Every song results in Unavailable.

Do you have to have an account or plugin or something? Clicking play on anything for me comes up as Unavailable. :-/

The vast majority of rich media sites with "intelligent" features like this one are built using Flash. Rich media (audio, video, animation, etc.) nearly always requires a "player" of some sort operating through the browser (like Quicktime, for example) because neither HTML nor even JavaScript are designed to run audio and video on their own. Flash is specifically designed as a platform for designing and implementing rich media "Flash sites", serving as a platform for delivery of text, images and animation through the Flash/Shockwave player at the user end which also functions as the player for streaming audio and video embedded into the site pages.

Although there are a few alternative ways of creating a site of this sort (using JavaScript routines, for example), few developers use them because Flash/Shockwave is an full-featured authoring system product for creating rich media web sites that is integrated into the installers for both Firefox and IE (along with most of the other browsers out there).

So the reason sites can claim that "no special software needs to be installed" is because if you run your browser as it runs "out of the box", Flash is already up and running by default.

So, you should expect to have to enable Flash to get any site like this to work. Basically, telling NoScript or FlashBlock to allow Flash for any particular site like this is the same thing as giving your browser permission to show videos and play music. End users of these security products are expected to know that none of this AV stuff will work without granting this permission.

(BTW ... have you tried getting YouTube to work without Flash? Same kind of issue. All the movies on that site are encoded in FLV (as in "FLash Video") format.)

Quote
So the reason sites can claim that "no special software needs to be installed" is because if you run your browser as it runs "out of the box", Flash is already up and running by default.

I wonder why they call it a "plug-in" or "add-on"?

A web app that requires a particular configuration of OS/browser/plug-in is not a web app.

Of course that's the pot calling the kettle black, given the big-ass Flash on the front page of Yehoodi. But at least we render something for the non-Flashies out there.

What does blip.fm do on an iPad, I wonder?

In my original post I mentioned I would follow-up with some music-related resources for new dancers.

FREE FULL-LENGTH, ON-DEMAND PLAY
(1) www.jazz-on-line.com - terrific site enabling free mp3 downloads of public domain songs
(2) www.tuxjunction.net - well-organized site focused on big band; also lots of interesting links
(3) www.redhotjazz.com - lots of songs to listen to here
(4) www.grooveshark.com - large library containing songs across all sub-genres; nice interface (multiple playlists, shuffle, song queuing, etc.)
(5) www.blip.fm - conduit to youtube and publicly hosted mp3s; note that there are lots of other sites with links to publicly hosted mp3s such as www.beemp3.com, www.4shared.com and www.mp3drug.to

While Basie, Ellington, Goodman,etc. are the foundation of Lindy Hop music, the modern bands are in some respects as important to the continued vibrancy of our community. The websites of contemporary artists are often the best place to hear full-length versions of their songs. A few are:
www.barbaramorrison.com/pages/CD%27s.htm (first 2 minutes of almost all of her songs)
www.myspace.com/campusfive (one of the more popular Lindy cover bands)
www.myspace.com/ronsunshine (check out Loungin' at the Waldorf)
www.paultillotson.com/ (quite a few songs of his on blip.fm)
www.myspace.com/stompyjones
www.boilermakerjazzband.com/music.php
www.georgegee.com/music.html
www.solomondouglas.com/music_video.html

Another resource is Bandcamp.com. Here are a couple of examples:
www.davinaandthevagabonds.bandcamp.com/
www.tubaskinny.bandcamp.com/

GENERAL - HISTORY, DISCUSSION
www.swingmusic.net (excellent site on jazz music and history with special emphasis on swing)
www.luv2swingdance.com/Music.html#PV (sub-genres, example artists and songs with bpm)
www.austinlindy.com/music_guide.htm (lays out various sub-genres of swing music)
www.swingorama.com/music/ronsrecs.html#Swing%20Celebrity%20Picks (discussion of sub-genres)
www.swingdjs.com (discussion board on all things related to swing music)
www.allmusic.com (reference site)

SONG LISTS and DJ PLAYLISTS
www.lindygroove.com/djs.htm (many DJs give their favorite songs and albums)
www.swingorama.com/music/lofileestop50list.html (a top 50 list)
www.swingorama.com/music/commonsongs.html (list of popular songs)
www.bardarswingclub.com/filer/musikk.pdf (favorites organized different ways)
www.tsort.info/music/yr1938.htm (top songs by year)
www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-swing.html (list of 300 songs)
www.steelcityswing.com/?page_id=10 (nice list with bpm from Shesha Marvin)
www.sweethotblue.com/cgi-bin/ib/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=3468(lots of playlists Australia)
www.davidjarvis.ca/playlists/ (lots of playlists here from 8 DJs)
www.yehoodi.com/comment/77473/fram-s-set-list/ (playlists from NYC Frim Fram dance)
www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=36&sid=b48822fd8cb7acaf5487769a284e40fa (from Yehoodi radio)
www.ithacaswingdance.com/lindy-hop-music-triple-step.html (slow and medium speed songs)
www.ithacaswingdance.com/balboa-music.html (faster songs, includes bpm)
www.ithacaswingdance.com/jumpswing%20tunes%20post%20swing%20era.html (long list of "jump swing")
www.tcswing.com/DJ/Playlists.htm (gazillion playlists from DJ Terry Gardner)
www.pustoblogsky.blogspot.com/ (many playlists from Chicago DJ)
www.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081014044138AARuMWy
www.austinswingsyndicate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=309&st=0
www.swingorama.com/music/ronsplaylists.html (includes bpm)
www.dancing.org/music.guidelines.html (interesting discussion)
www.gottadance.org/swing_music_byBPM.shtml (250 songs with BPM and song length)
www.alainwong.com/djsetlist.html (a few playlists from Alain Wong)
www.swingremix.com/pages/djs.htm (some DJ picks)
www.swingorama.com/music/celebpicks.html (some more picks)
www.jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/greatest-hits-2/
www.allthecatsjoinin.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/vintage-jazz-buffet-1-of-5/ (100 songs w/background text)
www.shuffleprojects.com/topic/music/song-of-the-week/ (weekly song w/background text)
www.facebook.com/killerSwingMusic (daily song w/full-play link to grooveshark)
www.solomondouglas.com/beginner_lindy.html (beginner dancer's playlist from Solomon D.)
www.swingmusic.net/Jazz_Joint_Jump_Jazz_Radio_Playlists.html (lots of playlists at swingmusic.net)

In this post I am introducing a new large "live" playlist created at grooveshark.com (a free play site). Later I will post a companion playlist created at blip.fm. The focus of both these playlists is what I will call "modern swing" which I define as swing music covering the last generation (early 1990s to the present). Perhaps the best way to describe the boundaries of these playlists is to identify the types of artists who are not included. In particular, prominent artists who were at or near the end of their careers during this period are excluded (e.g., Sinatra, Ernestine Anderson, etc). Those artists were featured in my previous 500+ song playlist. Basically all other artists across all sub-genres are fair game to appear in one or both of these playlists covering modern swing.

Grooveshark, one of the hottest music sites on the web at this time, provides more consistent and better sound quality and a much nicer user interface but the downside compared to blip.fm is you won't find bands like Yalloppin' Hounds, Cangelosi Cards, Gordon Webster, Crytzer, Baby Soda, Paul Tillotson and many others well-known in our community. The blip.fm playlist will include these and other artists missing from grooveshark. Details for the grooveshark playlist are as follows:
- No specialized software needs to be downloaded to your computer for this to work.
- You do not need to set up an account or profile in grooveshark.
- There are over 400 artists in the playlist. There is only one song per artist. If you want to see if there are more songs by the artist and listen to them, just click on the artist's name.
- The songs are for the most part not sequenced in any particular order. I did, however, try to place those artists very close to the Lindy community at the beginning.
- Once the playlist is loaded, you may reorder the songs in various sequences, shuffle them, select and queue them, etc.
- Unlike my previous playlist, I really did very little screening of the artists included on the playlist.

Though it did include a number of contemporary artists prominent in our community, most of the songs in my 500+ song playlist were from the 1930s and 1940s. While the focus is different, the goal of these two playlists is similar: to provide a convenient and efficient way for dancers to discover and hear Lindy-friendly music. In these playlists, it is the artists who have defined swing music over the last couple of decades, for better or worse. If anyone would like a particular artist to be added, first check to make sure the artist is in grooveshark and then either post in this thread or pm me. Once again, I intend these playlists to be a community resource. Grooveshark allows you to distribute the playlist's url through FB, email, twitter, etc right from the main screen. If you are unable to send or post the links (either direct links or yehoodi link) just tell people to enter either the word playlists or the word rabbits into the yehoodi search area and this thread will appear on the first page.

The link below will take you to a playlist selection screen. I could have linked directly to the playlist but since I plan on adding more playlists in the near future, I wanted the main link to be to the selection screen. Here is the link:

http://grooveshark.com/#/lindyhopper/playlists

I've created 5 new "live" playlists at grooveshark.com:

(1) Swingin' Vocal Duets - There are over 50 distinct pairings here and about 85 songs. If you enjoy vocal duets, the best place to find more is youtube since many artists sang together on television shows and in concerts. My all-time favorite duet on youtube: Ella and Jimmy Durante singing Bill Bailey

(2) Risque Suggestive Songs - Maybe duets about dancing cheek-to-cheek are a bit too saccharine for some of you. Perhaps you want something more raw and racy laced with double entendre, songs like the immortal My Man Stands Out? Not to worry, and ladies no need to be shy if you like this stuff, I won't stiff you. I'm full-service playlist guy and I've got one that's long on substance which will surely punch your ticket. If you like these type of tunes, check out the well-known album Risque Rhythm and follow the similar albums path.

(3) Swingin' Vocal Groups - There are about 115 groups here with one song per group; if you want to see if there are more songs for a group and listen to them, just click on the group's name. A few modern groups not available in grooveshark are: Girl from Mars, Chenille Sisters, and Sister Swing. If you are interested in exploring lesser known groups from the last century, I suggest you take a look at this set of 3 CDs.

(4) Popular, Fast Tunes - I've included about 90 songs here that are 195+ bpm and span multiple sub-genres including classic big band, hot jazz, neoswing. Though there are a few exceptions, I tried to select only songs which are played at an up tempo as opposed to those which you hear at medium speed as well.

(5) Popular, Slow Tunes - I've selected about 80 songs here that are less than or equal to 120bpm. BTW If you're looking for a simple, accurate bpm counter (no download required), I recommend either this tool or this one.

The link to these and all my grooveshark playlists to date is http://grooveshark.com/#/lindyhopper/playlists

Thanks for the kind words! They couldn't have come at a better time given happenings on another thread. :)

@beatlespwr From your user name I take you really like the Fab 4. The two Beatles' songs I would most like to try dancing lindy to are One After 909 and I Saw Her Standing There. Sadly, I've never heard either played at a dance while many other Beatles' songs have been played.

@Deils You are referring to the 500+ song blip.fm playlist. That's still my favorite one and it took a lot iterations to get it right. Blip allowed me to attach some text to the songs which, in turn, enabled me to pull tunes from jazz-on-line and other sources which didn't have the artist/song title embedded in their mpe urls. Also I used that text capability to embed section headers (e.g., hot jazz, jump blues, neoswing, etc) which really helps when scrolling through the large playlist. But my favorite feature is the ability to integrate mp3s and youtube videos in the same playlist. I agree with you that the audio-visual aspect of it is the best part. There's nothing like being able to just click and view a young Nina Simone at the piano or watch the sweat slowly trickling down the faces of Oscar Peterson and Ben Webster as they deliver the best version of Perdido I've ever heard.

Right now there are 9 playlists (1 at blip.fm and 8 at grooveshark.com). If I am not unfairly banned from yehoodi because of this thread I plan to add another large playlist at blip.fm and about 8 more in grooveshark.

I've created 3 new playlists at grooveshark.com, bringing the total of all my playlists at both blip.fm and grooveshark.com to 15. Before describing the additions, I'd like to mention a couple of things about the existing ones. First, I continue to add new songs to all of these playlists. Second, grooveshark has the nasty habit of automatically and permanently dropping songs from playlists without notification of any kind if for any reason any of the tunes are inaccessible when the playlist is loaded. I knew this was happening but I didn't realize how frequent this can sometimes be. For example, I originally had placed about 80 songs in the Popular Fast Tunes playlist but when I checked recently the number had dropped to 58 and grooveshark had taken Jumpin' at the Woodside and Sing Sing Sing with the 20 or so songs. And what a Scrooge and Grinch, the gremlins even got at my recent Yuletide Tunes playlist! Bottom line: I have pretty much restored all of the lost songs and, given that I have added some new ones, you may want to consider taking another look at these playlists. Now on to the newbie playlists.

(1) Smooth Swing Standards by Top Vocalists - This playlist contains about 250 distinct songs (no title ever repeated) mostly from what is referred to as the Great American Songbook. These are popular standards composed primarily from 1920 to 1950 which emphasize melody and lyrics with a laid back rhythm section and were written mostly by many of America's finest composers/lyricists including Gershwin, Rodgers, Ellington, Porter, Warren, Berlin, Arlen, McHugh, Loesser, Mercer and so on. But that's not all - they are sung by more than 100 of the finest vocalists past and present. I've excluded ballads and most of the songs fall in the 120-140 bpm range straddling the worlds of foxtrot and swing dancing. Though this type of music may not be your cup of tea, I've tried to pick songs and versions thereof which are danceable. Finally, we have many youngins in our community who may not be familiar with many, if not most, of these songs. This playlist helps them not only discover some great tunes but also hear just about every major jazz vocalist. If you want to hear more from a particular singer, just click his/her name in the Artist column to bring up a list of other available songs. I envy those of you who will be hearing some of these songs and singers for the first time.

(2) Scattin' While Singin' and Swingin' - This playlist contains roughly 75 songs from leading scat singers including Fitzgerald, Armstrong, Vaughan, Torme, Gillespie, Sammy Davis Jr, Cab Calloway and more. I've been providing supplementary links with my playlists and I believe the links (below in the "notes" section) to youtube videos featuring scat singing may prove more interesting than the playlist itself. You'll be able to view Ella and Torme scattin' together at the Grammy's and watch Sammy Davis Jr. school Johnny Carson on how to scat. BTW don't youtube videos of legendary singers and musicians really help our community in particular? Even though almost all of these performers are now gone, the videos of live performances really help bring the personalities and music to life for newcomers to our dance.

(3) Lindy Fringe: Modern Western Swing - This will be the first playlist in a series titled Lindy Fringe focused on musical sub-genres and songs which get very little play in our community. Modern Western Swing contains about 60 songs from 14 modern bands all but one which are still performing to my knowledge (the one exception being Commander Cody and the Lost Airmen which disbanded in the late 70s).

The link as always to these and all of my grooveshark playlists is http://grooveshark.com/#/lindyhopper/playlists but remember also to check out the links below, especially some of the scatting videos.

NOTES:

Here are some links related to jazz vocalists and scatting you might find useful or interesting.

Jazz Vocalists
Introduction to Jazz Singing/Singers
50 Female Vocalists with Brief Bios
30 Male Vocalists with Brief Bios
Comprehensive List from Wikipedia
List from Swingmusic.net
List from DDD

Scatting Videos
Ella Alone
Ella and Mel Torme
Ella and Sammy Davis
Sammy Davis Teaches Johnny Carson Starting at 8:20
Gillespie Mumbles Video
Bill Henderson Mumbles Follow-up
Louis Armstrong
Leo Watson Anita O'Day
Anita Wardell Trumpet Mimicking
Collage of Various Female Vocalists

I've created 7 more playlists at grooveshark.com bringing the total to 25 of all my playlists at grooveshark.

(1) Classic Swing by Vintage Bandss - Contains over 300 of what I would describe as core Lindy Hop tunes, the music most closely associated with our dance. These are mostly medium and up-tempo songs from the Swing Era (1930s and 1940s) by bands popular in Lindy community.

(2) Classic Swing by Modern Bands - Traditional lindy songs by popular bands of the last decade.

(3) Vintage Jump Blues - Contains over 150 songs by over 100 artists from this popular dance sub-genre.

(4) Modern Jump Blues and Neoswing - Also contains over 150 songs from over 100 artists.

(5) Lindy Fringe: Vintage Rockabilly - Nothing other than perhaps electro-swing is more fringier to our community than Rockabilly. Is that justified? You decide - and here are 130 vintage songs to help you.

(6) Lindy Fringe: Rock & Pop from 1950s through Early 1960s - I've selected 75 songs within this category. If you feel some songs/artists are missing, they probably have been included in my R&B, Soul, and Motown playlist.

(7) Lindy Fringe: Rock & Pop from Mid 1960s to Present - Music stopped "swinging" around the time of the Beatle's arrival on the scene. And it's stayed that way pretty much for the last 1/2 century with the exception being the fleeting appearance of neoswing. Accordingly, it's tough to find more contemporary danceable music - but that hasn't stopped DJs from trying. This, of course, has led to heated discussions in our community about how much, if any, of this music should be played at our dances (i provide links to some of these debates later). Here are over 100 songs, some very danceable while most are kinda sorta danceable, my only criterion for "danceable" being that triple stepping to them feels somewhat tolerable. Did you know the Grateful Dead wrote a never published song with "The Lindy Hop" in the title? Listen to it here!

As always, the link to these and all of my grooveshark playlists is http://grooveshark.com/#/lindyhopper/playlists

RESOURCES/NOTES:

• I have no plans to create any more playlists in grooveshark.com beyond the 25 which now exist. My apologies to those of you who have been eagerly awaiting an electro-swing one, although you can find some of those songs in my Modern Swing playlist. I believe all 25 playlists collectively convey the breadth and depth of lindy friendly music. But the most wonderful part of it all is that there are so many more songs (and versions) for dancers to discover which are not included in these playlists and hopefully the many resources I have cited in this thread will help in your exploration.
• Blip.fm has effectively disabled access to publicly hosted mp3s so many of the songs on those two playlists of mine will no longer play. I plan on replacing at least one of them in about a month with what I think will be my most interesting playlist of all!
• Check out the playlists Smooth Swing Standards and Boogie Woogie since the total # of songs in each has been expanded by 70% and 90% respectively. For example, check out a never DJed but very danceable Ellington composition sung by Lena Horne in the Smooth Standards playlist. There are now about 350 danceable songs (350 distinct titles) in the Smooth Swing Standards playlist.
• I mentioned the debates which have raged in our community over the place of various types of music at lindy hop dances (neoswing, motown, bop, RnR, modern pop, etc.). I've added a bunch of links to these discussions in my yehoodi thread titled Useful Links for New Dancers and Rabbits.
• To discover more big and small bands, I suggest starting by working off the lists at swingmusic.net: big bands and small bands.
• Nice write-up on jump blues from allmusic.com
• Here's an interesting and enlightening quote from DRUM magazine on the transition from swing to RnR:

In the April issue we talked about how a solid, continuous backbeat was one of the key elements of the rock and roll revolution. Another important rhythmic milestone that led to rock’s dominance was the shift from swung to straight eighth-notes. Previous forms of American popular music — including New Orleans jazz, swing, and rhythm and blues — all had their rhythmic foundation in the “swung” eighth-note, a bouncy feel based in triplets. In the mid-’50s, however, certain R&B musicians found that by speeding up the feel of a boogie-woogie shuffle, you could “straighten out” the bounciness and create a relentless, driving “chuck-chuck-chuck” of eighth-notes that is now the recognizable trademark of rock. Interestingly, the move toward straight eighths did not originate with drummers, but with other instrumentalists, notably piano player Little Richard, and guitar players Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Earl Palmer, who played on many important early rock recordings, described it thusly: “The only reason I started playing what they come to call a rock and roll beat came from trying to match Little Richard’s right hand. With Richard pounding the piano with all ten fingers, you couldn’t very well go against it. I did at first — on ‘Tutti Frutti’ you can hear me playing a shuffle. Listening to it now, it’s easy to hear that I should have been playing that rock beat.” Fred Below, who played on most of Chuck Berry’s hits, did just the opposite, playing a shuffle against Berry’s straight-eighth guitar strumming on tunes like “Johnny B. Goode.” The result is an unusual “in-between” feel that has also come to be associated with the 1950s rock sound, and can be heard on the likes of Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock,” and Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On.” As the 1950s wore on, the straight-eighth feel became increasingly popular with teens, and by the arrival of The Beatles, in 1964, it had become the dominant groove in rock.

• If you are interested in music from the 1950s, here is a list of 200 songs and a couple of actual and long playlists from 2 DJed theme events: playlist 1 and playlist 2.