How to Free Creative You

Recessions don't kill innovation

(NEWSER) - Who says the worst recession since the 1930s means you can't debut a great product? The Huffington Post lists 9 hugely successful ones launched in tough economic times:

• iPod: Apple unveiled it less than 2 months after the September 11 attacks, amid the resulting recession.
• Microsoft Office: Bill Gates launched it at the end of the downturn of the late '80s, and HuffPo notes that the company itself began amid recession in 1975.

Inventor, guitarist 'changed the course of 20th-century popular music'

(NEWSER) - Musical innovator and guitar legend Les Paul died today in White Plains, NY. He was 94. A “virtuoso guitarist” himself, in the early 1940s Paul pioneered the “log” guitar, “probably the first solid-body electric guitar," writes Jon Pareles of the New York Times. His popular Gibson Les Paul guitar and his recording inventions helped him “change the course of 20th-century popular music.” More»

Analysis of pop charts finds steady songs predict turbulent finance

(NEWSER) - Beyoncé’s smash hit "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" might be the harbinger of continued chaos in the financial markets, the Guardian reports. Hit songs with steady, regular rhythms—or “low beat variance”—throughout correlate with volatility in the American markets, an NYU professor of finance found after comparing decades of the Billboard Top 100 to market results. More»

LA Times delivers the perfect soundtrack for financial woe

(NEWSER) - No matter how bad the current financial situation gets, popular music offers something to ease your woes. Hope you haven't pawned that iPod just yet: the LA Times brings you the best in recession-tastic classics:

• "Can't Buy Me Love" (Beatles): Single, former Lehman Bros workers will be spinning this one in heavy rotation.
• "Fortunate Son" (Creedence Clearwater Revival): It could be worse—you could be broke and drafted...