A recent survey has been run by Nokia, according to our own news section, asking people what the most important feature of a music phone is. The results so far, I have to say, have surprised me a bit.
Well, alright, not the top-ranked result so far, since that’s battery life. The one does make sense. But the current (joint) second highest rated feature is ‘speakers’.
Er, what? As in the built-in speakers on the phone? Surely you listen to music through a pair of headphones, or stick your phone through the car stereo, if you should happen to be in the car (bit useless if you’re not, though, that second one). Who the hell listens to music through the phone’s speakers?
I’ll tell you who. Annoying, spotty-faced kids in my local, that’s who. Who will soon learn the horror of losing their phone within a pint of beer. I see it as my right, nay, my duty, to point out the error of their ways by introducing them to my little friend (since this isn’t actually Scarface, a cricket bat). Unless they’re listening to something funny. Then they can Bluetooth it to me.
However, in joint second place with (spit) ‘speakers’, is ‘other’. I have no idea what ‘other’ is, since Nokia haven’t published what people have typed in the ‘other’ box, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say what I think it should be, and what I reckon people will be saying: sound quality. Everything else follows sound quality. If that’s bad, it’ll ruin everything else. If it’s good, it can save even a rubbish phone. And that’s why I’ll never listen to music on an iPhone or an iPod. The sound quality is bobbins.
I still say you can’t go wrong with Walkman phones, for sound quality. Like the Sony Ericsson W995. The music playback on that’s all kinds of awesome.
Now, you may be wondering why I’m in such a musical mood today (since I have another blog post about music phones on the way in a bit). Well, I’ll tell ya. I just read that one of the greatest men in the history of music died yesterday. A man who changed the face of music by inventing the first solid body guitar (the Rickenbacker ‘Frying Pan’ notwithstanding… and anyway, this was the first proper guitar you held like a guitar, rather than a lap steel), and who later went on to be one of the pioneers of multitrack recording.
Yes, I’m talking about Les Paul.
The musical world is forever in his debt, and in his honour, I’m going to close this post with a solo, on a Gibbo Les Paul, by the one and only Slash, that seems oddly appropriate, since, you know, Les Paul was the godfather of all music that followed the invention of the guitar that bears his name.
Do you play a Les Paul? What do you think the musical world would be like now, if he hadn’t got his baby made? Leave us a comment and have your say!