So, recently I had an idea. It came to me whilst I was having one of my weekly ‘new music’ sessions, where I gather a load of new music together and have a listen, normally from the recommendations of friends and the internet. I realised how much I missed sharing my new discoveries with others, in person. Don’t get me wrong, nobody can deny the internet is an amazing place for discussing the world 4 times over, but I’ve always felt like something gets lost when I’m just sitting in front of a screen.
So I’ve decided to try something. I want to try getting a group of people together in one room (I’m thinking pub function room or just an old pub on a quiet evening), and just chat about music. Obviously this would require a slightly different format than a book group. So here’s my thoughts on the basic format;
The group consists of maybe 8 people maximum.
Once a week/fortnight (not decided yet) they all meet, and bring along 1-3 albums that they love and want to share with other people.
A) They can bring the albums in whatever format they chose. They could burn like a couple of copies of each album to discs, and hand them out. They could upload the album to a file sharing site and hand out the link. They could even just say it’s available online *cough* torrents *cough*.
B) The general rule would be to take something you think others might not have heard of. It doesnt necessarily have to be ‘that band Davey von Bohlen was in between breaking up The Promise Ring and forming Maritime and they only did like one EP and they recorded it in Japan’, but if you turn up with like, Kings Of Leons new album, you’re missing the point a little.
Each person talks a little about what sort of music it is, why they like it, how they first heard of it etc. It doesn’t need to be a dissertation, but something to let people know why you think they should give it a spin. Now for the tricky part. Obviously you would try and get together a group of people with fairly eclectic tastes, but even then, everyone has preferences. This is why I decided to have each person bring a few different albums. Each person does not HAVE to take home a copy or decide to listen to EVERYTHING that is presented. As long as each person decides to take home like one or two, there should be enough there to set you up for next week. The first week would obviously just be presenting the albums, but then the second week everyone has given said albums a listen. I was thinking maybe you could divide an hour up for each purpose (or half of however long you decide to meet for). The first hour is a chance to go around the group and for people to give their views. Did they like it or not? Why? What songs did or didnt they like in particular, how they thought it could be improved and maybe even say if they’ve heard anything like it, maybe they could bring that along to swap back with whoever brought the album along originally. Then the next hour you do the presentation again. Simple! (I think)
So yeah. I’ll let you know how I get on!
themusicgroups 