Digital Revolution

After years of being an LP guy, meaning being able to enjoy an entire LP worth of music vs a single or two, the advent of digitized music and itunes/ipod in particular, has not only changed the way people listen to music, but the way they LISTEN to music.

I've gone from feeling unfulfilled about listening if I can't hear the entire album front to back to feeling unfullfilled about listening if it doesn't have a random feature. Do you know what I mean? Since I started buying music (Eighteen With a Bullet from K-tel) I haven't been a radio fan. For a couple of reasons really. 1. I didn't particularly enjoy what was being played on the radio. 2. Radio was too frenetic, too many bites, not a full meal.

And now, for the love of God, I'd almost rather hear a mix instead of a full album. Mixes were, for me, enjoyed only for the creation of the mix and the satisfaction of giving. Never to be listened to by me.

Now I play this game. I hit random on itunes and see what 5 or 10 songs pop up. A fun game if you enjoy the entire universe of possibilities. (If I was forced to have Ronnie Milsap in my itunes, I might not enjoy this so much.) I'm in the process of loading my new 160gb external drive with my cd collection. I have no idea how long this will take, but currently I have 23gb and that's only 584 cd's, 7122 songs, by 775 artists and counting!! That may be 1/3 of the way finished, I'm not sure. I've been avoiding buying an ipod just like I avoided buying that first cd. I'm really afraid that listening to an album will completely disappear. But with an impending business trip to San Francisco, I'm going to buy one.

Here's a random list for the last 5 songs played while typing:

Far Out Crops by Robert Pollard (from Kid Marine) Oh what a great song live
Today Could Be The Day by the dB's I always wished I could play this song in a live band
Cortez the Killer by Built to Spill All 20 minutes worth!
Everything is Broken by R.L. Burnside A worthy Bob Dylan cover from the Big Bad Love Sndtrk
Big Bottom by Hayseed Dixie Ah a bluegrass version of a Spinal Tap classic

I guess this is why I'm moving towards the ipod age. If I can load 'my music' (this is how Amy & Katie refer to music in our house "your music" "Dad's music"), then I should hear a great selection each time. The last place to listen to cd's will be in the car. But man an ipod roadtrip on random sounds pretty good!