AKA the problem with ipods (using it as a generic term here)
You know how my ipod got magically wiped the other day (suspiciously the same day I got a pre-pay Oyster card the use of which has revealed that on a totally non cycling week I spend about £20 on public transport)? Well, it magically resored itself the next day. Strangely I found myself wishing it hadn’t, there’s such a load of rubbish that I never choose to listen to on there, downloaded from various mp3 blogs (do I have to start calling them podcasts or something? God what an ugly word and also in some ways an ugly concept but that’s another thing) untagged albums that I thought I might like ripped at friends houses after a visit to the pub &c. &c. I was actually quite pleased that I would have 20-gig of crisp virgin hard drive to neatly populate with just my absolute favourite fully tagged albums that I’ve ripped onto my computer over the last year, hey I could finally get round to listening to that new Gravenhurst record that Nick ripped for me (Don’t worry Nick, I’ll buy it too, I don’t think I have the final version and I’m generally into the physical thing still*) rather than haphazzardly stuffing it full of things just because it’s convenient way to get things home from the office.
Now that it’s over I love you more and more…
Basically the whole thing made me realise that whilst Napster in it’s original form caused me to buy loads of new records having an ipod permenantly stuffed with things I sort of like in my back pocket had decreased my interest in discovering new music, there was allways something coming up on shuffle that was good enough. Luckilly the Death From Above record has reopened my eyes to the joys of getting completely engulfed in a record and listening to it over and over and over and over again. And this is my new listening philosphy: I’m sure I’ll be sick of the DFA1979 record soon, and at that point I won’t listen to it, it won’t just slide down the long tail of my music listening and get subsumed into the iTunes morass. It’ll live, perfectly capturing the last few weeks in my memory, and when I listen to it it will be because I choose to do so not becuse I don’t choose not to.
So ‘yay’ too old school album listening in an entierly non-rockist** way, now i’m off to make the decidedly old school (year 2000) Friday night journey by tube from Shepherds Bush to Old Street.
*has anyone ever bought a track from itunes or bleep or anything? I don’t really get that, luddite that I am..
**Rockism and it’s opposite ‘popism’ are actually just the same thing anyone who knows the word rockist is a rockist, you can’t escape by postmodern trickery.
And then Dan said:
I’ve bought songs from iTunes before. Usually the few good songs on an otherwise dreadful album (see Motley Crue) or old songs from CDs I lost a long time ago and resent buying again.
That said, Nick has mocked me roundly for this, and my use of iTunes has dropped off. Oh, the perils of peer pressure.
And then tom said:Maybe he was mocking you for buying Motley Crue tunes rather than simply using itunes
And then Dan said:Actually, it was for both.
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