The iPod turned 5 years old yesterday. Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek has a neat observation on how improvements over that span are pretty much beyond the pale of the Consumer Price Index, which people can contort to tell us that we’re much worse off than we were in, say, the year of my birth.
I find that argument to be BS; I’d rather live today with half of what I currently earn than be making twice what I make now but be stuck in 1971.
Of coure, there’s nostalgia and then there’s figuring out what was actually different “back then,” and maybe better. Reading Bob Dylan’s memoirs, I was struck by how, as a youth, he searched for folk records in the nieghborhoods and cities of his home state (Minnesota). It reminded me of how Robert Crumb would go door-to-door in black neighborhoods in Philadelphia, trying to find old records. Similarly, my comic-book cohorts can easily recount stories of visiting flea markets and comic shops in small towns to search for elusive issues.
Nowadays, those sorts of things are easily findable, either for sale or theft (in the case of a music download). The effort required to get every recording by, say, Robert Johnson, is almost nil, and it got me to wondering if that’s somehow depriving artists of a “necessary trial.” Is it too easy for us?
I guess this parallels with how Tarantino developed his aesthetic while working in a video store, as opposed to those directors and critics of a generation before who had to seek out art-house cinema in big cities and college towns.
But I’m rambling. Anyway: happy birthday, iPod! Someday you’ll be able to accommodate my 30,000-song library!
“I’d rather live today with half of what I currently earn than be making twice what I make now but be stuck in 1971.”
You are insane.
Sure, comics were cheaper back then, but think of the big picture!
I concur with Tom and cite two reasons:
All In The Family
Charles Manson
What annoys me with my iPod is that the more songs I put on it the quicker I get bored of them and want to find others. Years back with a Walkman I’d be happy to play the same tape for months. I’m worried that modern technology is making me even more demanding!
You could have a full run of Lee-Kirby output from 1961-1966 and everything Harvey Kurtzman ever did for about $1100 total in 1971.
Whenever I think about living in the past I think of Jules Feiffer saying he would never have become an artist if he had to pay the proportion of is salary for rent in NYC when that his kids had to back when he was coming up.
Most of what I like was around by 1971. I would give up the Pernice Brothers and Ricky Gervais for a better standard of living.
Gil and I have talked about the difficulty of finding things back in the day, but I think I was coming at it from a place where I sort of preferred the lack of information and the struggle to find copies of stuff. Treasure hunting is more fun than sorting.