These Elliott Smith-esque days are coming thick and fast. There are many more reasons to detest the ubiqutous iPod than there are seasons in the sun, the least of which is the overturning of conventional punctuation which results in Steve Jobs iCon (sic) biography. The more glaring one is that, for most, for the recent past, these invariably white units have become synonymous with “music”. But what music takes place in the 20cm between one’s ears? Surely it’s natural - and just - to feel the composition of musical genius below the neck, and not from within.
Music is never private, not in its manner of production and re-production. Public play is its raison d’être, hence its very distribution. Its pre-birth, the compositional phase, takes place in silence, but this silence is not yet musical. Yet these little machines do nothing less than to challenge natural laws, and instead isolate and atomise us. Man, I’m so iRate.
Notwithstanding that, this little machine (and its various non-Apple bastard-siblings) has been a boon in one respect. The podcast has brought radio - of all things - back to life. The original phenomenon known as radio, which was ever wireless, has always remained relevant: intelligently relevant and freely relevant. Radio’s bane has been distance, until the advent of the miniature relayer and the internet.
What I love about radio is content. Long before television, that evil black box in the corner, radio, that little gadget that tells the time and also usually simultaneously lullabies you to, and jolts you out of, sleep. Usually, the stuff of radio is music; when it is not, radio survives on reasoned voices. And much of this is available on podcast thanks to the BBC.
The BBC has taken to the digital age in a big way and Radio 4 stoically chugs along with marvellous, marvellous programmes on asteriods, magnetism, and Pragmatism. Where else would you find a dissection of the finer points of Dominican history? Or bring the Cynics to life? Mark Kermode’s weekly Film Review is a gem. Listen to how passionate he becomes. Intelligent and passionate insights into moving pictures. Ironic, then, how the upstart has resuscitated the world’s first and oldest form of wireless communication.
Alas, a mellow mood prevails. Listening to these reasoned voices engaging in debate on fundamentals only brings to light what is lacking in diabolical Singapore: our most primitive needs are not met. That and a good winter.
iLike these:
KCRW’s selection of podcast programmes are found here. Not to forget
NPR and underHeard.org - small time, Big Heart.
2 Comments
Rather ironic that 2 sentences after comnplaining about the grammar violations of Apple’s i-words, you yourself fail the grammar test with: “Surely it natural”
I could argue that Music is often intensely private, but I won’t bother- I’ll just go off and hum a tune to myself while iWork.
However, even if that part of your argument did hold water it is a sorry argument against the iPod for which there are *so* many add-ons that people buy to turn the iPod’s music into a public experience - speakers, fm radio transmitters, docks, av cables etc
With your anti-iPod reaction, man you iRritate.
-Mart
You know, iWoke this evening from my office slumber and my site counter went click-clacking like crazy, thanks to macsurf.com. Mac-ers are passionate, and passion is a great thing.
Is music private? Sure, there are intensely private moments during which we connect to the Divine while music-ed up, but that is different from the nature of music. In this sense, it can never be, however much we try or wish it so. Less dogmatically, one could at least make a case for saying that “private” music is a lesser musical experience than, for example, a concert, or for the teens amongst us, clubbing.
I think, though, that a distinction should be made between the iPod as a “design iCon”, which I find questionable, and the iPod as a “social phenonmenon” (or consumerist trend) which I detest - and Mac-ers are the least trend following of creatures, I think. However, when considering the iPod as a concept, there are several core aspects which I admire (and applaud), one of which is the resurrection of radio. It’s questionable whether I’m “anti-iPod” as you think.
Thanks for the comment and typo heads up, Martin. It was taken in good heart, much as how you left your comments.