That Good Ole' Fashion Groove (or Feel, or Smell, or Sound)

In todays ultra digital world, if one wants to get a song, they go to one of the hundreds of digital downloading sites-legal or *ahem*...anyways-and gets the song they want.  Usually while they are there, one is prompted to download the rest of the album or various remixes and mashups of the song, but often these requests get ignored.  With apps like Shazam and Soundhound, you can hold your phone to the radio and find out what a song is within seconds, or if you are trying to remember what song you heard in the bathroom at work, you can hum it into the phone's mic and it will identify the track for you.  The digital music era has removed the physical aspect of music, but what if that isn't a good thing.  People no longer discover new music from friends; they discover it from the internet.  Albums are seldom purchased with consumer option for the individual song purchases almost every time.  Again, I love the ability to get one track form an album, especially if I'm making a mix and only need one song off of an album to finish it.  I just wonder if some of the character behind the musical experience is gone.

In "Growing Up Tethered, " Turkle discusses how growing up completely connected has changed the way people life, and grow up, in todays world.  Turkle discusses how people are more focused on their friends lists then their actual friends.  At this point, most people would sacrifice an legitimate, personal friendship for 10 new "friends" on Facebook.

Similarly to Turkle's ideas about losing intimacy, the music experience is also losing its intimacy.  No longer do people sit around and listen to a whole album.  Everyone is plugged into their ipods while running, driving, working, or studying.  Music is used as a background noise, not an experience.  Yes, music is more available to the public, but at what cost?  When was the last time you listened to an album for what it was?  or went to a concert?  or stopped what you were doing to see if you actually knew the entire song?  ..Exactly, the experience has diminished to a level our hippie predecessors would find embarrassing.  As a music fan, I say stand up!  ...and then sit down, put a CD in your home audio system, and chill on the couch for an hour.