Nicola Vincent-Abnett

Nicola Vincent-Abnett
"Savant" for Solaris, Wild's End, Further Associates of Sherlock Holms, more Wild's End

Thursday 20 September 2012

This is My Jam, but it could be Your Jam


I may have mentioned once or twice that I am a fan of This Is My Jam.

Of all the social networking sites, I think it’s my favourite, and there are several reasons for this. First of all, as far as I’m concerned, there really is no such thing as bad music. Your taste and mine might not be the same, but, in the end, music is music. I put it this way: If I arrived on my desert island, and the wrong discs were delivered, eventually, one way or the other, I would end up playing them. Like them or not, I would be better off playing any music than no music at all. It might take a very long time for me to get around to playing... Oh, I don’t know... Bonnie Tyler or Barry Manilow, or the latest thrash metal collection, or Perry Como’s greatest hits (bless him), but play them I would.

The second wonderful thing about This Is My Jam is that you know what you’re getting. With blogs and, to a lesser extent, Facebook and, to a lesser extent, again, Twitter, you don’t know what you’re getting til you’ve had it, and then it’s too late; then, you’re mind is already infected with whatever foetid rubbish you’ve ended up reading, almost certainly by accident. Even amazing people can be crap. With This Is My Jam all the information about what you’re letting yourself in for is right there, and if you don’t fancy playing a person’s music choice, you just don’t play it.

You see how much fun this is?

Right... I’ll give you a moment to go and join up, and when you’ve done that, please cut and paste a link and plant it in the comments, because I really, truly, honestly want to follow every single one of you who opens an account.

Are you back? 

Splendid!

Here’s the third reason why This Is My Jam is fun. It’s fun because it’s full of surprises. I follow people that I know are heavily into music, who I know are going to ‘give good tune’, people like Marco, and there are no surprises with them, or, I suppose, there are only surprises. It’s the people you feel you know well that are really interesting. When someone I thought I really knew posts a song that seems wildly outside of their sphere of experience I’m often ridiculously impressed or excited by it; it shows them, somehow, in a new light, a light that always flatters. I hope that happens in reverse once in a while.

And my fourth and final reason for liking This Is My Jam is because it’s subversive.

Most of the tunes I post are simply whatever happens to be in my head when I post them. I might have heard a snippet of something in a shop or on the radio. I might have been reminded of something by someone else. I might re-jam something. I often just have a fit of nostalgia; I'm at that age, don't you know. Then, every so often, and it isn’t all that often, a mood strikes me, and it makes me want to either lash out or reach out, and, whether they know it or not (and let’s not pretend it isn’t usually not) I direct my energies into a song and then launch it at some poor unsuspecting individual, who probably doesn’t even have a This Is My Jam account, and, if he or she does, probably doesn’t follow me. It doesn’t matter. I cast a spell, I laud or demonise, I declare my undying love or my never-ending disaffection, I flirt or lambast, I mock or shame, and, once in a blue moon, I do all of those things, because that, ladies and gentlemen is the power of music!

This is my jam, but it can be your jam if you want it to be. Go on, give it a go.

It’s a kind of magic.

13 comments:

  1. You finally convinced me :) Here's the link :
    http://www.thisismyjam.com/Dju/

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  2. I loved the idea, but because my music taste is so diverse, I found it lacking when I wanted to post a particular song only to find it wasn't in the database (or whatever).

    for now I'll stick to posting youtube links on the Facebook, and following your jams!

    https://www.youtube.com/user/deathincarnate1337

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    Replies
    1. There are lots of ways around those problems if you get inventive. Smiles. I'll look forward to seeing you on Jam in due course.

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    2. I was on it for about a month or so? I just wasn't letting it post to FB. but sure, I'm back with a new track!

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  3. I'd been vaguely intrigued by this since I saw you posting your jams, consider me finally motivated to sign up!

    http://www.thisismyjam.com/twilightprofet

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  4. Links or it didn't happen.

    http://www.thisismyjam.com/fathom1

    This is linked to my other twitter account for some reason. Any way, there you go!

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  5. I didn't have a clue what it was until I read todays blog. I'd noticed the Twitter posts, but that was about it. Anyway, this is me.

    http://www.thisismyjam.com/starscream1138

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  6. very cool site I'm loving it alredy, thanks for the heads-up.

    http://www.thisismyjam.com/iainknowsthis

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