It's interesting how with iTunes nowadays we're prone to buying just singles instead of whole albums. Back when I was in high school if you really wanted a certain song you had to go down to Tower Records or some other store and buy the CD, but now for 99 cents you can just buy a single song. I'm cheap most of the time so I rarely buy albums anymore.
A few weeks ago Katie and I rented "Shut Up and Sing", a documentary on the Dixie Chicks and their journey since Natalie Maine's infamous remark, "We're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas" back a few days before the start of the Iraq war in 2003. I'm kinda a news junky (my homepage on my internet browswer is CNN), so I'm so surprised that I really didn't hear much about this whole controversey when it happened. Maybe it's cause I'm really not a country fan and I've never really listened to the Dixie Chicks before. I'm not sure.
The movie was a super interesting behind the scenes look at how their lives changed, not just professionally, but personally as well and how they delt with everything from radio stations who wouldn't play their music anymore, to date specific death threats, and ultimately to the recording of their latest CD "Taking the Long Way." After the movie, I just decided to buy the whole album cause I thought it would be interesting to hear how they wrote about their experience.
So now that I've listened to it for the last two weeks or so I'm really into it! The songs are super creative, and they've done a great job of writing about their frustrations and pain in a tangible way. It's a really mature album, the more I listen to it, the more I like it.
It's also really got me thinking more about albums in first place and how we're progressively moving more and more away from listening to entire "albums" and more into just singles or songs that interest us from the 30 second preview on iTunes. While that's a cheaper way to buy music for sure, I think we're kinda cheating ourselves. Excellent artists mean for albums to be heard in their entirety, not just picked a part by listeners who are only interested in the singles. :)
Just a quick thought..... :)
By the way, click here if you want to view the trailer to "Shut up and Sing"
Recent Comments