LPs, CDs, and MP3s

I've been thinking about music a lot lately. I picked up the new Rush album this week, and I think I like it. The songs sound good, but the mastering is pretty bad (see "Loudness War" at Wikipedia). The lyrics, as usual, are kind of hit-or-miss. Neil Peart isn't the intellectual a lot of people think, but I usually don't pay attention to the lyrics, anyway. Occasionally he'll write something I really like, as in this line from "Far Cry" on the new album: "One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel/And the next it's rolling over me." I don't know why I like this line, but it feel both playful and profound. The melodies and rhythms are what get me, though. Rush has always done a good job at constructing songs. I'm even more excited to see them this summer.

But I've drifted from the topic I intended to discuss. the two albums I've been listening to the most recently are Cheap Trick "At Budokan" and the new Rush, and it has made me think of how CDs changed the way we listen to music, and how the iPod is doing the same again. Let me stick with the "At Budokan" disc. I mainly listen to just a couple of tracks, but I listened to the whole thing the other day. What I realized is that when I was a kid, I only ever listened to side 2 of the record. I don't even recognize the songs from side 1 of the album. Then I started thinking about other albums from when I was a kid, like "2112" by Rush and Led Zeppelin IV and others, and I realized that I only listened to one side of many of them. I remember "2112" distinctly because one of my brother's friends made me listen to side 2 in the 1990s, and I had never heard some of the songs there. Other albums, like "Who's Next" by the Who were more likely to get a listen on both sides.

In any case, it was perfectly possible to have a favorite side of an album or cassette. With the advent of the CD, that became a thing of the past. Bands could now put more songs on albums, and no decision had to be made about which side to put them on. Of course, the difference was now that instead of moving the needle to skip a song or having to fast-forward all the way through a track, you could skip songs with the push of a button.

Then along came the MP3, which made it possible to choose songs a-la-carte. The Apple iTunes store is a perfect example of this. You can now simply download the song you want (for free if you are that kind of person) and not have to get the entire album. With the iPod and other digital music players, you can create playlists easily (without having to go to crazy lengths to tape a record), so albums are becoming less and less relevant.

I'm not trying to pass judgement on this, but I think it's an interesting development. Changes in technology are really influencing how we listen to music.