You listen to the radio, you hear the chatter in the coffee shop, you go out to the hottest club–looking your hottest–and you hear the most popular songs of the time. But do you really? The music leaking out of the overhead speakers while you’re shopping or while you’re partying is a limited selection to be exposed to. I give Lady Gaga her earned props, but she isn’t all that’s out there.
Alright, so where do you go to get the latest on the greatest of musical creation? The Internet. Yes, the provider of knowledge sought, the source of entertainment, the overflowing web of informative connections: the Internet has what you have been looking for. Mostly when searching for information we stay true to Google. Remember that time you were sitting with a group of inquisitive friends by UCF’s popular reflection pond hoping to, you know, reflect? There you are with these friends of yours, and you can’t remember the meaning of a word or exactly when that new movie with Ryan Gosling came out. You pull out your “smart” phone (you wouldn’t ask me for my “dumb” phone) and you Google the answer. Yay, Google!
But then you get this extended list of links to click on, and then you have to discern which links are legitimate or monitored by crackpots – who have no clue as to what they’re talking about and just like to make up stories. Maybe these are the ones who drop out of college to live like Hemmingway.
Try this: explore a website that follows other music blogs. Sounds like the best game of Follow the Leader I have ever heard of. Check out http://hypem.com/. The full title of the site is Hype Machine, which is pretty appropriate since it regenerates music that gets a lot of hype in the blog world. Put simply on the top of the homepage, “every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love – and it all ends up here.”
This innovative site has a team of music lovers who hand-select noteworthy music blogs and present bits of their content for easy perusing. You can find out about the most contemporary music circling the “blogosphere,” browse by genre, search for specific songs and artists, and even see what other users are posting. Hype Machine has a ‘make an account’ option, but it isn’t necessary. You can still explore without memorizing yet another password! However, logged-in users of Hype Machine can get weekly emails full of news, album premiere information, and summaries of the user’s individual site usage.
Hype Machine says on their ‘About’ page, “We are creating tools that empower independent voices that write about music. We think a select group of passionate people can produce more engaging conversation…we amplify their posts and the audio they choose, to help this vibrant culture spread.”
Also featured is a section called “Music Blog Directory.” This page lists every blog they follow, organized by genre. It’s an easy way to find the blogs you want to read.
I had coffee with a guy who told me you have to do your own research to find out the truth. That can take extra work, but you might find what you’re looking for if you start that journey on your own and deviate from the expected norm. It’s not like sailing across the Atlantic to find the New World. Set sail with Hype Machine. You could find your new anthem.
By the way, if you are craving interesting tracks from the Hip Hop, Dubstep, House, Electro, and Indie genres, check out http://freshnewtracks.com/. They post about mashups too. These writers are adept with their words and have distinguished taste.