{"id":3738,"date":"2009-09-28T23:43:33","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T06:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2009-09-30T01:58:21","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T08:58:21","slug":"in-defense-of-myspace-good-music-good-art-and-good-crap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/archives\/3738","title":{"rendered":"In defense of MySpace: good music, art and real shit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2018The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.\u2019 -Sir Thomas Beecham<\/em><\/p>\n

My current taste in music comes from too much exposure to MySpace<\/a>. Music keeps me designing. Keeps me focused. Keeps me in The Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My music picks bounce around a lot<\/a>. They\u2019re personal. The one constant: I won\u2019t sync with a new band until I\u2019ve been to their MySpace page and test driven.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I keep seeing remarks\/writings\/commentary that MySpace is in its 15th minute.<\/a> Which is such the 21st Century Thing To Do, isn\u2019t it?
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trending: it\u2019s over?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s The American Way to build something up and then tear it down. Move along, there\u2019s nothing to see here.<\/em> Well, I\u2019m still on MySpace<\/a>. Not as often as Twitter<\/a>, but there\u2019s something fun about MySpace – where for me it hasn\u2019t lost its goofy charm. And I\u2019d say overseas, it\u2019s still going \u2013 I\u2019ve heard from several European friends that MySpace seems to work better outside the US. Easier load times; which is good, because on my end \u2013 it\u2019s like days for my own page to snap into place.<\/p>\n

Last year someone told me that Facebook was The Thing to be on \u2013 that an \u2018undesirable element\u2019 hangs out on MySpace. Which that comment alone caused me to dig in my heels a bit. I like \u2018undesirable elements.\u2019 They\u2019re fun<\/em>. <\/p>\n

I take it as the scene from Titanic<\/a> \u2013 Facebook is the stuffy upper decks, MySpace is the gang in steerage. Things are far more interesting in steerage.<\/p>\n

I understand how easy Facebook is to maintain (the simplicity does work) – and I\u2019m able to keep track of friends who don\u2019t frequent MySpace. But sending people pictures of food doesn\u2019t do it for me. I like real food. The staid blue and white and other shade of blue interface also doesn\u2019t do it \u2013 it\u2019s missing something. Something personal.
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myspace design: yeah<\/strong>
\nI love that MySpace is sooo screwy when it comes to design. It\u2019s either almost easy to read or a complete mess. Some have hacked the template, some can work with it \u2013 some even push the limits of how a page loads and what it looks like. <\/p>\n

Some great, real na\u00efve design occurs on MySpace that really works. It\u2019s often stuff that\u2019s either pure genius or pure insanity. Pretty democratic in what I find and read. And that\u2019s okay. If I can\u2019t read it, I move along to the next. <\/p>\n

And in the design, I\u2019m pretty damn close to syncing with the personalities of the people involved. They build their own pages – likes, dislikes take on meaning beyond simple text. Anger, sadness, happiness, joy \u2013 sarcasm, sick fucking profanity \u2013 it still all works for me. People swear in real life, we’re prudes to think otherwise. Having a delete button as a barrier between what could become sick rather fast, not a bad idea.<\/p>\n

I find it disturbing that we\u2019re moving away into the pre-made templates of Facebook and Twitter. It\u2019s like we were raised on the closed systemness of Windows and going outside of that is soo  . . .  horrible to ponder.<\/p>\n

I often discuss with my students the human need to put things in frames. To organize. That’s Facebook to me. It feels like  . . .  a fucking Excel document.
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myspace art: finds<\/strong>
\nI have many artists as MySpace friends \u2013 some tinkerers, some muses, stalkers, some professional, some just brilliant, and others, they try. Beyond gallery representation. Photographers, sculptors, typographers, graphic designers, fashion designers, industrial designers. Some of the art pushes limits in unexpected directions \u2013 last year I even managed to cull together a large new media exhibition<\/a> showcasing many experimental artists who have pages on MySpace.
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myspace bands: cool<\/strong>
\nAnd as mentioned, I\u2019ve also found some incredible bands on MySpace \u2013 and some not so incredible. Some just plain honest. Some who\u2019ll never make it but are trying real hard. Some that sync with their local culture, some who will suddenly be the Next Big Thing (right after they make the sex tape \u2013 for many, their pics<\/em> pages show that they are at least working on it\/thinking in the right direction).
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myspace: so is it really over? <\/strong>
\nMySpace keeps making decisions that do threaten what they\u2019re up to. It started with  . . .  News Corp taking over and treating it like a business. The ad driven music player: kind of a pain in the ass. <\/p>\n

Same thing with MySpace\u2019s inability to play well with other web networks, but this seems to be changing. They kept blocking tinyURL<\/a> in any post I’d make (I use them a lot to streamline\/rename links; it’s easier than creating mehallo.com redirects). <\/p>\n

Last I checked, I’d get a ‘terms of service violation’ if I even try<\/em> to mention reCAPTCHA<\/a>. They were slow in syncing with Twitter for updates – and that, I’d say, hurt a lot (It was remedied first by Tweetdeck<\/a> then as of last week, they added a Twitter option called Synced<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m staying put for now. It\u2019s the people that make it work. And there\u2019s many more to meet. Or run screaming away from. As necessary.<\/p>\n\r\n\t

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