Saturday 04.03.2010 | 6:23 PM UTC
I think it was Gene Simmons that said “if it’s too loud, you’re too old.” Having reached that age, I must admit “it” is in fact very often “too loud.”
But the same truism can be tweaked to express disdain for old-foggie pundits endlessly bemoaning the erosion of quality music consumption by the accessibility the digital age has afforded us. Steve Almond of the Los Angeles Times writes:
“…I wonder if [technology] hasn’t made [music] less sacred. The ease with which we can hear any song at any moment we want no matter where we are…has impoverished the actual experience of listening to music. Music is more accessible than ever, but it’s also less ‘sacred’.”"
Mr. Almond goes on to propose some well-reasoned arguments on how pre-digital listening habits fostered a ritualistic, tactile, more intimate experience, making listening to a record a “transcendent event with real emotional impact.” There is certainly something to be said for sitting on the floor in your room, taking in the album art, liner notes and lyrics, listening to every nuance of the record without any other distractions. I spent the better part of my teenage years doing exactly that (when I wasn’t pining for the foxy redhead in my Social Studies class). And today I still on occasion lament that I don’t often fully absorb every record I pipe through my computer. But, for the most part, I respectfully call Bullshit on Steve’s nostalgia.
When I was a teenager, I could recite the track for any given record; recall which songs were on side one or two; name the record’s producer; tell you where it was mixed and who engineered the sessions; I could rifle off all the member’s names of any given band I took a liking to more quickly than I could the capitals of the 50 states. And while this might still be the case for certain contemporary records I’ve consumed between the ages of 35 – 41, by and large I have a somewhat diminished command over the details and nuances of my huge music collection.
But brotha, please. Had we not passed from the golden age of the turntable (yes, the Rolling Stones pre-1974 catalog most definitely sounds better on vinyl) to our current milieu, our exposure to (or at least the viability of acquiring) the vast array of musical styles and talent available to us today would be seriously hampered by budget and time. Mr. Almond reminds us that “in the pre-historic 70′s listening to music took time and commitment.” Well sir, you are no longer a teenager, but an adult with a job, responsibilities, and, presumably, a social and family life that requires nurturing and constant attention. I mean, who other than teenagers have the discretionary time to sit around in their room devoting hours to doing nothing else than listening to records? Yes, that experience lends a certain sacredness and commitment to the act. But the portability of our music collections afforded to us by the mp3 frees us to carry vast amounts of music that can be consumed just about anywhere, at any time. This enhances, not impoverishes, our appreciation. Claiming otherwise would be like a foodie claiming he’d rather live in the woods and eat only the food you can catch, kill and cook on your own, rather than living in Manhattan, where you have access to the entire world’s cuisine within a few short blocks. The fact that I wouldn’t be able to break down and identify every subtle flavor and discern it’s complex mix of ingredients every time I sampled a new dish doesn’t mean I would not enjoy the shit out it. (Sorry, maybe that wasn’t the most appetizing phrase for the metaphor, but it does lend an appropriate ring of emphatic commitment common to adolescent opinions.)
We have without a doubt lost some of the valuable qualities of pre-digital music consumption. I commend Mr. Almond for articulating and reminding us of it. But would I trade it for the 200 gigabytes (nearly 3000 records) that have vastly broadened my exposure and appreciation of music and continue to feed my obsessive consumption of it? No. Fucking. Way.
You can read Steve Almond’s article here…
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Thursday 04.15.2010 | 4:51 UTC
Tusk Pickbreaker says:
Heh, I just bought a Holga 120s : )