All this got me to thinking about my own music listening habits, and how they've changed over the years. When I was a teenager in the late 70's and very early 80's, all of my music was played on my home stereo. That included radio and recorded music (on records and tapes). No digital files or even CDs for portability back then. Even when the first Sony Walkman and its imitators came along, I didn't immediately jump on that somewhat expensive bandwagon. At that point in my life, I was so rarely "on the go" that I had little time or need for music to keep me occupied. But when I wasn't at school, I was at home a lot, and that meant I put my turntable and tape player through their paces. And whenever I was hanging with friends, we'd be blasting tunes pretty much full time. It wouldn't be a stretch to say I was listening to music up to forty hours a week. Maybe more.
During those teen years, I'd say I split my music listening fairly evenly between radio and recorded media (like records, etc). Radio was my main source for new tunes and even old ones that I had yet to experience. I also bought magazines like Hit Parader, Circus, Kerrang, and a few guitar magazines to keep current with the scene. I picked up only the occasional Creem, Spin, Billboard, and Rolling Stone mag. Those weren't as focused on rock and metal as I wanted. All of these publications were to me then what the internet is now: a way to keep in the loop on all things music.
Through concerts, albums, and videos, Kim Mitchell
provided the soundtrack to much of my life
Into the 80's, I was travelling by bus between cities on a fairly regular basis, so my Walkman knock-off (a Sanyo, I think) got a lot of use. I was buying and dubbing a lot of cassettes back then, building a good-sized collection. My radio listening may have dipped a bit at that time, when my many tapes became my world. Plus I was hearing a lot more live music, living so close to a major centre where music artists frequently performed. I was living on my own for the first time, attending college, and making my own rules much of the time. Pretty sweet.
Upon graduation, I soon found a real job in another city, so off I went. It wasn't very long before I upgraded my home sound system to include one of those new-fangled CD players. Then I focused on amassing a new collection, re-buying a lot of favourite albums for the second, and sometimes third, time. Portable music mattered less to me now. More settled, I hosted and attended more parties, so a good stereo was crucial.
Once I bought my own car, music listening increased yet again, zipping around the city and on long haul trips for visiting or vacations. I was making a lot of mixed tapes from my CD collection, and these got constant rotation in the car, along with local rock radio. Around this same time - in the 90's, I was jamming with friends, figuring out how to play guitar like a real musician. That never happened. But we listened to a lot of music back then. Our lives revolved around music.
Geddy Lee, too, was the voice of my demographic
I saw several concerts a year, many bar gigs, and bought recorded music at a fast rate. It was almost a competition with friends to see who had the bigger collection. Silly, in hindsight. I was listening to music almost non-stop every day. On the drive to work, at work (I had a solitary desk job), on the way home, at home, out at a bar, party, or concert. As time passed, I listened to less and less radio as my tastes veered toward more eclectic and experimental musical styles, like jazz, electronic, and progressive rock and metal.
My listening habits today contrast sharply with those of days gone by. I won't even include the full day of background "muzak" (satellite radio pop and rock oldies) we are forced to endure at work. I do my best to block that out, anyway. Back home, I need some peace and quiet after all of those junk tunes on the job. When I work out, which is running, I always listen to my MP3 player. That alone might be close to a few hours a week. I may listen to part of an album as I prepare to do each run, just to get pumped up. I don't often listen to music in the evenings, though on weekends, I'll let my loaded CD carousel play endlessly for hours while I write and clean my apartment.
What's markedly different in these modern Internet times is that I discover new music via YouTube and the odd other website. I never listen to AM or FM radio any more. The repetitive programming and obnoxious ads on radio drive me to distraction. And on YouTube, not only do I check out old and new songs and albums, but I also watch some of the concert videos. I rarely attend concerts these days, so the availability of live shows online... and displayed on my slick flat-screen television fulfills that need quite nicely.
I'm probably logging fewer than twenty hours of music listening per week on average. But considering my Late Baby Boomer status, I'm sure it's typical that I'm listening to a lot of music from my younger years. Like lately, my CD carousel has been spinning 80's rock and metal like Journey, Accept, Megadeth, and Priest.
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