Sound #26 - Girl, Put Your Records On

Social networking with music was, for me and my generation, dancing in my parents' living room with my friends while one of these (left) scratched out "I Think I Love You" by the Partridge Family while we belted out the words into our hairbrushes. We only shared our records with our close friends - or at least, those within walking distance of each other's turn tables and respective "33's and 45's." (If you know what these are, I'm impressed.) The idea of finding commonality through favorite music with strangers online would have been...well, strange. Welcome to the 21st century.

I'm not on Facebook or My Space, nor will I probably ever join. I'm not against these social networking sites, they're just a little too personal for my taste. This blog is about as close to you people as I'm willing to go and that's only because it's relatively anonymous. LOL I did look at the featured music sites, however. Some of them are paid subscription based, if you want the full range of music options. The free or "free trial" option only gets you 30 seconds of your favorite songs -- a taste of what you could have if you're willing to cough up the moolah for the real deal. No thanks. For the resident Mix Master, the editing sites seem like a cool way to "mash up" several of your favorite songs to create your own -- often better than the original -- OR, to write and edit your very own. I think this is terrific for aspiring young (or old) musicians who might otherwise not have access to a recording studio. Meanwhile, while I've traded in my record player for an iPod (which has the Partridge Family hits loaded on it), I've still been known to belt out some tunes into my hairbrush from time to time. Fortunately, it's in the privacy of my bathroom, although sometimes it's accompanied by the horrified stare of my 18 year old son, who shakes his head and mutters, "That is just SO wrong."