For the Love of Music

With the advent of iPods and mp3 player personal electronics, people now have the luxury of downloading as many or as few songs from a particular album as they want. No more mixed tapes or burned CDs title "car tunes" or "dance party," because the iPod is an automatic mixed tape. Even if you don't have playlists organized, hit shuffle and if you've downloaded your music skillfully and selectively you've got one big "mixed tape."

But is it really a luxury, or is it just a cheap shortcut? I suppose it depends on why you choose a single song, or select some over others to download. If you've heard the whole album before you buy it and decide there's only one or two songs worthy of downloading, I suppose you can argue for the decision to buy singles. But just hearing a single and downloading without sampling or purchasing the whole album is a relatively new phenomenon thanks to digital music. Quite frankly, one can argue it's a bit lazy and shortsighted. Don't get me wrong. I'm as guilty as the next person of hearing a catchy tune, downloading with the intention of checking out more music by the artist, and less than half the time actually doing that. So what, right? Who cares? Obviously I care. I seem to have something to say about it.

You see, the other day I was headed out in my jeep to run errands. I had been listening to a lot of NPR lately and I felt like some good music to soundtrack the beautiful day. I knew I hadn't updated the music in my iPhone in awhile, so on the way out the door I pulled a couple of CDs off the top of the pile from the corner cabinet. I know, I still have quite a few CDs. Can you believe it? (You should see my sister's collection!) When I got into the car I looked at the handful: Billy Joel, James Taylor, Tesla, Norah Jones. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo. I realized it didn't matter which one I chose because they're all fantastic! I started with James Taylor Live. It's a double CD, and hit after hit, favorite after favorite it occurred to me I never hit the skip button when listening to the CD.

The next day on the way to work I put in Billy Joel and it was the same thing. I can listen to these CDs from beginning to end, every song. I got to thinking why. And now I think I know. Records, tapes, CDs- when we bought them we got it all. We didn't necessarily love every song the first or even the tenth time around, but we (or at least, I) listened to the whole thing and waited for the songs we loved. In the meantime, we got to know the songs we didn't, and often we grew to love those too. We made a commitment to the artist and we got to know all of the songs on the record. And forget it, if it was a live album, you even knew all the grunts groans and comments to the audience. Now, unless it's a favorite artist you know and love, often times you will, or can, opt to forgo all the other songs and just download the one you heard on the radio or at your friend's house. And you never even give the others a chance. Many of the diehard fans of various artists love and will list their favorites as songs that may never even get radio airplay. They know it from an album or remember it from a live show. Without the album, those songs are just hanging out there.

I can name so many albums I can listen to without ever skipping a song. But I think more than half of them are on CD. I've downloaded some since iTunes, but definitely not as many. I am committed to making an effort to download albums when I hear music I like, or an artist of interest. We owe it to our favorite artists, and we owe it to ourselves. We could be missing out on some of the artists' best work.

What's your favorite album you never skip through? Do you love every song on the album or just tolerate some of the tunes in between your favorites? Does/did your favorite get any radio play?