Before I begin I’d like to present some context. The Guinness Book of World Records was created as a way of preventing pub and bar fights. Containing some of the most inane, useless trivia known to man (longest time spent ironing, etc.) it helped limit the amount of pointless contests and brawls that occur when well-educated idiots drink too much.
All of this brings me to the site at hand. Last.fm serves as check on anyone’s purported indie cred. Whenever someone says “Oh, I listened to Neon Indian before they released the album” it is easy to check the scrobbling. Of course, if they are telling the truth, they’d have no hesitation of checking up on this.
Similar problems are resolved with this. Writing about various concerts means you were there and helps to avoid the “I saw them before anyone else”. Here you could actually say you were too tired to write a review, but people should be able to see your history. It’s just another example of the often voyeuristic nature of the internet. I mean, you can’t exactly pre-date anything on the internet, so Last.fm keeps one honest.
That’s probably one of its biggest draws. Every pissing contest, every snobby “Oh, I was there” can immediately be held up to scrutiny. Sure, you might say that you listened to it on something other than an IPOD or computer, but who the fuck does that?
A bigger thing than keeping you honest with your music street cred is the ability to actually meet others with the same taste in music. Last.fm has people on it who listen to nothing but pure noise, all 800 of those people worldwide. It is a bit incredible how many of these tiny subsets of musical humanity can exist without sunlight exposing them for being bedroom-dwelling musicians who do this during their free time from their real job.
Now Last.fm has grown smart on this community thing, creating a dating website. Finally that age-old problem of music snobs procreating has been solved. No longer does one have to sacrifice their coolness of knowing all the hippest bands while their significant other jams out to Barbara Streisand records. This delightful service is called “Tastebuds” and it is a small offshoot of Last.fm’s musical taste algorithms.
Perhaps someday it may even help me find that perfect mate, so we can home school our kids and let them grow up with analog electronic keyboards. One can help. Join me on Last.fm, I’m on there, I don’t bite.