The Myth of Closed Circumstances
Spotted this on David Drake’s Tumblr, but no shots or nothing—it’s just a convenient example of a deeply cynical sentiment I’ve read and heard in face-to-face discussions a whole lot lately: That “everything” is so accessible these days and it’s real bad. Or something.
Today I drove to Durham and bought a copy of Third World’s Journey To Addis for $3.98. Yesterday, I was not only in a Starbucks but one so corporate, so suburban, that it was attached to a big supermarket. That supermarket, weirdly, happens to have the most affordable and maybe even best Indian food in the city. Somewhere, someone bitched about this fact the same way people are now bitching that the internet has made stuff so convenient.
Back to that Starbucks. As my girlfriend drank a Peppermint Mocha Latte, a cornball reggae compilation played and “No Woman, No Cry” faded-out and Third World’s “Now That We’ve Found Love” came on and we both had a kinda oh-shit-this-jams look on our faces. In the moment, I couldn’t recall who was performing this version and so, my girlfriend pulled out her iPhone and used Shazam to ID it.
I got home and Google blog-searched the Third World album and downloaded it: A rather poorly ripped-from-vinyl version. I searched again, only to find that the only version out there to steal is from the same dude who poorly ripped it. Oh well.
The point is, a lot of technology and corporate bullcrap led me to consider a song that ten years ago, I would’ve clowned and discover a really, really, killer album. Later today, I will go to work and probably make my co-workers listen to this. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of them realizes this album rules and it’s also very possible that one of the many people shopping at my work will ask what it is. At least once a day, something we’re playing in the store piques the interest of a shopper. I work in essentially a “hood” used books/CDs/DVDs/record/video games, etc. store.The only music nerds, the only types bemoaning the internet’s influence are behind the counter.
What is problematic about the internet and the mega-accessibility it allows is the fake expert: The guy who wasn’t listening to anything two years ago and has now heard entire discographies and will pretend to be know what they are talking about. The joke of this of course, is that these types are trying to sound like the kind of curmudgeons who hate how “easy” it is to download shit now and those guys were assholes from the get-go anyway.
Just because one can indeed, find whole discographies, entire concerts, and enough Wikipedia info to fake the funk on nearly any topic easily, does not mean that this is any less of a “closed circumstance”. There’s still the search, the hunt, the whatever in whatever form. There’s always that contingency to musical discovery.
All that the internet’s allowed for is a lot of people who totally wouldn’t otherwise have had access to much of anything to have access to anything. What I sometimes think people bemoaning the accessibility of “everything” these days really mean is that they’ve given up the search.
