It occurred to me as a fleeting thought one morning that my entire music collection, with the exception of a few albums, was in digital format. A majority of it, if not all of it, had been pirated. I whole heartedly support downloading of music and even look at it as a form of activism and protest against an exploitive and unfair music industry but that is a philosophical and ethical debate for another time. It had always been easy for me to rationalize stealing music from the record label conglomerate that controls the industry but somewhere inside me I have always felt guilty for stealing music from the independent musicians I truly admire. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t losing sleep over this, it was just something I never thought to reconcile.
My love for music goes back to my childhood and before. My dad took my mom to concerts while she was pregnant with me. She loved live music. My dad used to throw on his Beatles LP’s at my request as toddler. I began playing the Cello and Piano in grade school and continued through high school. A great portion of my interest and love for music can be attributed to the prevalent yet subtle influence of music in my home. A few years ago my dad passed on to me his pristine collection of vinyl records which included every Beatles album in near mint condition. These records, more than being a treasure trove of music history, were a piece of my personal history. The ability of music to lend itself to personal identification is what makes it so timeless and powerful.
With all of these things in mind my thoughts drifted towards a not to distant future. Music has been such an essential part of my life that it would be impossible for future generations to understand my history without it. What evidence will be left of this when I am gone? The thought came near to haunting. In a blink of an eye something that is just as much a part of me as the air I breath could disappear never to be recovered. I reflect on the annals of human history, what would the time in which we live be like had the great repositories of knowledge, culture, and history been deleted with a simple push of a button from a hard drive; the library of Alexandria, the Imperial library of the Chinese Han Dynasty, the Greek and Latin libraries that lay under the ruins of empires, and the tablets and scrolls of prophets and holy men. It is a reality that I cannot fathom. This may seem a little extreme but these are things I have contemplated in the digital world in which we now live. My epiphany, if you want to call it that, was that I felt a need if not a responsibility to leave a musical inheritance for my posterity. I know this may sound crazy but I want my children and their children to have the music that influenced me and was a part of my life.
So my addiction to vinyl began. I have always been obsessed with achieving the highest quality and fidelity in music playback. I’ll admit, I am an Audiophile. I am constantly impressed by the warm and complete sound of vinyl (let alone the nostalgic nature of gramophone records). It cannot compare to compact discs and the low fidelity of digital music (e.g. mp3, ACC, and Wave). I have been collecting used classic records and albums since early high school but I never considered purchasing new vinyl of current albums. Since coming to the conclusion that I came too I have begun to purchase the vinyl versions of my favorite albums by my favorite contemporary musicians. While satisfying my desire to build a tangible collection of music it has also reconciled my dilemma with piracy. I now feel like I am getting the full product that the artist intended for me to receive while giving back for that contribution. Through all this I have had an increase in gratification and appreciation for music and that is what I think it is all about.
“Without music, life would be a mistake.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
