FEATURE:
Wired for Sound
ART CREDIT: Pascal Campion
Reconnecting with the Joy, Comfort and Evocativeness of Physical Music
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IN future features…
PHOTO CREDIT: Mishaal Zahed
I am going to discuss some more upsetting and darker aspects of the music industry. Music over the past couple of years has been a source of comfort and strength as we moved through the pandemic. Indeed, as we all struggle with recent things in the news and the fact that economically we will all be worse off, it is avenues and warm recesses like music and nostalgia that are providing needed distraction and reassurance. I have been leaning too heavily on streaming and digital music over the past few months or so. I guess you need to have a tighter budget now when it comes to getting vinyl and physical music. As I have noted in previous features, there is something about physical music that is evocative and moving. Maybe a warmer listening experience, there is a connection you get from listening to vinyl C.D.s and cassettes that you don’t get from listening to digital music through earbuds. I have been exploring vinyl a lot recently, not only to get that richness and physicality that is so important. I am also being transported back to my younger days. Before the Internet and the streaming boom, physical music was what we were listening to. Maybe it is a type of escape but, psychologically, there is this sense of companionship clinging to a vinyl or connecting with an album in a way that you really can’t through the Internet.
PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Fontenele
Physical music will always be popular and have its place because music fans want that connection. The actual process of owning something physical and keeping it. As I have also noted, there is a transient and ephemeral aspect of digital music. The overly malleable and skippable nature of a digital album means people (me included) dip in and out and do not really invest the time and focus we should. I like the sense of having a physical album and being sort of wired in and spending time with it. I have been debating on Twitter the merits of cassettes. Many maintain they are a bit rubbish and flawed, but I have been dreaming on reviving the legendary Sony Walkman, ordering a stack of cassettes and walking around playing album after album! There is something almost romantic and unusual about having a Walkman with you and a case or carrier to store old-style cassettes! Many might find it weird, but true music lovers know there is something from these formats and experiences that you don’t really get from your smartphones or streaming services. Never will I knock them, but I like the unique pleasures you get from listening to a vinyl album or walking around with a cassette in your ears. Vinyl listening allows you to sit or lay in a room with just you and an album. Even socially sharing the music, dropping the needle and letting a record play out is much more evocative and bonding than playing it through a smart speaker or a phone.
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Dribbble via Pinterest
Indeed, even listening to a C.D. in a car or playing a cassette (whether on a player or, if you are lucky to have one, a Walkman) is such a treat and sensational experience. The music seems deeper, warmer, more special and intimate. There is that link between physical music and our childhoods. The memories that can be unlocked when we play an album on a physical format. Whether reminiscing about mixtapes at school, the first album you bought, the sadly lost and long-gone days of singles on C.D.s, or the way we used to share music in this way, physical music, to me, is the way people should be introduced to albums and artists. I am determined to see if there is an original Walkman in a good condition so that I can buy cassettes. I also like the idea of the Sony Discman (faults and all!) and, even though it is more expensive, vinyl is really starting to play its part. I am hunting out rare versions of classic albums and, if budget and common sense allows, owning some of the albums I loved in my young years that I only hear digitally now. It is expensive to reconnect and properly explore music this way, but the mental and physical benefits you get are clear. That is not talked about much. Of course, music not only can help with memory and recollection, but it can calm the senses and boost your mental wellbeing. I think there is another level when it comes to physical music, because it unlocks layers and levels in music not there digitally.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ervo Rocks
I would say, as there is nothing retro or regressive about making mixtapes and buying cassettes – many artists now release their albums on cassettes as part of a bundle or on their own -, manufacturers need to react and adapt. There are cassettes and C.D.s around and being bought, and yet a small percentage are regularly played due to a lack of devices on which to play them. I also think that music is not shared and discussed as it once was. In my youth, you could bond over music much more easily because you shared it and would pass albums around. I think that, if albums on cassettes, vinyl and C.D. were more affordable and could be more easily played, it would cause ripples that could lead to social, physical and psychological benefits. In any case, I have been thinking about physical music and how it is back in my mind. I think the way we can appreciate and dissect albums on these formats connects you more deeply to the music. That is so rewarding. I am thinking back to mixtapes and the modest joys of the humble cassettes. The way I got pleasure out of buying C.D. single, or the ongoing wonder of vinyl shopping and holding something in your hands that seems like a work of art! All around the world, physical music means something different to each person. They have their own reasons why they love it and their own memories attached. Immersing yourself in physical music evokes memories, unlocks sensations, provokes emotions and sparks the mind in…
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: CSA Images Art
SUCH special and fantastic ways.