This project of "Life Mixed Tape" started as a way for me to explore the idea of listening to music in the streaming age. As a committed music listener, how should I listen, now that most everything that I am interested in is available instantly? Record (CD) collecting has become obsolete, at least for me. My high school joy of walking through the aisles of Tower Records, and my later joy of finding slightly more "indie" record stores is no longer necessary or practical. Today, I can hear what I want instantly on my phone. I miss the joy and anxiety of buying a new album because of a recommendation, good review, or interesting cover art. I have made some good (and bad) discoveries in those ways. Obviously, something has been lost, but maybe something has been gained, too. I am searching for what has been gained.
So, my first idea was that I could make a giant playlist of all the songs that have ever meant something to me on Spotify. I could play my "Life Mixed Tape" and have some random part of my life unexpectedly pop up on my playlist and transport me to some earlier time in my life. The dream of a middle-aged pop music lover. In addition, I could share this playlist with others and in that way I could try to rekindle one of my favorite parts of music listening, which is creating community and memories with friends and family. But sharing a playlist with others is not the same as sharing a song in the same room.
I was talking to a new friend recently about music collection. We were debating the advantages of streaming vs. "owning" music. He made an interesting observation. He imagined there were many consumers that paid monthly for streaming services that listened to what amounted to 3-4 CDs worth of music. Such listeners could save a lot of money by simply putting a 4 CD disc player in their car. He suggested that this age of musical plenty is wasted on those who are not willing to look for guidance in curating a wider variety of musical experience. In a sense, this message is what I have gotten from Mr. Ratliff's book Every Song Ever. Music listeners have the opportunity to be more involved and creative in the way we experience music in this age. So I challenge myself (and any who want to join me) to avoid the temptation to live (only) in nostalgia but to rise to the opportunity of musical discovery.
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| The Fall, Edinburgh, 2011 |
I am still interested in the project of interpreting my life, past, present and future, through the music I listen to, and sharing those thoughts with others who may find them of interest. That is why I am writing about a new book I discovered called Every Song Ever, by Ben Ratliff. Turns out Mr. Ratliff wanted to explore the same question that I did: What does it mean to be a music listener in the age of streaming? From the book flap: "Today, new technologies make it possible to roam instantly and experimentally across musical languages and generations . . ." Mr. Ratliff challenges his readers to listen to musical traits such as repetition, speed, and virtuosity across genre and time period to find surprising connections. With this challenge, I have been jolted out of my nostalgic dream of relistening to all the 80's music of my youth and challenged to listen to such varied offerings as: Dean Martin's "If" and The Fall's "Backdrop." These singers were recommended for singing with a voice of "playful authority." Thanks to the magic of streaming, I can listen instantly to Ratliff's jazz, classical, rock, pop, and hip-hop suggestions and discover for myself the qualities he describes in his book
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| Martin in 1960 |
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I was talking to a new friend recently about music collection. We were debating the advantages of streaming vs. "owning" music. He made an interesting observation. He imagined there were many consumers that paid monthly for streaming services that listened to what amounted to 3-4 CDs worth of music. Such listeners could save a lot of money by simply putting a 4 CD disc player in their car. He suggested that this age of musical plenty is wasted on those who are not willing to look for guidance in curating a wider variety of musical experience. In a sense, this message is what I have gotten from Mr. Ratliff's book Every Song Ever. Music listeners have the opportunity to be more involved and creative in the way we experience music in this age. So I challenge myself (and any who want to join me) to avoid the temptation to live (only) in nostalgia but to rise to the opportunity of musical discovery.
Ben Ratliff's Every Song Ever can be found at Washington County Community Library or probably wherever books are sold. Every chapter ends with a list of songs and albums to discover.
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