Music Then and Now!

After getting home from work yesterday evening, I spent half an hour downloading some music to my laptop. The process was simple and straight forward, something many of us do regularly, adding to our digital portfolio, built up over the internet, without leaving the comfort of our own home. Attaching music to our collection has never bean easier; from youtube, spotify and amazon, the number of apps and internet sites selling music has exploded in recent times. Buying our favourite tune is simpler than buying a pint of milk, yet I yearn for a past that no longer exists, a time when buying a 'record' or 'CD' was a part of growing up, a right of passage and the beginning of adulthood!

I bought my first record in the early 1980s, Karma Chameleon; I think it was about 1983 and it was as memorable then as it is now. On a Saturday afternoon, I took the bus from Thorni Avenue, where I lived in Fareham to the centre of town; it was also the first time I had been allowed out on my own at the tender age of twelve years old. I can remember the day well, so well in fact, I actually took a photograph of the bus stop. I was a budding photographer then, as I am now, documenting every aspect of my life. For me being able to get on a bus on my own was important, it finally allowed me the freedom to do what I wanted, without Mum and Dad being around. On that weekend, I was able to explore the town centre, meet friends for a drink and act in a way I had never acted before. I felt like an adult, proudly walking through Fareham precinct, head held high, looking through shop windows trying to find something to buy with my weekly pocket money!

After that weekend, there was no stopping me. Each Saturday I would make the same journey and navigate my way to 'Our Price' to look at the latest singles. Growing up in the seventies and eighties was a special time, unlike today the music charts and the top forty were an important part of teenage life and like most people, I would listen to the radio on a Sunday waiting for the latest chart positions to be announced. Along with millions of others, I would place my C90 cassette in my Bush portable recorder and tape the latest entries, playing the 'chart show' again and again throughout the week.

Together with 'Top Of The Pops' on the television, the latest hit singles were a national institution, everyone took an interest in the biggest hits of the day and it was a part of my life I look back on with fondness. Music does define an era, the way people dressed, acted and the subject matter, important at critical milestones in all of our lives. It is with regret that I now see music shops closing down on high streets across the country, because these were the places that made my generation who they are today.

Like most people I had a large collection of records and later CD's and like my peers, I no longer have these tangible objects, displayed neatly on shelves in my lounge at home. I ripped all of my CD's and recorded all of my cassette tapes to a digital format long ago and the only evidence I have of these items are lists of data on my laptop hard drive, a far cry from my huge collection amassed over many years in the 1980s. 90s and 2000s. In thirty years, the market for music has changed out of all proportion and the luxury of walking down the High Street and buying a piece of history is long gone, along with the childhood I once knew.

The changes that have occurred in all areas of society over the 36 years since I bought my first LP have been dramatic. No longer do we have record players, large HiFi systems and cassette tape players, today we have a small MP3 player, an app on a mobile phone or a file on a PC or tablet. Most people, including me don't even download songs but prefer to stream music from providers online. The way we do things today are very different to yesterday and I have my head firmly stuck in the past. I enjoyed the way things were and probably because of my age hark back to a time that I regard as better, more fulfilling and innocent. We have progressed in the World technologically, bombarded with perfect images and encouraged to buy the latest fashions or subscribe to the latest youtube sensation, that mirrors all those before, we have become part of a generic, banal World, where everything, including music and musicians just look and sound the same. I miss the old days and will do everything I can to keep them alive, as part of this blog. Next time you download a song, maybe think about popping into your local music shop buying a CD and doing what you can to keep the last vestiges of this industry alive. Without your support it wont be long before the final music shop closes and another block of flats is built in its place...Is that what you really want?

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