Today there’s joy on twitter for two hundred or so of us (how mighty is the long tail).
Apropos of yesterday’s post, I’m delighted to report that there have been sightings of @ABCClassic100 using the #classic100 hashtag. Furthermore, they’re mixing things up a bit, interspersing the playlist tweets with a bit more editorial commentary. The way for this to happen has been opened up in part by their posting a running list of the symphonies as a distinct item on the website. The existence of The List means there’s no longer a need to rely on a “clean” twitter feed to supply the playlist and thus there’s more scope for conversation. (There’s a maverick list being maintained as well, which also includes the performer details for each symphony.)
There are still no “@ replies” to be spotted, but that may be partly because the followers themselves have begun to rely primarily on the hashtag to sustain the generally very entertaining conversation, the whole of which can be seen by means of an advanced twitter search. In particular, we have been joined by @FoodPanda, a remarkably knowledgeable as well as hungry creature.
A phone call today sent me over to look at the Classic 100 message board, which I’d visited only fleetingly yesterday. What a contrast. Compared to the flexibility and immediacy of twitter, the humble message board (as a medium in general) seems like a dinosaur: rigidly hierarchical and ossified, its gems largely buried.
It set me thinking about the nature of communication and how the mould into which you pour a conversation shapes its character. [As someone pointed out to me a while back, you almost never encounter any genuine nastiness on twitter because its concision and its “exposed” nature seems to be conducive to positive rather than negative expression.] For example, the people following the Classic 100 on twitter seem more likely to respond to what they’re actually hearing in the music, and to embark on lively exchanges – they’re having fun. The message board, by contrast, is home for those who want to speculate at length about which symphonies will make the top 10 and so on – they all seem a bit more earnest. It’s an interesting theme but not one I have time to explore – at least not until that spring holiday arrives, at which point it will all be over!
Meanwhile, my fingers are crossed for Beethoven 7.