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Rabz’ Radio Show August 2023: Cars
There has always been an intimate link between cars and contemporary music and car stereos (aka sound systems) enable the immediacy of that link. As the (almost) ultimate freedom machines, cars can enable a young man to impress an aesthetically pleasing young woman in more ways than might be immediately obvious. However – there is…
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Rabz’ Radio Show July 2023: Music Videos
This is a difficult one, given that these monthly threads were always meant to be about the music. As far as I’m concerned there’s a golden rule regarding music videos – ideally, they should never be more memorable than the song. Having said that, if a great song has a great video, that’s a bonus.…
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Rabz’ Radio Show June 2023 – Favourite Songs
All killer, no filler, Cats. One of the many things I love about music is its effortless ability to transfer you back to a particular time and place, emphatically triggering memories. But what exactly are the constituent parts of that rare beast, a favourite song? To me, the most important aspect (obviously) is the music,…
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Rabz’ Radio Show May 2023 – Country and Western
As proudly declared by Bob of his eponymous Country Bunker to Jake and Elwood as the latter two search for gigs to raise some funds for the Penguin’s orphanage property tax bill. When you’re on a mission from God, all bets are off. Having said that, I am not a fan of this musical…
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Rabz’ Radio Show April Fool’s Day 2023 – Romance, love and fractured cardio organs
Cats, the topic above is what contemporary music has always revelled in. A rich vein of subject matter, so to speak. You’re romancing a personage of the opposite sex – you listen to lots of music about that phenomenon, while imagining that nothing could ever be wrong with the world. Being incapable of thinking about…
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Rabz’ Radio Show March 2023: Rock Chicks
This post will no doubt be seen as either a desperate attempt to ensure some gender balance or an exercise in unrepentant sexism. Quite frankly Cats, I couldn’t give a rodent’s. The definitive “Rock Chick” when I was growing up was one Suzi Quattro. All that leather and attitude, as well those heavy guitar chords…
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Rabz’ Radio Show February 2023: Electronica
The term “electronica” is used in this thread to define music that largely utilises electronic instruments, as opposed to placing it in any particular timeframe or referring specifically to any group of artists (as Wikipedia does). The use of electronic instruments and the creation of synthesised music has it roots in the early twentieth century.…
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Rabz’ Radio Show January 2023: Albums
You can write off this medium of music storage as an anachronism at your peril, Cats. I noted various recent stories in the meeja stating that sales of vinyl LPs are at their highest since the medium was declared (finally) dead upon the advent of the compact disc format in the eighties. Thirty-three and third,…
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Rabz’ Radio Show December 2022: Covers and the Covered
It’s always “interesting” to discover that a song you may have assumed was written by a certain artist or band turns out to be a cover. A classic example of this is posted below as the first of the intro tracks. Another interesting aspect of covers relates to the lively discussion/arguments/shouting matches that might arise…
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Rabz’ Radio Show November 2022: Movie Soundtracks
The use of music in movies generally takes two forms – building or essaying the mood of a particular scene, (“the score”) or the use of a particular song (or theme) to emphasise a scene’s context. I’ve only got about four movie soundtracks in my collection that I’m aware of – they include: Betty Bleu…