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January 09, 2005
Media monsters
Just one more thing, and then I'll shut up, pack it in, and go to bed.
Some of us who are in the generation that came of age before the digital revolution get our clues only in bits and snippets. Suddenly I discover blogs and go gnutz. IM? Greatest thing since Elvis. And now music downloads. I've spent all my spare time over the vacation downloading tunes from the Internet. First I discovered the indie site BetterPropaganda, and now I've discovered--lordy, lordy--the mainstream downloads on Amazon. For someone like me who lives drenched in music, it's a life-changing event.
Now, most of my readers are snorting in amazement. "How can she just now be catching on?" The answer is that on this particular issue, I've been prey to media demonization of downloading: All downloading is illegal, and the feds will getcha if you do it. It's taken me quite awhile to realize that there's a boatload of terrific free, legal music on the Internet. It's taken me quite awhile, in other words, to get around the tunnel-vision media representations and begin to discover that there's a rich world of music downloading. Illegal file-sharing is only a corner of the realm, but you'd never know it from reading the newspaper.
Posted by senioritis at January 9, 2005 12:09 AM