I've spent my career in music, including the last decade in music tech at Apple and Amazon. I've worked in radio, TV, management, and records, giving me a POV on the cultural and tech changes discussed here.
Life’s too short for guilty pleasures. Especially in times like these, let’s resist the temptation to yuck our own yum, swerve the guilt trips, and empower ourselves to leave the windows down at red lights with a questionable song blasting and without fear of judgment. And I say
First, my caveats: (A) My caveats will be multiple and lettered, (B) I’ll be giving major “old man professor,” (C) I got an D in Bio 121 (and had to cheat my ass off on the final to achieve even that), (D) I won’t let that stop me
The Unknown Variable My discovery of generational demographics as a thing coincided with my enlightenment that I was fucked. And it aligned with three concurrent realizations, which I internalized and carry with me to this day. Number one: I knew it all along. Number two: it explained a lot. And
“You’re a really good programmer,” I was once told—sincerely and, I might add, accurately—by a VP at a broadcasting monopoly that shall remain nameless. “Your problem is that you love music too much.” I knew what he meant and took his point. In the moment, I remember
Why Mars Organic exists, what I’m doing here, and what music, taste, generations, technology, and bad endings have to do with one another.