Tonight's topic is one that has been on my mind for quite a while now, and although I spent the entire afternoon listening to Jack's Mannequin's latest with the full intent of reviewing it tonight, I have decided to put it off and rant just a little. (That's my warning. This is a rant, so you may just want to stop reading now...)
Recently I was having a discussion with my good friend Greg about high end recording equipment. He's been looking into possibly upgrading some of the gear in his studio. After discussing several different products and their multi-digit price tags, I told him that I'm starting to feel that purchasing high end equipment in hopes of reproducing a true, natural sound is a waste of money, because in today's world, a sound engineer can work for months to create a beautiful mix, but as soon as it reaches the masses, it is compressed into a .mp3, and all of the magnificent subtleties that took hours of mixing and EQing to produce are essentially flushed down the digital toilet.
Now to iTunes... Not so many years ago, music enthusiasts would go to the local music store and pick up a copy of the newest album... The preferred format since the late 80’s was CD (I know the vinyl guys are waiting for an article about how vinyl is the pure format for music, and CD ruined that... but that whole discussion would take too much time...) Anyway, this CD would then be listened too in the car, on home stereo's, and more recently on computers. As technology got better, people started ripping their CD's to their computers so they wouldn't have to change disks... This was all fine and dandy until Mr. Steve Jobs realized that he could capitalize on this. With the release of the iPod, it suddenly became un-cool to carry around your Discman and your 12 CD wallet. Instead, all of the cool kids were using white earbuds, through which they were blasting low quality reproductions of something that in it's pure form was beautiful... Unless, of course they were listening to rap, in that case the “music” was degraded to start out with ;) Because of the massive music libraries we all now carry around, listening to music has gone from being a form of entertainment to simply being background noise. In many ways, the art of music is gone. People don’t specifically sit down to listen to an hour long album anymore. Instead, they throw all the tracks they like into a playlist, push play, and then at any given moment if you ask what they are listening too, they have no clue… Background noise…
Now don't get me wrong, I love being able to carry 200 albums with me everywhere I go on my Creative Nomad. With my cheap Sony earbuds, even mp3's sound okay. In fact they sound okay on my $10 computer speakers, and even on the stock stereo system in my '97 Escort, but as soon as it comes to my home stereo system, the mp3’s sound like they were recorded inside of a tin can using a $9.99 computer microphone.
The root of the problem comes down to this, we have become a society of convenience, we want quantity over quality. If we can't have instant access to something, it's not worth our time... iTunes gives the individual a way to purchase a song or album and have it on their computer in seconds. Keep in mind, this is a low quality representation of what the artist originally released, and you are playing full price for it, but never the less, it is convenient. Instead of driving to Wal*Mart tomorrow, or ordering the disc from Amazon and waiting a few days, we give up a high quality hard copy for a low quality copy that is gone forever as soon as your computer or iPod crashes.
To illustrate this point even further, I read an article in Ad Age this week about how more people watched the SNL Sarah Palin skits on youtube then they did on NBC. How many of the people who watched it on youtube have a 60 inch HD plasma screen on their wall at home, but instead of waiting up until
I know some of you are thinking, "Tim's ranting because of his background in sound engineering, I can't hear the difference between a CD and an mp3." I have heard this, and I can assure you, anyone with ears can hear the difference, I've proven this to many individuals by simply going back and forth between the same song on CD and mp3.You don't even need an incredibly hifi system to do it. Most home surround sound system, or even decent computer speakers should be good enough to show you that you too can hear the difference. The only exception is Bose... I know some of you are scratching your head thinking, "My iPod sounds awesome through my Bose iPod Doc." And my friend, I'm sorry to tell you that you have been hit with a double wammy. You’re listening to degraded compressed music through "technology" that is about a half a step away from being a complete scam (call or email me if you really care to know all the details).
Now that I've ranted, I'm going to give you all a solution to this problem. Later this month when the new Killers album comes out, don't download it from iTunes. Go to Wal*Mart, Target, Amazon, or any other CD store and buy a physical copy. When you get home, rip it to your hearts content; listen to it on your iPod, computer, in your car and so on. But every now and then, when you have a few minutes, pop in the CD and enjoy an art that is all but lost, the art of listening to great sounding music.
-T
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