“We’re living in a stylistic tropics. There’s a whole generation of people able to access almost anything from almost anywhere, and they don’t have the same localised stylistic sense that my generation grew up with. It’s all alive, all “now,” in an ever-expanding present, be it Hildegard of Bingen or a Bollywood soundtrack. The idea that something is uncool because it’s old or foreign has left the collective consciousness.”

It’s an exciting time to be a music fan, but an artist… maybe not so much.  There’s just too much for people to choose from.

“In September of 1967, aged 20 and yet to make much of an impression on the music scene, David Bowie was so enthused to receive his first American fan letter that he immediately typed out a reply from the office of his manager, Kenneth Pitt. The fan in question was 14-year-old Sandra Dodd, a young girl from New Mexico who had come to own a promotional copy of Bowie’s first album as a result of her uncle running a radio station. She was impressed and decided to write to Bowie, telling him his music was as good as that of The Beatles and then offering to start a fan club on his behalf.”

Click here to see the lovely reply she received. Or you can squint at the original document, below…

I toldja I was a sucker for best-of-the-year music lists.  This one’s top-notch.

I love me some year end music lists!  This should be a good one, because it comes from one of the most top-notch, top-quality radio stations in the country, 89.3 The Current.

“…a new entrant will be breaking onto the scene at a $5 price point for all-you-can-stream playback and what looks to be a very nice interface for managing your music and playlists. The MOG Music Network has existed previously as an aggregated collection of MP3 blogs along with editorial curated content focused on identifying hot new trends in the music world. On December 2, they’ll be launching their ambitious new subscription service that hopes to find the sweet spot in the music subscription space. Tracks will stream at a high-quality 256Kbps in the for now browser-based service, which has plans to launch a mobile music component by as early as the end of 2009.”

I have a feeling that these guys are gonna get my monies on the reg for a loooooong time!