A Setback in My Plan to Take Over the World by Music

Other than the fact that I can’t play any instrument well, I mean. I can sing, but I’ll spare everyone that.

No, what I mean is… I enjoy music.

A lot.

My collection is vast, spans decades (or centuries, if you count some of the classical pieces mixed in), and is an eclectic hodgepodge of anything that I’ve found in various ways that I like. I’ve been enjoying sharing music with others with my Kabobbles Sing Along section on the website (even if no one’s reading it.) These songs all have some kind of meaning to me or a story or they were there to traumatize, but they’re still worth sharing for some reason or other.

Now, the problem I’ve run into lately is the videos I’ve been finding when I go looking for them. I’m not a person who is big on live performances. Is it amazing to go see a band in concert? Yes, absolutely. I loved seeing Melanie Safka and the Moody Blues and the Turtles. I did. I would love to go to more concerts.

However, I do not enjoy watching recordings of live shows that I haven’t been to. I don’t know why, exactly. I know I hate hearing all the clapping on live versions included on albums. I find it disconcerting or something. It takes away from my enjoyment of the song. I guess I don’t find it that interesting to watch a person sing/play an instrument unless it’s live? I don’t know.

At any rate, that’s part of the problem. I don’t like putting up a live performance as the vid of choice. It’s partially that intangible aversion, but it also has to do with live performances being changed from the version of the song that I’m used to (always throws me off and bugs me because I’m used to the timing as I sing along) as well as the quality of those recordings can be extremely poor.

The other half of the problem is the lyric videos. You’d think, with as much as I love the lyrics of the song for their relation to the story or to me, or even with my love of karioke, that I’d like the vids with lyrics.

I don’t.

I hate them with a passion.

Why?

Well… Another thing that I’m not entirely clear on, but I think a major part of it is the font and colors the videos tend to have.

The blue? I always think computer screen of death. I guess I’m of the opinion that, with a few rare exceptions, if you have text in your vid, it should be white against black. I’m kind of a purist that way. Boring, perhaps, but it looks nice. I don’t understand the purple with yellow thing. That’s just… wrong, somehow.

And the font. I happen to hate fonts that don’t look like some kind of script, as the blog might tell you.

So having to watch arial as it scrolls across the screen? Nails on chalkboard for me. I have, out of necessity, learned to tolerate Times New Roman, but I shall always hate it, regardless of whether or not I use it for my books.

I have been thwarted, several times this week as I tried to find vids for songs for the sing along where I was okay with the video.

Perhaps the most important thing is… Song lyrics tell a story of their own. If you’re watching a live performance, you don’t get that story. And if you’re reading the lyrics, you’re seeing the words but not feeling the emotions. I have created videos myself using songs and video clips and the horror that is windows movie maker, and I always strive to match the clips to the lyrics. (An example of this? Here.)

It’s looking like I might have to upload some of the songs myself. Not necessarily a bad thing. I just see characters that I don’t have pictures for or moments of my stories that go with the lyrics.

That’s a thought. Maybe I’ll see how well a video with some of the story’s text set to music goes, if such a thing is feasible. Maybe small, random quotes. This could work.

I did find a nice video for the song I talked about today, though. While I have not been successful in pinning down a song for the not-so-super superhero, I remain confident that I will.

Not sure I’ll find a video for it.