Time-lapse photography [1]. I’ve long been fascinated by it. Whether it shows flowers opening, clouds rolling by, the sun setting, seeds germinating or whatever – the speeding up of slow phenomena’s spellbinding. To me, anyway. A sister process – one I’ve never come across before – is time-lapse music: Last Wednesday salon.com posted this page [2]. It links to two sound files – which together total 74¼ minutes – comprising five seconds of every single No. 1 pop song – from the beginning of time through the '90s’. I can’t work out if the snippets are in chronological order. I suspect they aren’t. But who cares? I don’t. I think it’s fantastic. In the 1970s or 1980s, I was fortunate to witness a competition between my mum and my English mate Norman. Norman played snippets of music, and the idea was for mum to name each track as soon as she could. She did really well. It’s decades ago, but as I recall she got most if not all of them correct. And after only a few seconds of each track. She would’ve adored these salon files. I must admit I haven’t listened to all 74¼ minutes. But I recognised more songs than I thought I would. And in many cases the singers too. I’m pleased that, as per the salon blurb, the latest song in the compilation dates from the '90s. Because I suspect I couldn’t name any 21st century chart-topper. Ho hum.
P.S. Today’s the last day of a seemingly time-lapsed summer. It seems to have sped by at an alarming rate. I hope autumn’ll pass more slowly.
1 comment:
Really your summer is over already, it really hasn't been a great summer at all.
I doubt that I could name any tunes, I just can't remember the names I know the music but not the words.
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