Digital Exodus – Record Listening Clubs Arise In UK
This post is by Alison McCarthy. She's an intern at Hypebot.
Last week the BBC and Telegraph reported on groups of music fans that have formed in London, Sheffield, Scotland and Wales, meeting monthly to hold Classic Album Sundays.
The event is based on a simple concept: lights are dimmed, phones are shut off, and a classic album is played on a vinyl turntable with high quality speakers from beginning to end.
A reaction to a musical culture that is increasingly based on downloading, multitasking, and the inability to ‘sit down and listen,’ Classic Album Sundays encourage participants to appreciate the album as an entire body of work – something that is becoming less and less familiar to us as we move into the digital realm.
The source of the event originated six months ago by legendary UK DJ Greg Wilson, which he dubbed 'Living To Music.' Arranging to sit down with a group of friends the first Sunday night of August to listen to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, he encouraged readers of his blog to not only do the same, but to spread the word to others through Twitter and Facebook to create a globally connected experience.
The most recent Living To Music event focused on David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and previous albums include Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, The Beatle’s Abbey Road, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, and De La Soul’s 3 Feet and Rising.
Learn more at the Living to Music Facebook page, or on Greg Wilson’s blog.
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Alison McCarthy is an intern at Hypebot and a second year graduate student at New York University working towards a Master’s degree in Media, Culture, and Communication. Her research focuses on the intersection of music, digital technology, and community. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
I like the idea but I’m not very much into sitting. I need to move.
Cool way to stimulate back-catalog.
How much do performance rights societies charge for when a full album plays for an audience like this?
I guess it’s a similar business model to that of the radio drama club that is popular over here in some cities in Germany.