Nevertheless, I was still a little surprised yesterday morning to hear Andrew Collins play Radiohead’s Idioteque followed swiftly with Milkshake by Kelis. Even on a station as eclectic as 6, that’s a big jump in style.

Image from Wikipedia

But, as I was dancing round my bedroom while trying to find suitable work clothes, I was struck by something just a little odd in the lyrics. And because I am pedantic (or pendantic, as Shaun Keaveny would say) I thought I’d point it out.

The lyrics are (as if you didn’t know):

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, And they’re like, It’s better than yours; Damn right, it’s better than yours,  I can teach you, But I have to charge

I know you want it, The thing that makes me, What the guys go crazy for.
They lose their minds, The way I wind, I think its time.

La la-la la la, Warm it up,
La la-la la la, The boys are waiting

Wait a second? Warm it up?!

I thought we were making milkshake here… Seriously, who warms up a deliciously cold ice cream and milk-based beverage?

Warm milkshake? No thank you, Kelis. No, thank you.

Why Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ Makes Everyone Cry – WSJ.com.

For me, this confirms what I knew all along – music makes you feel awesome. So, I suppose it makes sense that a particular type of audio stimulation causes your body to release dopamine.

Which is a cue for me to crowbar in this joke: Yay!

Serotonin and Dopamine (source toothpastefordinner.com)

P.S apologies for the short post today – it’s the start of a busy weekend, you know. Next weeks posts will be longer, I promise.

This, combined with my recent trip to the Gower in south Wales with hubby, really put home a point for me:

The only place I feel really worry-free and at one with myself is at the coast.

Whether I’m scrambling over rocks at the bottom of cliffs in the freezing cold or  gently strolling along a sunny sandy beach doesn’t seem to matter – I can’t help but feel good; relaxed and alive.

So there we go: I’ve found my happy place – where’s yours?

While I don’t advocate burning old song ideas (and if you read it, you’ll know that what Nicholas is suggesting isn’t as extreme as the title suggests), what this post made me do was actually look through my old song ideas.

And what I found was a scrappy collection of bits and pieces that I’d forgotten about, dumped in folders and notebooks and files on my PC.

Mostly I found lots of terrible lyrics which deserve to be binned, but – and it’s a bit of a big but – one or two were little gems that I had merely mislaid amongst the clutter. Yes, they were unfinished and rough in some cases, but with a little work they could become fully fledged songs.

Do nawt throes me out! I are good idea. (Image from Flickr by Harry R)

So, the moral of the story is this: Do keep your old notes and scraps of ideas, but make sure you actually review them from time to time so that you don’t get bogged down in too many unfinished works.

If the idea is awful and should be cast into the doomed depths of the bin, make the call and do it. If it has merit but needs more work, keep hold of it – but don’t let it linger, forgotten and unloved for months or even years.

I haven’t properly cleared out all my song scraps yet, but I’m planning on having a proper clear out and working on the worthy few this weekend. Hopefully, it will be a cleansing and productive process – and I have to say that I’m really looking forward to it, which is great. I’ve been struggling to get excited about songwriting lately and really struggling to get anything finished, so thank you again, Nicholas, for the virtual kick up the bum. I needed it.

Growing up, I’d never classed myself as a child with ‘gender variance’, but by the definition provided by Ms Tempel, that’s exactly what I was.  I had short hair for years. I wore trousers, sweatshirts and grungy t-shirts with men’s shirts over the top (what? it was the 90′s!). Like Allie, the little girl mentioned in the article, I often received gifts that I could never wear because they were too girly.

When I was younger, the only ‘girl’s’ toys that I liked were animal ones, Sylvanian Families and My Little Pony (but not the pink ones), never dolls. Well, alright, one Barbie, (or possibly Cindy?) doll; she had all her hair cut off, and I wasn’t really bothered when the dog chewed her head. I always wanted to be like my brother and make cool things with Technics Lego, and was always subsequently annoyed that I wasn’t as good at it as he was.

I remember the embarrassing moment on the second day of secondary school when I had to stand up and say “errr, no. I’m a girl, actually” when we were doing an introduction exercise in drama class, and the person who introduced me said “This is Ellie and HE likes…”.

But the thing is, apart from not being recognised as a girl on more than a few occasions, I never felt different, (well, not for liking boy’s things anyway, but that’s another story). I was a girl who didn’t like pink, but I was still a girl.

These days we all seem to have so much marketing, advertising and pop culture thrown at us that reinforces gender roles, that children who don’t conform to these ideas are facing as many, or even more problems than I did when I was growing up. You just have to walk into any large toy shop and you’ll be confronted by a massive display of pink things ‘for girls’ and a massive display of guns, cars and soldiers ‘for boys’.

And that’s why I feel that breaking down gender stereotypes at a young age is an important step, as  Ms Melissa states in her article. Encouraging a school environment where everyone feels comfortable to express themselves surely can’t be a bad thing. Nor can recognising when gender issues are causing problems for a student and addressing them.

However,  I’m not sure that labelling children with ‘gender variance’ is particularly helpful in this case. It makes it sound like a condition, not just a person expressing who they are.  I wonder whether the label here reinforces the stereotype – to be ‘variant’ suggests that you are deviating from the norm, when really, what is normal?

The truth is we all have a feminine side and we all have a masculine side – how much we choose to express each side of ourselves at any one time is entirely up to personal choice and what feels right.

This argument however, as much as I believe that it is true, doesn’t address the way that new technology has had an effect on how we as music fans actually go about listening to music: We are told that albums are in decline, and that consumers these days will only ever download the particular tracks that they want to listen to, and will disregard the rest.

Physical album sales are on the way down, digital sales are on the way up;  ergo, albums are dying.

Everybody knows that, right?

Except, I think that this under-estimates the modern music fan, and how much they care about the music of their favourite artists.

More casual fans may well download just the tracks that they like or have heard on the radio, and not be bothered about checking out the rest of the artist’s work. Dedicated fans who feel that they have a connection with a particular artist, however, are likely to seek out as much material as possible – both new releases and back-catalogue – and the feeling of ownership over the music remains whether it is obtained via digital download or through the purchase of a physical release.

This kind of fan wants to understand the concepts that the artist is trying to put across and are prepared to dedicate valuable time to the listening experience.

Now, let us consider the album itself for a moment. Back in the day, the length of a record was defined by the physical medium on which it was printed. Early recordings were limited to 3 minutes, giving us the classic ’3 minute pop song’. As technology moved on, artists were able to add more songs to their records, giving us the now traditional album format.

Over time, and with the advent of new technology and innovative approaches, the album has, in my opinion, become an art form and not just a format. They can tell stories, explore a theme or concept, or link several themes together through the music and the cover artwork; they are  not just a collection of tracks, but a piece of work as a whole.

This is why I don’t believe that the form will ever really die off completely: people like the experience of listening to a ‘whole’ work. I know I do: I love opening up a CD or record for the first time, looking through the artwork and turning up the volume, sometimes listening again and again until I know the order off by heart. It’s all part of the listening experience for me. I would never consider myself a ‘fan’ of an artist unless I owned at least one of their albums.

Perhaps in the future the market for albums will become a more specialist, but I suspect the album itself will be with us for a while yet. Whether it will still be on disc or another physical or digital format in years to come I don’t know – there are already plenty of creative artists pushing the boundries of what an album is and how it is available – but I think it’ll be fun finding out. Remember, changing isn’t nesessarily the same as dying.

So, that’s my opinion – now I’d like to hear what you think. Let me know in the comments!

Google Doodle to celebrate Nicolas Steno's 374th birthday

I have to confess that I was never good at history at school. I was fairly interested in geography though (well, the bits about volcanos and stuff really, not so much the bits about population growth and migration…), and I enjoy a bit of casual fossil admiration, so my interest was piqued when I saw today’s Google doodle.

Turns out, it was all to do with Nicolas Steno, who was at least partly responsible for modern geology.

So, here’s what I’ve learnt today, thanks to Google (and Wikipedia, heh):

Nicolas Steno was a Danish Bishop and scientist who was a pioneer in both anatomy and geology, and who believed that observation was the key to scientific discovery. He travelled widely through Europe and his scientific contributions include discovering that fossils are the remains of living animals, and the three defining principles of Stratigraphy: the law of superposition, the principal of original horizontality and the principle of lateral continuity.

He sounds like someone who you wouldn’t want to get into an ill-informed argument with, either:

At a time when scientific questions were mostly answered by appeal to ancient authorities, Steno was bold enough to trust his own eyes, even when his observations differed from traditional doctrines.  – Wikipedia

So, happy 374th birthday Steno. I salute you.

There’s a reason for this – to sell, they need to be memorable (which is different to being good!) and they’re on repeat as often as possible, so that they’re seen by as many people as possible. This deadly combination of striving to stick in the mind and endless repetition can have any one of us shaking our heads and moaning at the TV in dispair…

Generally, I try to ignore the clamour of advertisers trying to sell me stuff, but these two adverts really get my goat:

The Activia Yogurt advert -

Apparantly, according to this advert, a yogurt can magically tidy your house, bring in a new light and bright atmosphere, help you feel thin, healthy, and to stick to those elusive New Year weight goals.

I’m not knocking the benefit of yogurt (it’s genuinely pretty good for you, especially if you eat it plain and naturally sugar-free), but can it change your life? I mean, really? And can anyone explain to me what exactly makes this better than a normal bio-live yogurt? Because I just don’t get it.

It’s just a YOGURT!

The Boots the Chemist Advert -

TV adverts have historically been hot-beds of sexist ideals, but this advert manages to insult both women and men by tarring both with the wide sweeping brush of gender stereotypes.

Two clearly ill, cold-hearted women bitch to each other about how much they have to do (while spreading their germs around, I might add), and then callously patronise a man who’s sensibly gone to bed with his cold.  I mean seriously – f**k the ‘I have to keep going like a superwoman regardless of my health’ attitude that’s foisted on us women these days. If you’re ill, call in sick and get some rest, you idiots.

And, also, well done bitch number two for making a man who you supposedly care for look bad while blatantly enforcing the negative male stereotype that all men act hard until they get a little sniffle and then they turn into whiney, pathetic puddles of man flu.

And what’s worse is that they’re clearly trying to be ‘feminist’ with this advert; totally mis-understanding that feminism is about equality and not the sickening “girls are better than boys, ner ner ner” attitude that’s on show here.

*aaand, deep breath*

Sorry, I started ranting… but oooh, it makes me so angry!

Now it’s over to you! Which adverts get you angrily shaking your fists at the TV, and why? Let me know in the comments.

Alright, yes, I’m jumping on the new year’s resolution band wagon again this year. I didn’t fail wholeheartedly last year (I’m still bloggin’, ain’t I?), but some of my firm and passionately made resolutions did fall by the wayside by… um, July (ish).

I guess that’s not as bad as the guy I heard on the radio the other day who resolved to stop smoking and half an hour later had a cigarette in his mouth, but still…

So, this year’s resolution is to finish something. Anything.

It could be a new project; it could be one of the many little half-done things that I have hanging around in my music room looking forlorn and unfinished; it could be the ‘things to do before I’m thirty‘ list that I made; it could even be the never-ending recording project that is my album (finger’s crossed!).

I just want to get something properly and actually finished. Finito. Terminado. Complété. Perficitur.* Done.

On a lighter note – Happy New Year everyone. Hope you enjoyed the celebrations, however you spent them. Oh, and best of luck with any resolutions that you’ve made.

As a little final treat, what better way to start 2012 than with an appropriately January-themed Lolcat?

Image from icanhascheezburger.com

*Thanks Google translate!

I mean, who wouldn’t want to play that riff? Actually, I might have a crack at learning it… I suspect the solo parts may be a bit beyond my basic guitar skills, but who knows, it might just work.

Day 28 – A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty: Friendly Fire, Ben Marwood

Why this song invokes a vague feeling of guilt and sadness I’m not sure. But it does, in a slightly regretful nostalgic way. I guess it’s because the lyrics ring true, although they don’t directly apply to any situation I’ve been in personally, and that, my friends, is the key to excellent lyric writing.

Day29 – A Song From Your Childhood: The Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

We all grow up listening to the music our parents liked. My folks like The Beatles, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac and Mike Oldfield.. you know, that kind of thing… While My Guitar Gently Weeps was and still is one of my favourites from that selection. I love it.

Day 30 – Your Favourite Song at This Time Last Year:  Many of Horror (When We Collide), Biffy Clyro

I was kind of happy when Matt Cardle covered this song last year… I thought, well at least he’s singing a good song and maybe that will draw attention to the original artists Biffy Clyro, who are great (although I was annoyed when they didn’t call it Many of Horror). But then, wondering around a supermarket one day, I actually heard it – a startling example of how sickly sweet over-produced pop-i-ness can decimate a song. S**t.

Oh well, here is the original version in all its glory. ‘Mon the Biffy!

See you all after Christmas!