Posted on 03/21/2010 5:35:25 PM PDT by Kimmers
Hey you kids! Get the hell off my lawn! With your gameboys and iPods and knife crime. You don’t know you’re born. Back in my day we’d walk seven miles to pick up a CD from our local record store. Uphill. Both ways. The guy there would look down at us from behind the counter and we’d feel small. And we LIKED IT…
etc…
But seriously, over the last few years, the way we consume music has changed beyond recognition. The so called ‘iPod generation’ (a horrible, if functional turn of phrase) get their musical kicks in ways – 10 years ago – I would never have imagined. They’re both lucky and unlucky, as they will never experience the things on the list that follows…
1. Spending inordinate amounts of time with CD inserts / Sleeve notes
It’s amazing, the human eye. I would never imagine I could read text as small as I did on some ‘thanks’ lists… Endlessly pouring over the reams of band names, roadie and friends for advice on future purchases. And then spending further hours with the lyrics, reading them along with the songs until you have them word perfect. What he hell do teenagers do with their time now?
2. Lending an album to a friend, and hoping to get it back
It’s the greatest thing you’ve ever heard. The soaring majesty of the music and the depth and poetry of the lyrics. This album speaks to you. If only you had someone to talk about it with! Someone to share the experience. What about your mate, Dave? He’d love this! And he’d be well impressed that you found it first. Now Dave’s got the album and he thinks it’s ‘OK.’ When you ask for it back, he tells you he left it in his mum’s car. You never get that album back. Shit.
3. Broken CD case teeth
They’re designed to hold the CD safely. Designed to protect it. But, damn it, at least 25% of the time – when you open the freshly purchased CD and removed the impossibly snug shrink wrap – there’s that tell-tale rattle telling you that the centre section of teeth has broken apart, rendering the case useless.
4. Walls Of Neatly Stacked CDs
I feel sorry for manufacturers of CD storage solutions. They had no part in the demise of music as a physical medium. They just built furniture. Furniture that is becoming obsolete. It was always a yardstick music fans would use to scope each other out – the amount of wall coved by CDs – sometimes alphabetised by the truly faithful. What now? Check the amount of drive space used by MP3s? Not so easy.
5. Mixtapes with EFFORT
Ok, yes, you can burn a CD, put together a Spotify playlist or just mail over a bunch of MP3s. But that doesn’t count. To put together a proper mix tape you must experience the songs yourself, hit the buttons at the right time and put some effort into the selection. You don’t want the last song to cut out in the middle, so you have to scout song lengths. It’s also a tape, so there will be no skipping. The songs must flow together properly. It’s an art form, really. Sadly a lost one.
6. Putting together CD Wallets For Trips
Twenty minutes before you leave on a two week trip with your family and, although you’ve packed your Discman and headphones, you’ve forgotten to pack your CDs. Shit! What do you do? Grab the first few from the rack or make some tough decisions? This is all you’re going to have for two whole weeks. Your only respite from deadly-dull chit-chat. Greatest hits albums? New albums? Take a risk on the one Dave lent you? Old favorites? The stress is KILLING you.
7. Waiting For Albums To Come Out
Not just waiting – but waiting. Outside of the shop waiting. This shows true commitment to the cause. The shop would open, you would rush in, all excited, and the dude behind the counter would clock you by your clothes, hair and demeanor and have the album ready. Maybe there would be a few of you, huddled in the shop doorway like very well dressed hobos (or if it was a metal album – hobos) awaiting the magic moment when the album could be yours…
8. Tape Trading
When you can’t just Google, Scrob or Lazyweb it, how do you discover new music? By exchanging tapes by post! Underground music was once fueled by the Royal Mail and the C90 tape. Often second or third generation recordings and, quite often, awful. It was the best way of doing business, purely for the surprise factor. What the hell would be on the next one from that strange grindcore fan in the eastern bloc?
9. Skinning Up On An Album Cover
The absolutely perfect place to do it. Plenty of room, no grooves, easy to clean and looks damn good. You can’t skin up on an iPod.
.
Heavy Metal Ping!
To “skin up” is to roll a joint.
The last time that I played with music, I recorded music off of RECORDS onto tapes to play in the car. Had a dual cassette recorder too. I’ve never even seen an iPod. CD’s are a new invention to me. lol
11. FREEDOM
Barf.
At least you have a cassette recorder and not an 8-track.
Your girlfriend in high school giving you a ‘mix tape’ instead of a playlist or Pandora channel.
I remember in Jr. High sitting next to the radio with a tape recorder waiting for a song I liked and trying to hit record as soon as the song started.
# 1 thing the ipod generation will never experience: living in a free country.
Or after a really great jam session, the guy with the dual cassette boom box (with high speed dubbing!) made a copy for everyone!
Using an album cover to roll a joint is like using a mirror or glass-top table to do a line of coke.
Of course, the canonical album is Cheech and Chong's "Big Bambu", for obvious reasons...
I can do just about anything on the current technology - except create a playlist. To me it takes too much time. I just hit the play button and listen to the music on my MP3 player.
LOL!! I never did buy an 8 track. Too clunky. In the early 90’s I went to my favorite record store for a particular song on a 45 and there were all these little box things where the 45’s had been. I asked what the h*** are these? After they stopped laughing, they said cassettes, no one makes 45’s anymore. Talk about shock. lol
i remember in junior high recording songs off the radio... of course, it always had some of the dj's talk at the beginning of the song and at the end... haha!
Exactly. Thanks for posting for me.
When I was a kid, I got a Sears Silvertone transistor radio for my 14th B’Day. We couldn’t afford a tape recorder. I loved that radio! 1964!
haha! look at post 17--i did the same thing--in junior high! except i had a portable radio with a cassette player/recorder built in, so i didn't have to sit next to the radio, i just recorded off of the radio from the built in cassette recorder...
That brings back memories. We did that too - and with one of those small cassette decks microphones placed near the radio speaker. The sound wasn’t great, but it didn’t matter... we enjoyed it (...and sure couldn’t afford to buy albums).
That looks like Hubby’s Heathkit. I think he still has it. :-)
Thanks I wondered what he was talking about. We won’t talk about what an album cover that opened was used for. :)
I think I got the same radio! It was about the size of cigar box.
As of tonite, FREEDOM will be one thing they’ll never enjoy, either....
Heck, I remember 78's
And, the Music Box
I used to make copies of my LP albums onto reel to reel tape so I could take them to college. My first stereo (Dynaco) was built as a kit and used vacuum tubes. Yes, I walked to school uphill both ways and had to fight off the wolves too.
Mine was tan leather. Handle on top. And yeah, it was cigar box size.
You don’t need a satellite radio thing. You’ve got a computer, there are plenty of online radio stations online. I listen to classic radio shows and some college music (just to see what the youngsters are up to) via iTunes. There’s a lot of world music available online as well.
“Hell, I remember vinyl and turntables! “
And I remember 45s, 78s, and reel to reel.
And Underground FM radio, circa 1968.
“11. FREEDOM”
the very first thing that came to my mind too. glad i’m old.
I was like 14, and had a busted up leg and that radio saved my sanity as I was in traction for months. I remember Petula Clark's..."Downtown" played twice per hour.
Yeah, try getting the seeds out of a bag on a CD cover. You need a nice old copy of Dark Side of the Moon for that.
I guess I have a dirty mind.
Whoever wrote this must be really young.
The guy that wrote this is some young guy in England - I doubt if he’s ever experienced that kind of freedom as it is.
Number 11. Dorothy Fabianski.
The snaps were on the back. It opened for the batteries. It smelled like leather. I loved it!
ML/NJ
I'm impressed
“Yes, I walked to school uphill both ways and had to fight off the wolves too.”
Snow year round?
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