Music is not really my thing. I currently have a very small music collection which consists of a whopping two U2 CDs and a Gig of varied selections I have downloaded over the last decade. I do like music, but it is not an activity that I participate in for it’s own sake.
That said, the readings for this week appealed to the collector in me. I collect hard cover, first edition books as well as a few other items that are too nerdy to mention. I recently did my Dad a favor by getting rid of all of his old records for him. I originally intended to sell them on Ebay, but time and effort were my enemies, and I ended up trading them at a store here in Lethbridge for some DVDs.
Why I am collecting DVDs is a bit of a question since I don’t usually like watching movies again until I have forgotten about the story enough to make it interesting again. This is usually a span of around 3-5 years so by the time I end up watching those films again, the DVD format will be obsolete (well maybe not quite). I just like the security that if I suddenly want to watch The Last Samurai again, it will be there waiting for me.
To get back on track, I was organizing my Father’s records for sale and the collector in me started twitching like a pack-rat. The album covers were interesting in a way that no other music medium I have ever owned has been. I did buy a lot of tapes back in High School, because I wanted to appear moderately cool. I had little regret tossing those in the trash. It was not that the music was garbage–well, some of it was–but tapes get pretty junky after a while.I don’t really have a solid attachment to the music I have downloaded either. It is just 0’s and 1’s on my hard drive, and if I lost it, I could just download it all again. I might even pay for it this time.
So, I had all this music from the 60’s and 70’s to which I had no attachment, but I wanted to keep some of even though I did not have a record player or the means to get one in the foreseeable future. This got me to thinking, and from the readings for class it seems I am not the only one on this track. If the music industry wants to stop losing money from all these people downloading songs, all it needs to do is make a product that has some long term appeal. Make it collectable. Make it unique.
If I was going to get into music, it would probably be records. I like the feeling of history, and I like the feeling of having a unique music collection.
But none of that is probably going to happen in the near future. So I will continue burning cd-r mixes of those same 200 songs I love, and listen to them exclusively as I drive around in my car, singing at the top of my lungs while teens mock me at the stoplights.
hahahah oh you’re not alone my friend. I belt it out pretty h-core in the car as well. Just the other day I was picking my sister up from tutoring and I parked and waited for her for 15 minutes. (grr.) But I blasted my tunes and sang even louder. I even threw in acouple of my specialty upper body dance moves. Anyways, this woman was watching me from behind the drapes in her house and i saw her call over what i can only assume to be her husband and they were actually pointing at me. After overcoming some slight embarassment I realized i didn’t know them and would probably never see them again in my life so I kept singing and dancing. Anyways, just so you know I do that too. And in no way is that pathetic. About your actual post, I do agree about the music industry making music unique and collectable if they want to make some money. Downloaded music really is only 0’s and 1’s on the hard drive. But nowadays the music is ‘in’ one second and ‘out’ the next. So along with making the music tangibly more appealing…i think they also have to match that up with their actual talent. Anyways, nice post bud. ciao
You probably could have made some good coin from those records. Some pack-rats pay good money for that sort of thing. I think that was me who was making fun of you singing.