Hey @parkergetdean take your politics elsewhere buddy.
I miss scarcity
This is not a complaint. Or, if it is a complaint, it's half-aimed at me. Mostly this is a reflection.
In the old days, I got to know music really well -- in great detail, sonically, musically, reading all the credits, the liner notes, etc. A friend would have an album I didn't, so I'd go to his house to listen. We'd talk about the music. We'd talk about how album sides hung together or didn't. We were thrilled by double albums.
Now, a torrent of information is everywhere. I listen alone, often to a single song, often not listening to anything over and over again.
You will tell me, "That's your choice." I'd half agree. It's like agreeing that "It's my choice not to live off the electrical grid."
As I read and teach about AI, I am learning that our tools often prioritize speed and information glut. It seems, initially, like a cornucopia but it becomes a wash of "content." I must admit, I'm losing my talent for managing all this content, and I'm losing my love for it. And it's making me into a different person, somewhat, and I am not so sure I want to be that person. End of reflection.
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I think you’re missing my point just a little bit. No, I don’t "have to consider both sides" in a way that requires me to choose whether I would "give up what I have" because I’m not weighing them against one another to reach an either/or. There are other purposes for comparison than either/or choice. I’m considering them to compare them. I have no intention of giving up streaming -- that said, I have friends who are reintroducing CD’s to their system to make more forceful the option of limiting data-flood and re-instituting a kind of focused listening they are missing. That kind of adjustment to the system is a benefit of comparing without an either/or. I too feel sorry for kids who are breathlessly just “keeping up” and finding it hard to appreciate and savor. My daughter, though, has friends at Oberlin who are much more into long form attention. She came home from her first semester telling me one of her favorite albums was "A Love Supreme" and that she’s a huge Steve Lacy fan. She is tired already of Taylor Swift. And she likes to listen to whole albums or sides of albums. Some of this is her friends -- musicians studying long form music -- and some I would say comes from our discussions about technology.
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@audphile1 you can as always just focus on something else, e.g., it is your filthy world out there, enjoy it. |
I’m not missing your point at all, I just view it differently. Lamenting what you don’t have anymore without recognizing what you’ve gained is rose-colored glasses and misplaced sadness that I’d rather think of as fond memories. I’ve discovered more new music in the past six months than I had in the prior six years before streaming and as a result have enjoyed being an audiophile/music lover far more now than at any time in the past — it’s really reinvigorated my love of the hobby and music in general more than ever. So while reading liner notes, the smell album covers, talking about music with my buddies in depth was fun and I do miss it a little, it doesn’t compare to what I have now so considering one without the other doesn’t make much sense to me. It’s kinda like the guy who got his first car 100 years ago and then laments his horse and buggy — sure you can maybe miss certain parts like bonding with the horse and such but really? Was it really that good or is it maybe more just selective memory at work? Further, I could still do all those things today if I really wanted to but choose not to so maybe I just don’t miss those things nearly as much as you do, which is probably the case — certainly no right or wrong here at all cause music is nothing if not a unique and personal endeavor and journey. Either way, I find myself just enjoying the hell outta myself in the present so much so that I don’t lament the past much at all or any more than I miss having to get up to find a CD and load it into my CD player, but that’s me.
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another major factor in this discussion, is not the technology, but the fact that for many/most we’ve been doing this for many many decades...there are some interesting articles out there about the psychological process/impact/effects etc of listening by streaming or CD or LP ...not good/bad or right/wrong but interesting differences in the process and effects of each....from choosing albums/songs to listening habits to emotional impact... |
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