shamanicshaymin: Glorious beautiful Shaymin against a flowery backdrop. (Charasans :: Back Off Kid)
Puri ([personal profile] shamanicshaymin) wrote2016-04-11 01:47 am
Entry tags:

Hey look, a rocking chair. Looks like Puri's about to talk about the Good ol' Days again.

So, I think I have enough songs for a fanmix (we called 'em "FSTs" in the ol' days of Livejournal) so I'm checking out how 8tracks works to see if I can get one ready. Which leads me to a rant about something that annoys me about 8tracks.

The biggest problem I have with 8tracks is I can't see the tracklist. I have to listen to the entire fanmix first, and I'm only allowed a certain number of skips. What if there's an artist I don't like? I wouldn't know they're there until it's too late. Sometimes I want to look at what other songs people have for Frisk, Chara, etc. So that I, a fanmixer, don't end up using the same songs everyone and their mother already uses and associates with Frisk, Chara, etc.

I don't have time to listen to entire soundtracks. JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN TRACKLIST AND I'LL DECIDE IF I WANT TO LISTEN OR NOT. This is what I really miss from the FST days on Livejournal. YOU HAD A DAMN TRACKLIST. At least some 8tracks fanmixes are advertised on tumblr posts with a tracklist included, saving me a lot of time. Still, it's extremely frustrating.

"But Puri, the whole point of 8tracks is to discover new music! You can't do that if you have immediate access to tracklists!"

DON'T TELL ME HOW I SHOULD LISTEN TO MUSIC.

Sometimes, if I see artists I like on the fanmix? I may be encouraged to listen to the others. And I haven't heard every single song by my favorite artists, especially if they've got a HUGE library like say, Tori Amos or The Beatles. So finding songs that remind me of a character or pairing by an artist I like that got buried beneath Archive Panic is a cool thing. Ex. I hadn't registered "For Good" from the Wicked musical as a Friskriel song until someone pointed it out and sang a cover for it. Even if it's a song I already have, I could agree with the fanmixer's choices and I'd want to know what else they've got. Back when [livejournal.com profile] fst was still active, I used to comb the archive for FSTs that had at least one song by an artist I liked, such as Patrick Wolf or AniDiFranco or Bjork. That's how I got into their music, from little trickles that people would include on FSTs. Didn't matter if I didn't know the fandom. I'd look up, see they have a song by Garbage or Say Anything I hadn't heard yet, and pounce on it like a cat with a new ball of yarn or a laser pointer dot.

And this way, I have something to associate the song with to remember it by, as opposed to aimlessly wandering iTunes. Ex. I have this gorgeous male cover of "I Hope You Dance" (done by Ronan Keating) I got it off of some random shippy Iruka/Sakura FST or something. I wouldn't know anything about the fandom or pairing at all, but I'd go, "Oh hey, I got that song from a random Naruto FST! :D"

Hell, I can tell you the FST I was introduced to Patrick Wolf from. It was for Ken Ichijouji from the second season of Digimon. Looking through the tracklist, I saw "Magpie" along with a few sample lyrics. I thought, "Hey, that looks pretty" and downloaded it. I was blown away. Like, from the first note.

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It's hard to find a .gif that conveys how I felt as I listened. Doc Brown works. I was just... sitting there, with my jaw slowly hanging open.

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Then I was Temmie.

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Then I was Po.

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Ultimately, I was Conan.

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Finally, I was Wakaba.

Where was I? Oh, right. I can't really do that anymore on 8tracks. I'm forced to go blind with the exceptions of a few artist names in the tags instead. THANKS 8TRACKS.
ichipinky: (Default)

[personal profile] ichipinky 2016-04-11 11:32 am (UTC)(link)
i kno this feeling all too well - ^-

(also hi!!!)

gigantic chunks of my fandom life are almost literally defined by songs i used to listen to from FSTs and now they're just gone and i'm like...i've gotta look for /and/ get copies of songs i can relate characters to by myself? :(((

but i miss FSTs. i've got playlists for stories as most of them are songs from FSTs before LJ went down /sighs

almost no one i see does FSTs anymore :P
ichipinky: (Default)

[personal profile] ichipinky 2016-04-14 01:41 pm (UTC)(link)
that's awesome :D i'd love to see the playlists you have for UT ;)
ichipinky: (Default)

[personal profile] ichipinky 2016-04-16 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
lookin forward to it then! :D
erinptah: (Default)

[personal profile] erinptah 2016-04-12 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
All the 8tracks weirdness is to do with licensing requirements. It's aggravating, but if the alternative is having the RIAA crush the whole site like a ton of bricks, I'll take it. Still mourning the countless links that broke when Megaupload went down =(