04/19/06 09:49 PM
Last night, I was looking through my CD collection and pulling out a few things that I decided I could sell and live without. This is a monthly ritual for me now, as I have a defined space that I have allowed myself to fill, and nothing more than that.
As I scanned past a certain title, I had a vivid memory of picking that same CD off the shelf nearly 10 years ago and saying to myself, “the day that I stop liking this CD is the day that I’m officially old.”
Oddly enough, the CD in question was one that almost got sold in this round. My reasons for keeping it were a bit more than that pang of nostalgia and wondering if I’d really gotten old. Instead, I looked through my collection and realized that I still had music that was more abrasive, more avant garde, and more downright adventurous. It wasn’t that I’d gotten soft and started liking boring music, but my tastes had definitely changed in that decade of listening.
It also got me wondering how much of my collection I’ll still have in another ten years. There are certain releases that feel more “timeless” (for lack of a better word) that I simply can’t imagine living without (Gorecki’s Symphony #3 and Steve Reich’s “Music For 18 Musicians,” for example), but there are other artists whom I love right now (like Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, and Broken Social Scene) that I wonder if I’ll still be listening to in ten years.
That, or whether I’ll be looking through my collection to see what to sell in order to afford the latest musical brainwave implant in my head.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:06 am
I know exactly what CD you’re referring to. Sweaty Nipples’ Bathroom Floor EP. I feel the same way.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:33 am
Funny you should mention them. I was on a local music board and posted something random about Sweaty Nipples thinking that nobody would get the joke, but some hardcore-loving kids knew who they were and were like, “Right on! Sweaty Nipples!”
Speaking of old-school, I found the first volume of Trance Europe Express (the compilation of early electronic music, not the Kraftwerk album) today at a CD store for really cheap and bought it. It sounds even better than I remember it, but I’ve been getting into the earlier electronic music again lately. I guess I’m feeling a little burnt out on today’s glitchy and deconstructionist take on the genre.