Sometimes I go on music posting binges on my social media. I’ll sweep in with a string of YouTube videos and post songs I love, or things that I like and just hadn’t heard in a while, or things I think people should hear. Sometimes people interact, usually I suspect they scroll past and go about their day. For the most part no one seems to notice, a few might like a post, but in general I feel like the meme with the little otter holding his tiny guitar: when you show your friends something you love and they just say ‘cool’ and change the subject.
Usually it’s when I am feeling depressed or lonely, and I’m attempting to reach out to others and find some common bond that I start spamming my socials with songs. November, December, and January have been rough months for me personally for the past few years since I lost my husband, and 2020 did nothing to help the feeling of isolation and loneliness that hits this time of year, so I suspect my music binge was right on schedule.
It’s not quite as easy to do this in Second Life, so instead of shouting my music suggestions to the world I just quietly fill my profile with lyrics and references, and take pics of musical things. Or, as I did back in 2008, build a model of the college radio station studio where I worked and made some of my best friends. Then, as now, music was one of the primary ways I found to bond with others.
Even though my little studio is very dated and incredibly primmy, I still like to rez it when I have the land available, sit my avatars in the studio, and surround myself with music.
And then, of course, I have to share it.
♫
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Hi, Raven. What a lovely, bittersweet post. I also put some time in at the college radio station and have great memories there. Also, at other times I put time in at the college newspaper and have equally powerful memories there. Come to think of it, College Media is like Pre-Mesh SL!
That’s not quite as crazy as it sounds! Here’s what I’m thinking: all communications media tends to move from an early, Open phase to a mature, Closed phase. In 1850 you could start a newspaper for $10k. By 1950 it was $10m. The difference between $10k and $10m is the difference between starting a newspaper for any reason – a club, a political forum, anything – and needing a business plan and venture capital. Newspaper, Radio, Television, Internet, they’ve all moved from a “Wild West” phase where anyone could play, to a mature phase where content and access to audience is controlled by giant gatekeepers like NYT, NBC, and Google.
The same has happened in Second Life. In the SL case, it isn’t that we’ve moved to giant gatekeepers like NBC & Google. Rather it’s that in the early, open phase, you could rez a prim and make something. So easy! You could say “New T-shirt” and put some texture or logo on it. So easy! And you could give that cute prim or club t-shirt to anyone you wanted. Full perm if you wanted. Back then, those things were awesome.
The architecture, décor, avatar bodies, and clothes of 2021 are, by formal standards, far superior to those early, crude works. And there’s no NYT/NBC controlling access. But Blender & Maya, while very empowering, and even free in Blender’s case, have very steep learning curves. And it isn’t even the simple joy of watching your avatar rez or twist a prim anymore. Now you’re a skilled engineer working in an off-world software suite preparing professional content for export to SL and almost certainly for sale, hopefully at a profit.
Television always had it’s tiny, marginalized “Public Access” channels where mere citizens could go and make any freewheeling content they wanted. Probably watched by very few if any. Similarly, in SL you still can still rez a prim, and you can still say “New T-shirt”. And particularly, say with tattoos, many avatars today do make their own. Still, crude prims and system t-shirts just don’t measure up to the glory of the offshore manufactured mesh goods the grid is today overflowing with.
Back to College Radio!
“Real” Radio, Real Print Journalism, Real Television, Real Internet, require full-time jobs, and the highest levels of training, ability, and expertise. It’s essentially a closed communications world “for pros only”. By contrast, at the college radio station, you could just show up and get a show. Someone would train you on everything in a few hours. And you’d be playing music or interviewing guests or exploring whatever you wanted. From there a few might go on to professional broadcast careers, and many others, like you and like me, would simply have been afforded a beautiful life experience.