Comments on: An Audiophile's Nighmare

By: Jon Brink

Jon Brink — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:41:48 +0000

I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun reading a blog. Kudos!

By: arch stanton

arch stanton — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:43:22 +0000

The point I was trying to make was that it wasn’t so long ago when people made their own entertainment. (Playing piano in the parlor or sitting on the porch)
With the advent of recorded music this phenomenon became less and less common.
I agree with your argument that people should be able to give up an hour of tv to listen to music. However I think it takes a lot more brainpower to really listen to a cd than to lay on the couch in your underwear watching a King of Queens rerun.

By: Palmer

Palmer — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:48:31 +0000

Hi A.S.,
Thanks for commenting. I certainly have nothing against iPods.
I disagree with your assertion that people don’t have the time to sit down and listen to an album. People have the time to watch hours and hours of television a day. If they can do that, they can set aside 1 of them to listen to an album all the way through.
Albums were originally a collection of singles, true enough. But so what? That changed to the point where some albums were most definitely not that. You gave a good example – DSotM. Just because the LP was originally one thing doesn’t mean that it’s evolution can just be cast off. Some albums beg for a listening session while others don’t.
Folk music is a difficult topic. I would argue that one can play folk music and not use traditional musical instruments. The Wikipedia article you mentioned defines folk music as that which is “shared by the entire community (and its performance not strictly limited to a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth.” Basically it’s music not transmitted via mass communication. This definition says nothing about the methods used to make the music. As technology becomes cheaper, it becomes harder to say that folk music necessarily involves traditional musical instruments. The mass media is also changing. It’s no longer something that is strictly a product of a few mega-corporations in the largest urban centers.
I think I see what you’re getting at but I don’t think people are going to ever stop playing traditional instruments. On the positive side, the rise of the mass media means that the variety and quantity of music available is greater than it has ever been.

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:49:51 +0000

First off, I love my iPod! But the first thing I did was buy a decent set of noise canceling headphones. I actually find that I discover more songs when I press shuffle and walk to work.

I think that most people rarely ever sat down and listened to an album all they way through. Nobody has the time to do it. People who argue that you must listen to an album/cd in it’s entirety to appreciate it are nostalgic for their teenage bong loading years when they could sit in their bedrooms with their black light posters expecting to get cosmic meaning from repeat listening of Dark Side of The Moon. They forget that the LP was originally just a collection of singles that was slapped together to cash in on the popularity of a particular artist.

I do agree that these high capacity portable players do give a rise to quantity over quality.
But in my case it’s more of a completist thing. Like trying to get ALL the albums of a particular artist.
I think the greatest travesty created by the consumption of recorded music is the decline of people actually playing musical instruments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music#The_decline_of_folk_traditions_in_modern_societies