By the time I got around to actually posting this, I forgot what all the links were.

Haim: Whenever I hear their song on the radio, I wonder, "When did I change to the oldies station?" Not the best response to a song. They're probably this year's Friends. Ugh, buzzbands.

I'm  tired  of  "alt"  pop.

Well, not really. More tired of music writers. I spent all of 2012 following new releases and I didn't enjoy it much, especially at the end when everybody started declaring Call Me Maybe to be the year's highlight. It seems like they're trying too had to prove that they don't only like "serious" music and that they don't agree with the consensus. There's even this article about both of those things!

Whatever to those people. This year, I'll stick with Australian stuff that never makes it overseas and classical.

ABC Classic 100: 5 out of eight predictions correct, 7/10 if you count the "other things by those composers". Cool. Suite Bergamasque (ie. Clair de Lune) juuuust missed it at no. 11, Massenet and Delibes at 14 and 15 respectively.

Spotify: Spotify is horrible and seems to pick the worst things you've listened to to put in your top artists/tracks. The Pitchfork disciples therefore have theirs hidden, but I can still see using Swarm.fm. You can't win. Amusingly, the flamboyant Nicki Minaj fan is now listening to Bon Iver. That's what uni does to you, I guess.

CDs: Counted my CDs and marked them as owned on RYM. There's a few I haven't marked, but I don't know what they are! I also felt a bit sad looking at Pixies and Talking Heads albums, because I doubt that I'll want to touch them again for a while.

Festivals: My white, upper-middle class, Triple J listener friends always complain of drunk bogans at festivals. Looking at photos though, they could easily be mistaken for drunken bogans. I bet the people they complain about are just other middle-class kids.

Identity: I have learnt from conversations in my chemistry lab that people actually do use the term "Triple J" to describe their music taste. A lot of information conveyed in one word and one letter. I am not ignorant enough to say "everything", so I guess I'll go with "elitist", like one guy in this article.

EDIT: I'm updating this as the situation changes. It's going to turn into a fun way to discover new music.

I know it's really stupid, but it's annoying to see posts on Facebook from distant acquaintances talking about something I like. Part of it is because I'm bitter about having no friends who like what I like. Another thing is that it's usually some vapid post like "[critically acclaimed album/artist] is awesome!" or some random lyrics, and then it gets a whole lot of likes and circlejerk comments. Karma whoring.

Well, screw that. I'm going to find alternatives that my news feed doesn't mention.

I've read a bit of arguing about clapping and classical music lately. They're essentially saying that people don't like going to concerts because they're not allowed to clap between movements, or cheer at solos, etc. and that this tradition contributes to the perception that the culture around classical music is elitist. I'd never even thought of this before.

I agree that the elitism is a big deal. If you don't like someone, you're not going to try and get into something that they like. (See also: hipsters and indie rock.) In fact, I'm into contemporary classical just because the annoying classical elitists I knew didn't like it. However, not clapping isn't snobby or anything. It's common sense that you wouldn't want people to be noisy while you're trying to listen to quiet music. If you're an interested newbie, you should probably realize this.

This argument is probably happening because it's getting old to say that kids these days have no attention span. But as a young person, I seriously think that is the main reason. Who gives a crap about clapping? The issue is, people don't want to listen to something that goes for an hour. It all sounds the same to them because all of the instruments are the same. There are no lyrics to be posted on Facebook, and dynamic range isn't practical with iPods on public transport.

What will make people go to concerts? The generic answer is education, but look at Asians. That isn't working (though they are pretty great business for music teachers). I am Asian, and I can confirm that compulsory instrument lessons will not make you like music. I like the idea of free public performances. Free samples are always great. Play more than just those same snippets that everybody already knows, because that isn't going to win new fans. Okay, I just want to see things for free, can you blame me?

(For the record, my first concert was the Vienna Philharmonic playing Bruckner 4 last year. I confess that I went just so I could say that I did. There was an Asian family with a kid that fell asleep. People clapped between movements. Bloody Queenslanders.)

I was listening to the radio today. The station that I happened upon was doing an "Australian countdown", which was the top 20 songs with Australian artists. A lot of them were the "So-and-So Ft. Sia" tracks. There was some terrible, mediocre dance pop from reality TV alumni. One mediocre faux-indie track from an Idol alumnus. That Gotye. I'd say I wept for humanity, but really, I didn't expect any better.

Never mind finding someone with similar musical taste; that's not too hard. I started with the Pitchfork lists, and I bet many other people did the same. The important thing is the attitude.