## 15 The forgotten happiness of music

Nowadays, music is not the leisure we had for about 100 years. Streaming is the new rule to listen to music and it changes a lot of things. My grandfather, my father and I had to listen to the radio and buy records. I'm from the CD generation, my father from the 33rpm LP generation and my grandfather from the 78rpm LP generation. Yes, it's a generational thing, but we still had a lot in common with LPs and CDs. And I also had some cassettes.

Music was an object, something we could touch, listen to in the house, look at with beautiful folders and covers. What a wonderful moment to open a 33rpm LP, to read the cover, the credits and sometimes the lyrics. With the CD it was different, with a little booklet for the same things. The cover became less spectacular and that's why the LP is making a comeback. You could put the cover like a poster next to your record player, your HIFI... It was fragile and you could break it or make stripes on the disk. And the last thing: the record was under a plastic blister. Opening it was a kind of ritual, especially for the CD and the booklet. What could be inside? Lyrics or not? Pictures or paintings? It was always a surprise....and sometimes a disappointment.

But now with streaming, no surprise, because no booklet, a small cover and that's it. Even the musicians's websites are boring. And now they talk about avoiding videos to promote singles. If I want to know something about an album, I can go to Youtube or Bandcamp and listen to the whole album or parts of it. Sometimes there are other videos showing the recordings, showcases, etc. But no credits anymore and Discogs is empty. That's the new mystery....when artists post everything on social media like instagram. There is no mystery about what the artist is doing outside of concerts. MTV is not fun anymore and you don't have to watch it to discover the artist's home. They are on Instagram, of course.

For sound purists, streaming is awful. OK, I'm listening many of my CD or last buy in a digital format. I prefer the OGG format to the old MP3 320kbps or the AAC. But we are now listening music every where and not only at home with good speakers  or headphones. It was the same before with cassettes and walkman : Not the best sound but who cares. It's music. Streaming has been improved and honestly, it's enough for listening music in the subway or in the train, or walking next to a road full of cars. Is it as fun as before ? Remember when you had to share music with a walkman with a friend. You could do it with sharing your headphones...or copying the cassette. Now you just have to share a link. You can talk about it on your favorite social network (remember, forums are dead...). But that facility is not so fun to me. Waiting a day to talk about it with friends was funnier. Now, everything is immediate and you have too much information to really care about music.

It was the same thing when you could buy many many CDs (or copy it...). Not enough time to really listen to the music but a kind of consumer frenzy. OK, you can say : I know that, I have heard it. No, that's not the good thing for music and now, I take time, weeks or month to appreciate an album or to discover a new artist. That's life... And I hope that those who are consuming music like that will one day appreciate a different way to do it.

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