I watched an interesting show last week. I saw the build-up for the pilot episode of Swingtown and I said, "Well this is a nine-week summer wonder." I actually watched the show last week. It's typical of the 10-11pm TV drama genre where there are about six story threads going on at the same time. A couple of the threads made me think of the pre-disco, bicentennial 1970s. I'm not necessarily promoting the show, in fact after only watching 2/3s of an episode, I don't even know if I like it. I do however love two things about it. The soundtrack is amazing (yes the '70s was more than disco) and it's available on last.fm. The soundtrack reminded me of a great piece in Newsweek in 2005 titled, "I Can't Live Without My Darling iPod" by Caroline Gong. In it she says:
My husband realized long ago (to his eternal financial relief) that I am not a jewelry-wearing kind of wife. For my 43rd birthday, he came through with the gift of my dreams: a gorgeous gem of modern audio technology. Accessorize myself? I'd rather accessorize my iPod. This little treasure has enabled me to revisit my past and groove to the present; it has provided me with an ever-evolving soundtrack for my life.
The last.fm tie in is the really interesting part. I'm not a member, but I like the ideas behind it. last.fm calls itself:
Last.fm connects you with your favorite music, and uses your unique taste to find new music, people, and concerts you'll like.
It's music-based social networking. It allows you to pay attention to what you like (via last.fm "myware"), find people with similar musical tastes, and share playlists with those folks. There's a fairly short "IT Conversation" with last.fm co-founder Felix Miller which explains last.fm and myware.
The Swingtown last.fm site allows you to listen to the music from last week's show. As I said, I do like the soundtrack. last.fm also has a group called Swingtowners (one hopes it's a group for fans of the show rather than the lifestyle). You can listen to the sounds of the 1970s which they like in last.fm shuffle mode (without signing up or registering). I've been doing this for a few days now. The only downside is that I've been getting unusual earworms. The other day I was in a meeting with a software solutions vendor and "I am Woman" by Helen Reddy, featured in last week's episode, was stuck. That can be a little distracting when you're talking Ts & Cs. Today, it's the much cooler, "The Night Chicago Died" by Paperlace.
You know, "When a man named Al Capone tried to make that town his own..."
Ah, the soundtrack of my life...
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