Introducing Jack the DJ

The purpose of this new blog is to draw attention to the eight music crates I have created on the website of Internet music provider, Bluebeat.com. My goal is to make these crates the most popular (or at least among the most popular) of the 2000+ crates that have already been created by users of Bluebeat.com.

Full Disclosure - Before I continue, I wish to state the following: I am not an employee of, nor do I have any commercial relation with, Bluebeat.com. This site has not been created at their request, nor have I requested permission to do so. My relation to Bluebeat is strictly that of a fan, trying to get other net surfers who might enjoy it to go to the site and try out the service for themselves.

What is Bluebeat? Bluebeat is an Internet music provider, a subsidiary of MRT, which offers an enormous catalog of commercial music to users, either in the form of prefabricated channels -- designated either as The Time Machine, which divides the catalog into decades, and Killer Playlists, which divides the music (roughly) by theme -- and individual channels created by the listeners themselves, called "DJ crates." The Time Machine channels include popular music going all the way back to the early 1900's (and it's a trip to hear some of those old wax cylinder recordings), as well as classical music going back to Medieval times. (A single Time Machine channel -- for example, "Brit-Pop" -- may belong to more than one decade.) The Killer Playlists can be about anything and everything. But the coolest thing about the site is being able to listen to the channels (crates) built from scratch, not by the company, but by everyday people like you and me... or to create such a crate yourself.

And the best thing about Bluebeat is... it's FREE!

Basically, you sign up, download their proprietary software, install it, and enjoy the music. (I know this sounds like a commercial, but I need to get this basic info out of the way before talking about what I really want to talk about: me.)

After I had created my first crate, The Greatest Decade -- my own "time machine" channel, focusing on the music of the 1960's -- I wrote this to the Bluebeat Forum (and I'm the kind of guy who never writes such testimonials):

"BlueBeat has changed my life! After listening for weeks to several great stations of 60's music on BlueBeat -- British Invasion, 60's Pop, Soul 60's, Psychedelic Era, Folk Rock, Strictly Motown, etc. -- and marveling at the sound quality and the sheer variety of the material, I thought things just couldn't get any better. Then, one day, in addition to the usual icons, I noticed these weird 'plus signs' all over the site. They were placed next to station homepages, next to artists' biographies, next to albums, even next to individual songs. What could this mean?

"Suddenly, I realized that BB had taken interactive radio to a whole new level. I could be what I always wanted to be: the DJ. And even as a DJ, I would be a DJ with a difference. For a real DJ (or his or her program director) has to take the time and trouble to create a playlist. But I have a computer to do that for me. So while I create the basic parameters for my crate, I am constantly amazed by what comes up. So I created my own crate: THE GREATEST DECADE, pouring my heart and my musical knowledge into it. (Need I add that "greatest decade" means The 1960s?) Rock, folk, jazz, rock, soul, funk, rock, pop, blues, rock and more rock. 360 hours (15 days and nights) of music in all. A mellow Coltrane ballad followed by Mississippi John Hurt at Newport, followed by an early Yardbirds classic, followed by Sly Stone gleefully inventing funk, followed by Marvin and Tammi harmonizing as if they were already in heaven, followed by a Pink Floyd journey into outer (musical) space, followed by an obscure single by the one-hit wonder girl group, The Angels, followed by... anything in the world from that best of all possible decades. And now I listen to my personal radio station all the time, and like the Lord I declare my creation good. Because of THE GREATEST DECADE, I feel empowered as never before.

"Keep on keeping on, BlueBeat! Our world would never be the same without you."

After creating that first crate, I created seven more. (Though I consider them not as "crates," but as my own personal radio stations.) However, The Greatest Decade was the most popular, residing for a long time among the Top 30 crates in terms of listenership and peaking at (I think) number 6. I was ridiculously proud of this distinction.

However, my crates, after a strong start, dropped in popularity, as users began to listen to newer crates. I cast about for a way in which I could revive their popularity, or bring their listenship to new heights. Then suddenly, the perfect answer: start a blog! So this is for Bluebeat users (and those who intend to be Bluebeat users) who may be interested in the remarkable music "my" online collections have to offer.

In the next post, I will describe the eight crates, the contents of each one and my rationale for creating them. And in future posts, I will share with readers the experience of listening to my crates and my thoughts on music generally.

Jack