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Rants from the lunatic fringe
Downloading Killed The Album Star
Admit it music fans, your attention spans are getting shorter. And shorter.
And shorter. We crave instant gratification in the form of sonic bliss,
knowing now that it is only a click away. Yes my fellow Americans, I’m
talking about downloading songs from the Internet.
It’s cheap; it’s fast; it can be done while eating three-day-old
Chinese food and watching Magnum P.I. reruns in the comfort of your rattiest
pajamas.
Though it’s cool to find just about any song you can think of and
have it downloaded in a matter of minutes, it’s making people that
record whole albums worth of music almost seem excessive.
I mean, who would want to listen to a WHOLE ALBUM by one band! I’ll
spare everyone from the “back in my day” crap because I’m
not even in my 30s, but I’ve been around long enough to experience
the digital revolution, so to speak. I don’t pretend to pine for the
days of vinyl, but thanks to the iPod, people’s listening habits are
starting to resemble one long, never-ending mixed CD.
In the hopes of my personal listening habits somehow seeming cooler (could
I sound a bit more uppity?), I’d like to exclude myself from the mix.
However, I cannot. I’m just as guilty if not more so.
Finding new bands and artists is more addictive than crack (or so I’ve
heard). Oooh, a new song by some random band. Isn’t it wonderful?
It’s the best song ever. Five minutes later, the process begins again.
And again. AND AGAIN! And if you even get around to checking out a second
song by your favorite artist of the hour and you don’t like it, you
can just find another new fav in two seconds. What a vicious cycle indeed.
What exactly am I getting at here? I’m suggesting that maybe we should
all go dig out one of those favorite CDs we used to wear out from start
to finish and remind ourselves how good that felt.
So, go find one of those discs that you know every word, every riff and
every beat of and crank it up and enjoy the dying art of listening to a
whole album.
Rant by David Brewer