Another Saturday night doing what I love to be doing the most--sitting at home, listening to the mixture of sounds of the kids breathy sleeping and the pot of water on the wood stove as it burns, keeping the house warm as we get hit with another snow storm. This one, being mid March, is that heavy, wet, oppressive snow--it is sticky and easy to pack.

While Amanda takes a shower I am sitting on the couch listening to NPR's "The World Cafe," which is one of my favorite radio shows--it is out of WXPN (UPenn's college station) and showcases some of the most up-and-coming (as well as classic) singer-songwriters around. Wonderful music.

I got to thinking this past week about the disconnect involving listening to music that today's youth seem to have. I first started thinking this last Saturday as I looked around TheRecordConnection in Waterville--I was looking for some good used CDs to put on my ipod so I could have new albums to listen to while I run. The idea of "albums" today is almost a foreign one to today's casual music listener. It is no big surprise, for example, when I make the claim that, in today's culture, we are a very "song" (and not "album") consumer culture. Starting perhaps with cassette singles in the 90s....followed by iTunes purchases in the early 2000s...then to be usurped by Pandora, Rdio, and Spotify--we are a culture, perhaps, without the 'attention span' to listen to an entire record. And, arguably, I wonder if artists even set out to MAKE cohesive albums as they used to. As a note, I have to admit that I first got to thinking of this when a few of my students, for 'character day,' dressed up like the four Beatles on the cover of "Sgt Pepper," which is one of the most famous WHOLE albums of all time, right?

I got to blaming a lack of any 'attention span' or respect for the artist's 'craft on the part of today's young music consumer....but then, suddenly, I slapped myself in the face for saying that, because I came to the realization of the paradigm shift, if you will, among music......and (of all things) books! Music and books, arguably, have switched places, in a way, when it comes to the 'comprehensiveness' of an artist's work. Whereas years ago, musical artist put out entire ALBUMS to be honored, revered, and listened to, today artists arguably put out CDs containing songs they think will get the most air time--no continuity. However, if you look at what kids are READING these days, it becomes very clear that an attention span deficiency is NOT the problem: Kids are regularly reading 600-800 page tomes that are not STAND ALONE books, but, rather, cogs in a 'series' of other books (some of these series' contain perhaps 20 books....THOUSANDS of pages!).

My argument, then, is that today's BOOKS have become the 'albums' of the age; authors are the 'artists' crafting and creating a totality of work that consumers are eating up ("you have to read the whole series!" kids say...or "make sure you start at the beginning or it wont make sense!" they tell me). This is how it used to be with musical albums, right? You listened all the way through to get the full effect? I dont know. Maybe I am wrong. Just my idea. But it is interesting to see how books and music--two of my favorite things in all the world--have traded roles. It seems to me that the only book 'albums' that existed years ago were Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys--haha! We were a world full of 'stand alone' book 'hits' (Salinger, Lee, Wharton, and so many authors had that one GREAT work). Today, it is difficult to find a book that ISN'T part of a series.

It is just cool to see how things change shape. I love it. I love our cultural shifts--I love the people who are movers, shakers, and trendsetters...and I love the people who love to preserve the way things used to be.....

THROWBACK...MARCH OF 2010!!! These pictures were taken five years ago this week!! There is a significant difference in the snow amounts, for one! haha