added the year of release to other playlist metadata:
None of the above were released in the last 10 years, and the average vintage (weighted by running time) of the songs in the playlist is, as depicted, 1989 — not uncoincidentally the year I turned 21.
While most of the bands listed above, let alone the specific songs, are not widely known, I see in the track list for the Rhino Records compilation of Billboard top hits for '89 a bunch of supposedly popular songs whose tunes I could not produce even under quasi-legal interrogation methods by theTorturers' Guild Bush Justice Department. I mean, I know who New Kids on the Block are (or were), but not precisely what they did.
Perhaps not unsurprisingly, our '80s-retro station draws heavily from MTV-friendly New Wave, though they might be reminded that The Cars had more than one hit.
Turn the clock back another sixteen years, and the same cannot be said. You'd have to have been living in hermetic isolation from pop culture in '89 not to have recognized "Crocodile Rock."
Digital jukebox software and high-speed CD-R drives are ruthlessly efficient compared to traditional mix-tape production methods. Nevertheless, as an old dog–new trick matter, I still tend to listen to music in the car the old-fashioned way of playing one CD over and over until I'm ready to chuck it out the window. Chuck-it point for the outgoing mix was Thursday.
For this one, I explored a new-to-me feature of iTunes: exporting playlists for outside uses. Here's what I got when I added the year of release to other playlist metadata:
None of the above were released in the last 10 years, and the average vintage (weighted by running time) of the songs in the playlist is, as depicted, 1989 — not uncoincidentally the year I turned 21.
While most of the bands listed above, let alone the specific songs, are not widely known, I see in the track list for the Rhino Records compilation of Billboard top hits for '89 a bunch of supposedly popular songs whose tunes I could not produce even under quasi-legal interrogation methods by the
Perhaps not unsurprisingly, our '80s-retro station draws heavily from MTV-friendly New Wave, though they might be reminded that The Cars had more than one hit.
Turn the clock back another sixteen years, and the same cannot be said. You'd have to have been living in hermetic isolation from pop culture in '89 not to have recognized "Crocodile Rock."
