While talking to my niece on our iPhones recently, the topic of music came up. She excitedly told me how she just downloaded three songs she has been wanting for a while and how great it felt to listen to the songs over and over again. I asked her how many songs she had on her iPod/iPhone and she enthusiastically replied, “33!.” She then asked me how many I had and I let out a big sigh and answered, “I’m not sure exactly but over 2000 for sure.” There was a pause in conversation until my niece said, “wow, that’s a lot of songs.”
It was at this moment that one of the more obvious generational divides between us hit me like a dodge-ball in 3rd grade gym class. When I was her age, it was all about Cd’s. Sure I bought tapes sometimes but Cd’s were the bomb and I still remember my first boom-box with tape AND Cd player as well as my very awesome disc-man. I explained to my niece that back in the day, her father and I bought our music on Cd’s. We each had huge Cd books, filled with our Cd’s and their corresponding album packets. We carted the books around to school, summer camp, friends’ houses, you name it. Our music went everywhere with us.
I also explained that probably about half of the music on my iTunes came from uploading all of my Cd’s so the 2000 plus songs I have took me a long time to amass. It’s a nice feeling knowing that my songs are a sort of musical scrap book, documenting my changing taste and style up until today. I have sadly gotten rid of most of my Cd’s however because they take up too much space in my tree-house but not before uploading every last song no matter if I still listen to that sort of music anymore or not. I must admit, I still every now and then get an intense Spin Doctors craving (my first Cd!) while riding the subway and it feels so great to get the earphones on, scroll through my music and turn up the volume for Two Princes. I am still trying to figure out all the words to that song.
generational, hah? i still have my vinyls!!!!