The IPod killed the Cd Star

My wife likes to call me an old soul. Which is a much nicer then calling me a curmudgeon who hates change. I don’t have anything against change. However, I like saving things. I like looking at objects and artifacts from a different era. Sadly, in America we don’t preserve anything. I remember when I went to Mexico and checked out the ancient Mayan ruins. I looked around at all this history and all I could think was if this was in America we would have knocked it all down to put up a strip mall.

Being an “old soul” is why I like what I like. I look at shag carpeting and fake wood paneling and it takes me back to a much simpler time. I was ten in 1979. So that means I spent the formative years of my life in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Which sucks, because no one yearns for those days. It is not like the generation before us. The Boomers are in one of two camps.

The one camp loves to talk about the peaceful and tranquil time that was America circa the 1950’s. While I am sure it was a great time to live if you were a white male, you might not have such fond memories if you were a gay, a woman or a minority. In the other camp you have the pathetic 1960’s hippies. Most of this lot, while their intentions were quite noble, in the end sold out. Most of them became yuppies in the 80’s while the others were so fried out of their minds that they just made no fucking sense.

No is nostalgic for my formative years. Not many people yearn to hear Olivia Newton John and REO Speedwagon. (That is not to say good music wasn’t out there. I mean Punk was coming into its own. Sadly at Wilkins Jr. High no was listening to the Clash or the Ramones.) No one likes to think back to the good old days of Jimmy Carter. I bet in the history classes today they skip from Vietnam right to the first Gulf war. Completely jumping over the time I grew up in, which I understand to a certain point. I mean all the great cinema came from the early to mid 70’s. Sure Star Wars came out in 1977 but name me another classic film from that time? Sure there were some good movies but there was no Godfather or Chinatown.

Well, I realize that I am in a small minority but I am sick of being part of the forgotten years. I like thinking back about playing my Atari 2600 and belonging to the Six Million Dollar Man fan club. I like going to the thrift store and finding faded jean jackets and sleeveless shirts, only to have my wife tell me to put them back. That is part of the reason why I started collecting LP’s again. I like to listen to them and hear the cracks of scratches of the records. There is something about those imperfections that make it more enjoyable in some way. It is also interesting to look back to when an album cover meant something. Now, with the move towards digital music the album cover is becoming less and less relevant.

So, if having a passion for things from my past makes me an old soul well then so be it. There are worse things to be. With everything said, I still like living in an age with the internet. Information is now readily available just by clicking a mouse and that can be a very good thing. I am not some alarmist who cautions against all things, new technology brings. Still, there is something that warms the heart when I think back to a time when not every 12 year old had a cell phone. When MTV played actual videos. When video games had one fucking button and you moved a joystick and the car/person/spaceship moved in the same direction.

They were simpler times. But weren’t the 50’s simpler times then the 80’s? I’m sure in twenty five years some kid somewhere is going to be lamenting for the good old times at the turn of the century. It is natural to be nostalgic for the time one grew up. And as someone who grew up in the lost era, it is my duty to stand up for the kids that survived eight years of Ronald Regan and the career of Gary Coleman.