The Hour Upon Us

I was checking the Huff Post today and read this brief piece on Jon Bon Jovi : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/bon-jovi-steve-jobs-killing-music_n_835818.html

Never a fan of anything Jersey, Bon Jovi's music certainly does nothing to arouse me. But today, I feel the stirrings of reflection and reaction enough to address what he said in that article.

At 35, I've been collecting music over four decades. I caught the tail end of the original vinyl years; MJ's Thriller was, I think, my first album given by a family friend. I suffered the cassette era - between the magnetic drop outs, accidental tape overs and un-spooling disasters, it was a highly volatile format. Something more stable, more durable, came along and I welcomed the compact disc like the coming of a new messiah. Admittedly, the digital medium lacks the warmth and charm of analog, but recording technology has advanced incredibly that I just accept it as an aspect of modern sound. Here, I want to focus, not on the sonic element, but the physical format.

My crap memory couldn't recall the year when I first got a CD, but I do remember it was Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors". And I remember very clearly my brother gagging and asking, "Why would you want to listen to that forever?" Compact discs were being made in 1982, but it was 1985 that some of the chart topping contemporary acts started selling in the millions. Vinyl began to wane, only to re-surge thanks to that damnable digital hollowness (and later hipster fashion) and cassette tapes died once consumer recordable discs and machines hit the market.

The CD was great because it offered a mix of endurability, portability, quality and packaging. I still have a few cardboard long boxes floating around. The CD provided better insert art than cassettes, although nothing tops vinyl, and it sparked an industry of awesome deluxe packaging - Misfits Coffin Boxed Set anyone?

Speaking of death, enter the digital download. Here Jon Bon Jovi takes aim at Steve Jobs, blaming him and I-Tunes for destroying the music industry. All I can say is, death happens, that's life. I'm with ya Jon on the whole sentimental trip of the halcyon days of youth, rocking out to an album - start to finish - absorbing every bit of the art work, lyrics down to even the credits and thank you's. I am a passionate music lover and avid supporter of musicians. My consumption of music is visceral; its my life blood. I also have boxes of CD's filling my basement to the point of over running my home. The immortality of the CD format is about to choke me to death.

What I sense most from Bon Jovi's complaint, one that I and many of my peers share, is nostalgia. We are longing for our own lost youth in a time of massive societal change. Think Darwin. It isn't just about a new format, its about consumption. We are not living and consuming the way we did ten years ago. I regrettably can't remember the last time I just did nothing BUT lay down and listen. I have music blasting in my car, it the kitchen, in the bed room, on portable speakers in the yard or in the truck when doing merch inventory. The very fabric of our lives is woven into the technology of today - instant accessibility. It's about connectivity, social networking and creating a shared experience. Downloading, instead of walking to a store and lugging around some shinny plastic, isn't evil - it's evolution.

I've been in denial for as long as this whole I Tunes craze got started. I've never been a fan of just buying a song I like, I follow bands and albums, but that's me. I also didn't vote for George Bush. The decline of the music industry cannot be solely blamed on Steve Jobs - there are a great many reasons, among which, the artists themselves. Today is an amazing time to be a music fan - I remember spending my lunch money on rock magazines to get basic info on the bands I liked - now all the art, lyrics and videos etc., are beamed into my home via the web. The opportunity for fans and bands to connect and discover each other are overwhelmingly vast.

Maybe the biggest complaint Jon Bon Jovi and others have, and rightly so, is that Steve Jobs just found the way to exploit the new format for profit better than the industry itself.

I think it is very awful that 11 people are missing and there is "a potential to be an environmental disaster" in the Gulf of Mexico on Earth Day. Doing a great job people!

www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/burning_oil_rig_sinks_in_gulf.html

Unfortunately this wasn't an April Fool's Day joke by our President:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/drill-barack-drill-obama-to-open-up-us-east-coast-for-oil-exploration-1932758.html

Season 5 of Jersey Shore will certainly be one worth watching!

And for those thinking we get a deal on what we drill; the oil 'multinational' companies, like BP, pull from US territories is sold on the world market, not strictly to US to lower our purchase prices or make us less dependent on foreign oil. Glad I prefer hiking in the woods to wave surfing at the beach...oh wait : citypaper.net/articles/2010/02/18/drill-baby-drill