I’m pretty sure that most of the modern world is hooked onto the iPod and mp3s and other versions that followed. We all remember the 1st Gen iPod which simply blew most of our minds away with the crispness of quality and the sheer number of songs it could carry. And hence we put to sleep our old Sony Walkman/Discman. And the world has never looked back since. Music distributors have leveraged the internet to sell music directly in the form of mp3s which can be bought off either band websites or from places like the itunes store. But I have one major grouse with all this technology.

I walked into a music store over the weekend to check out any new bands that may have come up with stuff. And to my annoyance, most of the CDs there were old older bands like the Carpenters, Black Sabbath, John Denver, Led Zeppelin, etc (Please do not be shocked at my music selection…it’s pretty eclectic) but none of the newer bands. Most of the Indian bands who are slowly finding some sort of recognition are hooked onto the internet and are using that to market their music. Gone are the days of the record companies. We’re in India, call up your geeky cousin who works for that big software firm and he’ll whip up a website quicker than the time it takes you to say ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ and presto, free marketing of your music.

And all this technology seems to have taken away the thrill of going to a record store and finding that record you’ve been looking for. The feeling if holding a new album put out by your favorite band seems to have vanished all together. I remember when you’d find fellow rock enthusiasts loitering around the section discussing bands and stuff. All of them seem to have disappeared online leaving nostalgic relics like your truly feeling somewhat unsatisfied with the whole experience of buying music. I still remember how awesome I felt when I was the first person to pick up Metallica’s Deathmagnetic album from the music store at the mall when it was fresh out of the carton. And while the internet has made access to music a whole lot easier, it just can’t replicate that sort of joy. This unfortunately is the painful part of any technology –leaving the old simple joys behind.

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