My mother was a piano bar musician. I grew up in a constant environment of music. On road trips, we actually song show tunes. We played word games…with song lyrics. My mother and I would go back and forth thinking of all the songs we could with, say, the word “flower” in it.
For better or worse, she marked me for life. I have an amazing, but I’m sure occasionally annoying, habit of being able to come up with an appropriate song lyric for just about any occasion.
Of course, the internet has just fed my fascination with song lyrics. Twitter, in particular, seems to be the perfect venue for occasionally using song lyrics to communicate.
But what if I pushed it to an extreme? I’ve been wondering if I could go a whole day communicating on Twitter via nothing but song lyrics. And talking last night with @jeremya, who’s trying to get his blip.fm Marathon badge (blipping at least once an hour for 24 hours), I decided I’d go ahead and give it a try. Today.
Here’s how the conversation started last night:
ScottAllen: It’s 2am…fear is gone. ? http://beta.blip.fm/~kthma
ScottAllen: @jeremya I’ve been toying w/the idea of tweeting all in song lyrics one day.
ScottAllen: @jeremya Participate in conversation, talk about what’s actually going on in my life, but all w/ song lyrics.
Jeremya: @ScottAllen That would be cool!
ScottAllen: @jeremya I’m cool like that. 
? http://beta.blip.fm/~kti9d
Jeremya: @ScottAllen lol Started already.
ScottAllen: @jeremya Something got me started. You’ve got to help me… ?http://beta.blip.fm/~ktixl
Jeremya: @ScottAllen lol. It would be cool if you could search by badges… lol.
ScottAllen: @jeremya Badges? We don’t need any badges. We don’t need no stinking badges. ? http://blip.fm/~ktjo8
ScottAllen: It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. Can’t even close my eyes. ?http://blip.fm/~ktk1a
<Jeremy only made it to hour 4 of his marathon last night>
ScottAllen: @jeremya And how goes the medium tempo? ?http://blip.fm/~ku8nt
Jeremya: @ScottAllen Unfortunately I slept through the night.. when I meant to only take a nap so I am trying again today. lol.
ScottAllen: @jeremya It’s a test of ultimate will, the heartbreak climb uphill. Got to pick up the pace if you want to stay… ? http://blip.fm/~ku90n
I feel like such a geek, but I feel compelled to finish what I started.
Now if I could just find a lyric for “I’m headed to Walgreen’s ‘cuz we’re out of milk.”
OK, I admit it, I’m signed up with PayPerPost. I would never blog about a topic just to get a few bucks, but if I find the topic interesting enough to post about, I have no problem with a company tossing me a few bucks for the extra attention. If you haven’t read the Forrester report on Sponsored Conversations, you should.
Now as it turns out, I haven’t actually run any PayPerPost posts yet – there hasn’t been an opportunity for any of my blogs that I thought was a good match. But this morning I had an opportunity to post about a new Music Videos site, which also promises lyrics on demand. Being the karaoke junkie that I am, this seemed right up my alley, so I thought, “Hey,this could actually be a fit.” Only a couple of bucks, but all they wanted was a link.
So I went to check out the site, MuVids.com. The site looks great – all the hit songs:
So I thought, “Cool – sure, I’ll write a quick blog about this.”
And then…BAM!
Huh?
I refreshed the screen just to be sure I hadn’t accidentally clicked on an ad or something. Nope. Sure enough, this thing pops up after a few seconds.
OK, a bit user-hostile, but the content is worth it to me to do this…once. Or even once per visit. Fine.
And then…BAM!
WTF??? You gotta be kidding me! You want my cell phone number to view a web site???
Now maybe it’s all on the up-and-up. I could NOT find any fine print anywhere saying that they were going to automatically start charging you a subscription for ringtones, wallpaper, etc., like they do with those IQ and personality quizzes:
That said, though, given how prevalent those things are, and apparently how easy it is to rip people off once you give them your mobile phone number, there’s no way in hell I’m giving out my cell phone number to watch music videos, even with lyrics, or anything else for that matter. I’m not accusing MuVids of dishonesty, just stupidity.
Maybe this is a new site, and maybe they’ll get their head out of their ass and realize that they’re driving hordes of people away with this user-hostile interface, and if so, maybe I’ll go back and visit it, and maybe even post an update about it (for free).
In the meantime, I won’t be back. And this will be a test of just how transparent PayPerPost really is. The requirements for the post are:
Related content with a link to www.muvids.com with anchortext "Music Videos".
I did that. We’ll see if they pay me.
UPDATE: Yup, they did.
I saw this on Twitter today and it really moved me. I would have retweeted it, but it was too long to, and it would have suffered severely from editing – it’s perfect exactly like it is.
Turns out it’s a lyric from a Jack Johnson song, “Better Together”. Enjoy!
I spent a while last Tuesday visiting in the Blogger’s Lounge at SXSW with Brian Wallace of Nowsourcing. Afterwards we stepped out in the hall (ironically for some quiet) and he interviewed me about my latest project, a joint venture with American Guitar Academy:
More info about free guitar lessons here, or just call 503-430-1484 to schedule yours. You can see more of Brian’s SXSW coverage here and here.
Prompted by my last post, Ben Mack Is an Extremist Idealist, I was just Googling the words “idealist” and “extremist” and came across Joe Satriani’s “The Extremist”. Enjoy!
Also check out the original music video for the studio version of “The Extremist” (embedding is disabled on it or I would have included it here).
Like I said in my last post, “Greatness isn’t achieved through mediocrity. Innovation doesn’t flourish in the middle of the road.”
Saturday night, March 14th, I’ll be at Red Eyed Fly for the StandardAnswer launch party. danah boyd will be there too, along with the fun folks from Aquarium Drunkard.
If you want to attend, you have to register at StandardAnswer (click on the RSVP Here button). You even get to help pick what songs the bands will play. Be sure to also check out the SXSW category for some fun and informative Q&A.
In case you’re wondering why the world needs another social networking service, check out my Standard Answer open beta announcement on The Virtual Handshake Blog.
My mother was a piano bar musician. I grew up in a constant environment of music. On road trips, we actually song show tunes. We played word games…with song lyrics. My mother and I would go back and forth thinking of all the songs we could with, say, the word “flower” in it.
