When walking across a busy street, chances are that at least one person, maybe more, have earphones in their ears, listening to their iPod. Many people in the country own MP3 Players, with the iPod being the most popular. While so many people use iPods to listen to music, one has to wonder if these people are listening to music the way it's meant to be listened.
In the current times, it is obvious that an iPod is used to play a variety of music in a way that can surprise you. In the newer generation iPod, if you shake the iPod, the song changes, emitting a "shuffle" type effect. For the most part, people don't listen to CDs straight through anymore. They put a wide variety or music on their iPod and shuffle the songs. The artists make CDs for a reason. They choose the tracklist very carefully for a reason. It's great to change it up once in a while and shuffle the music, but I think it's disrespecting the artists and their work by not listening to their music the way they want it to be listened.
Personally, I love listening to albums straight through. Sure, I have playlists of my favorite music as of now to listen to while I'm on the go, but listening to albums straight through is a completely different, amazing way tto listen to music. What I love especially is concept albums, such as Jay-Z's American Gangster. Listening to the story beyond the album is a surreal feeling and it's on a whole new level of listening to music. I'm as much of a fan of shuffling music as anybody. I need to listen to music that reflects my mood, but I can just as easily enjoy a great album. iPods are great, but that is the one thing it seriously lacks. While you can listen to albums straight through on the iPod, that's not the main purpose.
Apple Inc., the makers ofthe iPod, assume many things about the typical music listener. The shake-n-shuffle option introduced in the 4th-generation iPod nano reflects the fickle personality of our generation, the main target audience of Apple. The iPhone combines the two things people do most when on the go: talk on the phone and listen to music. The newly unveiled iPad will have many exhilirating features that will excite anyone that loves both computers and music.
It's truly amazing how well Apple markets its products and how they know exactly what we want, but I feel the need to go back to my original argument. The iPod is ruining the old-fashioned way of listening to music. We take music for granted. Twenty years ago, people listened to records straight through because, while there was no other way, it made them appreciate the good music that much more. There are people who have never heard a full album in their life. They don't truly appreciate music for what it is: a way to get out of our reality and get in touch with the artist's. With the iPod, iTouch, iPhone and the new iPad, listening to albums straight through is a rarity and, although I don't want it to be like it was in the 60s and 70s where you were forced to listen to albums straight through, I'd like albums to be more appreciated than they are now.
Like I said earlier, I like shuffling as much as the next guy, but I also know how to appreciate an album. It's my hope that more people learn to do the same rather than shuffle songs every few minutes. It's not completely Apple's fault, but they're the main cause of this new shuffling era that I'm dying to get out of.
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Parth, I enjoyed reading your post and liked that you wrote about Apple specfically and what their products are and some specs on them. I am a iPod owner and have over 3500 songs in a ton of various genres. I must admit that I do use the shuffle feature at times, especially when I just want to be surprized at a song, when I am in the sort of mood that I don't know what I want to listen to. I find that those who shuffle also never really have the full albums of any artist. They purchase just the song they want from iTunes or download from a Limewire type website. Even if they wanted to they don't have the whole album! I grew up listening to albums and studying the cover art, I feel that this generation is losing out on the true artists vision of their work. I also believe that the artist may change they way they look at their albums in the future, but I hope not!! Thanks for your post I enjoyed reading it. Good job!
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