I’ll start this set of links off with this beautiful 150-year-old tree from Japan.
Imagine if you went walking in the forest and then encountered this fantastical creature!
Quicklinks: 30 January – 5 February 2023
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Tag Archives: music
Metal remains uncorrupted by Spotify
There was an interesting article by Dan Kopf on Quartz recently about how popular music is shrinking.
Popular music is shrinking. From 2013 to 2018, the average song on the Billboard Hot 100 fell from 3 minutes and 50 seconds to about 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Six percent of hit songs were 2 minutes 30 seconds or shorter in 2018, up from just 1% five years before.
He suggested that Spotify could be the cause. Apparently, Spotify pays the same fee to all songs that are streamed, meaning that, if the songs are shorter, more can be streamed and the artist makes more money. It makes sense and he shows a decrease in song length for several artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and J. Cole. While I recognise some of those names, I never listen to them and probably couldn’t name or identify a single one of their songs. So, I wondered if the results were relevant to the music I listen to.
Continue readingMetallica
Metallica in concert (Source: Big Concerts)
Last week I was really lucky in that I was able to go see Metallica live in concert! In case you don’t know, they are a heavy metal band, active since 1981 and have won nine Grammy Awards (although I only see eight on their Wikipedia page). Metallica was amazing but the concert organisation left something to be desired. Continue reading
Aan sentenced
Alexander Aan, the Indonesian man who was facing up to 11 years for the crime of blasphemy has been sentenced today. He was sentenced to 2,5 years in prison. Aan’s “crime” was posting “god doesn’t exist” on Facebook.
Last month, Islamic groups in Indonesia threatened to cause chaos if Lady Gaga performed in the country, leading police to deny her a permit. The Islamic Defenders Front is reported to have said they were prepared to die to stop the concert.
Evidence & Reason 