If Music Be...

[poliphilo]

How can music exist in a cloud? No, it's far too mystical for me. Give me something I can hold.

I was reading a piece by Douglas Coupland the other day. He says that those of us who grew up before there was an internet have our brains configured one way and those who grew up in the internet age have theirs configured in another. That's just the way it is. Us oldsters are capable of re-programming ourselves but we can't forget how things were. As Coupland puts it, we will always miss our pre-internet brains.

So, no, I don't have music on my computer. I have music boxed in jewel cases- on a shelf.

I was listening to a disc of Vivaldi's Four Seasons while I made lunch. There's a tune in there that was used by the BBC in the set of plays about Casanova that Denis Potter wrote for them in the early 70s. I can't hear it without seeing Frank Finlay chasing girls in pannier skirts.  It goes dum-dee-dum dum, dum dee dum dum.

I wrote "chasing", but what I really meant was "bonking". 

Comments

[matrixmann]

Scientifically this is right. You are what you learned. If you learned to grab a CD, a record or a cassette, your brain needs to repeat a thousand times to go searching on your computer to get acquainted with this possibility to use it as much as you use the others.
People who didn't grow up learning this method missed it. It simply doesn't exist for them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm not saying the old way is any better- because it's not- but I'm stuck with it and might as well make the best of it.

[matrixmann]

Has it's advantages and disadvantages.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I did not grow up with the internet (I'm 57) and I have not had any problem becoming an internet age person, digital music very much included. I think your generalization is too broad.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm selective in my use of the internet. I embrace the things I can see the point of and ignore the rest.

I'm six years older than you. Possibly this makes a difference. Also I've always been slow to adopt new technologies.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I think "slow to adopt new technologies" is more to the point than "brain configured pre-internet!" But certainly there is a generational difference at play, too.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Music has always existed in a cloud... at least for your lifetime. I can remember when listening to music meant "turning on the radio".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You're right of course.

I didn't understand it then either.

It's magic, isn't it?

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

"I have music boxed in jewel cases- on a shelf. "

Me too, even though they sit there unused, mostly for my peace of mind. I enjoy the digital record collection on my computer/phone/music player.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It wasn't easy to source a radio/cd player that was that and nothing more.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I'm a very digital bunny. I've been known to buy CDs and the like, but, having moved around quite a few times, I've less than zero desire to accumulate for physical objects unless they're warranted - a lens qualifies, but music and comics don't, unless there's something unique, viz last entry. =:)

The benefits, of course, are significant - digital comics are cheaper, and don't involve growing trees just to be felled, processed, and shipped around the planet. Even the few CDs I have are only read once, to extract their data, thereafter held on the local network, and probably the iPad and Hazel.

The gains are noticeable enough with music, but for an extreme example, consider Grzimek's Superlative Animal Life Encyclopedia: in print, some 17 hefty volumes. Digitally, under 1GB, out of the iPad's 128GB. It's fairly wonderful. ^_^

Appropriately enough, I'm composing this to Studio Killers' recent live set at a Finnish festival, made available by them purely as a Kickstarter backer download, though they will be sending out signed DVDs. A virtual band makes it into RL - much as I intend to bring my SL self into RL. ^_^

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like to survey my jewel cases- all neatly arrayed on their shelves and rub my hands together and go "Precioussss".