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The iPod vs. the Top Twenty — 17 Comments

  1. which reminds me….

    Whatever happened to the weekly Sanity Squad podcasts? I miss them! My Saturday morning ritual was listening to the podcasts on my iPod while out walking my dogs.

    I’ve thousands of tunes on my iPod, but it’s the podcasts and audiobooks that make the iPod a valuable resource to me.

  2. One can gather from your discussion that you’re not a musician. Carrying your logic further, by devaluing the music we are devaluing the musicians. It’s interesting that, though musicians are paid much more now than when they played live, the quality of music hasn’t increased, and indeed can easily be argued to be declining. That’s not even to mention, of course, the rampant copyright infringement that encroaches even on the money aspect (many get their pod stuffing from much cheaper, illegal sources).

    It’s quite possible that i-pods will destroy music, so that only old stuff will be left to play.

    Ironic, isn’t it?

  3. “…and formerly plebian and relatively local forms of music (regional folk, jazz, blues) were archived and recorded and made popular among those who’d never heard them before.”

    ..but…but…but…What about Country? lol

    Or is that “regional folk”?

  4. I start to get sick of music, even favorite music, if it is repeated over and over without breaks. I have to modify my PC playlist to include music that actually break up the rhythmn of the next piece in the series, to be able to listen to music for hours on end without getting sick of hearing them.

    http://www.pandora.com, via using the music genome project, was a godsend from Bookworm in that it allowed me to instantly find and listen to music that I had never heard about simply by listing a song/artist that I liked.

  5. All glory to Pandora. My musical tastes have expanded about 1000% since I started using it. It provides the perfect balance between control and unpredictability.

  6. I feel the same way about my iPod. But I wonder how much of it is just because I am older. Music is more intense for younger people regardless of the medium, I think.

    Have you ever noticed that people over 30 don’t seek out or listen to new music nearly as much as they used to? I think these phenomena may be related.

  7. Michael,

    Have you considered the possibility that the bulk of new music put forward by the industrial outlets sucks…a lot.

    You know my taste in music is good, but one reason I don’t listen to a lot of new music is that the quality of the product has diminshed in what is available. On the other hand, I listen to a local station that makes a point of seeking out new music that will stand up to older songs. There is good new music out there, its just not being supported by the industy all that much.

    Also, maybe our aging population isn’t as interested in hearing millionaires whining about their problems. Bruce can sing about being unemployed in Jersey all he wants, but we all know he’s been rich for thirty years and living in Cali for twenty…

  8. Michael: There’s actually an interesting essay about exactly that in Robert Sapolsky’s Monkeyluv. Music was his example, but the thrust of the essay was that people’s appreciation of novelty sharply diminishes as they age. The good news, though, is that like many other things, you can be trained to keep it- or regain it.

    Popular rock is sucking right now, but other forms- blues and metal- are going strong. I think musical genres go in cycles of innovation, probably because they take inspiration from each other. You won’t hear the good stuff on Top Forty, though.

  9. I bought my first I-Pod just a month ago. I have bought no music. I have an audio Bible on 61 Cds. It looked like an inexpensive way to pretty much fill the whole four Gigs. It’s the New Living Translation which uses very modern sounding language.

    On the plus side, it’s an easy way to explore the Bible without the drudgery of reading difficult parts. It’s a multi voice recording with dramatic music. In a few places the tone of voice is amusing. In other places, the horror and violence has the same sort of overkill as modern television and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I have found myself laughing at dreadful things because of this overkill for lack of a better word (it just seemed to go on and on).

    On the minus side, the version I got was of poor quality and many of the first tracks would not rip. I spent quite a while going through them all. Tyndale quickly replaced about a dozen disks with no problem. There have also been problems reading the info for the tracks, and I spent quite a while figuring out the best way to handle this problem.

    It can be difficult to focus on the tape for long, because you have to take it in as it’s read. This is less of a problem for part of it like the Proverbs or Psalms where there is no story line to follow. If you drift off, a new chapter will start soon. The poetic imagery in Job and Psalms is something I just can’t stand the drudgery of reading, but it’s a pleasure on the I-Pod, when I’m in the mood anyway.

    There may be different versions out there, this is the one narrated by Mike Kellog that I’ve been speaking of:

    http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Bible-CD-Living-Translation/dp/0842354468

    I’ve seen prices from $75 to $150, there seem to be few available at the low price.

  10. Patrick: You know my taste in music is good, but one reason I don’t listen to a lot of new music is that the quality of the product has diminshed in what is available.

    You’re supposed to say that, though. You’re over 30. You’re biased. So am I.

    I agree with you, but the kids think we’re clueless and square.

    Kids these days…

  11. I don’t know that musicians are paid more these days. Except for a few, most are losing money, especially when you get out into the fringier genres. Both touring and making albums are money-losers until you get to some point that many good bands never achieve.

    My iPod has certainly re-ignited my love of finding new music. While I have a large and well-loved classical collection (about 700 CDs, most of them ripped to the iPod now), my passion at the moment is new progressive rock, discovering new bands such as Hectic Watermelon, Oblivion Sun, and Karda Estra. Originality, creativity, innovation, and passion are all alive and thriving in progressive rock these days, accompanied by real technical and musical skill and talent. It isn’t music that’s dying; it’s the music industry.

  12. Neo–

    I was just thinking about this during the weekend. I think I may be receiving an IPod soon, and while I’d love to put my top 20 of all time on it, I wonder if Simply Red’s “Holding Back the Years” will still make me misty if I can hear it whenever I want. It used to be that the Flower Duet or “O Mio Babbino Caro” could turn me into a pool of emotion, but now that I have them on CD, not so much.

    While I drove through Central MN, a few songs that are touchstones for me came on, old friends I rarely hear anymore. I hope familiarity doesn’t breed contempt.

  13. When I was 16 you could judge how much I liked a song by whether or not I would continue to listen to it in my car, after I arrived at my destination. Some songs I would wait to the end even if I was running late. Once I had that song on Tape or LP I could hear it anytime and it dropped off that unwritten list. It’s the same thing with an IPOD because you can hear it anytime. It’s not as special when you do hear it. It’s like drinking after you turn 21. Things that are easy or easily available lose their value.

  14. Jonothan Baker – They called C&W “Hillbilly” in those days, and yes she would consider it “regional folk”.

    The Grand Ole Opry is in flyover country after all.

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