BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart (a/o February 10th):
1. “What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),” Kelly Clarkson
2. “Set Fire to the Rain,” Adele
3. “Turn Me On,” David Guetta
4. “Rack City,” TYGA
5. “Good Feeling,” Flo Rida
6. “Smooth Criminal (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast
7. “Young, Wild & Free,” Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
8. “Domino ,” Jessie J
9. “Sexy and I Know It,” LMFAO
10. “Ass Back Home ,” Gym Class Heroes
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival rocked the quiet deserts of Indio, California once again this weekend, though not everyone could make the trip. Blame geographical or budgetary restrictions, or a simple aversion to extreme heat and sun. And at temperatures blazing past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) on both Saturday and Sunday, some undoubtedly examined their indoor alternatives. But the action online proved far less exciting than the real thing, heatwave and all.
Ever heard of the AT&T Blue Room? The name keeps coming up around major festivals, including Coachella. Billed as the "only place to see it" online by Coachella organizers, the site (at attblueroom.com) offered a considerable selection of streamed performances.
Except, you couldn't find Prince, M.I.A., Roger Waters, Portishead, or a large number of other performers on the AT&T slate. And the at-home streaming closed shortly after the festival itself. Perhaps a winning bootleg or two could be scored on YouTube, though the broader online selection was still limited.
What else? On a local level, mydesert.com (the online destination of the Desert Sun) offered some good on-the-ground coverage, as did blogs like Idolator.
And, the newfound owner of Idolator, Buzznet, also offered a considerable amount of Coachella coverage. The music-focused social network has been covering the event for three years, and its ownership of both Idolator and Stereogum only broadened the reach (posts from both blogs were integrated into the Buzznet coverage).
The result was a nice collection of user-generated, festival-related content, including photos, videos, and Twitter posts, as well as news and interviews. Most of the action has been happening at buzznet.com/coachella and community.coachella.com, also a collaboration with the festival organizers.
Buzznet video clips brought the action closer, though the ad-hoc snippets are just a sampling of the real experience. And for those hoping to lounge in the AC, mouse in one hand and lemonade in the other, the internet offered only a glimpse of the real thing. Because a wall-to-wall video and audio experience was simply not available.
Of course, that is partly by design, and the Coachella organizers wisely authorized teasers instead of substitutes. And in the end, that approach was probably the smartest - at least from a profit-making perspective. Because those checking out the action from their desktops probably found themselves wishing they were there, instead of feeling satisfied with the next-best thing.
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