I come from that lucky generation that has the ability to listen to music on vinyl, tape, CD, online and on an MP3 player. I feel sorry for younger people who snub the raw as fuck vinyl and tapes and I don’t understand those who snub our technological advance – even if they’re destroying the world as we know it!
You read that right. Take newspapers for example. The internet could be shrugged off by papers – you can’t read the internet in the toilet, in bed, on the bus, at work (unless you work in an office), or on a park bench. Then along comes smart phones and Android Apps and, suddenly, you can read the internet whenever and wherever you like. Oh dear. Oops and shit. So newspapers have to rethink their whole business model, a shit load of jobs are under threat and media commentators all become overnight doom-mongers predicting the death of an industry. The fucking idiots.
I’m 40 – four zero. My generation reads papers. We like hard copy. I listen to vinyl (the new 150gm records sound fucking brilliant) and I buy books (despite owning and loving a Kindle). Medical science is being very nice to my generation and the generations it is spawning and we could have 60 years in us, maybe even more. That’s a slow fucking death for the industry my friends.
Vinyl didn’t die. Why not? Well, it can live happily alongside MP3s. It has a different sound and amazing artwork and most records come with a download code these days giving you the best of both worlds. In the same way, people like to keep press cuttings of friends and family – and even themselves if they’re fucking vain! We like to own stuff. My flat is full of stuff. It looks better with stuff in – Mp3s don’t look as good as stuff, but they are easier to hear on the train. Nobody has yet invented a personal record player for travelling with – and I doubt there’d be much call for it anyway.
Books have a future too. A Kindle and its relations can do everything a Kindle can, but some people just like the look and smell of books – and there are some places you don’t want to take a 200 quid device, but don’t mind taking a £4.50 paperback. And other times you like to get the story from the £4.50 paperback for a quid – or even free on your device.
Apart from all these changes to our lives through devices, the biggest change the internet has brought us is the accidental death of the High Street.
So many shops open all day everyday in your living room – how can anybody cope with that?
