Techno Bitch.

I think my iPod has diminished my appreciation for music.

Don't get me wrong - I love my iPod, but I think that it's easy-to-use system and features have corrupted me. It's made it simpler to not explore all of an artist's songs.

I'm from the era of cassette tapes - unless my favorite song on any album was the first one, I had to fast forward and rewind all over the place to get to the track I wanted. God forbid if I had put the tape in on the wrong side - I was listening to completely new material! You were forced to listen to other parts of the album - well, if you were a lazy bastard like me you had to.


Because of this, I discovered songs I'd never be exposed to. But today? Download the one song you want and ignore all the rest of the musician's work. Heck - you're practically ignoring the context in which the song should be heard. Nobody listens to an album straight through anymore. Imagine listening to The Wall in random order. Sure they're good songs, but you are missing the experience of the album. The flow, as you will.

And I don't think that's right.

Sure, there's an album selection area on the iPod, but how many people do you know who listen to an entire album at once? Next to the Sidekick, I can't think of any. (And we all know he's a little strange.) I'm going to try make it a point of listening to the music the way the artist intened, and in the order they selected. Sure, I'll have some tunes that I just can't sit through, but for every one of those, I think I'll find at least a couple of gems.

Fuck You, Steve Jobs - you don't control me.
(I'm just kidding Steve, I love your products.)



Later