Opinion

The Death of the CD

By: Melissa Sonico

With the untimely demise of Tower Records, one would be hard-pressed not to bring up the issue of the death of the music-buying experience. Going to the record store meant that you handed yourself over (at least to some extent) to the individual, to someone that actually had a physical breadth of knowledge (unlike Amazon.com’s computer-generated recommendation lists -- yet, anyway).

The people that worked at a record store like Tower usually lived and breathed music. While Tower itself was a “big-box” chain, it was much different than say Virgin Megastore or Best Buy. When you stepped through Tower’s doors, you heard what the employees decided to put on the loudspeakers -- usually some independent band that may or may not be part of a covert media blitz. But even so, these people were certainly more capable of helping you decide between Led Zeppelin’s ZOSO and Physical Graffiti than Joe Schmoe at Wal-Mart. With that gone, the physical and personal experience is taken out of music if not completely dead.

It used to be that the idea of a complete album was a big part of music and what the artist was trying to convey through their art. The concept album blew up with the production of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds in 1966, which led to a trend of producing the album as a cohesive piece of art, rather than a bunch of solitary singles strung together. From album cover art to the tangibility of a 45 vinyl record, actually owning an album is very different and debatably far superior to downloading.

By and large, digital music downloads denigrate this experience as websites and programs like Amazon and iTunes making individual tracks available for purchase. While easy access and affordable prices are attractive, being in the presence of such monumental rockdom as the album cover of Hendrix’s Are You Experienced is multitudes more fulfilling. Sites like Myspace and Purevolume and programs like iTunes, while providing an incomparable convenience, contribute to the “dehumanization” of music. But that’s how it goes, I guess.

Now, I’m sure there’s all sorts of sociological theory and other bullshit that I could go into here, like the perpetual commodification of goods and the artist’s role in society, but none of that matters when you’re disillusioned.

See, by year’s end, thousands of employees will be out of a job and resigned to a losing battle against the faceless chain stores and websites. For myself included, there’s a lot of doom and gloom in this. Yes, kids, the closing of Tower Records’ doors just might be the end of the world as we know it. But before we shed a tear for the death of physical music, we need to pause and remember the record labels’ role in all of this. Sure, it’s a terrible thing that Tower has gone under and that the record store experience is dying, but we can’t forget how the record labels (knowingly or unknowingly) forced this into being with ridiculous prices and smothering monopolies. So what’s left now that one of the last bastions against all of this is dead? Make the drive to Amoeba, I guess.