Word of the Day
Velleity (n., vel-LEE-ih-TEE)
Weak desire, enough to be a longing but not to cross into action, like a cat's desire to enter a house outside a swinging door.
Gif of the Day
AnimalsCatsJumpingInadvisable exercise routinesJumpin' Jehosophat!Good lord that's a lot of energyCALM DOWNDo you hear me? CALM DOWNBack legs beware
Link of the Day
The most timeless songs of all time (and the 1980s)
Over at Polygraph, Matt Daniels tackles the gnarly question of measuring the timelessness of music. Daniels has an interesting tool for this exercise: Spotify. Daniels simply tracked the number of plays a song has on the service, then broke the data out into some beautiful graphs (seriously, they're fantastic; go play around with them). The data is interesting and for good reason too:
What's still popular from different periods in history is almost never the obvious choice. Accolades, Grammys, and cultural dominance mean nothing to future generations.
The artists who have cult-followings and underground appeal: it’s a signal for some undefined musical quality that’s impossible for a hit song to replicate. Perhaps it means that they are culturally ahead of their time. Or perhaps generations will feel obligated to share it, for fear of it fading.
Either way, time will tell.
It's amazing to me how absolutely fresh Nevermind sounds twenty-five years later. Dave Grohl stated that they were trying to make something that sounded like it could be new at any point in history and, well, mission accomplished.
Speaking of timeless music! Pitchfork just released a list of the top 200 songs of the 1980s, and it's weird and gooood. Normally, Pitchfork's arty highbrow act can lead to some wonky stuff but a list like this is perfectly suited for them: only transcendent stuff that surprises even them seeps through, leaving us with a terrific list. The top 20 is emblematic, collecting a strong and eclectic group. And the #1 song? Perfect. Go see for yourself.
ArtMusicTimelessnessLove will tear us apartCultural conversationsAlbum AgePitchfork
Happy Friday
Yukon Blonde - I Wanna Be Your Man
Speaking of music! Make sure your headphone/speaker levels are properly high enough before starting this fuzzbomb of a track: