The Lost Tools of Burning CDs
While I am not technically an old man, I am enjoying certain perks that come with a widening age gap between me and high school students. Namely, cultivating a curmudgeonly attitude towards the charms of technology and modernity.听听
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An oft repeated joke in my classroom is when some relic of the past is brought up, like a mall, I will explain it to the students as if it were completely foreign. 鈥淚magine if Amazon were a real building you could enter, except that you have to talk to a real person to check out. That鈥檚 a mall.鈥听听
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One day, the word mixtape was mentioned, to which I responded, 鈥渋magine if a Spotify playlist was a real thing that you could hold, except it could only be 12 songs.鈥 I began to reminisce about the many hours of choosing the right combination of songs to burn onto a CD for an upcoming road trip, or in the locker room before a game, or as a gift to the cute girl in class.听听
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Burning CDs for me was an incredibly relational art. In the words of Michael Scott, 鈥淚 am [making] a CD mixtape for Holly. And I鈥檓 looking for perfect songs that work on two levels. The two levels being, 鈥榃elcome to Scranton鈥 and 鈥業 love you.鈥欌听
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What relation does Simon and Garfunkel have with Incubus? I can鈥檛 explain it, but I can feel it, and so could that cute girl I would eventually marry. Creating a mixtape forced you to interact spiritually with the music. Sure, there were quantifiable elements like BPM or keys, but most often, the curator had to choose songs based on how they feel next to each other.听听
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Kids these days don鈥檛 burn CDs, and it shows鈥听
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鈥I鈥檓 no luddite, but鈥鈥 seems to be the phrase most repeated by people wrestling with exactly where to draw the line for themselves and their families technology use. The sentiment is the same: technology may provide some value, but it also demands something in return. In most cases, we believe the price of the demand is worth it. However, we may adopt some technologies before realizing the cost.听听
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Nowadays, algorithms and artificial intelligence do most of the curating for us. We have immediate access to every song ever recorded, but we have paid for it in our relationship to the songs themselves.听听
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Burning CDs fostered this relationship with our music in at least two ways: its limitation and its order.听听
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Limitation听
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With the rise of streaming platforms, why would you have to choose between With Arms Wide Open and Higher for your Dad-Rock playlist when you can just add the entire Human Clay album (and throw in Weathered while you鈥檙e at it).听听
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Burning a CD limits you to 12 or 15 songs. It forces you to practice prudence when evaluating which song to select. The constraints allow you to determine which songs are most important. Is the solo on Free Bird truly worth the 9 minutes it will take up? (It is.)听听
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When each song is purposefully present, suddenly each song is meaningful.听听
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Order听
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Maybe this started with the RDM button on CD players, but the Smart Shuffle (a button on Spotify that uses A.I. to select songs like the one you are currently listening to) takes this to new heights. Artists used to labor over which specific order to place their songs on albums; now we let an algorithm decide which Taylor Swift song to play next.听
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Burning a CD requires balance: Journey鈥檚 power ballad Open Arms needs to be at least track number three: you have to ease into the ballads and then ease out of them.听听
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Listening to a set number of songs in a particular order forced you to consider the emotional and spiritual relationships between those songs. That relationship gives each of the songs a new meaning and invites the hearer into that connection.听听
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Music is fundamental to humanity, critical to our worship of God, and as such is vital to Classical Education. Yes, we must admonish our students to appreciate great and enduring works like Brahms and Beethoven; but love is not solely an intellectual practice.听听
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Burning CDs was a silly and short-lived tool, lost to the relentless tide of music technology. However, it was a tool that forced you to practice loving the music.听听
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The good news is that it is not impossible to recover! Creating playlists that have a 12 song cap, which is intended for listening not on shuffle (perhaps in response to a poem, or a novel, or the study of a historic figure) may be a fruitful exercise for students and adults alike.听听
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