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Heather's Audio Odyssey

February 16, 2008

A musician’s search for “real” tunes.
by Heather Brenneman

AudioOdyssey_1.jpg     The other day, I was listening to the radio and they played a song that I liked. I thought to myself, “Self, you have iTunes and LimeWire, just go download it.” Then I asked myself, “Self, what exactly happened to those people who used to sell CDs before the age of downloads?”

    I took a trip down memory lane, back to the ‘90s when people actually went to a store, perused the aisles, and came out with a CD. For those who don’t remember the age of the CD, it stood for compact disc and was a piece of plastic that had tracks to listen to…. the WHOLE ALBUM, not just the “one good song”.

    I walked into Best Buy a few days later. Ahh, the friendly smell of electronics. Walking past the cell phones, DVDs, and other gadgets of the modern world, I proceeded to the last aisles of the store where the CDs are. They had only the new albums and it took me forever to find anything. I guess I’m just so used to sitting at my computer and downloading whatever I wanted, that it took me a while to get back in the habit of actually ‘looking’ for a CD rather than searching a list on iTunes. I forgot that looking for something used to require actual physical movement.

    After not finding what I really wanted, I settled on the new Paramore CD. Best Buy has the habit of carrying the new and hot albums as well as the old goodies, but nothing in between. Since I was looking for something other than the popular world of Top 40, I was out of luck.  I was questing for a more obscure title, DORK specifically, so Best Buy - though striving to fit the public’s need for music - did not suit mine.

    My next stop was Cheapo Discs down the street. This is a shabby hole-in-the-wall discount CD store. Aisles and aisles of new and used music abound. To get a thorough grasp on everything this store carried, I would have had to spend many more hours of time I did not have. Now-a-days, in the time of technology, people rarely have time to peruse aisles and aisles of music, because they are otherwise so busy working nine to five, eating dinner, watching a movie and then retreating to the bedroom to go to sleep, they only have time to start the whole day over again. Just glancing through the aisles, however, lead me to realize that this was much more that the hole-in-the wall shop I entered. It is a haven for lost music and CD junkies. Here, anything could be found, depending on how much time is allotted for the task.

    I proceeded to FYE, also known as For Your Entertainment. Likewise, this music emporium housed mostly new albums. A few of the classics, including the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles are on display in the back of the store. I was still disappointed in my pursuit of a good album, as while they did have a large selection of new CDs, they did not have as many old selections.

    As I mentioned earlier, I was looking for an album by DORK, which can be considered obscure. The band was never very big. Perhaps this was why I couldn’t find any of their albums at mega-hit stores. This was when I came to the conclusion as to why people more often bought their music digitally, online rather than going into their nearest Best Buy.

    I discovered that a person can find substantially more music on the web than they can find at any music store. Millions of people download music from the web each day. The songs on their computers are then fed to the rest of the online web community, depending on the program used to download the music. This file sharing means that almost anything can be found on the web; it’s a whole different world. Throughout my pursuit of different music, I never managed to find my DORK CD. Teens today download more music than any other age group, combined. Record stores and CD libraries are becoming obsolete. Downloading music is the next big thing, and when we teens are all grown up and having children of our own, those kids won’t know what a CD is. Like the record player,  8-track tape, and the cassette tape, CDs are fast becoming extinct. From live music to the record player, to the cassette, to the CD, and now to the iPod with Mp3s and Mp4s, music is rapidly changing, and so is the pursuit of it.

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Written by Heather Brenneman · Filed Under Living & Arts, Music