Play That Funky Music Till You Die
Throughout my childhood I had but one, big spending vice. I absolutely, positively loved buying music.
I could forego the pair of new designer jeans. I could easily put back the Bonnie Bell lip smackers. But the latest cd to hit the shelves was always a must-have purchase.
Not only was I was obsessed with buying music, I was obsessed with getting new, never before heard from artists as well. In fact, the newer, the more obscure the better. Once they hit mainstream success I felt a tinge of pride, as if little ol' me somehow helped get them there.
To estimate just how much money I spent on music the first twenty-two years or so of life would be impossible. Considering much of that wasn't even my money to spend, I really should be crediting my parents. I could have gone ivy league. I coulda been a contender. Instead I just listened to Richard Marx's Repeat Offender.
So when some pimply faced kid thought up Napster he most definitely had people like me in mind. We're good, otherwise law abiding people who occassionally go wild and rip the tags off of mattresses and have tried to record a vcr tape or two. I like to call these "last minute laws". They are a la carte, picked and chosen seemingly at random by people who have nothing better to do. After all, these people are often of the do as I say, not as I do variety.
The music executives say they are against music piracy because it takes money out of the hands of deserving artists. But I know something else that takes money out of the hands of deserving artists, so gather 'round. This, my friends, are the music executives themselves. Talk about the pot calling the downloader black....or something like that.
Not only are the greedy music executives the reason many people download, it's the mediocre mishmash modern musicians are trying to pass off as music. I don't know about you, but most of the time when I hear an album by a new or established artist, rarely is the whole thing good from start to finish. When you find one of those, hold on tight, because they are just as rare a find as old 45.
This is why once I found the world of downloading in 2000 I never looked back. Yes, collectively we downloaders rode the bull called Napster till ashes to ashes, we all fell down. In 2002 I even wrote an article on the subject for Perfect Sound Forever called Down With Downloading. I might've been down, but I certainly was not out of downloading...so I perservered and prevailed.
Years later and thousands saved, my conscience was clear. I could be sly and try to pretend I don't still download but who am I kidding, it's too late. I've already gone and ruined the first rule of the downloading club.
You never talk about the downloading club.
Then last week I heard the news that another great downloading softwarehas bit the dust. Just like Napster, and WinMx and Kazaa before it, BearShare too had its "Bad Day", down there in the bottom three with Kellie Pickler and Mandisa. Eventually even BearShare has to "go home", too.
Oh sure, you can wait around for born again version of these now extinct softwares, but who in the hell would want to go and do that? The free part of downloading is what makes it half the fun! The other half is convenience, but cheap convenience trumps plain ol' convenience any day.
Not unlike musical trends themselves, I think us downloaders will continue to keep our feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Which turntable we will turn to next might be off the charts, but it's out there, waiting for us.
Of course, when we find it, we'll try our damndest to keep it all on the down low, or download low.
I could forego the pair of new designer jeans. I could easily put back the Bonnie Bell lip smackers. But the latest cd to hit the shelves was always a must-have purchase.
Not only was I was obsessed with buying music, I was obsessed with getting new, never before heard from artists as well. In fact, the newer, the more obscure the better. Once they hit mainstream success I felt a tinge of pride, as if little ol' me somehow helped get them there.
To estimate just how much money I spent on music the first twenty-two years or so of life would be impossible. Considering much of that wasn't even my money to spend, I really should be crediting my parents. I could have gone ivy league. I coulda been a contender. Instead I just listened to Richard Marx's Repeat Offender.
So when some pimply faced kid thought up Napster he most definitely had people like me in mind. We're good, otherwise law abiding people who occassionally go wild and rip the tags off of mattresses and have tried to record a vcr tape or two. I like to call these "last minute laws". They are a la carte, picked and chosen seemingly at random by people who have nothing better to do. After all, these people are often of the do as I say, not as I do variety.
The music executives say they are against music piracy because it takes money out of the hands of deserving artists. But I know something else that takes money out of the hands of deserving artists, so gather 'round. This, my friends, are the music executives themselves. Talk about the pot calling the downloader black....or something like that.
Not only are the greedy music executives the reason many people download, it's the mediocre mishmash modern musicians are trying to pass off as music. I don't know about you, but most of the time when I hear an album by a new or established artist, rarely is the whole thing good from start to finish. When you find one of those, hold on tight, because they are just as rare a find as old 45.
This is why once I found the world of downloading in 2000 I never looked back. Yes, collectively we downloaders rode the bull called Napster till ashes to ashes, we all fell down. In 2002 I even wrote an article on the subject for Perfect Sound Forever called Down With Downloading. I might've been down, but I certainly was not out of downloading...so I perservered and prevailed.
Years later and thousands saved, my conscience was clear. I could be sly and try to pretend I don't still download but who am I kidding, it's too late. I've already gone and ruined the first rule of the downloading club.
You never talk about the downloading club.
Then last week I heard the news that another great downloading softwarehas bit the dust. Just like Napster, and WinMx and Kazaa before it, BearShare too had its "Bad Day", down there in the bottom three with Kellie Pickler and Mandisa. Eventually even BearShare has to "go home", too.
Oh sure, you can wait around for born again version of these now extinct softwares, but who in the hell would want to go and do that? The free part of downloading is what makes it half the fun! The other half is convenience, but cheap convenience trumps plain ol' convenience any day.
Not unlike musical trends themselves, I think us downloaders will continue to keep our feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Which turntable we will turn to next might be off the charts, but it's out there, waiting for us.
Of course, when we find it, we'll try our damndest to keep it all on the down low, or download low.
<< Home