Music

-- Tadashi Suzuki    

Tunes

I love music, man. It's got everything in it: rhythm, counterpoint, harmony, story. I like that music is available on the internet. It makes for more interesting stuff. Napster should be legal and free. Here's why (lifted from slashdot.org):

I most certainly increased my CD buying as a direct result of Napster. I can't say whether such behavior reflected the majority or minority of Napster users, but considering the almost precise correspondence between growing (then suddenly falling in spring 2001) online music trading and growing (then suddenly falling in spring 2001) record sales, the statistics strongly support the former.

Laws are supposed to arise from the consent of the governed. When most of the governed are engaging in an activity with a clear conscience, it probably shouldn't be illegal, unless it carries some hidden negative consequences unseen by the uneducated majority. In the case of Napster, though, there were two hugely positive consequences: free access to the largest cultural repository the world had ever seen, and increasing CD sales to boot.

The argument that we should suddenly rewrite and reinterpret the past 200 years of copyright law (in which noncommercial infringement was generally held to be inactionable) just to kowtow to what the misguided oligopoly trying to retain their control over mass expression and culture mistakenly feels is their own self-interest is utterly absurd.

Below I list stuff I've been listening to lately. If you know good music, please let me know.

• Freeloaders
• Zepplin
• The MC5
• Underworld
• Beetoven (piano stuff)
• Bob Dylan
• Deltron 3030
• Tribe Called Quest
• The Who
• Metallica
• The Chemical Brothers
• Loreena Mckennitt
• NOFX
• The Bouncing Souls
• Op Ivy

I'll put some deeper thoughts about music up real soon, chief.