Me And My Music Collection
I like to buy them. Hold them. Lay on the floor and read them and look at the pictures while I’m listening to the album. I like to read the liner notes.
I love music. I don’t think I’ll make a statement like: music is my life. BUT, music is a BIG part of my life.
I have a few certain genres that I LOVE more than others, mainly punk rock and metal, but I like all types of music. I’m not even one of those assholes that says something like: I like ALL music except for country and rap. I’m currently bumping a bone thugs n harmony cassette tape in my car, and I’ll be damned if I haven’t shed a tear to GG Allins country album. I’ve danced My ass off with hippies to jam bands barefoot in a field. I’ve spent the dough for front row tickets at Tanglewood to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I like going to the Opera, and broadway shows. I like going to basement shows. Currently in My 5 disc CD player at home is: Sade, Bane, Jack off Jill, Depeche Mode, and an old No Doubt album. My musical selection, and collection is pretty damn well rounded.
Yes, I still have a five disc changer, because I still buy CDs. And tapes, and records. I have never, ever illegally downloaded a song in My entire life. I do not own an ipod, or a nanopod, or whatever. I don’t even know what they are called! I do not have itunes, or even an online or digital musical library. I don’t listen to albums on youtube, why would I do that? That does not appeal to Me at all.
I like albums.
I like to buy them. Hold them. Lay on the floor and read them and look at the pictures while I’m listening to the album. I like to read the liner notes.
I like to listen to an album from beginning to end. The way the artist intended it to be. Sometimes I like to listen to an album on repeat even.
A good album is like a great journey, the songs make sense in the order they were put there. I think we can all agree that listening to one slayer song is a lot different than listening to an entire slayer album. I prefer the latter.
That’s not to say of course that I don’t love a good damn mixed tape. Or a mix cd even. Yes, people still make those. And they still mail them across the country, sometimes in other countries with handwritten notes. Real mail exists. Real albums exist. You can hold them. Trade them. Share them.
I enjoy buying albums. I enjoy the hunt, digging thru bins at old record stores. I like pre ordering limited edition vinyl in fun colors. I like meticulously alphabetizing My metal cds in their rack based on what country they are from. I like box sets. I like album art. I like knowing who played on a particular album. I like to know who wrote My favorite songs.
I’m not into putting an ipod on shuffle. I’m not into listening to the radio. I’m not into technology or another person deciding what they think I should be listening to (unless it’s a really good dj or a mix tape a friend made) I am into picking an album that fits My mood. Some days it’s a band’s entire discography. I like collecting music. I am extremely proud of My collection. I like when other music freaks come over and get excited about My record collection and are impressed by the sheer volume of imported metal all over the walls.
I also want the artists who I love to be able to afford to continue to make music that I enjoy. I think they should be paid for their hard work and talent.
I’m old skool. I don’t like having digital music in my house. Call me what I am, I’m a music snob. I didn’t recently get into collecting cassette tapes because of some weird hipster trend. I’ve been lovingly maintaining my cassette collection since it started in the 1990s. I’m proud of my extremely well rounded musical collection. It’s probably better than yours. I’m a bitch like that.
So many of my friends are into Pandora, and put on a pandora station based off one artist they like and they listen to it ALL day as background noise. (There’s nothing wrong with backround noise btw, I just think if this is the ONLY way you are listening to music, you are missing out on a whole other experience.) Without ever knowing what they are even listening to. Without stopping to learn when the song might have come out, who was involved with the arrangements and what album it’s even from! Some people don’t even own ANY albums anymore! Listening to a computer generated playlist seems to have become the norm. We are breeding a generation of apathetic music listeners. Folks who are destined to not know the names of their favorite albums, or which record companies their favorite artists are signed to. Folks who won’t even know anything of an artist except the few songs that happen to get a lot of radio play and everyone is downloading. You’ll know the singles, but you won’t know the history of the music you love so much.
Go out, find a record store, BUY ALBUMS. Buy them for yourself, buy them for your friends, buy them for your parents, buy albums for your children so they can grow up knowing and living classic rock and roll, so they can know which song is supposed to come on after the one that everyone already knows. GO TO SHOWS and then buy the albums there. Then the artists are getting ALL the money, doesn’t that feel good? 
