{"id":1130,"date":"2008-01-10T23:49:39","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T04:49:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-01-11T09:24:23","modified_gmt":"2008-01-11T09:24:23","slug":"a-knotty-proposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/a-knotty-proposition\/","title":{"rendered":"A Knotty Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_wLIGVQ1bVM?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Hey, folks,<\/p>\n<p>So I was out walking the pooch the other day, earbuds in place (uncharacteristically so &#8212; Mod, I may be coming around to your perspective on these things; increasingly, I find I favor the sound of the wind through the trees over bonus tracks from the most recent Apples In Stereo album&#8230; but I digress) &#8212; anyhow, earbuds in place &#8212; when I experienced a somewhat jarring alphabetic song transition that really got me thinking.  The first song that popped into my earbones was this one:  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Career_Opportunities.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Career_Opportunities.mp3\"><strong>Track One<\/strong><\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p>Now, understand, I love this song.  And I also have some firmly rooted opinions about its Importance.  But when this track followed it into my brain, I really had to stop and think:  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Carefree_Highway.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Carefree_Highway.mp3\"><strong>Track Two<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My first reaction, strangely enough, was one of, um, <em>relief<\/em>.  In other words, though I enjoyed bobbing my head to Track One as it coursed through my head, I was pleased to listen to Track Two in comparison.  This actually concerned me a bit.  In an effort to allay fears about my taste in pop music, and how it might be in the process of geezification, I&#8217;ve been re-cue-ing this tune at odd intervals over the last four or five days &#8212; to make sure I wasn&#8217;t just liking Track Two more, you know, because I was strolling through the park on a pleasant winter&#8217;s day or something.  Nope.  I&#8217;m definitely liking this song <em>more<\/em> than Track One.<\/p>\n<p>So I asked myself:  <strong>why?<\/strong>  And in the process, I came up with a few questions I&#8217;d like to pass along to all of you.  Listen to these two tracks.  (And I ask you to actually listen to them, in their entirety, before answering.  I know you know both songs in question; for me, it was the *re*-listening that brought these issues into clear focus.  Humor me.)  <\/p>\n<p>After listening, answer the following questions:<\/p>\n<p>1.  Which of these two songs do you think actually had the most, uh, <strong>measurable impact<\/strong> on day-to-day human behavior during its popularity?  I seriously think that more people &#8212; though perhaps in a more modest, immediate, fleeting fashion &#8212; changed their behavior, or at least felt differently about themselves, upon hearing what Track Two had to say, than Track One.<\/p>\n<p>2.  Imagine you have an <strong>iTunes<\/strong> playlist of two songs:  Track One and Track Two.  Which are you likely to listen to more often, <em>today<\/em>?   Please try to avoid wishful, rearview mirror-gazing\/too-cool-for-school responses to this question.<\/p>\n<p>3.  Today, are there any popular &#8212; or even just critically popular &#8212; artists mining the veins these two artists explored 30 years ago?<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to your responses.<\/p>\n<p>HVB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, folks, So I was out walking the pooch the other day, earbuds in place (uncharacteristically so &#8212; Mod, I may be coming around to your perspective on these things; increasingly, I find I favor the sound of the wind through the trees over bonus tracks from the most recent Apples In Stereo album&#8230; but <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/a-knotty-proposition\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}