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Arts + Entertainment
Buying Music vs. Playing Music
by
Q Ideas
Buying new music can be exhilarating. Granted, we rarely do it in physical stores anymore. Who buys albums at Tower Records when you can download from iTunes in seconds?
But the magic of buying and listening to new music eventually wears off. Which is interesting, because as Andy Crouch writes,
"Before you bought it, the album seemed like something you couldn’t live without. And at first it delivers thrilling new experiences. But as it becomes more and more part of your routine, eventually it subsides into the background, gathering digital dust in the depths of your iTunes list, delivering very little additional satisfaction. Go back far enough in your history of musical purchases, at least when you reach a certain age, and some of them start to seem downright unsatisfying."
Why is that? Why is it that the things we purchase to satisfy our desires rarely continue to do so? Andy Crouch provides an answer in his
Q Short: From Purchases to Practices
.
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Comments
Jeff Mangum
You are right; too few of us head over to a record store and buy music anymore. The downloadable single is replacing the full-length album. Very few of us are enjoying the experience of pulling the vinyl out of the sleeve. Placing it on the player and gently laying the needle down on the record. Then cranking the volume to 11!
It’s too bad; there is a certain experience that happens when you actively listen to music. When you have to get up and flip the record over or put another CD in the player. Tony Dekker, the singer for The Great Lake Swimmers said in an interview “… in terms of really, truly experiencing a record I would much prefer to put on a vinyl record and experience the music in that way; with artwork and with something tactile and to have a real audio experience. I mean, they are getting better in terms of quality but there is still a little bit of a disconnect. That being said, on the subject of a disposable culture, there is that aspect to it. There is this generation of music and art and photographs that are just zeros and ones essentially, just binary code. I am a little bit worried that all of this stuff is going to be lost because it doesn’t actually exist…. For me, the portability of the MP3 is awesome and I love that aspect to it. But for a real, true music listening experience I like putting on a vinyl record”
To me, the magic of new music (buying and listening) has never worn off. The National have a new album coming out in a couple of days and I can hardly wait. I remember in High School Brady Bunell copying a tape of Pearl Jam’s Ten and handing it to me at the soccer field. I put it in my tape deck on the way home and thought my head was going to explode it was so awesome. The following year I hung out at the record store at midnight for the Versus release, I was the first person in my town to own a copy.
And, with really good music, does it ever get old listening to it? Does the dust really collect? Maybe, with some music, sure. I doubt the new Lady Gaga single will be in heavy rotation on anyone’s playlist in a couple years. But, who has stopped listening to OK Computer? Yo-Yo Ma has a beautiful recording of Cello suites that will never grow old. How does the magic Handle’s Messiah wear off?
Sometimes, even if the music is cheesy it has a memory attached to it that never fades. I remember unpacking my stuff at my first apartment in college having moved out of my parents house for the first time. They bought me a stereo as a present and I was listening to Candlebox’s Far Behind. That song is ridiculous, listening to it now, but I love it and still listen to it on a warm summer day (like the day of my move). I made a mix tape for my girlfriend (now wife) that had Foxy Lady by Jimmi Hendrix and Only Wanna Be With You by Hootie and the Blowfish. I don’t listen to those songs now without thinking of her.
Music is created to be consumed. To be listened to and played over and over and over again. To be gobbled up. I say do it. And do it loud!
Patti Lehman
The cool thing about buying physically buying new music is that in any given time it can be rediscovered.
I recently dusted off some vinyl albums from the late 70's and put them on my substandard turntable and was immediately transported to another place time that changed my life. There is no price tag on that kind of experience.
James Hellfeier Sr.
I find for myself that music like books are in a kind of rotation. I have to have the new "So and So" album play it to death and then put it on the shelf. Then a few months later I hear a single from the album on the radio and I pull it back out or a situation or conversation reminds me of it and its back in the rotation for awhile. There are a few albums that are always in the Cd holder, those I usually have several copies of, vinyl, cassettes, CD's and yes even a few 8 Tracks that I can't play but still can't let that copy go! As Patti said they "immediately transport" me to a place or time in my life. There are times when I throw the CD in listen and try and remember WHY! For me music and certain authors or their books help to rekindle a part of myself that is in a rut or trapped somewhere I need to escape from. In both cases for me its more about the words or the arrangement of the words and not so much the music, although sometimes Mahler hits the spot.
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