Spring Break
MADE OF METAL: MP3s mutilating the minds of men
by Daniel D. Snyder
Associate Editor
Arts | 11/4/08
Posted online at 11:52 PM EST on 11/3/08
/ Last updated at 3:54 PM EST on 11/3/08
I was a bit of a latecomer to the digital music revolution; up until a year ago, I carried a book of CDs in my backpack and a busted old Discman I called Horace the Watchmaker. He lost his family when the Americans pulled out of Vietnam and was forced to play my CDs for me as a form of indentured servitude after I vouched for him on his green card application. Needless to say I got more than a fistful of heckles from my more technologically evolved peers. Only when Horace could no longer hold himself closed, forcing me to lay a pile of books on top of him in order to play music, did my friends finally beat me mercilessly and force me to buy an iPod. The sales clerk told me he'd never seen anyone buy an iPod at gunpoint before.
Despite my reluctant purchase, I managed to stay strong on one issue:I refuse to download music beyond the occasional sample and still spend a great portion of my personal indulgence fund on CDs. Is this technophobic? Impractical? You might think so, but I prefer to think of myself as a man who just likes to invest in his media. The culture of music consumption is changing at an alarming rate, and not for the better. Mass downloading has already altered the way we listen to music and could change the way people write it as well.
My reasons for stubbornly shelling out for potential coffee coasters are threefold:
First and foremost, metal is not a profitable genre. Very few extreme bands can make a living off the meager cash pool available, and those dudes probably drive Toyotas at best. Over the years, I've seen too many of my favorite bands throw in the towel (R.I.P. The Crown) over financial concerns, and the fact is that I believe in what these artists are doing and want to support them. Short of setting up a charity fund, laying down straight fat stacks for these fellas' albums remains my preferred method. If only you could pay your electric bill with brutal riffs.
Buying albums in physical form also makes me feel like I'm getting a more complete package. The artwork, the lyrics (lyric sheets are a must in death metal), even the band photos contribute to the listening experience more than you might think. In my experience, some of the densest material can be made more digestible if some killer artwork helps convey visually the atmosphere that the band is trying to evoke musically. Where metal is concerned, eye-catching, controversial album covers rife with gore (check out Cannibal Corpse's Tomb of the Mutilated) have been a part of the genre's history and have played a large part in attracting its early audience. In an age when there were no MySpace samples or MTV, artwork was what you needed to draw in that curious nerd in the corner of the record store.
Despite my reluctant purchase, I managed to stay strong on one issue:I refuse to download music beyond the occasional sample and still spend a great portion of my personal indulgence fund on CDs. Is this technophobic? Impractical? You might think so, but I prefer to think of myself as a man who just likes to invest in his media. The culture of music consumption is changing at an alarming rate, and not for the better. Mass downloading has already altered the way we listen to music and could change the way people write it as well.
My reasons for stubbornly shelling out for potential coffee coasters are threefold:
First and foremost, metal is not a profitable genre. Very few extreme bands can make a living off the meager cash pool available, and those dudes probably drive Toyotas at best. Over the years, I've seen too many of my favorite bands throw in the towel (R.I.P. The Crown) over financial concerns, and the fact is that I believe in what these artists are doing and want to support them. Short of setting up a charity fund, laying down straight fat stacks for these fellas' albums remains my preferred method. If only you could pay your electric bill with brutal riffs.
Buying albums in physical form also makes me feel like I'm getting a more complete package. The artwork, the lyrics (lyric sheets are a must in death metal), even the band photos contribute to the listening experience more than you might think. In my experience, some of the densest material can be made more digestible if some killer artwork helps convey visually the atmosphere that the band is trying to evoke musically. Where metal is concerned, eye-catching, controversial album covers rife with gore (check out Cannibal Corpse's Tomb of the Mutilated) have been a part of the genre's history and have played a large part in attracting its early audience. In an age when there were no MySpace samples or MTV, artwork was what you needed to draw in that curious nerd in the corner of the record store.
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