Pitchfork Media & The Annual Torrent Of Best Of 2010 Lists

Yes, it’s that time again. Only this time, it’s that time earlier. A long time ago, Dr Science outlined the problems that would arise if the speed of light were sixty miles an hour, pointing out, for instance, that people would always be speeding in an attempt to stay young. I think we’re experiencing a similar relativistic effect recently, thanks to the ever-increasing amount of information we’re trying to process at higher and higher rates. While it used to be that it was generally agreed that you couldn’t decide what the best things in a given year were before it was at least eleven twelfths over, it seems the ground rules have changed. One of the earliest offenders this year was Time, posting their first Best of 2010 way back in June. Not to be outdone, we of course offered up the Dissociated Press Best of 2010 a few weeks later. And as of this writing, a google search for Best of 2010 yields 1,360,000,000 results! Clearly, someone besides Santa has been busy making lists. Over the last few years, one of the only “Best Of” lists that I personally looked forward to with any eagerness was the “Pitchfork Media Best Albums” lists. They would save me an incredible amount of time when looking for cool new music to listen to. We would even reformat their lists with torrent and Amazon links here on Dissociated Press But this year, I’m much less interested in Pitchfork’s lists, and in a strange turn, even less interested in torrenting music. And here’s why: First of all, I wasn’t especially taken with Pitchfork’s list last year; in spite of remaining an awesome resource as a site in general, I think their “staff picks” have gotten a little self-indulgent and gone askew of a more broadly agreed upon “Best Of”. But more importantly, I feel that the indy market has developed in a way that makes it so easy to find, preview (which was the only legit reason for torrenting) and buy the artists’ music that it seems almost inexcusable to not use the channels available and put some money in their pockets straight away. It’s easy to find collections like FluxBlog’s 2010 Survey Mix and download 10 hours of the year’s music without spending a penny. FluxBlog even throws in a side note that says “Please buy the records from the artist if you like what you hear“, but here’s a challenge I’ll throw down. Given the choice of doing that or buying the same songs with the links below – which will provide both me and the artist with revenue – which would you do? No judgment here; enjoy some great indy music either way. And in any case rest assured that we’ll be back with more opportunistic and offbeat Christmas gift ideas, as well as a round up of the more amusing “Best of 2010″ lists as they roll out. Feel free to share any you know of and we’ll consider them for inclusion. Links for the FluxBlog compilation below.

Owen Pallett – Midnight Directives
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