Music is the Scandinavian coastline, though it is more precise to say that recorded sound is the Scandinavian coastline, surrounded not by silence but by a sea of static.
It has nothing to do with refined sensibilities. When people tell me that they don’t hear much difference between “CD quality” and MPEG compression, or between 256kbps and default 128, I know by this that they don’t listen very loud. From orbit, in a true school of quietude, the coastline is smooth, forming clean lines and elegantly contained arcs. As one boosts the volume, like cranking a zoom, the edges start to show their cracks and crumblings, fjords and inlets, static crackling into the open spaces.
I’m all for compression, because I’m all for theft. But I’d happily keep 130 stolen songs on my shuffle rather than the promised 240, so I can take the volume to full. Even then it’s not loud enough. It never was.
Posted by jane at July 3, 2005 10:10 AM | TrackBack