Hello (turn your radio on)

Inspired by some other music-related blogs I've been reading recently (e.g. Chart Beats), I decided to start my own.  I've used youtube as an outlet for sharing music videos from my collection since April 2007, when I discovered that the only Yazz music video on youtube at that time was 'The Only Way Is Up'.  Unfortunately, I was still on dial-up at the time, and it took something like 4 hours to upload each video; even after compressing it beforehand.

My first youtube channel was OhNoItsNathan (no apostrophes were allowed in the username back then), inspired by the 1996 Shakespears Sister (coincidentally, no apostrophe either) b-side 'Oh No, It's Michael' (which doesn't seem to be on youtube).  Yes, Nathan is my name.  Unfortunately, the channel was suspended some time in January 2008, due to repeated copyright strikes.  So I dusted myself off and started a new channel, this time OhNoItIsNathan (couldn't use the previous channel's username), eventually clocking up 440+ uploads and several million views... only to suffer the same fate again in October 2009 (hello copyright strikes).

Gutted at the prospect of re-uploading several hundred videos (which still take nearly an hour each to upload, thanks to Australia's 3rd-world internet speeds and my aversion to compression) - only to lose them all again if my channel gets suspended, this time I decided to create multiple channels with a limited number of videos on each.  This way, if I lose a channel again, I only need to upload about 20 or so videos.  Each of my current channels is a variation of ohnoitisnathan (now using the more humble lower-case), e.g. ohnoitisnathan3, except my MelAndKimVideos channel.  I was toying with the idea of using some channels for uploading specific artists' videos (hence the artist-specific username of that channel), but later abandoned the idea.

The strategy of having multiple channels has worked, and I haven't yet lost another channel since.  However, the trade-off is that my videos don't always get the same number of views or comments that they once did - though when I last did a tally in May 2013, my channels at that point had a combined view total of ~7.8 million ($ucce$$!).  It's a pain, though, having to log into 30+ accounts (so far) once a week to check for new comments/messages etc.  First world problems ;)

Anyway, that aside, I aim to use this blog to share my uploaded music videos from youtube in one location... and to occasionally add some of the 'back story' behind my decision to upload certain videos.

For anyone wondering, the title of this post is drawn from the Shakespears Sister song linked in the video above.  It was also the first CD single I purchased, in December 1992.  A steal at A$7.99 (from memory) in my local Brashs.  After seeing the video on Video Hits on Oct 25th 1992, I searched under 'S' in the singles section of every local record store every weekend, trying to find the damn thing (the single version was different to the album version I already had on their 'Hormonally Yours' CD).  I'd almost given up, until finally they had it a mere 6 weeks later.