It occurred to me recently that we've destroyed music. No, there is lots of tunes out there, a good piece of it is pretty good too. No we destroyed music by removing what was for me a huge piece of the experience of it. Trolling through the stacks of the record store .. hell there were afternoons spent in record stores with a buzz on flipping through the stacks ... I miss that. Even the HMVesk store added a sterile corporate view to the poster and edgy feel of old school record stores.
I miss album covers or more to the point album art work which was a bonus in retrospect. The sometimes funny, sometimes socially relevant but almost always thought provoking album art disappeared about the time cds hit the shelves .. or more to the point less significant in the grande scheme. The liner notes, the producer ,the recording studio, the lyrics all lent something to the experience of rushing home to spin that new album, looking back cds were only the start of the erosion. You were in my mind more engaged in the music, understood the source better it was simply MORE. I love music, many styles, artists, the catalogue of certain artists work, where they came from, where they got to. Music, as has most media, become far too disposable, we're not as engaged by it on so many levels.
Besides I was cleaning up some sticks from a quad and realized it would have been easier if I had an album cover I no longer had.
Our entire society has become disposable. I sit here where I work and see hundreds of recent printers sitting in piles waiting to be thrown out. It has become far easier and cheaper to throw it out and buy a newer one.
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