for the generation that can't read more than 10 words in a single sitting:
Tiny Tunes Forget the drum solo - Radio SASS pares songs down to the bone.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/snackmusic.html Why climb the "Stairway to Heaven" when you can take the elevator? That's the logic behind Radio SASS (Short Attention Span System), an experimental radio protocol currently in development that takes classic tunes and whittles them down to about two minutes. "People's patience for music - even the stuff they like - is thin," says founder George Gimarc, a veteran programmer and former DJ from Dallas. "Twelve songs per hour won't cut it." Gimarc and his team of editor-musicians use what he calls "intuitive editing" to trim pop songs to their catchiest crux, pruning seconds from a guitar solo here, lopping off a chorus there.
Musicians are crying foul. "It's heinous," says Andrew Whiteman, lead guitarist of Broken Social Scene, a Canadian group known for songs that run more than 10 minutes. "Music is not meant to be hook after hook." But Gimarc says most listeners don't miss the snipped bits. You decide: Check out the SASS versions of popular songs here.
- Eric Steuer
go to website to listen to "14 minute mix of Radio Sass" vs. "14 minute mix of full-length originals" forget classic rock - i wish they'd do this to today's pop music. oh, wait, corporate boardrooms already have, by and large...
