My favorite mixed martial artist Nick Diaz fights Carlos Condit this weekend. Here’s a class photo of a very young, but always tough Nick. The dude hasn’t changed.

People will judge you by your taste in music. It’s true. Video creators take heed. You compose your shots beautifully. You painstakingly edit dialogue and sound to perfection. And your talent gives it his all, an Oscar-worthy performance. But as you near the finish line, you stick a crappy piece of music into your project. Your ‘masterpiece’ is now laughable. People can tolerate a shaky camera, but they are absolutely unforgiving with lame music. Your ‘cred’ hangs on this final element. I’ve seen this tragedy many times.

The Advantage of Novelty

Say your music starts to play and it sounds novel or unrecognizable. The viewer will delay his judgment, allowing your film more time to prove itself. I think this is the biggest advantage of indie music. Though that is not to say indie is fail-proof. People may still come to view your art in a negative light. You could’ve just chosen a track which is novel in a bad way. You shouldn’t count pop music out either, as it could be suitable depending on the type of video you create.

Cinematic is Not Always Epic

I’ve always liked tracks with cinematic potential. In the past I’ve made the mistake of thinking that cinematic = epic. Not true. Not all my videos are going to be battle scenes from Braveheart. A string orchestra rising to celestial ejaculation (see pic below) is sweet – but epic is not always appropriate. On the other hand, “cinematic” music evokes specific emotions through melody and tone. It’s not just a catchy tune. A good artist can identify different moods contained in a song, then deftly attach the visual components.

How to Improve Your Taste Level

So you admit it; your musical palate needs improvement. How do you make it better? There are a number of ways to do this but here are some that I’ve found helpful.

• Make a hipster friend – Hipsters know more about music than all of us. Here’s my hipster.
• Go to the library – Go to your local library and borrow some CDs you’ve never heard of. If you don’t like it, return it. Zero risk. I found The Antlers like this.
• Radio stations – Some radio stations are on the front lines of new music. Heard of 90.9 The Bridge?
• Magazines – Progressive culture magazines like Relevant.

An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods. (© Russell Watkins)