QUOTE
The digital age makes us more casual in our listening habits: playing a new LP over and over may already be a thing of the past
It's obvious that the rapid, mass digitalisation of music is changing the mechanics of the music industry quicker than perhaps any of us are quite able to grasp. It's a great story-generator for the music media, but I'm more interested in the way these changes are playing out at ground level rather than in the EMI boardroom - the way they are fundamentally altering the way we listen as individuals. Specifically, how have they changed that most sacred of experiences: digesting a new album by one of your favourite bands.
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Back home, I'd clear some time and space, put the record on and sit with sleeve in hand, drinking in every last detail. I'd listen to it end-to-end a few times, letting it slowly seep in and under the skin. It's the closest I've ever come to religious contemplation.
Does anyone still do this when they get a new release: sit down and physically play it over and over again while giving it their sole, undivided attention? ...
I'd argue that the digital age makes music more accessible but somehow less tangible. I've always regarded the cover, the artwork, the inner sleeve, even the typeface of a new album as a doorway into new music, a means to get closer to it, further to understand what is being expressed this time around. When there is no physical element to link us to the music, surely some vital little part of the over-arching artistic statement is lost.
It also allows us to be a little more casual in our listening habits. I suspect most of us now listen to music through our computer or on the move. In other words, we are almost always doing something else while we listen. In such a way, all music becomes essentially background music. Do you agree? And how do you listen to a brand new release these days?
It's obvious that the rapid, mass digitalisation of music is changing the mechanics of the music industry quicker than perhaps any of us are quite able to grasp. It's a great story-generator for the music media, but I'm more interested in the way these changes are playing out at ground level rather than in the EMI boardroom - the way they are fundamentally altering the way we listen as individuals. Specifically, how have they changed that most sacred of experiences: digesting a new album by one of your favourite bands.
***
Back home, I'd clear some time and space, put the record on and sit with sleeve in hand, drinking in every last detail. I'd listen to it end-to-end a few times, letting it slowly seep in and under the skin. It's the closest I've ever come to religious contemplation.
Does anyone still do this when they get a new release: sit down and physically play it over and over again while giving it their sole, undivided attention? ...
I'd argue that the digital age makes music more accessible but somehow less tangible. I've always regarded the cover, the artwork, the inner sleeve, even the typeface of a new album as a doorway into new music, a means to get closer to it, further to understand what is being expressed this time around. When there is no physical element to link us to the music, surely some vital little part of the over-arching artistic statement is lost.
It also allows us to be a little more casual in our listening habits. I suspect most of us now listen to music through our computer or on the move. In other words, we are almost always doing something else while we listen. In such a way, all music becomes essentially background music. Do you agree? And how do you listen to a brand new release these days?
