I'm not going to stroll down memory lane this week. Don't worry, I will next week. Or the week after, since Bear is loving each week's column. (And if you, I'd love to hear from you, so please, by all means, email me at the address below!)
But as the freezing rain pours down outside my windows and am surrounded by boxes of CDs, I am going to put into storage (while I decide my future), and pare and whittle down while I transfer them to a hard drive and computer that I am buying solely to store my music on, I realize I am pretty much saying goodbye to the CD medium/format as I know it. I witnessed and experienced the death of vinyl and the cassette tape, but not the eight-track, but I can imagine, music geeks, who have lived through the slow death of all four of those forms of recorded music, are feeling as wistful as I am.
As a music fan (and a music writer) for more than half my life, I have amassed quite the collection. I am proud of it. In addition to music I cannot live without, I have a lot of collectible, valuable stuff, such as demos, rare, self-released first recordings and things like the Powerman 5000 album that was yanked from DreamWorks' release schedule after the label publicity department sent out advances. I have a cardboard sleeve copy of the advance of Glassjaw album Worship and Tribute that features the song, "Convectuoso," which is not on the official album that was sold in stores due to the publishing rights to the song at the time. I have a cardboard sleeve advance of an album by a band called Dry Cell. Who, you may ask yourself? Right. It never came out. While it may not be worth anything, since no one has ever heard from the band since, it's still cool. I keep those things, because, well, I do. But I can't keep thousands upon thousands of CDs, especially since I am considering another move down the road sometime. So I am keeping "cool" collectible stuff and stuff that means a lot to me and that I listen to often. Anything high impact, where the case is scuffed, the booklet showing signs of wear and the actual disc with a few cosmetic scratches that don't effect the sound but that don't look pretty, is staying put!
I am also keeping anything that I worked or represented throughout the years and I am keeping anything where I was so privileged and honored and lucky and blessed enough to be thanked in, as in the liner notes. I may keep things where the artwork kidnapped my attention! It's going to wind up being a ton of shit that I keep! I know it. I will probably shave 200 CDs off my massive library. This is going to be harder than I think. And I am preparing myself for that.
But the reality is that I am transferring the rest onto a Lacie Drive and a laptop. It's more space efficient and modern that way. I prefer when labels send me music digitally now. I am a fan of iPools and downloadable tracks that go right to my iTunes and then my iPod. It's easier to work with. For music that I don't listen to, I am going to graciously and generously share the rest of that physical collection with friends and family who are also music geeks! I have friends who eye and thumb my CD collection when they come over, so I am going to open a lot of it to them. I am sure the music geeks out there will wish that I was their friend! I do not and will not share my digital collection with people, though; if they want digital music, they can go get it themselves, so the artists can be paid for their work. I am adamant about that.
I must admit I like the idea of housing so much on a laptop and hard drive, with back up, of course. I would probably leap off a building if the computer crashed and I lost everything, because of how much I cherish these tunes. But then again, it's really simple to log on to iTunes and grab songs that I would want, right away, to fill in the gaps of anything crucial. Or I would run to a Mom and Pop store to pick up anything deemed "can't live without." (Am I talking myself out of this?) It's such a catch-22, when you consider that scenario. But I guess it's not much different than if you lose your house to a natural disaster or a fire and all your stuff goes down (or up) with it. I don't want to be weighed down by the physical possessions, but I do not want to lose what is contained on the physical possession and that's the music that meant so much to me.
But my point is that I am not caring any less about music because I am choosing to house my music in the digital sphere. I care about it just as much. This fact reminded me of some email discussions I had with some writerly folks this past week. A few of them complained to me that they do not like to get music as a download or a stream or an Mp3 that can be saved and listened to over and over and over. Some scoffed at the sound quality; others are old-fashioned, like me, who prefer to hold something in their hands and to connect with the artwork, the lyrics, the layout. They are from that same generation where music was a multi-sensory experience, so I could fully, fully relate to their feelings. I was once of the thought, "I will never prefer music in the digital form." But I have grown and progressed. But when I made the point that I thought I would never get to this point, I realized that they aren't there yet. And it made me sad. Because the music business has changed so much in the past decade. It's light-years different than it was when Y2K was the biggest cultural issue we were laughing about! People don't want to let go of the past and don't want to kiss recorded music in the physical sense goodbye.
It's going to take me a while to transfer a lot of the music and I am probably going to hire one of my nieces to help me because I am too busy. I also want to expose her to some of the music that meant so much to me. That's the whole point of this exercise. She only knows fluffy, confectionary radio pop that her friends like; she isn't a music nerd like I always was. She didn't start from the crib with her love of music the way I did, thanks to my older brother and her uncle. So when she helps me with this huge task and endeavor, she'll stumble across things she never knew existed. So for me, there's a positive of music in the digital age in 2010. ~ Amy Sciarretto
But as the freezing rain pours down outside my windows and am surrounded by boxes of CDs, I am going to put into storage (while I decide my future), and pare and whittle down while I transfer them to a hard drive and computer that I am buying solely to store my music on, I realize I am pretty much saying goodbye to the CD medium/format as I know it. I witnessed and experienced the death of vinyl and the cassette tape, but not the eight-track, but I can imagine, music geeks, who have lived through the slow death of all four of those forms of recorded music, are feeling as wistful as I am.
As a music fan (and a music writer) for more than half my life, I have amassed quite the collection. I am proud of it. In addition to music I cannot live without, I have a lot of collectible, valuable stuff, such as demos, rare, self-released first recordings and things like the Powerman 5000 album that was yanked from DreamWorks' release schedule after the label publicity department sent out advances. I have a cardboard sleeve copy of the advance of Glassjaw album Worship and Tribute that features the song, "Convectuoso," which is not on the official album that was sold in stores due to the publishing rights to the song at the time. I have a cardboard sleeve advance of an album by a band called Dry Cell. Who, you may ask yourself? Right. It never came out. While it may not be worth anything, since no one has ever heard from the band since, it's still cool. I keep those things, because, well, I do. But I can't keep thousands upon thousands of CDs, especially since I am considering another move down the road sometime. So I am keeping "cool" collectible stuff and stuff that means a lot to me and that I listen to often. Anything high impact, where the case is scuffed, the booklet showing signs of wear and the actual disc with a few cosmetic scratches that don't effect the sound but that don't look pretty, is staying put!
I am also keeping anything that I worked or represented throughout the years and I am keeping anything where I was so privileged and honored and lucky and blessed enough to be thanked in, as in the liner notes. I may keep things where the artwork kidnapped my attention! It's going to wind up being a ton of shit that I keep! I know it. I will probably shave 200 CDs off my massive library. This is going to be harder than I think. And I am preparing myself for that.
But the reality is that I am transferring the rest onto a Lacie Drive and a laptop. It's more space efficient and modern that way. I prefer when labels send me music digitally now. I am a fan of iPools and downloadable tracks that go right to my iTunes and then my iPod. It's easier to work with. For music that I don't listen to, I am going to graciously and generously share the rest of that physical collection with friends and family who are also music geeks! I have friends who eye and thumb my CD collection when they come over, so I am going to open a lot of it to them. I am sure the music geeks out there will wish that I was their friend! I do not and will not share my digital collection with people, though; if they want digital music, they can go get it themselves, so the artists can be paid for their work. I am adamant about that.
I must admit I like the idea of housing so much on a laptop and hard drive, with back up, of course. I would probably leap off a building if the computer crashed and I lost everything, because of how much I cherish these tunes. But then again, it's really simple to log on to iTunes and grab songs that I would want, right away, to fill in the gaps of anything crucial. Or I would run to a Mom and Pop store to pick up anything deemed "can't live without." (Am I talking myself out of this?) It's such a catch-22, when you consider that scenario. But I guess it's not much different than if you lose your house to a natural disaster or a fire and all your stuff goes down (or up) with it. I don't want to be weighed down by the physical possessions, but I do not want to lose what is contained on the physical possession and that's the music that meant so much to me.
But my point is that I am not caring any less about music because I am choosing to house my music in the digital sphere. I care about it just as much. This fact reminded me of some email discussions I had with some writerly folks this past week. A few of them complained to me that they do not like to get music as a download or a stream or an Mp3 that can be saved and listened to over and over and over. Some scoffed at the sound quality; others are old-fashioned, like me, who prefer to hold something in their hands and to connect with the artwork, the lyrics, the layout. They are from that same generation where music was a multi-sensory experience, so I could fully, fully relate to their feelings. I was once of the thought, "I will never prefer music in the digital form." But I have grown and progressed. But when I made the point that I thought I would never get to this point, I realized that they aren't there yet. And it made me sad. Because the music business has changed so much in the past decade. It's light-years different than it was when Y2K was the biggest cultural issue we were laughing about! People don't want to let go of the past and don't want to kiss recorded music in the physical sense goodbye.
It's going to take me a while to transfer a lot of the music and I am probably going to hire one of my nieces to help me because I am too busy. I also want to expose her to some of the music that meant so much to me. That's the whole point of this exercise. She only knows fluffy, confectionary radio pop that her friends like; she isn't a music nerd like I always was. She didn't start from the crib with her love of music the way I did, thanks to my older brother and her uncle. So when she helps me with this huge task and endeavor, she'll stumble across things she never knew existed. So for me, there's a positive of music in the digital age in 2010. ~ Amy Sciarretto
Adam BernardWelcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from Dancing With The Stars finding some hot celebrities willing to test their skills, to a hot new voice for Smurfette, to a famous family getting themselves in some really hot water, and since it's Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude. Read More ...
William DeshairI wanted to set the table with this edition of "R.eal A.nd P.ersonal" for columns to come on the subject of the Female Emcee. As time goes on, I will slowly phase out that title and ho Read More ...
Matt BjorkeBeing a huge fan of music, I learned of American Idol and watched it from the first season. The success of Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken and Carrie Underwood may have made Idol a viable television property and given the music industry one more outlet to find talent. But rarely has it offered up an interesting topic for debate such as the presence of teen country singer Haeley Vaughn on Season 9's ros Read More ...
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