music and memories

 I listen to Spotify, the free version, when I am doing my workout. I also enjoy Youtube music videos. Those are the primary sources of my musical entertainment. Yes I have some CD's, do people still buy those? I am just wondering about that this morning. I, of course remember buying vinyl records, 45's, albums, eight track tapes, and cassette tapes. I remember the advent of the walkman, what an amazing technology. Today I hear about downloads. I think the kids just buy songs individually, although I can't say that for certain. I never was much of a record buyer, no large collection. 45's cost 90 cents and an album over five bucks! I didn't have that kind of cash to waste on that stuff. I just bought a select few, the best ones. Unfortunately I lost all my records over time and traveling. I have none from when I was a teenager. I do have a few that I picked up along the way somehow, more for sentimental reasons than actually listening to them.

 I understand that I am out of touch with the scene man. I hear them on the television saying so and so dropped a new song or album. I remember when they used to release them, seems more civilized to me than just dropping them, but then I'm not with it. Is it because I'm not woke? I don't know what the kids are saying these days. I do think they are still saying it's cool and that it is, all good. Guess you can't be groovy without having grooves, a reference to vinyl records that did have grooves in them. Still an amazing technology if you think about it. A needle (stylus) vibrating in a groove in a piece of vinyl amplified and you hear sound. Today it is accomplished digitally, a series of bytes, really on and off switches, a series of yes and no's that reproduce that sound. You can store literally hundreds of songs on a thumb drive or sd card. Do you know what the S stands for? It's for Secure, the technology used is owned by Secure Digital and was officially adopted as a standard in 1999. Been with us 21 years now. Wonder what will replace them? I'm certain something will. 

 The kids today can play their music anywhere, anytime, without any problems whatsoever. The earbuds they wear produce a far greater quality sound that most of us boomers ever imagined. We were impressed with those big speakers, they were the bomb! Names like Marantz and JBL ruled the day. Took a couple people just to move them around. Running the wires to those speakers was always a hassle too. The sound was awesome though. you could feel the beat. Today they put speakers in cars that will make you feel the beat! Rattle the windows in houses as they pass. Seems to me it is all about that bass, these days. Didn't someone sing a song about that? I think she was singing about having a big base, meaning her butt. Kids these days, who knows what they are listening too? Can't blame them though, we used up all the good music in the sixties and seventies. 

 Thinking about music makes me think about dancing. I know they still have school dances but do the kids dance? If they do, what are they doing? I mean it seemed like there was a new dance every few weeks or so when I was growing up. Now I was never one much to dance, at least not any real dance, I just moved to the beat. I didn't know how to do any of those dances but could always do my version of a waltz. If I am dancing with a lady I do want to hold her, never saw much point in standing back three feet and flailing about! But, hey that was the thing for a while. I haven't heard of any new dance the kids are doing these days. Last thing I heard about was twerking! That involved your base, er, your butt too. I don't think it would be allowed at the Prom, but what do I know? 

 I grew up in the rock and roll era. I still listen to that on occasion, when the mood strikes. But for everyday music playing in the background I'm listening to classic country. I have to chuckle when I hear them calling that music classic. No, it isn't classic, that's country music. I'm not sure what to call what the "cowboys" are playing today, it ain't country that much is certain. The last of that I'd say was with Dwight Yoakum, Randy Travis and Alan Jackson. For me, Garth Brooks started with all that "rock and roll " style country. His shows were more about a show than a song in my view. Yes, I know how popular he was, and still is I guess, but not for me. Randy Travis singing, Storms of Life, Dwight singing I sang Dixie and Alan Jackson with, where were you when the world stopped turning, now that's country. But I also know it is ever the same, it is what you grew up listening too, what memories are attached to the music. Rock and roll takes me to my teenage years, country followed that for me. It was like the song the Bellamy Brothers sang, Disco left me cold! Didn't like that music, didn't like the "lifestyle" it promoted, and it did leave me cold. It was all just a little too feminine for my taste, the beginning of the end. Cowboys wearing ear rings? I don't know where it will end, but I don't wanna be here when it does. Was here the day the music died, that's bad enough.