“The Best Mixed Tape I had…”

Where have the good old mixed tape days gone? It appears those days may be gone like the wind.  The good old mixed tapes and mixed CDs are a thing of the past, and all because of one new technology-the iPod. I remember just 10 years ago making mixed tapes of my favorite Hanson and Spice Girls songs. Okay, I admit it…I was a Hanson fan. Did I say was? I mean I am a Hanson fan. Then a few years later, the mixed tape evolved and eventually became extinct, with the mixed CD taking its place. After the mixed CD came out, all I can remember doing is making mixes that I could listen to in my portable cd player while driving with my parents, and then when I could drive making mixes for my car rides and for my friends so I could share all ofmy favorite music with them. I recently found at least a hundred different mixed CDs that I had made. To think, only a few years later there would be a new device that replaced both of these. This device is the iPod. 

                

In 2001, the 1^st generation iPod was introduced to the masses. This iPod would soon be the most popular portable media player ever. The 1^st generation iPod was a 5 or 10 GB iPod, with a mechanical scroll wheel that only Mac users could use. With the fast popularity, nearly a year later Apple came out with the 2^nd generation iPod, which allowed both Mac and Windows users to operate. The first iPod I ever had was the 3^rd generation iPod that came out in 2003, with all-touch interface and the capability of connecting to iTunes. It would take way too long to go through all of the models and generations of the iPod. But not even 7 years later, the 1^st , 2^nd and 3^rd generation iPods are considered “classic” already! Yikes! The current iPod line is the 1GB iPod shuffle, the 4 and 8GB iPod nanos, the 80 and 160 GB iPod classics, and the highly advanced 8, 16, and 32 GB iPod touch. What this shows even at a glance is how fast new technology comes and goes. It really seems that in my almost twenty-three years of life, I have already seen so much technology come and go that I’m a little worried how we’re going to be listening to music when I’m fifty.

         The iPod that I currently have in my pocket is the 30GB 5^th generation iPod that came out in late 2005.  This is a sleek black device with a larger color screen to look at photos and video and a click wheel to navigate. I thought it was the coolest version of the iPod when I first got it! I don’t really use the photo option on it. I do find the option to upload videos on there very useful. If I ever am stuck in a boring moment, I can always watch music videos or television episodes! The pod cast option is awesome because about once a week, Hanson makes a new pod cast that gets automatically updated onto my iPod. Who wouldn’t love watching them all the time?! I actually don’t use my iPod for any of the extra features, such as games, contacts, a calendar, notes, etc. Basically my main use for it is, the music. Just like my mix tape days, I love to make play lists with my favorite artists and songs so I can always listen to my favorite stuff. I love the shuffle option that randomly selects what song it’s going to play next. Always something different! I only have 2,973 songs on my iPod. It has the potential to hold about 5,000. The bottom line is that my 5^th generation, 2-year-old iPod while out of date to some, is still very functionable to me. I don’t feel the need to buy a new one right now, because it’s just not worth it to me. I don’t need to spend three hundred dollars for something that can access the web and e-mail, that’s what I have my computer for. I don’t need to spend 300 dollars for a multi-touch screen. My non web, non e-mail, non touch screen iPod is still perfect for me even if that makes me one of the few that want their iPod for what it’s supposed to be-a portable music player!

Of course, new technology can be really overwhelming at times. It can also keep reinventing itself that it ends up exceeding the function of what it was originally supposed to do. There are a lot of benefits to the iPod. You no longer have to worry about taping over a song on your mixed tape, or scratching your CD and it not working anymore. Unless you drop your iPod in the toilet or do something else bizarre to it, you should be worry-free about it having many issues. But as I have previously said, if you don’t move along with new technology, you could get lost along the way. The record industry is to me, an industry that got lost along the way. With the advent of the iPod came iTunes, which sold songs for $.99 each that could automatically upload to your iPod. It became much easier to get the music that you wanted when you wanted and for the price you wanted. To go into the depths of iTunes would be too extensive, but basically by this new technology, and illegal downloading of music, people are not going to the record store and buying the number of CDs that they used to buy. The record industry is in a lot of trouble because of this. The hundreds of millions of records a top artist used to sell have now turned into hundreds of thousands, if that. To me, it’s exactly because they didn’t move along with new technologies. They should have been coming out with albums on USB drives that you could just plug into your computer or something else really innovative that could have saved them. Now in order to survive, they are forcing their recording artists to record 360 contracts, which means that they literally get a portion of everything the artist does or sells-the albums, the merchandise, the touring, etc. This is now forcing many artists to sign to independent record labels. See what a vicious cycle this is! All because one industry didn’t move along with new technology, they truly didget lost along the way. What I get from this is to basically just never close my eyes and I’ll never miss a beat in this technological world that we live in! Okay, that won’t happen…but I promise I’ll try!

Question: B 

~ by pennylanelove on February 10, 2008.