Where's all the Good Music?

Sometimes I get a little disillusioned with new music. Or, rather sometimes I find it difficult to muster up the enthusiasm to seek out new music. It may be an age thing. When I was but a wee lad (well, probably about 16) I lived for music. I read every music mag going, I spent hours in WH Smiths or John Menzies looking at rows and rows of tapes and flicking through endless plastic covered record sleeves looking for that new undiscovered album which would become my world for the next week or so. I'd scour all those specialist dusty record shops looking at dog eared second hand records looking for a bargain or that album discarded before its time.

But I don't do that anymore. In fact, I don't think those shops exist anymore. No, the extent of my musical journey of discovery encompasses looking at Amazon and Itunes' top 100. Big, underwhelming wow. But is it that the music has become more uninteresting or that the ways of discovering it has become a more clinical, bland process?

Probably the latter, unfortunately. Because the music is out there. It just take a little more effort to find it and less reliance on an actual physical feeling of joy at discovering it. So. what do I mean by that? Well, you have to forget about the actual physical joy of holding that scarcely listened to album in your hand. No, discovering new music revolves around finding a new web address or downloading an album some obscure bloke in the Times has recommended (when did I start truting anything the Times says?). Its not enough anymore to simply look at the top 20 albums in HMV and buy every other one because, chances are, you will be completely underwhelmed by the majority.Most modern bands unfortunately seem to currently have that "one album fits all" mentality and therefore, chances are, if you discover a band or artist you like, their second or third albums will sound exactly like their first (see Dido, Amy McDonald, Snow Patrol etc etc). Such artists clog the charts.

No to discover something new and exciting, you have to work a little harder than the modern day equivalent of flicking through records in alphabetical order. It can be disconcerting for the reasons mentioned above. It can even be actually a little depressing because it leaves one with the sense that, actually, modern music has nothing new to say. It's all to easy to revisit ones past and buy a best of Eagles CD or that copy of the Joshua Tree you never actually got around to purchasing. Unfortunately, thats called taking the easy option.

No, hit that internet thing you've been threatening to get a handle on. And, you know what, you might find something interesting. You might even find something that excites you in the way that the first time you listened to a copy of Pet Sounds all the way through did. I promise, they are out there.....Tara London (an old school soul/ blues singer who kicks Amy Winehouse well into touch), Leddra Chapman (a folky, poppy singer songwriter with a penchant for clever lyrics), Eli "Paper Boy" Reed (chanelling "Sam and Dave" in the best possible way). These are just three amazing people I've discovered in the last few weeks with a little help from modern technology. Who knows what the next few weeks will bring! Happy hunting!

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After sending off another splurge of e mails today to law firms I don't know, for jobs they probably don't have, I was left wondering "When does this all start to look a bit desperate?". In other words, when does looking pro-active turn into pestering? And, in fact, does it really actually matter at all?

There's one firm in particular whose e mail inbox probably starts flashing red if an e mail from me arrives. In fact I'd like to think that they have some sort of warning siren named after me in the event of undesirable e mails arriving on their system. I've interviewed with them twice (turned a perfectly good job offer down from them once, but that's another story) and since the last of those interviews have probably e mailed them 3 times. And, actually, I think its their fault.

You see, they dangled a very small baby carrot in front of me the last time we spoke. Apparently, I wasn't at all suitable for the job they were advertising (the clue was in the fact that the job title said "corporate" lawyer and not "real estate" lawyer) but they did want to speak to me to keep me "on the radar" as far as future real estate roles went. In fact, they even anticipated they may well have a suitable role in the "upcoming months". Perfect. A chink of light maybe.

So, a few months go by and me, looking to stay pro-active, decides to e mail them to "re-affirm my interest" (this is HR speak for "I'm still unemployed....give me a bloody job"). Nothing. Not even a courteous sorry, still no suitable vacancies. A few more months pass by and in a last ditch attempt to show that I am still keen to "return to the workplace (ie "I am now completely bloody broke and could really do with that job you sort of maybe slightly hinted might be on offer"). Nothing. And I was polite (again). But nothing. No response. I re-read the e mail to check for anything that might have sounded a bit desperate or impolite or, worse still, even for typos! Nope. Did I call him Edna instead of Edward? Paula instead of Paul? Definitely not.

So what was I doing wrong? Why has this person (who I've spoken to at length on several occasions over the course of various telephone interviews) decided to completely and blatantly ignore several polite, well meaning and well worded e mails? And today it hit me. Because he has a job to do. He's the manager of a large law firm. He actually has people he needs to manage. His job doesn't involve massaging my ego simply because he may have indicated over 12 months ago that he quite liked me and thought I might be suitable for a job if one came up in the future. This is a man who actually has work to do, whose day does not revolve around wondering what happened to that bloke he spoke to over 12 months ago and pondering on why he doesn't call any more. Because, although finding a job is pretty much the centre of my universe right now, finding me a job is not the centre of his.

So, does it matter that I e mailed him again today? No, I don't think so. So does my pro-activity start to look a bit like the actions of a stalker? Again, no, I dont think so. Its all about reminding people at reasonable regular intervals that you are still keen and still want to work for them. They may not have a job for you. Hell, they may not even reply (and why should they?). But if you don't swear at them, sound eager (but not too eager) and don't get their gender wrong, then there's nothing wrong in just checking in once in a while, just to see if things have changed. Because, lets be honest, although its tough finding a job at the moment, things can't stay this shit forever. And regular, reasonable, civilised law firm stalking could pay off.