The Zimmermann Note

Spotify is for me the moment that music has gone full circle. A free music  listening service that I can try out pretty much any album at a high bitrate. I did not start off here.

Ironic that it is 30 years ago that MTV killed the Radio Star and now it’s the internet killing the video star. I am sitting here listening to Spiritualized now and Mogwai before that. Every little nugget and song that I have not illegally downloaded onto my computer or purchased legally is pretty much available minus the Beatles who will officially be the last band on the planet to get their music here.

In the old age of anticipatory glee from waiting for an album or opening up packaging or searching the record store has now been reduced to sitting in your boxers with a 5^th of Jameson at your disposal.  It was always there before Spotify but I believe it brings it full circle.

Now I am not particularly fond of the interface and appreciate iTunes much more for its abilities to create setlists as well as many other functionalities for example smart playlists that can search on songs with “Poop” in the title that were made from the period of 1984 – 1989, querying directly from your real-time data (songs).

Spotify is the set of baseball cards without the piece of stale gum, without the wax packs, without the jaunt to the record store wondering what Fred is going to choose as his picks.  It gives you the meat and potatoes at a streaming quality that matches that of your own music library on your computer.

Beavis and Butthead are back on the air I hear. I have not had a chance to check them out because, for one, MTV is no longer the ‘Pulse’ of the youth, or whatever pulse they are part of is not something that I desire. When Beavis and Butthead came on the air nearly 20 years ago, they created their own “Social Commentary” for the day. The more that I watched the show the more I appreciated the video commentary rather than the skits during the show.

Of course, Beavis and Butthead are back and I am curious if they can be as funny today as social icons of Generation X to a completely different group of fans.  Let’s just start with the t-shirt that Beavis is wearing: Metallica. The Beavis of today would never get caught dead wearing a Metallica shirt.

They were a creation of the MTV Generation.  They were Jackass before there was Jackass.  Kids that were born when Beavis and Butthead were first put on the air are now going to college.

I imagine that there is some type of commentary within these two short articles about Spotify and Beavis and Butthead, maybe the fact of how much our culture has changed. Beavis and Butthead commented about the playlist that was brought to them. Today we determine what our playlists are.

Oftentimes, its these movements forward that make me pine for the good ole days of tape hiss. I know that, technology keeps me plugged in and I look at the decisions that I make but I wonder sometimes like today as I got off the subway about everyone staring down at their phones and not looking where they are going.