In the Beginning...

In the beggining there were tapes. And it was bad. The first tape I remember buying was Warrant. Not Cherry Pie but thier first album When I realized there was swearing on the tape and that alot of the songs were about dirty nasty sex, I felt I had to hide it from my parents. I'd listen n secret in my room. Once, I bought a Social Distortion tape and It got eaten before I could play it. I bought another copy a few weeks later, it also got eaten after a short while, by a different radio. There was a time when I had a pretty extensive tape collection. I held on the the whole tape thing way past its prime. I even joined Columbia House once and got my ten free albums on Tape format. Where are they now? No Idea. Would I like to have them as CD's Now? Yes. But at the time I figured that CD players, especially car CD players were too expensive. I was still buying tapes when Weezer's blue album came out. My first copy of 40oz. to Freedom was on tape. (The tape had an extra track) When I finally got a stereo that played CD's though...I was an instant believer. No more rewinding, fast forwarding, fipping, or eaten tapes? I'm sold. However, I was still using tapes to make Mixed tapes. After all, what were you going to listen to in the car? I had a passion for mixed tapes. And that was BEFORE High Fidelity came out. I prided myself on arrangement. This was after the invention of the consumer CD writer, but before reasonable people could afford them. It was also before the biggest revolution in Music History: Napster.
Napster changed everything. All of a sudden you could have any music, practically any soundbite or even movie quote you ever wanted, at the click of a button. Over were the days of buying a CD for one song. The mixed CD replaced the mixed tape. I don't think I bought one CD during the whole Napster thing. Did I have ethics issues with Napster? Not really. The stuff I was downloading was mostly stuff from the 60's and 70's. The artists were either dead or no longer collecting royalties. Plus I thought of it as a natural selection sort of thing. Those who put out bad albums with one good song, got downloaded. I wouldn't have had a problem going out and buying a CD with 3-4 good songs downloading took too long back then anyway. In my mind Napster would change the music industry for the better. Well, the music industry changed, but not necessarily for the better. I don't think pop albums have gotten an better. Anyway, when the RIAA began suing File sharing users (Thank you Lars Ulrich) I deleted all my files and stopped downloading. I went back to CD's. I think the only good CD I bought during that period was Chili Pepper's By The Way.
Then came iPods and iTunes. You can do the same thing as with Napster, only now its legal and it costs money. Still, a buck a song ain't too shabby and you have the freedom to do what you want with it, like write it to a CD. I knew when the iPod came out that mixed CD's were obsolete. They've gone the way of the Blank tape. Now I can take my entire CD collection on a hike with me and with the touch of a button go from Beethoven to 2pac.
My iPod is like the soundtrack to my life. I have 550 songs currently. Music to fit any mood. I listen in the car, I listen at work, and I listen when I walk to class or to Lauri's. I surround myself with Music.
Then next step will be the iPlant. They will implant a player into your eardrum and the controls will be in your ocular nerves. you just look a what you want to play and it plays in your head. No more hard drives, they will just use your brain's storage capacity. Most of the music is still gonna suck though.