The Redemption of Sound

I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s and music has always been my favorite thing. When I was a little kid, around six years old, my father would let me play 45rpm records he kept in a cool case made for storing them. Then when I was much older – eight years old – I began to form my own taste in music and started buying records and I bought a lot of records in my childhood through to adulthood until CDs came along and I bought hundreds of CDs. Yes, I was already in my 20’s when CDs came out.

While I was a kid, I would go to my room and listen to  records and get lost in the songs for hours. I fell in love with music and it is a very deep, emotional connection. I can really say that music is one thing that I cannot be without and it brings me so much joy. And I love all types of music!

The digital age of mp3s has made music so portable that a person like me can have my music everywhere, but I don’t listen to music on devices with little headphones as much as you think. I prefer to listen to music played on a HiFi with good speakers. And you probably would too because that is the way the artists meant for you to hear their recorded music… so you can appreciate the whole experience and fidelity of the recording.

I have known since the introduction of the CD that digitizing music eliminates some of the frequencies that can be felt or detected by the human body, even if you cannot or barely hear them. MP3 files are super compressed which strips a lot more frequencies from the original recording for the sake of being a smaller size and a faster download… but you lose because to really connect with music you have to feel it. You hear music with your whole body. This is not news to you if you’ve ever gone to a live performance, especially a symphony.

Is there no hope for the future of music, the real enjoyment and experience of recorded music? The thought is depressing to me to think that the younger generation would miss out on an enriching part life. Sure, kids love their music, but I bet they have no idea how it could blow their minds if they could really hear it.

Then it hit me… The younger generation is going to save my music!! That’s right you millennials, LISTEN-UP! Are you familiar with the HBO series Silicon Valley? In that series the characters, brilliant millennial nerds, ( and I say that will all due respect) have figured out way to compress large files without degrading the quality of the file. In this instance I truly believe that art should imitate life. So get to it because I have a LOT of music to listen to and I demand to hear it all!

If my rant has not convinced you that this is a “real” issue, then watch this very well done documentary titled “The Distortion of Sound,” and let Quincy Jones, Slash, Hans Zimmer, Snoop Dog, Steve Aoki, Kate Nash, Mike Shinoda and others convince you.

#music #thedistortionofsound #records #mp3 #compressedmusic #hifi #hbosiliconvalley #recordingindustry