Recently BBC online ran this story; 'Giving Up my iPod for a Walkman', where a 13 year old wonders why on earth a generation were beguiled by clunky, battery guzzling boxes of hiss and treble. Why, he queries, did we think so much of them?
I don't really think we did. Nor do I think the separation of cultural epochs is valid; certainly the technology is different, but the same people who listened to Walkmans own iPods. This sort of false distinction makes me feel like a dinosaur that's been pushed into a tar pit whilst furry little things gamble about.
I owned two Walkmans during the 80s and early 90s before giving up entirely. At the time I felt like the brand had a personal vendetta, chewing my tapes, dying on me, or just plain not working. It wasn't worth the effort when not there were easier and better ways of listening to music. Truth is that with a Walkman mobility was a strange mix of treat and hassle.
When I was 11 my friend lent me her (she assured me) more reliable Walkman for my exciting first foreign holiday. It chewed my tape up of course, but the situation was worth the risk; 10 whole days somewhere totally alien - I was grateful to be able to take four or five tapes. I could manage now of course, but since I know I don't have to, the limitation is spartan, and that is the benefit of progress.
To come to the point, the BBC junior correspondent, who incidentally writes an fine article, somewhat misses the point, the iPod versus the Walkman? The comparison is invalid in all ways and means. The Walkman generation didn't consume music in the same way, or expect there to be an alternative, we weren't slavishly bonded with the boxes -there was no need. It was a useful-ish bit of gadgetry that could be pulled out when the occasion demanded. The iPod soundtracks life, the Walkman, well when necessary it just, theoretically, made life a little bit more enjoyable.
1 comment:
I'm 'a little bit' older than you and I think the walkman, when it was new, really was pretty astonishing and exciting. You're right about that mix of treat and hassle but it still felt terribly cutting edge - they just about predated big ghetto blasters (I've tried to think of a different name for them but can't) so the walkman was stepping up from the kind of chunky and very old looking cassette players schools still appeared to be so fond of, at least until very recently. The Walkman heralded a major change to everything - their contemporary technologies were things like those very very simple LED hand held videogames and digital clock radio alarms and they were certainly a bit step ahead of them - music on the go was new, really new and different. And, for what it's worth, I lost my iPod to the repair shop recently and was left with my walkman and boy did it sound lousy, never mind how limiting it was to have such a small and set playlist to listen to. But back then it was lovely.
I think you're right in the end, though (I didn't when I started writing or I probably wouldn't have started writing) - 'a bit more enjoyable'... if they were as killer as I half remember then you'd have thought they could have worked as a reasonable stand in for the iPod, and it really didn't. I still like them, though, and have been thinking about making some new actual tape mix tapes.. and now I could start talking about compilation tapes and the reasons they are inevitably better than playlists or CDs... but that's another story.
Post a Comment