Saturday, November 3, 2012

Recluse Nation

I came across this Rolling Stone article yesterday in my Twitter feed.

The intro paragraph:

The Nineties as a musical era started late and ended early — kicked in by the scritchy-scratch power chords of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," ushered out by the doomy piano intro of ". . . Hit Me Baby One More Time." Anti-pop defeated by pop — full circle, all apologies. You've heard the story.

...struck a proverbial chord about the nineties and the pre-Napster era. My generation is the last generation to know a world without the internet and pirated entertainment. I feel pretty lucky, as I consider those born after 1989 to be generally entitled, self-absorbed and somewhat useless. 
 

Being a music fan back in the pre-digital age took a certain amount of dedication. Going to a record store in a new town was filled with possibility and mystery. Finding that rare imported single with the scarcely heard b-side was a thrilling prospect. 

Each record store held that mystery.

It made being a pretentious hipster a full time job and legit if the effort, money blood, tears, and sweaty obsessive fan dedication to scour the depths of the music bins to find that rare gem to round out your personal music collection

Today's music lovers are have it much easier. Now its all about who can use the torrents and find new sites after the old ones get shut down.

If you miss a concert, it's probably uploaded on YouTube. Between that and various music blogs, a fan can not feel like they missed anything by not going to the show. This, I suppose, contributes to the recluse culture that seems  to frustrate my roommate.

I wonder if this digitization of culture, being able to get everything online, either live or after the fact, has contributed to the reclusing of young people.  



4 comments:

  1. I hate the iphone culture...I know it's convenient but I get sick of people pulling out their phone after i make a statement to prove me wrong.

    People are going to lose their ability to recall information. It's a brain function, friends. If you don't use it you lose it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. girl, I'm gonna step on your phone.

    ReplyDelete