Link to audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sNOcE-DdAoRj-nC1S2TBblSlYkWmcQjY/view?usp=share_link

Upon being asked what my media niche is, my brain underwent its usual moment of panic. I began to question if I have any interest worth sharing and, more importantly, how exactly would I be able to share it?

Unfortunately, I haven’t progressed much further on the latter concern. However, I have settled on a niche: music. More specifically, classic rock. 

In recent years, I have turned my interest to the albums that continue to shape how music is produced today. I’ve been captivated by the artists who were deemed revolutionary in their time, such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and others who were recognised later such as The Velvet Underground. In spite of passing time, their work remains significant not only due to the timelessness of their music, but also because of the ingenuity behind much of it. 

Bob Dylan, 1965 – taken from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Dylan-American-musician

Mickey Vallee writes that this era of music ushered in musicians who began to see themselves as “artistic visionaries” due to the freedom granted to them in the wake of the album era. They were able to “breach the boundaries of the pop mentality regime” (1, 2014), thus paving the way for the artists and genres of our current time.

The Beatles, 1969 – taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/52525023019

I’ve been able to engage in this niche largely through use of Spotify. The existence of streaming allows us to go down any rabbit hole we choose. Every day, I discover something new (despite not always being necessarily new). I’ve found that my taste has only continued to expand through my interactions with Spotify. 

The influence of the 60s and 70s music scene has been explored at length through books, essays and documentaries. In recent years, we’ve also seen this exploration creeping into the podcast format. By continuing to open up discussions on this topic, we are given the opportunity to better understand that period in history and how we’ve come this far.

Although I’ve yet to settle on what kind of content or research this niche could produce, I’ve expressed an interest in not only exploring the impacts, but also the ways in which we continue to engage with the music associated with this time period.

Reference
(1)  Vallee, M. (2014) ‘‘More than a feeling’: Classic Rock Fantasies and the Musical Imagination of Neoliberalism’, Culture, Theory and Critique, Vol 56, pg 245-262