Music Disruption

I am hugely passionate about music. It is a large part of who I am. I would say I really started loving music seriously around 12 years old. The first recording that really "clicked" for me and made me fall in love with Jazz music and music in general was "Parallel Realities" by Jack DeJohnette. Since then, it has been a never ending journey of discovering music. One of life's greatest little joys for me is discovering a new recording, song, artist or genre. Throughout this, my methods of acquiring and listening to music has changed multiple times in my lifetime. (34 years).

- I remember listening to records, huge clunky records. I remember listening to kids songs on records. Music like Raffi.
- I recall listenting to music in cars using 8 track tapes.
- This was displaced shortly after in my memory by regular cassette tapes, that were much smaller and could hold a lot more music.
- CD's were next and completely revolutionized how you listened to music. They were a huge jump in quality, and are where music went from analog to digital.
- Soon after though, MP3's started appearing, but were limited to basically your computer.
- Then the iPod came on the scene and completely revolutionized things again. The CD was effectively dead. Music was not only digital, but it was now no longer alienated on single physical mediums. You now had files that you could transfer to multiple mediums to listen to.
- Now... Who buys music? It doesn't make sense to purchase MP3's. It get's expensive quickly if you want a bunch of new music. Purchased MP3's can get deleted and lost. Plus you may only want to listen to a song one or two times and do not want to spend money to do so.
- Now I can pull up any artist, any album, any time I want. It's now a streaming music world. You pay a monthly fee and have instant access to anything you want. Now I cannot imagine not being able to pull up and listen to anything I am feeling. How did I handle it before? :)

With each change, of course something was lost. There was something to say about the artwork on large album covers. And there was something kind of cool about CD liner notes (at least to a music geek like me), and holding an iPod was a pretty cool feeling... Purchasing an album and listening to it was an actual experience. All this is mostly lost.

But, I would trade all that for where we are today.

Comments

  1. Only thing I could add would be I listened too LP 78 disc. Fast fast revolutions to get a song at normal speed.. Then 45's.... one song record.. I share this exact journey with you from Purple People Eater, I m Going Too Knock on Your door, The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Myles, Herbie, Keith, WEATHER REPORT, Christian music, Mighty Clouds of Joy, James Cleveland, Kirk Franklin, Israel, Tonex, Woody Rock William McDowell, on and on............. Album sleeve only for 78's, Beautiful album covers is right for 33's.. Now here we are. I want to stay fluid and be able too make change as quickly as this world keeps escalating at rapid speed. The old ways; were what they were. I enjoy the advances as you do. Change sometimes is not easy for me, but I see the value of trying to hang in and be relevant with the here and now.

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