The Evolving World of Online Music

Off Book, a web series by PBS Arts published on tumblr created this video about the evolution music distribution and discovery online. It features interviews with individuals whose blogs and sites sluice the flood river of online music for the specks of gold carried in its current. 

Websites like Pitchfork, FADER, and Hype Machine play a vital curatorial role that enable people to discover  new artists amid the host of self-produced music and videos online. (One such artist I'd like to recommend is MPSO who releases a free album this month.) These sites  do serve a function similar to the music press but they publish more reviews and daily. It is music journalism on the abbreviated time scale of the internet. Audio and video are often published with the review so you can judge it for yourself as you read their take on it.

Although I will be a subscriber to Rolling Stone for as long as it is published, these sites have been invaluable to me as a music fan.  BP

Musical Movements in Space & Time

Click to open interactive version (via Thomson).

This interactive map was created by Thomson Holidays, a British travel company, as a guide for music tourists. The infographic traces the development of Western dance music. You'll note that the evolutionary tree branches into dance music with the advent of funk and disco and, after 1970, the visual explodes with new genres that emerge from the confluence of musical styles across the globe.

You can watch it unfold (all in about 15 seconds) or drag the counter back and forth to follow the interactions between genres more closely.  BP