You know what I miss? CD’s.
I miss climbing over my backyard fence and running to Nobody Beats The Wiz to buy the No Doubt CD (Tragic Kingdom was the first album I ever purchased!) that my friend was raving about, knowing that if I owned it, I’d be one step closer to that elusive status of “cool”.
I miss browsing through the album covers for hours and looking at the song titles on the back, wondering what kind of world it held inside its jewel case.
I miss listening to a CD on a preview station with the large studio headphones, absolutely falling in love with it, buying it, and running home to listen to it all day long. That’s how I discovered At The Drive-In’s “Relationship of Command” and Wu-Tang’s “Wu-Tang Forever.”
I miss ripping open a jewel box CD case’s plastic wrapping. I miss the impatience and excitement in having trouble getting my fingernail to break that stupid sticker steal.
I miss the smoky smell of the liner notes that hits you when first opening the jewel box.
I miss the resistance of taking the CD out of its holder for the first time and finally feeling it give.
I miss putting the CD into my stereo or Discman and anticipating the first notes blaring.
I miss making mixes on cassette tapes.
I miss making mixes on CD-R’s.
Along came the mp3, and it changed my life, along with the world, I guess. I just hate that I can download an entire album in a matter of seconds or the fact that I can browse through 30-second sample clips of any CD ever recorded. I sample the tracks of about 10 different albums in a minute and by the end of it, have not remembered a single song.
I used to absorb a whole album. One at a time. Having it play on repeat all throughout the day, on my way to school, on my way back, while doing my homework, playing me to sleep. Now, everything’s tossed and thrown about in a hodgepodge of an iTunes playlist and nothing ever sticks.
These days, I have to force myself to ignore the 50,000 other songs and just stick to the 12 from one CD.
I mean, don’t you miss listening to a song and reading along to the lyrics from the liner notes?
I’d go on but I’d rather stop before I start using words like “phat” and “whippersnapper”.
