Noise Is Good

Introduction

This was a piece that remarks on how we have moved to getting our media by pressing a button. Physical media does give us something that is always ours, but often we want convenience rather than ownership.

The fact that I love vinyl records sort of goes against this because I have to take the records out of their sleeves and put them on the record player, with absolutely no form of remote control. My CD player gives me a remote with a volume control, and many other functions, but with the record player, everything is manual; but often, the record sleeves themselves are veritable works of art.

I recently bought an album by Man, which has the most amazing sleeve that used an origami expert for its design:

This is one of my first Vocal stories, excavated from Seven Days In, about the media we use for listening to music.

This is the current Seven Days In blog.

Noise Is Good

Well sometimes. Sometimes you want quiet, but sometimes noise lets you know that there is someone or something else there, be it a radio, TV, someone else in the house or whatever.

I was just in the shower and could hear something that sounded like the "Theme From The X-Files" and realised it seemed to be coming through either the shower drain or the shower head. Totally weird, but I wonder if that is where Mark Snow got the idea from. Who knows?

Quiet is also good at times, sometimes it's just good to lie on the bed with an eye mask in a dark room and complete quiet and empty your mind. A great form of relaxation, and after it, I then want NOISE.

I love playing stuff on vinyl because there's no remote, so no skipping, and you can actually sit and enjoy the music.

When I walk, I have a decent set of headphones, so the phone/headphone combination allows me to listen to whatever I want (as long as it's on the phone).

I don't use music streaming services because I think they're an unworkable business model for artists (unless you're Ed Sheeran), but I still have a huge selection on there. Although in this creeping, inherent tech-induced laziness, transferring music to my phone is a bit of a chore. The thing is, when we used to make mix tapes for friends, we had to choose albums and tracks and do it in real time, so a ninety-minute tape would take you well over two hours to make, whereas these days people just want to share a Spotify playlist.

I find the same with DVDs, I find getting up, getting the DVD out, opening the player drawer and then pressing play a chore. And I always forget about the theft warnings before the video starts. Like in many walks of life, it's the people who keep to the rules who are targeted, not the ones who break the rules.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading through my reminiscences, and I do still play CDs, DVDs and obviously vinyl. As I write this, I am listening to a Hawkwind CD, because I do like choosing the music that I listen to, although this means that I am not exposed to new music all that much.

And as I said in 2018, sometimes I need quiet, and sometimes I need noise. Music playing and many other things inspire my creativity.

I know this has gone on a bit, but I hope you have found something of interest while you were in here.