Trip hop: a summary by AI (Fannish Fifty #4); penny pinching

[verushka70]

For once, AI did a decent job: On the Facebook group Trip Hop Lovers, one OP posted this AI summary of the musical genre Trip Hop.

I've loooved trip hop since the 90s, when I first discovered it via very early Internet "radio stations" (which we would now call streaming music channels, but the term "streaming" had not yet been coined, or at least was not yet in common use). Other than rock n roll (and some classical and opera), trip hop is probably my favorite musical genre though I can't say the same for either rap or hip hop, as, for various reasons (like misogyny, glorification of violence, etc) neither is my jam (despite the Grandmaster Flash 12"s and Run DMC records I bought when they first came out, way, way back in the day).

I'm a huge fan of Morcheeba, Portishead, Zero 7, and Air (along with Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, and DJ Shadow), all of whom show up in the AI summary. When I need to relax and mellow out, trip hop is my go-to (with or without THC - these days, mostly without, so I don't develop a tolerance; I need it to work for those acute-on-chronic pain flares, sigh).

My favorite trip hop album of all time is the purely instrumental album Charango by Morcheeba, which came included with the regular (vocal version) of the Charango album in a double CD special edition I bought for €15 on a trip to Amsterdam.

(Despite my love of Morcheeba, there is a song on Charango that I loathe, the existence for which there is no excuse, imo... If you know the album, then you know the song I mean; if you don't know it, I won't mention it here, because you're literally better off – it will just piss you off and raise your blood pressure. So, the great thing about the all instrumental version of Charango is, I don't have to hear those stupid, offensive lyrics.)

Some of the acts listed in the AI summary (such as Björk) aren't really trip hop (Air probably doesn't strictly qualify, either, but YMMV)... but they certainly (as one commenter put it) were trip hop influenced.

Otherwise, it's quite a decent summary, despite being AI-generated.

I highly recommend checking out the post and the trip hop artists I mentioned above. If you're not sure if you'd like it, you can dip your toe into trip hop - or "trip hop lite", anyway - by searching YouTube for "chill hop"/"chillhop" and listen to any of the compilations that come up. On YouTube, Lofi Girl, out of France, has multiple live-streaming channels that are also good trip-hop-esque.

But for the real deal, imo, nothing beats the full instrumental version of Morcheeba's album Charango. Pure trip hop bliss, is what that is.

All of that having been said... I don't use Spotify, lol, just like I've never subscribed to satellite radio. Audio subscriptions, like most subscriptions, are just another way to nickel-and-dime you out of your hard-earned money... which these days doesn't stretch that far - and less and less all the time. I'd rather listen to music on YouTube with a completely ad-blocking browser, for free.

I've cut all streaming video subscriptions except Netflix (well, and PBS - I'm a member), too. I get along quite well with whatever free (with ads) movies and free TV series the Fandango At Home app has on offer (OK, most of it is trash, imo, but sometimes trash is fun).

And I use public library streaming apps like hoopla and kanopy - those allow you to listen to audio books and music, and watch TV series and movies. In addition to music and video, hoopla also features a revolving selection of Great Courses, whereas kanopy is better for movies - especially indie, documentary, foreign, older/classic, and avant garde/experimental films.

Last, but definitely not least, you can get an OTA (over the air) TV antenna and watch local TV channels for free! Depending where you live, the selection (and reception) may not be great. But where I live (literally 2 miles outside the Chicago city limit), I got 102 free TV channels when I most recently rescanned.

Of course, some are shopping channels, some are televangelist, and several are in other languages. But I get FIVE PBS stations (though one is PBS Kids) - including one out of northwest Indiana - that are AD FREE!  My favorite OTA PBS channels are Create TV (all cooking, travel, and crafts, all day and all night), and PBS Prime (which is basically reruns of the big shows on the main PBS channel: Nature, NOVA, Masterpiece, Rick Steves, who is (off-air) a 420er and marijuana legalization advocate - who knew).

And there are 24/7 channels that show only cartoons, true crime (Oxygen True Crime, Court TV, True Crime Network),  Western, action, classic TV, military history, dogs/pets, classic sitcoms, game shows (old and newer), reality/survivor, and various syndication package channels (Start TV, COZI, Comet - the latter is all sci-fi and fantasy shows, 24/7)too.

If I wanted to, right now I could watch free OTA mini marathons (3 or more episodes in a row) of L&O:SVU, Criminal Minds, Bull, Bones, Chicago P.D., Charmed, Saturday Night Live, 48 Hours, Columbo, and Parking Wars (??).

Movies I could be watching free OTA right now include Tombstone (slashy!), An American in Paris, Snows of Kilimanjaro, Red 2, Den of Thieves, It Happened One Night, and The Little Things (en español). Oh, and The Skull (with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, from 1965!), on Svengoolie.

Or rn I could watch the Green Bay Packers vs Chicago Bears, or the Texas Stars vs Chicago Wolves. Or the all-MMA all day/night channel. (I'm not big into sports, but... hockey!)

Of course, these are all broadcast channels, with plenty of advertisements... But that's what you get with basic or expanded basic cable TV: ads. (And with many streaming subscriptions, too: hulu, lower tiers of Netflix/Amazon Prime/HBO.) Why pay for what you can get free??

But then, my parents grew up during The Great Depression and WWII rationing. They knew how to pinch pennies, and they taught us how to, too.  (Pennies are being discontinued, sigh.) So I guess this apple didn't fall too far from that tree, in that respect. 🤷‍♀️

My only regret is I didn't jump on the black Friday deal for Criterion Channel, dammit.