So, The Beatles are now on iTunes, as of this week, and, being a huge fan of the fab four, I am one of the ecstatic ones. I, of course, already own everything by the group, including books and other artifacts besides the recordings. Nevertheless, this is huge because it allows others who are just discovering the band to listen to snippets of songs and purchase only what they want. While some might argue that The Beatles are not to be listened to in this manner and that listeners should be buying the whole albums, this is just not reality nor the world we live in today.
We live in a digital age where attention spans are shorter and people are less likely to relax, kick back, and listen to a whole album (i.e. side one of a record followed by side two!) these days. For those who long for the days of yesteryear, this has been happening for sometime now, right? I mean, it used to be that to listen to music you had to attend an event at a particular time and there was no option for stopping, pausing, or skipping through any of the music. Fast forward to the advent of the radio and the family gatherings around it, and folks were still at the mercy of the music programmers and only had the option of tuning in or tuning out.
I'm sure there could have been some folks many years ago who might have grumbled about the invention of the phonograph record and wanted only to attend live events or gather in their living rooms to listen to the radio for their musical entertainment. Personally, though, I don't want to live in the past. I might want to visit it every now and then, but I'd much rather live in the present and look ahead to the technological advancements that await us all in the future.
I enjoy having the availability of iTunes to instantly grab something I don’t have but I must admit but I don't envy today’s kids who are growing up without knowing about both record albums and the majority of the great music of the last half of the last century. I am happy to have grown up when I did as a young child in the late 60’s when the Beatles were making their best music and as a teenager in the 70’s when things were getting exciting in the progressive rock world where we listened to the entire albums ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and ‘Queen II’ as in their entirety. There is still a lot of great stuff out there being recorded even today as well as gems from decades ago that went unnoticed at the time. You just have to know where to look to dig it all up. Even in the past catalog by The Beatles! ~ Nathan Barrett
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