Sounds of Sounds

While it’s not wholly original, it is very telling moment, and one that I have fun with, “What is the first music you bought?”

As in, what was the first money you paid for yourself? Went down to the record store, or maybe it was a corner drugstore.

The moment has long passed, when I was sitting with an Aquarius and her buddy, another Aquarius, and I’m sure I wrote about this before, as he pointed to his 18-19-20 year old grand nieces and nephews, “See them? They never bought a CD, much less, an album.”

Yes, I’ve long lamented the lost art of the album cover. That was when there was a square foot of visual art space — a more than decent framework — within which to work.

I absolutely will not argue vinyl over digital. I find the inherent richness in vinyl is offset by the maximum fidelity of maybe ten spins. While it’s been a dozen years or more since I’ve been in a radio station, in the last 15 years, I do recall watching the DJ slot “8-track carts” for filler, ads, station stingers, and plugs.

There was brief splash in the last dozen years as one band released its latest album on 8-track, sadly, with a print run of maybe 1,000 units. Who has an 8-track, or even a cassette player these days?

The cassette, at the time, it was first called a “mini-cassette,” but the cassette was the first mobile, relatively durable audio form. Replicated the vinyl album experience with two sides, A and B. Sony Walkman, which is the direct grandparent to the iPod. Funny, the iPod is being replaced by phones, now.

That cassette was remarkable, once it got Dolby. As a sidebar to Texas musical history? ZZ Top’s Eliminator allegedly sold more cassettes than records in its first release, and it was the first Billboard-type hit to do so. Another first for Houston?

The CD, I recall exactly where I was when I was told that the CD was going to be replaced by the DVD. A now-aging professor explained that a CD-like container was going to have a movie on it. DVD, now, even, Blu-Ray? Sounded like crazy-talk, but the future is closer and closer every day.

My last tour through a big box store, for music and tech, now all under one roof, my last trip, the other day, I bought nothing. There were iPods, and iPads, plus several other brands of tablets and phones, but I never saw any other mp3 players. There were speaker systems to be slaved to a TV, or as it is now called, media center, but the acres of speakers have been replaced. As has the aisles of music on CD. End cap, for each aisle of music? iTunes cards.

Headphones were available, but more important, were the “in-ear, noise canceling” earphones.

Look around, the big, cabinet-size, component stereo systems where the speakers had to point away from the turntable, the one-dimensional wall of sound, that’s gone.

We’ve been replaced by a personal wall of sound, and frequently, that’s not all that great.

I do own one iPod Nano, mini, shuffle, I’m unsure of its model designation, it holds maybe a three days of music but the battery only lasts about 8-12 hours… That’s plugged into a Y-pigtail for the speakers from the desktop. Kind of a jury-rigged affair, but it provides adequate background ambience. I have the option of shutting it off, and listening to the computer. These little Bose computer speakers have good frequency response, and while they won’t rattle my fillings, they can annoy a neighbor, over time. Not true audiophile quality, but an acceptable balance between Dolby-THX-Surround-Sound-in-4D bleeding edge tech and the old, tinny speakers that used to come on the AM radios.

A recent musician quipped, “You can buy it on iTunes or, if you’re broke, just get the torrents.”

Anymore? I have been through, maybe, a dozen sets of earphones. For the last few years, I’ve taken to listening to music while walking. Not all the time, and that’s part of the problem with earphones is they have to ride in my pocket, sometimes, as often as I use them.

The most recent “innovation” from Apple (the Mother Ship), was an earphone shape that was revolutionary, etc. Pretty good, but no big deal. However, there is a notable catch. This has happened before, too. I’ll have a new set of “bass enhanced” (or whatever) earphones and I’ll hear parts of songs, instrumentation, something that wasn’t there before. Depth and shading, coloration, in musical forms. It happens.

What’s happening with this shift, the difference is, how many people — now — have heard that exquisite “thump” of true bass reflex?

What caught my attention, I’ve tended towards a lot of “electronica” in some form or another, and something that was not Dub-Step, I heard, with new earphones, some high, keening almost, background rhythm instruments. Could be a repeated sample, snare, I don’t know.

Sounds of Sounds

But I heard it. It’s like listening to almost new material, over again.

There is no good or bad, just change.

So what was the first music purchased?

What was the first digital only music purchased?

Headphones, earphones or speakers?

Vinyl, 8-track, or cassette?