2011.12.14送给音乐爱好者的完美的礼物

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TECHNOLOGY
The Perfect Last-Minute (but Still Thoughtful) Gift for a Music Lover
By Alexis C. Madrigal
DECEMBER 14, 2011
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2011 Year in Review bug
From your gadget-obsessed sister (who lives for her iPad) to your garden-obsessed uncle (who thinks apple is a fruit) A special report
The BBC has produced the radio show, Desert Island Discs, since 1942. The basic format is to interview a famous cultural figure and ask them, as it was originally phrased, "if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you, assuming of course, that you had a gramophone and an inexhaustible supply of needles?"

The online archive of the program now features 1,000 people including Norman Mailer, Lady Redgrave, William Gibson, Vidal Sassoon, Jerry Springer, Petula Clark, and a lot of old British stars that young Americans like myself have never heard of. What's brilliant about the series is that there is nothing retrospective about it. These people are picking the stuff of their times, not trying to assemble a list for perpetuity. And even if they were casting an eye towards how history would view them, most of the tracks they pick have long been forgotten by contemporary music listeners. Even in the best CD stores of yesteryear, you would have been hard pressed to find a fraction of the stuff people mention, especially from the early years.


Take the silent film star Bebe Daniels, whose interview was broadcast Monday, April 2, 1956. She picked a Bing Crosby record, some record called 'Coronation Scot' by Sidney Torch & His Orchestra, a piece by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and a bunch of other tracks that belong to the category of music that you and I would call old-timey. It's the kind of music that makes you feel like drinking a highball at nightfall and being a good fellow.

So the entire Desert Island Discs archive is available for free online now, but you need a way to listen to (most of) what the obscure selections they pick. And that's what this gift is all about. Buy your friend or loved one a gift subscription to Rdio, a streaming music service with a huge catalog and a beautiful interface, and then send them a playlist of the songs from people you think they'd find interesting from Desert Island Discs.

This twist on the Rdio subscription will allow you to escape the, "Oh, you got me an online gift card... How thoughtful!" problem. And because they'll get access to Rdio's entire collection, the gift will let them listen to music far beyond your thoughtfully curated selection of old British celebrities.

If you follow this advice, allow me to suggest that you start looking for music with Alice Cooper's picks. They are all fantastic from The Yardbirds to The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, not to mention the Dylan, Beach Boys, and King Crimson.

Alexis C. Madrigal is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project, and the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology. He is also a co-host of Forum on KQED.




技术
送给音乐爱好者的完美的最后一刻（但仍然很贴心）的礼物
作者：Alexis C. Madrigal
十二月 14, 2011
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2011年的回顾错误
从痴迷于小工具的姐姐（为她的iPad而活）到痴迷于花园的叔叔（认为苹果是一种水果） 一份特别报告
BBC从1942年开始制作广播节目《荒岛光盘》。其基本形式是采访一位著名的文化人士，并问他们，正如最初的措辞，"如果你被单独丢在荒岛上，你会选择带哪八张留声机唱片，当然，前提是你有一台留声机和取之不尽的针头？"

该节目的在线档案现在有1000人，包括诺曼-梅勒、雷德格雷夫夫人、威廉-吉布森、维达尔-沙逊、杰里-斯普林格、佩图拉-克拉克，以及很多像我这样的美国年轻人从未听说过的英国老明星。这个系列的精彩之处在于，它没有任何回顾性的内容。这些人是在挑选他们那个时代的东西，而不是试图为永久收集一个名单。即使他们对历史会如何看待他们投以关注的目光，他们挑选的大多数曲目也早已被当代音乐听众所遗忘。即使在过去最好的CD店，你也很难找到人们提到的一小部分东西，尤其是早年的。


以默片明星贝贝-丹尼尔斯为例，她的采访在1956年4月2日星期一播出。她挑选了一张宾-克罗斯比（Bing Crosby）的唱片，西德尼-托奇（Sidney Torch & His Orchestra）的一张名为 "加冕苏格兰 "的唱片，美国全国广播公司交响乐团（NBC Symphony Orchestra）的作品，以及其他一些属于你和我称之为老式音乐的曲目。这类音乐让你感觉在夜幕降临时喝下高脚杯，成为一个好伙伴。

因此，整个 "荒岛唱片 "档案现在可以在网上免费获得，但你需要一种方法来聆听（大部分）他们挑选的晦涩难懂的选曲。而这就是这份礼物的意义所在。给你的朋友或爱人买一份Rdio的礼物订阅，这是一个拥有庞大目录和漂亮界面的流媒体音乐服务，然后给他们发送一个你认为他们会从《荒岛飞碟》中发现有趣的人的歌曲播放列表。

这种对Rdio订阅的转折将使你摆脱 "哦，你给我买了一张在线礼品卡......真周到！"的问题。多么体贴！"的问题。而且，由于他们可以访问Rdio的全部收藏，这份礼物将让他们听的音乐远远超过你精心策划的英国老牌名人的选择。

如果你遵循这个建议，请允许我建议你开始寻找爱丽丝-库珀的精选音乐。从The Yardbirds到The Paul Butterfield Blues Band都非常棒，更不用说Dylan、Beach Boys和King Crimson了。

Alexis C. Madrigal是《大西洋》杂志的特约撰稿人，是COVID追踪项目的共同创始人，也是《为梦想供电》的作者。绿色技术的历史和承诺》一书的作者。他也是KQED的论坛的共同主持人。