Walkmen, DVDs, and Retro Tech

[Nowarezman]

The old quote from Marshall McLuhan comes to mind - "the medium is the message". Which is a rather ambiguous statement per se, but is interpreted often to mean that the medium by which a message is delivered colors our response to the message. Which, whether McLuhan meant this or not, I find to hold true in all sorts of ways.

 

A boring teacher makes "history" boring. Whatever a scuzzy politician says is immediately disbelieved. A good song by a despised band is dissed with no attempt to really listen to the material. And more to the point of this conversation is - virtual things on a computer seem to be received by most people as at some downgraded remove from reality. And probably overhyped and lacking in some way or another - compared to real things. Kind of like the TV experience by the time the excitement wore off and TVs became a commodity just about everyone had. Movies, on the other hand, still being scarce and "special" retained a magic that TV couldn't offer, being so "common". And what now is more "common" than all things internet and/or computer virtualized?

 

In the 2nd half of the 80s and in the 90s, the computer experience was still fresh and vibrant and exciting - cyberpunk fiction is driven by an "amazement" factor - by "the virtual is just as real as the real" kind of vibe. Not so any longer in the current age.

 

So back to vinyl - it's more than nostalgia, it's seeing and hearing via another medium, one that carries magic expectations.

 

nat

 

 

[J. Dan]

That's a good observation and I will add that it has changed how artists write and record records. Especially in prog there was the idea that a side of a record would be a continuous work of art intended to hear in its entirety. That's generally not a consideration. On our last CD we made the first several songs run together all with similar themes but didn't consider specifically if the first break between song would necessarily coincide with the side of an album. So while we sort of brought back a now typically lost concept, it still wasn't specifically tied to album sides.

[Anderton]

So while we sort of brought back a now typically lost concept, it still wasn't specifically tied to album sides.

 

And that's the thing with digital - it doesn't have to be. YOU decide where the "sides" begin and end. On my

[/color][/b] album project for 2016, I divided the music into two separate groups of continuous songs. Sure, it was a digital stream. But you could stop after the first "side," keep going through the whole thing, start at the second side, whatever. I left the choice to the listener, not the constraints of the medium. On the other hand, my

[/color][/b] project for 2017 was one continuous piece of music. It was longer than an "EP" and shorter than a "CD."

[/color][/b], the 2018 project, was a bunch of songs that lasted about 30 minutes.

 

They were all the right length from my viewpoint as the person creating the projects Vinyl would have been a pain: the Neo- sides would have been too long, Joie de Vivre would have been too short, and Simplicity would have been either way too long for one side, or too short for two sides. Back when I was doing albums for vinyl, it ALWAYS involved some kind of artist or technical compromise, and usually, both.

 

As Ken said: "But they also mention how purposeful it is, where you put on something specific for 20-25 minutes, then put on something else (or flip the record over). And they seem to like the deliberate nature of that and the whole experience. And many will acknowledge that the sound quality is not as good, but they like the whole experience and the seemingly more intimate nature of the whole process."

 

People do like rituals. But you can make your own! You don't have to listen to a CD all the way through, in fact, it's FAR easier to skip among tracks than it is with vinyl. I get that there's an appealing ritual element people like, but they don't require rituals forced on them from a particular medium, unless they want it...and I guess they do.

 

[J. Dan]

We're currently writing our 2nd CD and using the concept of a story with different movements or episodes and doing a reprise at the end. Still no thought of time related to a record Side or anything. But still, this sort of thing doesn't lend itself well to downloads or streams of singles. It's a very album-centric approach. Wondering the best way to implement and promote in the digital age.

[Anderton]

We're currently writing our 2nd CD and using the concept of a story with different movements or episodes and doing a reprise at the end. Still no thought of time related to a record Side or anything. But still, this sort of thing doesn't lend itself well to downloads or streams of singles. It's a very album-centric approach. Wondering the best way to implement and promote in the digital age.

 

Well first of all...now I want to hear it

 

What specifically makes it album-centric? If you're intending it as a complete work, I'd be willing to sit down and listen to the whole thing, as you intended. If instead you're seeing it more as a series of pieces to be taken individually or listened to in their entirety, that's something else.

 

FWIW on a couple of my "albums" I posted the "singles" separately. I got far more views on the albums. I thought maybe that was due to people clicking, listening for 5 seconds, and then bailing to go elsewhere on the web, which would nonetheless register as a click. But as I delved into the analytics, most people stayed engaged way past the first song. So, what does that mean? Beats me.

[Mike Rivers]

...I discovered that when playing a flash drive with 2600 songs and it wouldn't go past 999. But the 999 only applies to a folder. To get around it I made 27 separate folders, one for each letter of the alphabet (plus bands with number names) and now all the songs are accessible. It's also way easier to find a particular artist as you only have to go to the sub folder.

 

I hope you aren't distracted from driving when you're searching for a song or an artist.