The Music has changed.
Through a series of events, starting with “channel-surfing” over to The Sound of Music last night, as it played on TV…. I began thinking about some things. And one of those is ….. music has changed. Not so much the music itself. There isn’t much new under the sun there. Not really. Just ask the Lonely Goatherd.
To clarify. There are ALWAYS new songs, and new artists. But the notes remain the same. Every Good Boy Does Fine…. after all. And…. my personal tastes have stayed the course over the years. I like most genres. But the “go-to” for me is Alternative. David Byrne. Any time. And the Lonely Goatherd.
So. Back to the change. Here it is. The acquisition of music has changed. When we were kids, it went like this.
I had a paper route. Or I would cut the neighbor’s grass, or shovel the snow. Rake leaves. Clean a house. Whatever a snot-nosed kid could do to earn a buck. And most of the times… that was the “booty”… a buck here. Seventy-five cents there. I’d keep very good track of that money. And I had a dark green little leather pouch that I kept it in. I had different hiding places for my money pouch. But I always knew where it was, and how much was in it.
And occasionally, my Mom or my Dad would take me up to the Citizen’s Federal Bank at Forest Park Plaza. Clutching my little hand-stamped bank book, and my green leather pouch, I would proudly walk into that bank and produce the sum of my earnings to the very smartly dressed teller, up and above the Great Wall of CitFed. I’d hear the stamp. Thump. Thump. And then back over the wall, I’d see the red polished nails handing down the Book of Money… with an orange lollipop tucked under one finger. Holy Crap-a-Moley. The Golden Moment.
And I would hold my head high as I, “The Depositor of Monies,” exited the bank. The trumpets played. The crowds roared.
…. ,…
….,,. …. ….,….
Digresser. Look at me. I am SOOOOO off-track right now….. Back the Music.
Sometimes, I would keep a bit of those earnings in reserve. I might take them to the corner candy store…. ORRRRR…. we as a family… would take a trip to the record store. And I would buy a 45. Most of the times… it was a Jackson Five rip. And I would be Rocking Robin all the way home. Tweedleey, Deedleey, Deeeet.
It was all very deliberate. And well thought out.
Now, it seems… kids have music at a touch. At a whim. For free. Right in their ears. Loudly. Not just a couple of songs… but thousands and thousands of songs. Immediately. And…. Don’t like that song? Tap one finger on the screen of that phone… and the song is brand new. Tap, tap. Fly by fast. A blur. A whir.
I can assure you, I listened to Little Michael Jackson sing Rockin’ Robbin a hundred times at least. At least. On the family record player in our living room. You had to put a little plastic piece over the center spindle on the player, so that a 45 would fit. Deliberate. Intentional. Careful. Measured.
And here we are. Our world continues to change in countless ways. Some days, I am happy for some of the changes. Other times… it scares me half to death.
Change is good, in a lot of situations. But sometimes it is not. I think our world has started spinning too fast and we are getting way ahead of the natural rotation of things. The age-old…. since the beginning of time itself…. rotation of the earth. One day at a time. And a whole year around the sun.
To me… it feels like the logs in the river…. when the lumberjacks jump on. And they start spinning their feet faster and faster, backward and forth… simply trying to balance on a log, floating in the middle of an icy river. And it spins, and spins, fast, fast, fast. What gives? Let the poor log float. It was doing just fine there in the water. And lumberjack? Put your feet back on the ground, man.
Yep. The music is still the same. But oh my word… has it ever, ever changed.
I guess we can only hope, and try, to do what is best. We know inside, what ticks, and what does not. We know our speed, or our slow… which ever it may be. So if the world around spins, and spins, it is probably best to stay true to our own beat. The beat of our heart.
And that is when the music really plays. That is when we know.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein