The Ongoing History of New Music, encore presentation: Digital Debris part 2: Album artwork
[Another couple of weeks until the brand new season starts. Hang in there. – AC]
A little while ago, I carved you some time to finally file some records and CDs. The pile had grown quite large thanks to my procrastination, but I finally summoned up the discipline to get it done. And honestly, it was a task that should have taken 30 minutes, tops.
But it ended up taking much longer than I expected because I kept stopping to examine the artwork of almost every album I picked up. I’d forgotten how much I’d been into looking at my music collection. What was the artist driving to get across with the artwork on the front? On the back? On the inside?
Unless you’re still buying physical product, this is an experience that’s largely been expunged from music culture. Yes, there are still digital liner notes and digital artwork. Maybe you’re curious enough to check out the fields in the metadata after a right click on the file. But it’s just not the same.
If you’re of a more recent generation, there’s an excellent chance you’ve never bothered with artwork because you’ve always lived a digital life. In fact, you probably have no idea what I’m going on about. But if you’re into vinyl, compact discs, and even pre-recorded cassettes, you’ll understand how much things have changed in so short a period.
Yes, we must roll with the times and change with the technology. But the disappearance of old-school album artwork has somehow diminished the music experience for me, just like how we’ve moved away from things like the B-sides and bonus track that once appeared with physical product.
Let me show you what I mean. This is Digital Debris, part 2.
Songs heard on this show:
- Clash, London Calling
- Beastie Boys, Fight for Your Right
- Hole, Miss World
- Velvet Underground, Waiting for the Man
- Muse, Knights of Cydonia
- Joy Division, Shadowplay
- Radiohead, Paranoid Android
- Twenty One Pilots, Stressed Out
Eric Wilhite created this playlist for us.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
- Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
- The Zone/Victoria
- The Fox/Vancouver
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown The show runs at 11 am Sunday. This, by the way, is a great option for American listeners who are prevented from listening to the show live because of geo-blocking,
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
If you ever miss a show, you can always get the podcast edition available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your on-demand audio.