Download the Music!
By Jolene Mettaroy

Changes in music are fascinating, aren’t they? The music itself changes, and so does the recording and playing medium. Think about it. In ancient times, people sang, drummed, danced around the campfire. Someone might sing alone. That was pretty much it. Music was created for present moment enjoyment. It was real time. There was no recording and no MP3 for music downloads.

Recording changed a lot about music! Live performances could be heard months after the original performance. Recording studios came on the scene. No audience there. Musicians just played into the microphone for later playback. Musicians say it’s a very different thing. This change brought about many others.

I’m surprised to think that here I am, 45 years old, and I’ve seen about 8 different mediums for music download in my life. It’s frustrating. I get a good music collection in one form and then someone comes along with a better way to do it and my whole collection is out of date. Remember reel-to-reel? Father had one. Messy thing, too. Tapes unraveled and suddenly all your work was gone. Tapes in any form stretch and melt. They weren’t good for really long term storage.

Then came those little 45’s on vinyl. Better. They didn’t hold much, only one or two songs per side, but they were more durable. Then they made them bigger and voila, we had LP’s. Did you know LP stands for Long Playing? It was good to have several songs on each side. Another revolution in recording was born. But you couldn’t record on them yourself, really. They scratched easily, too, like the 45’s. Once you scratched one, it was toast. 

8-tracks are a joke nowadays. They kinda came and went. Unfortunately, I was a teenager at the time and I bought them. We couldn’t record on them, either. Cassette tapes were better. At least we started being able to make our own recordings. Sealing the tape in plastic did help to protect them and they lasted a little better than the reel-to-reels. To be honest, I only surrendered my cassettes a couple of years ago after I moved. I had just begun music downloads then, too.
 
CD’s were a major improvement, I think. It really made a difference when we started being able to record our own. They’re even more durable than the vinyl. They’ll last longer. Digital sound is a big difference, too.

Of course, last, but not least, we can now download music. I love it. It’s way more available. It’s portable. It is much less likely to be lost or damaged than ever before. So what if your hard drive crashes? Download it again or copy from a friend. Have you gotten an iPod yet? I have. Finally, I gave in and bought my 8th music download device. I just had to download music from the web. I wonder what they’ll cook up next?

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About this writer -

Jolene Mettaroy loves music. She sings and composes her own tunes for a small amateur band. You can read more articles about music at saifimusic.com 

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