Comments on: Some Books For Your Trip to the Beach and Why the iPhone is Killing Music

By: Chauncey Canfield

Chauncey Canfield — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:57:08 +0000

We’ve certainly got the supply side of music down and are nearing true portability/location-independence. Vinyl limits my location too much — I don’t want to be tied to the indoor hi-fi when I’d rather be under a shady tree or out walking through the city. I’m wired to the nines and I love having millions of songs /stations available from anywhere inside/outside my house and to a lesser extent on-the-go with my ipod or iphone.

The remaining problem is, as Dave points out, the actual decision of what to listen to. There’s a happy medium somewhere between random shuffle and being an always “on” DJ / Selector, which for me often means trusted DJ mixsets I’ve collected or web radio (WOXY, KCRW, Indie1031.com). Serendipity + familiarity + exploration.

I agree that “Setting a mood” with music is fraught with complications — do you want escapism, distraction, enlightenment, cathartic release, tranquility, novelty, reassuring nostalgia, something challenging and engaging or an unobtrusive background? Do you want the music to match your current mood or do you want the music to change it?

By: Freddie B.

Freddie B. — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:52:03 +0000

Nice book recommendations. Both the Delillo and O’Neill books are hymns of sorts to NYC. Both are fabulously atmospheric and off-beat in their characterisation. Not gloomy or apocalyptic at all if you ask me.

By: Roy Christopher

Roy Christopher — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:41:37 +0000

I have a piece in the works about the personal-post-music thing (if Dave’ll ever send me the “Clutter of Pop” zine so I can cite you).

No matter how you take it in, it’s about a closer connection with your music, a deeper experience. I don’t want to get up and flip the record, but I do want a more intimate relationship with my culture. That’s about quality over quantity, not format or content or context.

By the way, thanks for the kind mention, Dave.

By: Joe Wallace

Joe Wallace — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:37:53 +0000

What I love about vinyl is that it forces you to DO things–you have to get up and turn it over to side two, which in my case often means having another look at the album cover/gatefold.

Oh, the gatefold sleeve, what a brilliant design…who can forget the first time they opened up Kiss Alive 2? Sure, it’s a studio-tweezed faker of a live record (or am I thinking of a different famous live Kiss record with a massive fan pedigree?) but that gatefold made you feel like you were THERE.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:57:27 +0000

Dave, I’m with you on the personal-post-music thing (and I still just have my regular old iPod!). Sometimes I feel like there is just too much music out there. But upon thinking a little deeper, I’ve begun to think that what all this is pointing to is the fact that music, nowadays, is not really content to just be recorded audio. Great music is more than that too me. Its what you said about books; its “territory is ours to share and inhabit, to walk around, upon and through, allowing us to imagine beyond the words and also allowing us to add our own images.” – My favorite musicians provide this for me, and they generally do so OUTSIDE the boundaries of what was picked up on microphone. For some, its about personality. The weird faux-insane characters that Tom Waits or Jack White make of themselves says as much about their art as their songs do. The conceptual and artistic-crossover projects that the Flaming Lips or NIN have gotten involved in keep me interested. I don’t think the iphone or ipod, or the ubiquity of music is destroying its value – I think its just making us realize that music is and should be more than recorded audio. Its about context – not just content.

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:36:06 +0000

Jeremy, yes, I’ve read that one. Joe, your comment made me re-think the idea of mobile ubiquity. Having your music in the cloud makes sense from an ease of access POV but that ubiquity definitely takes the edge of the experience of savoring music. Like slow food we need slow music and we have it, it’s called a vinyl album..

By: Joe Wallace

Joe Wallace — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:00:19 +0000

No surprise that we’re talking about post-music concepts here. I for one don’t think the iPhone is doing it. Rather the fact that music bombards us now everywhere we go. Starbucks, commercials, the grocery store, you almost can’t get away from it now.

It’s not a matter of going home and turning on the stereo to hear something after a long day of silence and office chatter anymore…now it’s more like going home to get some quiet.

By: Jeremy Pair

Jeremy Pair — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:38:39 +0000

Dave,

I would recommend this book regarding your abundance of choice dilemma. http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005696/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247956597&sr=8-1

@jeremypair