I was just reflecting the other day that I rarely listen to music like I used to. I am wondering if any of you are the same. When I was in high school I had a boom box or jambox whatever you were calling them in the eighties. Most of the time I was listening to tapes. At this point in my life I was living in Papua New Guinea and there was no radio. We survived on cassettes, some were pirated copies that we got in the trade stores in town. Other times it was a cassette copy that we dubbed from a friends collection or maybe we would have a friend fresh back from furlough that would have an original that we could copy. On the weekends we would spend time walking around at night or at one of the tennis courts where someone would bring a box and we would hang out or have an impromptu dance. I have fond memories of discovering everything from Simple Minds to the Scorpions, Van Halen to Ice House, Inxs, Midnight Oil, Noiseworks, Def Leopard, White Snake, Acdc, Duran Duran, Alphaville and many others. As I moved back to the states in 1989 I finally got a car and this was a whole new era in bliss. I had a chevy corsica with a pioneer cassette deck in it. I would jump at the chance to run any errand. Were out of milk? I’ll go get some. We need butter? ooh ooh me let me go get some. On the weekends my friends and I would go for a drive just to listen to music. Gas was cheap and my parents still paid for it. At time I would go for a drive on my own just to listen to an album. I would turn it up and be surrounded by the music singing all the while. I would also fall asleep to music. As I got older and lived on my own, music would keep me company. I would put a cd on at night to fall asleep and when I awoke in the middle of the night for a bathroom break I would switch the cd spending the time to select the right disc for the moment. If I could I would have music going 24 hours a day. When I was touring music was always important. Just to keep up with what all my friends in the industry were doing and as we traveled if I wasn’t in a bus I was typically driving so I needed music to keep me awake and keep me company for 100′s of 1000′s of miles. I had albums that were special friends that I listened to over and over again. Sister Sweetly by Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The Eagles Greatest Hits albums, Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Allman Brothers band, Whiskeytown Strangers Almanac, and many others.

Eventually I got married to my amazing wife and listening to music 24 hours a day became less of a priority. I still maintained my stereo system and I would have these Sunday after church listening parties in my man cave. Eventually as I became busier and busier this occurred less and less. Soon I moved my studio out of the house so my gear and music time was out of the house. My travel time became less and less so for a good period of time I didn’t even have cd’s in the car. before I knew it most of my listening was taking place on a laptop with headphones at night before I fell asleep.

As much as we lament the fall of quality popular music and it’s access to the average person there is more great music being made now as ever before it is just harder to find. Another thing I have discovered is the sheer volume of music out there. In my younger days my budget was limited There was no internet, spotify, grooveshark, itunes etc. I had a couple of cassettes that I listened to over and over again I knew every twist and turn of every album. Now I might download 5-6 albums a month and forget I even have them. I consume about 10 times the music I did back then but I spend about 75% less time enjoying it. I very rarely listen to an album all the way through and almost never listen to an album on it’s own with out multi tasking. I very rarely get to listen to music on a quality system. I at different times force myself to listen to music on headphones or in the studio on a good pair of monitors as a discipline in listening. Lately due to sickness I have had to slow down and have got a chance to listen more carefully and more leisurely. It is a joy.

I’m curious. How to you consume music?