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LAST UPDATED: 18.11.2008
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Brave New World
That David Tennant has it easy I reckon. Press the right buttons, pull the correct levers and he can expect to be back in roughly any year he wants to. For me, travelling back in time was more of an unexpected shock. What happened to me? Belgium happened to me, that's what happened. You would think I'd have got it out of my system by now, but the thrill of going into a new record shop never leaves me. I found myself drawn in to a shop called The Collector in Brussels. No ordinary shop. I was transported back 20 years as I entered. It wasn't just that the racks were bulging with vintage CDs and vinyl I thought I'd never see again, it was the sheer quantity and range which was so astounding.
But the best bit wasn't the record sleeves or the posters or the customers or any of that. No, it was the guy behind the counter. He clearly loved the music in a way record shop assistants these days just don't. I was convinced this guy would be in there, music playing, even after they shut. (And when I went past later on that evening, there he was). This was a meeting place for those of us who love our music. I was amongst friends.
As I stepped back out of my time machine and into the street I began to muse on how the format of the music we buy has changed. As passers-by nodded away to the invisible rhythms being fed to them from their unseen mp3 players, through their clearly visible earpieces, a thought struck me. The way we listen to music has changed our attitude towards it. The problem is that it is too easy to fast forward and select unrelated bits of music. When I bought an album back in the day, it was just that; an album. Often, the tracks I bought it for were not the ones I ended up liking the best. I lived with it, as an album with a sequence of songs which it wasn't easy to mess about with. Today, if it has no instant appeal, we press the skip button.
A work colleague of mine boasted recently she had a new iPod, and on it she had stored her entire CD collection, which I'm led to believe is quite a considerable amount of music. I nodded appreciatively, feigning admiration, but inside I was crying 'Why would you do that? What's wrong with having it on the CDs in the first place?' ‘Why does anyone need to have all that music with them when they go to the toilet?'
I'm not such a Luddite that I can't appreciate the joys of the iPod; I do have one myself, but I think they should come with a clear set of rules. So, here are my tips for listening to music, to be applied on the first day of every month;
Step 1; clear all the music
Step 2; select some new acquisitions, and add them
Step 3; mix in some old faves, just for balance
Step 4; stir in some other old stuff you never really listened to, but always felt you would one day.
Step 5; listen to it and live with it for a few weeks, spending as much time as you can playing it through some speakers while you do something else
Step 6; after a month, repeat steps 1 to 5.
Pretty soon you'll be like my shop assistant in Belgium. Happily extolling the virtues of music you love and trying to convert your friends. Come with me and embrace a brave new world; clear your iPod!
Guest editorial by Chris Xenra
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