Quote from: misanthrope, toolnavy.So weve all heard the catch-cries of indie-media hack journalists; you know the ones. "iPod is rendering albums obsolete", "mp3 is shortening attention spans" blah blah and then some crap about so-and-sos latest concept album which is totally breaking all the rules. And yeah, for a while I thought so too. Im as guilty as anyone of skipping around on my iPod when I get tired of a certain song that happens to be a minute or two too long for its own good. But today I got to thinking; where else would I be able to hear La Monte Youngs "The Well Tuned Piano" in one uninterrupted 5 hour session, instead of having to change discs on my lame old cd-player 5 times? Now Robert Richs "Somnium" is available to anyone travelling anywhere, instead of having to camp out for 7 hours infront of your DVD player.

I figure that the real reason attention spans are slipping goes far beyond any newer inventions. Its more the entire culture of pop music that is encouraging people to think in terms of singles and radio hits. And can you blame them? If I were listening to pop music I doubt Id be listening to it any longer than 3 or so minutes. If anything pop music should be shorter. Thats something thats really been ignored by songwriters. We should be testing the general publics commitment to a "fast-food" culture,damnit. Bring on the 1 minute pop songs. Yeah, The Residents already did it, but I can deal with it again.

No poll this time; Id like you people to actually think about what Ive written instead of just posting some dross crap and dooming the thread to the bin. How (if at all) is mp3 type sh*t affecting your or the publics attention span. Is a short attention span towards pop music really such a bad thing? Do you want to be hearing 15 minute Christina Aguilera songs?

Quote from: Clockd 0NeMost people that put music on from an MP3 player arnt actively listening, its background noise to them.

People that sit and actually listen to the music as their primary activity and not secondary to jogging or a train journey or sat with their mates at college dont tend to use portable devices as they are happy to sit in their chair with a drink and the music for a few hours. IMO.