Remembering Happiness

Some of the happiest times in my life always revolved around music. Basically, a huge part of my childhood and adolescence was spent on the floor of my bedroom, listening to new CDs. I had one hell of a music collection. I started working at 14 and used every check to buy music. Looking back, I probably should have put that money in an IRA but whatever, the music made me so happy. I could sit for hours, read liner notes and just... listen. Or I would have friends come over and we would literally just sit and listen. I mean, that was it. We weren't scheduled to be somewhere, we didn't have to do anything. We just listened to music and then talked about it. If the weather was warm, we'd sometimes take a walk and get an ice cream and that was the extent of it, I swear.

The older you get the more responsibilities you have and the more stuff you acquire. Basically, it's all junk that really separates you from what really matters most in life. For me what matters most, beyond my family of course, is my music. I can't even remember the last time I listened to an album from start to finish. That's not to say anything about listening to music that wasn't playing as background noise when I'm doing something else, usually working. I don't even have a proper stereo anymore! I have an awesome Bose bluetooth speaker that connects to my phone, but still. My Mac laptop doesn't have a CD drive so the only way I can listen to CDs now is in my car. I subscribe to Amazon music so I don't even have to buy individual albums anymore, although I still do on some occasions to support the musicians I love.

Then there is the giant time suck of social media. Basically it's all garbage and everyone is addicted, including me. I've started to tune out. I'm limiting myself to 30 minutes a day. There are no more social accounts on my phone. Sadly, I can't just completely delete my accounts because I do marketing professionally, including account maintenance for all my organization's feeds, but still. People scroll through feeds like a junkie looks for his next hit. It's insane. You can't have a conversation with anyone anymore because they always have their face buried in their phone screen! I can understand why musicians go off on fans for having their phones out at shows. No one is experiencing anything in the moment anymore. I have so many fond memories of shows from before the iPhone destroyed the world. Now it's true: you can't even see the damn stage because some idiot has their phone on "video" mode, their arm shoved right in front of you.

It's no wonder the music industry is so screwed. Artists give their songs away as loss leaders to really make a living off T-shirt sales. People can't tell you the name of an individual song and forget about recounting the album name. Liner notes and cover art don't matter. Everything is digital and throwaway and garbage and wasteful excess. Artists will always create because they must, but it sure is a shame the kids of today won't have the same fond memories of sitting on their bedroom floor, listening to an album from start to finish and just being in the moment, no selfies required.