I love my i-pod. You love your i-pod. Everyone fricking loves i-pods. As a gadget they are now pretty much synonymous with modern culture, and as an aspect modern culture they have completely changed the way we consume music. For whilst most people probably listen to far more music everyday, because the primary mode of music consumption is often through an i-pod, their musical involvement is limited to the cerebral, with very little corporal, physical interaction with the music. With i-pod consumption, you can enjoy the music on an intellectual level, enjoying the melody, lyrics, production etc., 'til the cows come home, but in these instances the music arrives and remains purely within your own head. Apart from perhaps some moderately accepted head nods and foot taps, you are simply not able or allowed to become anymore physically involved in your music.
To me this is something to lament over; a further decline in the role of physicality within music. Physical enjoyment and involvement in music is a wonderful thing; dis-inhibiting, rejoicing and relaxing, and greatly underappreciated within "white" music culture. The benefits of more universally audible methods of consumption are manifold, from listening to tracks on your bedroom stereo, to mass consumption at clubs or gigs, one can gain both personal release and jubilation and a united sense of ambience and chemistry.
On a personal level, it really harshes my buzz when I am listening to music I love on my i-pod and I so desperately want to sing and dance and boogie on down to it, but I simply can't because I am the only person experiencing it. Because the music is confided to my own head, it would almost be perceived as akin to a mental illness to actively involve oneself in it. Not unlike schizophrenia, the voices in your head are fine, just so long as you don't make it obvious to others. I even get paranoid lip-syncing to songs when cycling now, because when I do people really do look at me like I'm a fucking nut job.
It seems that enjoying your music through various physical acts such as singing, dancing, and jumping about are legitimate within pre-designated zones such as clubs or the privacy of your own bedroom, but not really anywhere else. I suppose up until about 15 years ago, with the invention of the walkman, music was only ever experienced in these predesignated zones, never to be previously witnessed on public transport or when going for a stroll about town. Even with the walkman, personal music players weren't the norm, mostly because they could only carry 80 minutes of music and weren't always worth the hassle, unlike the marvel that is a room of CDs carried around in something not much bigger than a credit card. Perhaps society just isn't ready for undesignated enjoyment or self-expression, especially with the monumental fear people have with presumed and/or confirmed mental illness, or even eccentricity of any kind. And indeed, people still consume music through en-masse situations; sharing glorious moments of music based ideological harmony. And I would also like to think that with the availability of plug-in i-pod speakers, people are still bopping, singing, dancing, screaming and crying to music in private settings. I know I am. And I bloody love every minute of it.
