MP3s and the Death of Music

1740 Words4 Pages

The MP3 is the greatest menace to music today. There’s no doubt about it. It came on the scene in the early 2000s and since then, it has completely changed how the world consumes music. An MP3 provides an easy way to have music as a digital file, an easily produced medium in which music can be shared from peer to peer or over the Internet. Music devices like iPods and Zunes have been created and modified to not only store these MP3s, but to have them available in massive quantities. A volume of music that once filled a bookshelf with vinyl LP’s can now be stored on a smart phone. But how is this a threat to music? Music is swiftly becoming intangible. The experience that physical music provided for a song is becoming eradicated, and with that, music as a personal, tangible experience is dying. Music journalism in physical form is also withering away. The MP3 has caused a decay in music as a tangible entity (CD or magazine) and has replaced it with disposable digital files and erasable pixels on a screen.

Music has always been meant to be experienced. Before music was recorded, you went out to hear music being performed in person, to feel the vibrations going through you, to see the musicians playing, and to be around life and other people partaking in the same environment. When music was recorded onto vinyl, you had to actually sit down or be near the phonograph to listen to the record. You could pull apart the sleeve, lose yourself in the carefully chosen artwork, pour over the liner notes, or simply just lay back and soak in the sound. CDs and cassettes posed a minor disruption to this because while you still get a similar experience, CD players and Walkmans provided portable listening, but to listen to either, you still had ...

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Works Cited

Fogarino, Sam. “Artist Quotes.” Recordstoreday.com. Record Store Day, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.

Harvey, Eric. “The Social History of the MP3.” Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media Inc. 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

Hogan, Marc. “This Is Not a Mixtape.” Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media Inc. 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

McLeese, Don. “Straddling the Cultural Chasm: The Great Divide between Music Criticism and Popular Consumption.” Popular Music & Society 33.4 (2010): 433-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

Rodman, Gilbert B. and Cheyanne Vanderdonckt. “Music For Nothing or, I Want My MP3.” Cultural Studies 20.2/3 29 (2006): 245-61. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

White, Jack. “Artist Quotes.” Recordstoreday.com. Record Store Day, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.

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