meandthestereo

I will freely admit it: I love satellite radio. I could be the poster child for satellite radio. I turn on my car and flip on the radio. It takes a second or two and then snap! A good song is banging through my speakers. When the first song is over, another one follows; then another and another! There is no string of commercials to endure until I can again hear some kick-ass music! All the music I could possibly ask for right at my finger tips. You like rock? It’s there. You like the hair bands…got ‘em. Are the blues your thing? Not a problem. How about something from your favorite musical era? Fifties, sixties, seventies all the way up to today’s stuff from folks like Kings of Leon and Taylor Swift. I’m telling you, it is a butt-load of music just waiting to be listened to! And if having great satellite radio in your car isn’t enough, bring it with you. There are phone apps, boom boxes and iPods so you can bring non-stop, commercial-free tunage with you anywhere you go. By the way, have I mentioned I love satellite radio? But, if you stop and think about all the behind-the-scenes machinery, it’s pretty cool, isn’t it? There are these chunks of metal floating around in space over the planet, flooding the Earth with music. You got guys like Bodhi and Lou Brutus loading up the tunes and cranking them worldwide for all of us audiophiles to devour and enjoy. Isn’t technology wonderful?

As I sit here and think about the technology of distributing music, I can’t help but to hark back to my younger days. I loved music as much then as I do now, but the medium was a little different. I remember getting my first LP. For those of you who are too young to remember LPs, I’m speaking of vinyl records…twelve inch circular discs of varying dark-colored rings, plus a label and a little, tiny hole in the middle so it would fit snugly on your record player. I think the technical term was phonograph, but I could never quite figure out how this piece of equipment ever got a goofy name like that. No matter what it was called, it was magic to me. I would drop the needle into the groove and a couple of crackles and pops later, my favorite tune was cranking out of bad speakers. Awesome! How could this get any better? Even having to tape a penny or two to the record player arm never bothered me. Musical bliss! Read the rest of this entry →