In Pop Culture Memoriam we pay tribute to pieces of pop culture that have passed on and we also issue zombie alerts (usually annoying pop culture trends that won't go away) that have risen from the dead.
Death Notice: CDs, namely tangible CD booklets
I go for walks. Long walks. Often. And I won't do it without music. One thing I love about the death of CDs is that I no longer have to carry around ten or so CDs with me and a clunky personal cd player. (Many personal CD players have died in my care. I can't even tell you the number that have slipped through my hands and kissed the concrete head-on.)
I loved displaying my CD collection in my room. I'd hope people would think I'm super cool when they see some Stooges or Zeppelin among my collection. However, CDs take up an awful lot of space, even when I do weed out the uncool ones (Mariah Carey, The Bodyguard soundtrack) to hide in my closet.
Remember when buying CDs used to be more exciting? It was such an event. You know these black and white title and artist stickers that come on the side of the CD? I'd carefully tear those off. Bands like L7, Sex Pistols, and Guns N' Roses graced the face of my personal CD player with their security labels.
There was a specific ritual when it came to buying new CDs. I wouldn't play the music before examining the CD Booklet. First, I'd smell it. Then study it. I love the smell of new CDs, I want to bottle it up in an eau de parfum.
To study it, memorize the song titles order and stare at the photos. However, the photos didn't mean jack if there weren't any lyrics. Nothing more annoying when an artists choose pictures over song lyrics. It's much appreciated it when an artist decides to turn the CD booklet into not a booklet, but a poster but that makes lyrics reading really hard. You look hot, Mariah Carey, but I won't be hanging a glossy poster of you in your white undies sitting on your bed on on my wall anytime soon.
Death Notice: Midis
Do you remember back when, over ten years ago, the soaring popularity of Midis? Midis are like digital mosquitoes. You surf around on the Internet and land on someone's home page (does anyone remember those?) and mistakenly, you've left the volume turned on way up high. The Adam's Family Theme song blasts out of your computer. Or rather, it doesn't blast out of your computer but prances around like a clown at a kid's fifth birthday party. God forbid that would happen at school or your place of work.
You immediately scroll down to slap that midi mosquito off but the damage is done. Not only were you surfing sites that weren't related to school research or work activities but the damage will be permanent if the web master of said website included a midi of Avril Lavigne's “Skaterboy” on their site.
Zombie Alert: Myspace Profile Songs
Myspace profile songs are the new Midis.
Midis are pretty much dead and buried. However, they have been incarnated as Myspace profile songs. No more midis but actual songs automatically play while you're browsing profiles. Chances are, that same profile will have a barrage of animated glitter graphics and comments from “friends” telling them to comment on their page, who will, in turn, make comments telling them to comment on their page.
If I still logged into my own Myspace profile, I'd be seriously tempted to comment on my Myspace “friends”profiles (who probably wouldn't even say “Have a nice day” after they have bagged my groceries) telling them to leave me comments on my page. Once they land on my page, in their own vapid attempts to keep getting comments from me, my automatic profile song will start to play. It might be a horrid MP3 of myself screaming some inane, obscene message or a recording of my neighbor's Pug greeting me (Pugs make sounds as weird as they look, like Tickle Me Elmos with nearly dead batteries).
What's one thing you will miss about the music industry?
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