Part one of my spiel about vinyl:
Cutting Down the Competition
MP3
I hate buying MP3's. It is everything I hate in the world. I hate it so much that I want to go back in time and hate on past me for using iTunes so long (futuristic self loathing?). One, being able to selectively buy "the hits" only ruins the concept of "the album" and all the work that was put into it. I'm a big proponent that an album should be seen as a whole rather than its individual components. There's nothing better than an album that has a great flow from song to song. The artists probably go through a lot of work to decide what goes where; not to mention the work that is put into every song. Wouldn't it be shitty to put yourself so much into a song, putting your heart into a song, and have it ignored because it didn't have the catchiest hook or a quotable line that'll make some idiot sound smart during a conversation or a line that they can drop when they get stupidly douchey at a party. Yeah its just music, but it's also someone's life. They sat down and worked hard to create something; why can't these songs be a part of the package thats sold? It's like doing a dissection and focusing on the big organs like the heart or brain but missing out on the less romanticized organs that keep things on track.
Two: It's lazy. You can't go to a store and buy music? Everyone always wants everything right now. We got our netflix and phones that do anything you can think of and drivers that drive twenty miles over the speed limit just to get home a couple minutes early to catch that rerun of some interchangeable action flick. We want everything quick and if we can't do something quick then it's not worth it. We buy shit on amazon and pay a slightly higher price plus shipping just so we don't have to run somewhere (obviously excluding items that are exclusively out of state...I mean road trips are cool too though). Buying MP3's is just another example of I want something now so I'm going to go recline and do some clicks and have it now. Then we wonder why teenagers have such a shitty attitude towards doing pretty much anything; it's because they've grown up in a world where we continuously develop technology and new ways of being lazy. By being lazy with your music purchasing, you're getting a worse deal and most people don't even care because hey at least they got it without doing any work at all besides flexing your debit card muscle.
Three- I say it's a worse deal because, you're literally buying nothing. You're buying air. A music file, sure, but you have nothing concrete for what you just spent money on. I could understand if MP3s were cheaper, like say, 5.99 instead of 9.99, but buying a CD is literally only a couple bucks more and a vinyl can range between 5-10 dollars more than an iTunes album. Money has more value than just the nickels and dimes that make it up. Money is time. Money are minutes, hours, days of your life that you're wasting by not trying to make the most of it. A 10 dollar MP3 album: thats an hour of your life thats gone. Thats an hour of your life that you can't get back and you don't even have anything in your hands to show for it. People go to jobs that they hate for a majority of their lives just to have money, why put yourself through a misery just to waste that time? When everyone is on their deathbeds, they're going to want that hour back. They're going to want that day back. Maybe they'll even want those few stray minutes back. I'm not saying that you can't make that money back or that having a job is pointless; I'm saying why be purposely wasteful? Buying music isn't a necessity, but if you're going to do it, why not try to get the most out of the deal as possible?
If I go out to eat, I want a meal that'll balance out with what I spent on it. If I go out and spend 15 dollars on a meal, I want to be full for most of the day off of it. I don't want a small square of steak and a small side salad. I want a fucking buffet where after I'm done eating I'm like "well I'm not eating for the rest of the day. That was economical!" Just like I want to be a certain amount of full from an expensive meal, I want to have the most I can get with my music purchase as I can. I want something to take home with me. To show that I'm not wasting anyone's time (I don't have a job so I can't say my time lol). People waste money alllll over the place, even though someone much less fortunate would love to have it.
CDs
CDs are so informal, aren't they? I mean, they kind've look like office supplies. They look like mass produced items of consumption. The same thing could be said about vinyl but there's just a different homier feeling to have a big ole record in your hand. Have you ever watched a talk show and when the musical act is coming out, the host shows the camera the album that is being promoted and I don't know about you but that album looks a lot more impressive on a vinyl cover than that small unimpressive CD cover.It just doesn't pop like someone would want it to.
Once that plastic comes off that CD, it's pretty much worthless. This comes from years of CD collecting: good luck selling CDs back for any profit. If you go to any place that buys CDs, they'll tell you that CDs aren't worth much of anything. You buy a CD at lets say 11.99, the store is going to sell it for roughly half the price, the store wants to make a profit so they're going to buy it for half of the half price at the absolute most. But hey, at least you can sell them back for something, am I right MP3s?
There are benefits to a CD though. At least you have something in your hand, a booklet to read, and if you want, you can put the MP3s on to an MP3 player. Also, there are some albums that work better as CDs (and MP3s. Part 3 of this series)
Streaming services like Spotify
I definitely recommend using Spotify. That's my opinion as a consumer. There's been some controversy on how much artists are paid, but its a lot of bang for your buck honestly. On a desktop, you have unlimited access to all of the music you're going to want for free (most of the music). Spotify on your phone won't give you that option of any song any time unless you get premium. I had premium for a little while and it was great if you want a lot of music on the go without having to actually own the music, its like a temporary iPod. You can download songs onto your phone so you don't have to have wifi or use your precious precious data. It's great for playlists too and sharing your music with friends if you're into that (or have friends).
My biggest problem with Spotify, and why I canceled my premium, is that I feel it ruins what makes music special. By having all music with you all the time, it cheapens music and turns it all into some consumerist scratch and sniff. Albums stop having individual merit and all become this big grey blob called music. One of my favorite aspects of buying music is just finding an album. There's a build up, a want that boils in your head that makes the music you listen to worth it. I remember I was so excited for The People's Key by Bright Eyes to come out. It leaked online, I had Spotify like websites to go to, there were ways to listen to this album. But I waited. I waited awhile to get the album. My anticipation made the album feel special. I bought the album and song after song, I was blown away (#sexuntilmarriage). Every song was better than they probably were. I feel like if I continued to use Spotify all the time, I'd become jaded. Unexcited about something I love. I get CDs from the library and sometimes I wait months for a CD and I wouldn't have it any other way because patience is something that people take for granted. Right now, I really want the album Zen Arcade by Husker Du on vinyl and have wanted it for a year now, but I'm waiting. I could buy it right now for between 17-20 dollars but that feels like a cheap way to get something. It's the chase. I love the chase, the build up. I'm not going to buy that Husker Du album until I find it at some store used and original or for a christmas present or something out of my hands. You have to be patient and you have to keep looking even if you want something really really bad because you'll appreciate it more. I spotified the new Cloud Nothings album and while I loved it, I have no desire to buy it on vinyl even though its one of the cheaper ones on vinyl, and its because I treated it like it was nothing when it was first released. Now in my head, its an album that is worth as much as how much effort I put into listening to it.
I realized how stereotypical hipster my library check outs are today and I feel like if all the librarians were scholars, they'd be rolling their eyes at my hipstery.
Movies:
Annie Hall (the cliche Woody Allen movie but I love that last lines of the movie "After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs.
Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson movie. Not as great as I was hoping)
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Stranger than Paradise (essential minimalist art film)
Inside Llewyn Davis (lots of hype, I've waited a while to see it so hopefully its good)
CDs
Oasis- Definitely Maybe reissue
Eagulls- Eagulls
Coldplay- Ghost Stories
Timber Timbre- Hot Dreams
Little Dragon- Nabuma Rubberband
Conor Oberst- Outer South
Conor Oberst- Upside down Mountain
Wild Beast- Present Lense
Perfect Pussy- Say yes to love
Temple- Sun structures
Future Islands- Singles
Books
John Updike early stories
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