The smooth, glistening shine of a compact disc. Somehow in its youth 20 some-odd years ago, the compact disc even shared the appeal of both futurists and die hard LP record lovers. That was the Golden Age of the CD.
Back in its Golden Age, the Audio CD held more data than any other commercially produced storage medium while young women could rely on the reflectivity of the same disc for checking their eyeliner. Its fidelity in stereo sound reproduction was unparalleled and some audio purists would argue it still is the best way to listen to recorded music.
And now we, as faithful consumers of retail distributed downloads of our favorite artists, have migrated as a herd to iTunes and similar online portals for the digital and mostly invisible format of buying, storing, and listening to our favorite tunes. This change has now put CD’s in their decline, and has securely put them on track for eventual obsolescence.
Yet audio CD’s were the last way a consumer could treat the silvery discs and their cover art as cherished time capsules for the music and the artists who performed on them. Even in its last years, CD’s still outshine the convenience of downloads by providing a simplified listening experience.
The reward in preserving some of the old ways is in the experience you can share with friends and family. Compact disc purists can defend their choice in CD’s because they may intuitively know the medium can force their constantly “texting” children distracted and self absorbed in their cell phones to be more present at dinner time: “Turn off all mobile devices, please and play some mellow tunes from the stereo in the living room! That’s an order!”
This can all happen from a stereo CD player silently whirling away in the background. The social situation surrounding the old ways of CD listening is refocused on interaction between people rather than devices. And hopefully attention spans can become elongated in the process.
One could argue as long as consumers still own CD players, and still buy CD’s there will be a steady demand that keeps the audio CD medium alive. Please know you have others like you out in the world enjoying the last years of the CD, preserving their noble simplicity.
In an effort to promote quality family interactions, these last years of the CD may linger on for a while, longer then we expect!
4 responses to “Keep It Low Tech: Compact Discs Are Better for Family Gatherings”
Or you can simply lock the iPhone while it sits on the dock of the iPhone enabled stereo so your dinner time control over the texting teens can stay absolute…but teens will be teens. Nice wishful thinking though!
I have taken the necessary steps to ask everyone to turn off their devices during Thanksgiving dinner. It is true however that a simple background music setup is going to make that day go by smoothly.
I have relatives from every where coming over that will need soothing for various reasons and relaxing music will definitely help with the ambiance.
Thank you Dr. for your kind remarks. Do you think relaxing music helps with digestion? 🙂
I plan to fire up my old turntable and get the LP vinyls out for the Holidays. Looking forward to bringing out an eccletic range of music I’m going to play at dinner. I’ve got records ranging from The Brooklyn Tabernacle choir, Willie Nelson to Tina Turner. I know the retro arrangement will have some folks scratching heads and checking out the album art, and asking me all sorts of questions.