Do I still listen to my records, tapes and CD's anymore?
Are the old ways still as important to me as they once were?
In the middle 1970's, if you were someone who liked music, invested in music and collected music, you probably bought 8-track, reel-to-reel or cassette tapes. You probably also had a collection of vinyl records, both LP albums and single 45's. These were the only formats available at the time; and all of them were, of course, analog. Most audiophiles built up their collections as a sort of library they could boast about. Having a record and tape collection was considered normal for anyone who owned even the most simplistic stereo system.
Growing up with and starting my vinyl and tape collection was something I was proud to invest in.
To me, record albums were like books. There was an art to appreciating the art. You'd buy the latest record album, your friends would come over and sit on the end of your bed and read the liner notes on the record jacket sleeve while the other looked at the artwork and the pictures on the album cover as you put the album onto the turntable and carefully placed the cartridge needle onto the spinning record. The anticipation of the first song meant that these were the first moments you would all share together while you listened to a new album.
This was considered a time-honored tradition. You didn't just listen to one or two songs on the album. You played the entire album from the beginning to the end and listened to every song on the album. Sometime during the playback of the song, you'd all critique what you liked or hated about the songs. Sometimes, if everyone liked a song on the album, you'd play it over and over.
Back then, we didn't really think in terms of record albums as being bulky or inconvenient to carry because of their size. Bringing albums over to someone else's house to listen to, wasn't something my buddies and I ever did. What we had at our house, stayed at our house. You didn't really bring any of your vinyls over to be played on another stereo. That was considered weird. However, at some point, recording new albums onto a cassette tape was all I ever did.
There's a reason they call it a "compact cassette". It's because it fits in your pocket, and it's compact. In late 1970's into the early 80's, everyone owned a boombox with a cassette player. It was much easier to carry one case with all of your albums on cassette, than to carry vinyl albums around with you. You could fit 30 or more cassettes in one case. Most 90-minute cassette tapes could hold two complete albums. You could literally carry your entire collection of music in one case.
A brand new format
Then in the 1980's, the digital compact disc was invented. I was all over the CD when I started adding them to my collection in 1988. CD's sounded so much better than records or tapes, and they never wore out. You could jump from song to song anywhere on the CD, which in those days was considered an amazing new technology.
Many people even opted to replace their analog vinyls and cassettes by investing in much more expensive CD's. I wasn't one of those people. The CD's I bought were simply brand new albums I added to my original collection of music. To me, it was just another way to listen to music, not a means to replace what I already had.
When Napster came out in 1999, I knew nothing about mp3's or digital file sharing on a computer over the internet. One of my guitar students turned me onto it. My computer at the time, didn't have enough room for me to download multiple files and store them on my hard drive. I recorded the digital mp3 audio tracks onto an analog cassette tape, the old fashioned way. To me, I was just being inventive and resourceful. I didn't have the kind of money to invest into large hard drives on an old windows 95 desktop computer. I was just happy to find and listen to songs I hadn't heard in decades.
By the middle 2000's, and a few desktop computers later, I had built up a large collection of mp3's and burned them onto CD's as a backup in case I ran out of room on my hard drives. I was smart in doing this because at least three of those hard drives crashed and I lost everything on them. I had all of my music backed up onto CD's which made it easy to dump them all back onto a new hard drive. I still have all of those CD's.
How we listen to music now.
When the first smartphones came out, I waited to get one. I only used my “flip” phone to make phone calls. If I wanted to get onto the internet, I waited until I got home. I saw no reason for texting or being able to check my email when I was away from my computer. All of that changed when I finally got my first Samsung Galaxy S4 in 2013. By then, everyone was texting on their phones. Social media was blowing up and people started listening to their music on their smartphones. I waited until I got my S9+ in 2018 to do this. I copied literally everything I had in my music collection on my laptop computer, onto a small micro SD memory card, and slipped it into a small slot on my smartphone.
To me, this was the mind-blowing technology I had been waiting for my entire life. The very idea that I could carry every song, every full-length album I have in my collection with me at all times, was staggering. However, me being an avid archivist and a stickler for details, my entire collection was already organized and ready. This required a time-consuming labor of love that most people weren't interested in pursuing.
I loved knowing exactly what I had, whenever I needed it. This has come in handy for me when I'm out doing lessons. Just about everyone else I know, has long since adapted to paying for and listening to streaming music. I'm not paying for something I already have.
I love that I can connect my JBL Bluetooth speakers to my phone and take it with me anywhere I go. No more lugging a CD boombox to the beach or carrying a case of CD's in my car to lay on my car stereo. I have everything I want on my phone.
So the question remains - "Do I still listen to my records, tapes and CD's anymore?"
The answer: Honestly, no, I don't. I have all of my vinyls and CD's available to listen to anytime I wish. I also have a box filled to capacity with nearly 600 cassette tapes. My stereo is all hooked up in my living room and ready to go at any time. What used to be the only way to listen to music, has long since become antiquated to me. Don't get me wrong, I still think analog music sounds warmer - sort of like a pizza baked in a convection oven tastes better than one heated up in a microwave oven. The microwave oven may be more convenient, but the oven always makes food taste better.
I like the compact-ness and convenience of having everything with me on my phone. My Bluetooth speaker fits perfectly in my guitar gig bag or in the cooler I take to the beach. For me, it's about practicality. I make playlists on my smartphone in the same way I used to make collections of favorite songs on cassettes. I am a big fan of modern technology and everything it has to offer. I still think of CD's as modern miracles, even though that technology is almost 40 years old. I grew up in the analog world; so I appreciate the conveniences of the digital world probably a lot more than anyone 40-years-old or younger. I remember a world before computers, smartphones and social media. We now live in a digital world that is slowly leaving the analog world in the dust. Part of me wishes I could live another 100 years just to see where technology takes us into the future, especially with A.I. and digital currency. Can you imagine a world without computers, smartphones or social media? I can, because I lived it. I'll take the new technology over the old.