The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll

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I have a personal story about the Go Betweens and their first album Send me a Lullaby but it’s not very interesting. Probably more interesting are Roberts Foster’s “10 Rules of Rock and Roll”

  1. Never follow an artist who describes his or her work as ‘dark’
  2. The second-last song on every album is the weakest
  3. Great bands tend to look alike
  4. Being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job
  5. The band with the most tattoos has the worst songs
  6. No band does anything new on stage after the first 20 minutes
  7. The guitarist who changes guitars on stage after every third number is showing you his guitar collection
  8. Every great artist hides behind their manager
  9. Great bands don’t have members making solo albums
  10. The three-piece band is the purest form of rock and roll expression

I agree with most rules, although I can also name a couple of exceptions just to confirm them.

If you want more get the book…

You don’t miss what you’ve never heard

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I have fallen into the trap of spending money on Hifi equipment some time ago and people generally don’t really understand why I would be doing that. The following is a very true statement to describe the situation:

I know some of you are thinking you can’t hear the difference. The thing about quality audio is that it’s something of an acquired taste, few people yearn for high-end sound, and even a brief encounter with a great speaker or headphone might not win you over. You don’t miss what you’ve never heard, and I’m reaching for analogies here, but if you never tasted fresh-squeezed orange juice and only drank OJ from a carton, would you automatically appreciate the superior taste of the real thing?

via The $1,350 ‘earbud’: Is it worth it? | The Audiophiliac – CNET News.

Just in case you are wondering, I am not going to buy those earbuds, but I have spent more than average on the ones I am using…

Vinyl records are the hardcovers of the music industry

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BoingBoing quotes the opinion of an ethicist (?) who says:

Buying a book or a piece of music should be regarded as a license to enjoy it on any platform.

I very much share this point of view. If you have bought the vinyl record, downloading the mp3 for free is acceptable. The interesting distinction here is between legal and ethical.

NYT ethicist: OK to pirate ebooks once you’ve bought the hardcover

The end is near…

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At this stage, I would say that the announcement by Hifi-company Linn to stop CD player production is probably as much a publicity stunt as it is truly reflecting the market. It works though, because I wasn’t aware of their Digital Stream players before.

Anyway, I wanted to comment on somebody else’s comment on the the same subject, because it very much reflects my thinking.

This fact confirms what we have been writing for years: the future of Music sales is liquid (digital download of studio master files for hi-quality and MP3s for the masses) while physical media lovers will be content enough with high quality pressings on vinyl. While this is a clear trend if one considers software sales, this decision by Linn seems to be the first, strong step towards the abandon of the CD format from the hardware point of view.

via Linn stops CD players production! – [English].

It has been some time now that I have stopped buying CD. Instead I buy (lots of) LP’s for at home and listen to mp3 on the go…