Ownership of Obscure Songs and Lurking in comments

This post is quite different if you compare it to others. I am writing this post because sometimes thoughts need to be dumped and left just the way they are, without any refactoring or editing. Heck, even a few erroraneous grammatical features might seep in, but they're beautiful. This post is about obscure music and I would rather you don't read this article, because that music belongs to me ... and other people who have heard it on YouTube and that's our property.

Music is a powerful thing and I am just restating the obvious here, aren't I? Music can make you feel sad, happy, anxious, energised, calm and angry. How? I listen to cavetown, John Moreland when i want to feel sad emotions. Why would anyone want to feel sad?!, you might ask. But that's the beauty of human feelings. We are not bound by any mathematical equations and each one of us is different, unique in their own special way. When I am sad, I augment my feelings with some songs from these two singers. I listen to more sad songs and somehow the feeling of sadness just leaves... Goes away to some place I do not know.

Dave Grohl said it rightly when he said that quote (see the featured image for this post above). Music holds a special meaning for every person who listens to it. But let's not move to a different tangent. That was not the point of this blog at all. I was talking about obscure music. Music that does not get hummed in public by everyone. And I know, I know. The everyday Joe thinks that he is smarter than the everyday Joe, but I am not trying to say that listening to obscure music makes me special. I am just saying that, listening to obscure music makes it special, for me.

Holding an obscure song close to me feels different. Feels like I own it. I, for one, can claim that none of my friends (okay, like 90% of them) have not even heard of Jim Moreland. And that's okay. That's perfect. That's why his You don't care for me enough to cry feels like home to me. It's someplace I can sneak to when I am sad. Some place that is untouched, un-hummed and pristine. Just the way I found it the first time every time I go there. And when I leave, I can be sure that no one else I know will come here, and that feels special.

Another reason why I love obscure songs and obscure artists is the will to break off from traditional what is selling music. I know that might be bad for business for the artists, but I am a little bit selfish. When obscure artists make music, they make it for themselves... Or at least I think so. But they also upload it on youtube which counters my point effectively but I am not looking to debate here. Just to dump my thoughts. Anyways, I feel that obscure music is not made for glory, rather it's made by the artist to show their true feelings and that might get popular some day and people will hum it on buses and listen to it on spotify. My point here is, obscure music is obscure because of one reason -- it does not appeal to the general masses. And what that means is that there is an extremely small group of people who prefer listening to that music and it feels like a family. And although grouping people together on a single attribute of music preference might be a bad logic for recommender systems, it is indeed a family - a family of people who are feeling the same things. And that is more than you can ask for in this extremely connected world of ours.

You can see this phenomenon in youtube comments of obscure vs popular songs. When you jump to popular songs' youtube comments, you will most probably find things like this:

• I can't believe this comment got <x> likes!
• You. Who is reading this comment! Have a good day!
• OHMAGAWSHHH <Insert band/artist name here> is awesomeee! I could listen to their songs all the day.
• Some random dude posting the lyrics for non-native speakers like me (Kudos people! You are doing god's work!)
• How many people watching this in year <x>? (Coincidentally, these types of comments are the ones edited the most)

And you might say, 'Oh Sandesh! But you see, you can find these types of comments in your so-called obscure songs too! What's your point here?' My point is, people should stop caring about fake internet points and stop spamming OUR obscure music. Just leave dude / dudess!

"Ohkay, but I just opened the link to that John Moreland dude and saw that song has like 4 Million views. How's that an obscure song?" I'll tell you why. Because obscure songs are so different, they strike a unique chord in our hearts when we listen to them. When I feel blue, am remembering my ex or something along those lines, I listen to Moreland. And I feel solace. I am not alone. And Moreland speaks and sings my feelings that I could never be able to express in a million years of hard work. That's why they are artists.

Also, now that you have already clicked on the link, how about going to the comment section and reading the comments? I know, I know. The comments I listed above might have crept in, but ratios matter. In popular songs, almost all the comments that youtube pushes to the top are like that. If you read comments on Moreland's songs, you can see every person telling their own story and how they relate to the song. Sometimes you can see things like "I was in a bad place ... depression ... song saved me" and I know that might've been written by a bot for fake internet points, it renews some faith in humanity. And I don't want you to tell me if you wrote those bots and how they operate. I don't wan to know. I just want to believe that there's people like me out there. And coming back to the topic of a couple million views, I, for one, can claim that I have heard Moreland's song which I listed above tens of times, if not hundreds. That's why those songs have so many views. It's like some sort of a cult.

I think I will wrap up here. And the reason I am not listing any more songs in this blog post is because I don't want you to barge in.

Thank you.