Ladies and gentlemen and fabulous people of all genders on the internet, I have been having a VERY bad couple of weeks. I was in a car accident two weeks ago, which aggravated the neck and shoulder pain I am experiencing, due to the deterioration of a couple of joints in the cervical part of my spine. On top of the stress of dealing with the worsening of my pain, and the additional stress of dealing with insurance agents and arranging to get my car repaired, this week I accidentally deleted several directories in my Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage while transferring files from my old Windows notebook to my new one. On Friday I had a meltdown while I was on the phone with my university’s tech support, while I was struggling with my neck and shoulder pain, made worse—of course!—by stress. Frustrated, overwhelmed, embarrassed, and in pain, I finally threw in the towel, took the rest of the day off sick, and went home and to bed. I am ashamed at how poorly I am coping with everything happening in my life these past two weeks.
All of which is a very roundabout way of saying that I am grateful for Second Life, which is still, to this day, one of my preferred escapes when reality becomes a bit too much. I know that some of my readers are probably wondering why I choose to spend much of my free time in a 22-year-old virtual world, which the mainstream media likes to portray as quaint, outdated, and populated by weirdos. (Hey, as I say, embrace your weirdness. Be a professional weirdo. This world is not served by billions of cookie-cutter humans who think alike, look alike, and act alike.) But I digress.
Second Life is the perfect model of a fully-mature, ever-evolving metaverse, which many newer entrants would be wise to study, learn from, and emulate. One thing that the mainstream media gets wrong is the reason for Second Life’s appeal. That appeal—what keeps its userbase coming back—is not its weirdness (although that is certainly part of it). Second Life’s main appeal is that it is an unparalleled blank canvas for people to be whoever or whatever they want, and create whatever they want. And nowhere is that more evident than in SL’s vibrant music scene.
For example, first thing this morning, my main avatar, Vanity Fair, ascended the ladder to get to The Rooftop, one of several venues located in a region called NO DUMPIRE, created and maintained by a dinkie raccoon avatar named Zed. This morning, I enjoyed a one-hour live music set from classical guitarist Joaquin Gustav, chatting with friends in SL while sipping my morning coffee.
Second Life is packed with musical venues, where I can park Vanity (or another avatar from my small army of alts) down in a club, to hear a deejay or a live musical performer or a singer/songwriter. Everything from fancy ballrooms like LOVE, to the decidedly anti-consumerist dumpster chic of NO DUMPIRE’s many venues.
As I write this, Joaquin has packed up his guitar and now DJ Zed is spinning an eclectic set of chill music. His usual avatar is a dinkie (i.e. tiny avatar) raccoon:
It beats the hell out of just turning on the radio, and listening to whatever limited set of music that radio station serves. Why do that, when you can support a live deejay or musical artist in Second Life, AND serve a fabulous look? Here is Vanity Fair dancing to the tail end of a song during Zed’s DJ set:
Second Life and its many clubs, venues, festivals, and other events exposes me to musical artists and deejays from all around the world (for example, Joaquin Gustav hails from from Buenos Aires, Argentina, a far cry from wintry Winnipeg, Canada where I live). I can join SL groups (like Joaquin’s group) for my favourite artists, so I’m alerted as to when and where they are performing next. And I can tip those performers whose music sparks joy and gives pleasure, using Linden dollars which artists like Joaquin can cash out into their local currency. AND NO ADVERTISING.
And it’s not just on a Windows, MacOS or Linux desktop that you can log in and listen to a virtual world venue’s music stream. Second Life’s new Mobile client (available for both Android and iOS phones and tablets) allows you to bring your music with you wherever you happen to be! Even on Mobile, the sound quality is excellent.
So, that is why Second Life is my radio station. Ladies and gentlemen (and fabulous people of all genders), I hereby rest my case. 😉 Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
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