On the Joy of Using an iPod

This blog post is part of the Agora Road Travelogue for January 2024

Less is more is probably one of the mantras our modern society wants us to believe in. And sure, it sounds nice on paper (or screen) but we, filthy capitalists-to-be, are obsessed with quite the contrary: more is more, that is. And, specifically, if it is about consuming we are talking about, then more-ly is the only way it can be done. This has led us to what I consider to be one of the saddest oxymora I’ve ever encountered, talking to people about their reasons to live (conversations can get quite dread-y during the dead hours of work), music comes up as a champion in what can only be described as a Nietzschean view on the power of music in making life worth living.

And, yet, music has become so commodified to the point in which we actually perceive it as mundane, trivial, not worthy of attention. Here’s a fun thing to do: next time you are running errands around the city, stop to look at how many clerks bored-out-of-their-brains have music playing in the background. Music, with all its rescuing-us-from-the-depths-of-boredom, has become our go-to resource when killing time is what’s in the order. We even take pride on the act of listening to a song so much that we get used to it, as if it were a background item in our commuting route.

Well I say, no more, I’m here to defend music from the codependent relationship we have engaged it with us. I believe it is time to consciously listen to music. While I’m not trying to deprive us wageslaves from the only thing that makes our working day bearable (I do also work while listening to music), I’m here to make the statement that music listening is something we should not take for granted.

Enter the iPod. What’s special about such a device. Nothing, at least nothing when we compare it to the plethora of mp3 players that plagued the late aughts. For the purpose being, any old USB stick with a headphone jack would do the job. What matters is that it forces us to think about listening to music. As opposed to just opening an app in our smartphones, the physical act of carrying another device in order to listen to some tunes makes us stop and wonder: “am I going to listen to music today?”

This rewiring of our brain is the first step in making us appreciate music more. If our mp3 player’s capacity is low enough it can even makes us think about what songs we want to listen. I can say that, since I started using iPods, my music listening time has gone up. I carry an iPod whenever I know I might be in a situation in which I would like to listen to some music, just like I carry a camera when I think I might encounter something worth taking a picture of. Sometimes I even carry nothing but my iPod. There is nothing like the feeling of going for a walk with a set of cans cranking up your favorite album, knowing well that you are virtually unreachable.

But, in my opinion, the greatest sensation from the whole iPod-carrying business has to be independence from third parties, knowing that you own your music, that it is a part of you, that no matter which servers in God-knows-where go down you have it always at your disposal, that you have, indeed, a collection of music whose albums and singles showcase a part of your personality, that you can show to your friends your taste and compare it to that of others.

Instead of relying on algorithms to discover new artists, you actually have to interact with people in order to do so. This way, music listening becomes a more humane thing, as it was always supposed to be. Unlike the AI-generated DJ mixes that Spotify or whoever pushes through the Wired, you are the DJ, making sick mixtapes with your favorite songs. You can even go as far as to make a real mixtape, cassette and all, turning 0’s and 1’s into a physical thing that you can own or gift to anyone you love.

Let’s bring back music. Let’s make it again something to enjoy.