Song From My Soundtrack

This is the first of what will be a reoccurring feature here on the Tech^2 blog. The idea is simple: pick a song that has had a significant impact on your life in some way, and describe why. I'm starting with me to get the ball rolling, but over the coming weeks and months I've got the staff of S+V lined up, plus various luminaries and heavyweights in the A/V and music industries, all with interesting stories and songs from their own lives.

Now before you say something like "Wow, Geoff, you're a genius. This is a brilliant idea!" Let me say yes, of course, but allow me to give credit where credit is due. The brilliant geniuses at RockPaperShotgun sort of came up with it first with their Gaming Made Me series. I highly recommend you check them out, not least because they have some of the best writing on the web.

So to start, here's me on "Baba O'Riley."

Dr. Fang Bian founded HiFiMAN in 2006, which has become one of the leading manufacturers of audiophile headphones and portable audio products. Here he picks a Song from his Soundtrack.

In the audio industry, we are constantly listening to music so there are many songs that have special memories for me.

One in particular though stands out and that is "Telegraph Road" by the British rock band Dire Straits and written by Mark Knopfler.

We describe famous musicians as "brilliant" or "innovative" or "creative," but mostly, they aren't. They're just making minor modifications to a harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic framework borrowed from musicians who preceded them-and those earlier musicians did the same thing, too. And so on and so on.

David Chesky is a jazz, classical, and opera composer, co-founder of Chesky Records and HDTracks, and vocal proponent of high-resolution audio. Here he picks a song from his soundtrack.

I think the one song that is six degrees of separation for me would be "The Girl From Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim.