Music Gathering Pie Chart

Okay kids, this is gonna get a little bit mathematical on you and for that, I apologize. But will it make things better if I note that this is all very music related? As you may know, I don't really like to listen to a lot of the so-called "popular" music these days. I really like what's been going on in the alternative/electro/synth beats/pop/lo-fi/whatever scene for the last while, and people sometimes ask me where I get my music from. Usually, they are asking in a mocking way, such as, "Jeez, I've never heard of this band, where do you get all this random music?!" or "Chloe, your music is so lame, tell me where you get it from so I know never to waste my time with that source!"

So, all you haters and lovers, here is a nice little pie chart for you to read/denounce/eat/love/set as your screensaver.

Complete with 3-D effects and everything! Pretty suave, I know. Let's break it down.

Podcasts are just great. There are so many different kinds of them, and listening to them while I am on the go is an added plus. I listen to a bunch of alternative music podcasts like PMAcast, GROOVELECTRIC and IndieFeed. It's a great way to screen new music in a compilation without going into iTunes and buying every song. Because I know that's how you all get your music, right?

Music Website Recommendations, like those little icons on the bottom of an album page in Amazon Music that make recommendations based on what you're searching for. They seem lame and annoying, but really they are usually dead on. If you like the sound of a certain band, search for it in Amazon Music or the iTunes store and you will be shown a list of bands that sound similar to that band. Ahh, the magic of internet.

The Wedge (and Much Alternative) through Rogers on Demand (or on the internet if you're not lucky enough to have a Rogers Box) are really in sync with new Canadian indie bands. I found Glasser that way and then only three days later, her music was playing over the soundsystem at the Gladstone Hotel restaurant! I felt very in-the-know, I can tell you.

Music blogs are the obvious ones. I guess this blog has turned to somewhat music-related topics (certainly not on purpose)! I love Stereogum and Hype Machine, but the little ones are good as well, like The Culture of Me. International blogs especially, show you cool music from different places in the world. Such as how I discovered the magic of Swedish music!

Good music magazines are sometimes hard to come by, but if you care to venture downtown, you can find magazines for every possible genre. It's actually kind of crazy, how many I found in this one store downtown. SPIN Magazine is the obvious choice for mainstream alternative music of course, and I also love Under the Radar Mag for the more obscure music.

If I try to lord my music over other people, they usually try to lord their music over me. So I usually listen to what they like just to shut them up, and sometimes it actually does turn out to be good. Even my parents used to listen to some good music at one point or another. Surprising, right? I still can't get over it.

T.V. Commercials, on the best of the best days, play some super-amazing music. And I don't just mean the Apple commercials, either. I remember the way I found one of my favourite musicians, Joel Plaskett, was through a Zellers commercial. A good way to find a song that you hear on a television commercial is to either a) remember the lyrics and google them, or b) google what the commercial was advertising. There is a really good website made just for finding music used in advertising here.

Sometimes, the opening acts for bands that I see live are just amazing. When I went to see the Decemberists, I forgot to check who the opening band was, and they turned out to be incredible. Their name is Wye Oak, and I love them. I actually find that listening to the opening band online before seeing them at the show sort of ruins the experience for me, because listening to them for the first time in a live setting has some sort of magic to it or something. These things can't really be explained, I guess.

Did you know that you can find some really awesome music at your local public library? That sounds insane, I know, but it's completely true! Ever since I got my first library card in wee little grade one, I have been combing the racks of broken jewel cases for cool album art. Don't judge me. They always said not to judge a book by its cover. Nothing in there about CDs. More often than not, I find these albums to be amazing, and I even come across a band I've been meaning to look up but haven't gotten around to yet. My first big find at the library was...The Trews. In 2004. So there.