Music
Radio Blah Blah
Sharing Music in the Age of Technology
T here are few feelings more exhilarating than suddenly landing on some decipherable, familiar sound after flicking through various genres of garbled static. Realistically, that intelligible noise you’ve come across is a song
you never would have chosen to listen to on your own, have perhaps heard a million times before, and in any other circumstance would even have demanded be changed to something else; but somehow, on the radio, hearing it feels different. Maybe that feeling is the prideful refusal to admit defeat after having scanned the entire radar fruitlessly with one hand off the wheel - radio tuning in this day and age is unlikely except in an older car that’s not yet transitioned from the cigarette lighter to the AUX cord - or maybe it’s that you haven’t heard Maroon 5’s ‘This Love’ in an awfully long time and now can’t stop the pre-teen memories flooding back. Who can really know what stirs emotions? But regardless of feelings’ provenance, you concede all agency to the radio gods, and sit patiently waiting for the upcoming song to clarify the genre of the station and get to the meaning of all this. It could go either way really. ‘This Love’ might arguably be considered either pop or rock. Spoiler, it was pop; revealed by some strange forgotten Katy Perry relic. You’d never have imagined queuing up these songs yourself but now you’re hooked. But perhaps we don’t always want to play roulette. Spotify (or maybe the sophisticated Apple Music) is so convenient, and the four euro ninety nine student plan, is *chef ’s kiss* considering the unlimited potential of exploring world artists and hand-picking all your favourite singles. You are essentially the master of your own universe, but this comes at a cost. I am not going to go into the ethical or moral dilemmas regarding online streaming royalties, though we can keep in mind that artists don’t get the money they would if we were all out there buying albums; but I would like to bring to light the discussion of a lesser acknowledged issue: the isolation of online music streaming services.
There is an obvious level of intimacy lacking on any algorithm-based platform, especially one geared towards private account usage. You can share songs with friends, collaborate on playlists, or publicly display your recently listened to artists, but unless you are physically in the company of another person, chances are you are listening on your own. At times this can be a pleasantly sublime experience, but it carries equal potential to be a lonely one. On the other hand, when tuning into the radio, you’re listening to music selected on the spot by another living, breathing person. This person has chosen to broadcast these songs to the locality at precisely that moment, for a myriad of reasons we might never understand (maybe it’s heartache, or maybe they just really like ‘Faithfully’). You, them, and all the other listeners are together sharing the same little slice of life. You are not simply listening to music, but instead are partaking in some larger, communal, almost ritualistic activity. 30
