Cpt. Z
Joined: 22 Apr 2004
Posts: 75
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| How We Consume and Listen to Music |
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I just stumbled across a couple articles that cover the topic of the changes in how music is accessed and listened to. I'm sure you've all heard this before but here's a little more food for thought:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121023882
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=833454
I'm old-school myself. I grew up using all those various mechanical and electrical devices to extract the music from the vinyl, the tapes or the disc. It's like magic. I also find some comfort in the rituals that one goes through before the music happens in an old-school setting. But nowadays I see DJs coming to WCNI with laptops and/or ipods and nothing else. No crates brimming with their homebrew collections. It's all so un-magical  )
I have mixed emotions about this digital direction that music is taking. I can see myself jumping on board the digital/download train very soon. There is lots of music available out in cyberspace, music that I can investigate easily and purchase at a reasonable price, music that I might never find out about through old-school channels. This can only help me to broaden my tastes and expand my playlist when I do a show at WCNI. I guess a downside is how much music is too much music? When does listening to music become a flat experience?
Having tons of music and listening to it all the time could (for me, I think) make the music lose the magic, or at least hide the magic that is contained within it. I'm also wary of the compression that the original musical sound must go through before it reaches our ears. I'm sure that in the future music will be transposed from its original soundwave into a digital signal and back into a soundwave with almost no lose of integrity. Today's easily available download formats tweak the sound to make it fit and flow. It may not be audible in an in your face way, and it may not matter if you only listen to loud or compressed pop/rock, but extended listening to most digital formats will tire the ear (and brain)... even with CDs played through a less than stellar system. Of course an FM signal is too coarse to expose any defects in the source material (other than pops, clicks and hiss), so WCNI sounds as good as always.
Like I said earlier, I'm getting on the digital bandwagon. The pluses out weigh the minuses and the minuses will shrink over time. But I'm the kind of person that will always appreciate being able to hold the music in my hands and take the time to digest it slowly. What do you think? |
Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:52 pm |
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