YouTubular Bells
Bells are a popular theme at Christmas and Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was a favourite of mine; this BBC studio recording was broadcast in December 1973, which is a very long time ago and now I’m listening, it doesn’t sound quite how I remember. But before you pop through the ether to hear all 25 minutes of it, today’s window brings warning of the perils of YouTubular. You may be sucked in, never to emerge into the real world again. I don’t often search YouTubular. I used to wonder when I first started blogging how other bloggers made music magically appear on their blogs. Then I realised they did not actually play the music themselves or invite musicians to their house, they cheated by finding it on Youtubular.
It starts by looking up a piece of music, if you can remember the title or performer. You then discover there are hundreds of different performers, versions and settings, especially for universally known pieces. Some have no film, just a picture of a CD cover, boring, move on… but be careful, do you want to share a great performance of a choral work, or that film made in a tiny church with your aunty’s choir; their singing even more shaky than the hand of the person holding the smart phone to film them. Or you might find yourself in a flash mob performance and you can’t resist watching to see what happens next.
So at last you have chosen a piece to link in to your blog, but when you press Publish and check the link, there is some bloke you have never heard of singing a song totally different from the one you have just written about. YouTube moves on, it never runs out of music, you could spend all evening, perhaps the rest of your life enraptured by strange advertisements and led into the next piece of music… If you like the music playing and it’s a long piece, you can read the 14, 378 comments and if you don’t like the music choose something else from the display at the side of the screen; scrolling down for ever and ever…
But saddest are the YouTubular videos that have 0 views, no thumbs up or thumbs down in the thirteen years they have been there, notes unheard. It is our duty to view, listen and share them; after all, we writers know what it is like to publish words that may never be read, disappearing into the ether forever.
Times and Tides of a Beachwriter 
I enjoy a lot of time on that YouTubular thingy. There’s some great stuff there. And lots of dross! But I couldn’t do without it.
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Yes Clive it’s certainly addictive and you do the searching and we just listen to the music!
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It can really attract you in, can’t it! I’ve found so much through it, and it should be shared!
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Such an interesting take on “YouTubular!”
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Thanks Becky, glad you found it so.
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Tubular Bells is one of my favorites, and Youtubular can be a fun place to visit for a few minutes turned into hours…
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Hello Jim, glad I picked a favourite.
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Good comparison between unviewed videos and unread books. At least it’s not so obvious for the books.
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Thanks Audrey, yes it is a relief.
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My go-to move most nights is to put on some music from YouTube while I’m surfing around or playing a game. I like your comparison of old YouTube videos with no comments and anonymous writers who may receive little to no attention,
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Thanks Pete, I’m sure many happily browse YouTube like that, perhaps coming across the lonely neglected videos!
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Tubular Bells love it a good choice and utubeular mmmm..different I also spend much more time than I originally intended to on tube every time…Merry Christmas 🙂 x
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Thanks Carol. Happy Christmas.
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Not content with having books no one can find, I went the whole hog and set up my own YouTube channel ‘Val’s Tales’ so no one could find or listen to my short stories either. 😀 How many hours did I spend looking for intro music? Don’t ask!
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I’m sure you must now know a lot more about YouTubular than me!
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Great post, made me laugh and also bittersweet. I know what you mean about posts with no likes or comments – and a good comparison with unread books. Let’s hope the performers at least get creative satisfaction, as writers do.
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Thanks; some of the video clips reminded me of the time someone sent us a tape of the ‘Messiah in a day’ they had just taken part in. They had a great time, but it sounded pretty horrendous.
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