The old and the forgotten

Old music

To bide my time in the quarantine days, I decided to start a long overdue cleanup of my game room.

Recently, I decided to get rid of old Photoshop User magazines, many of which are only relevant for previous versions of Photoshop. Now you can get all kinds of Photoshop advice online, or even from a tutorial on Youtube, Udemy, or similar learning portals.

Not only that, I tend to be bad with Photoshop. I have found myself to not be a great graphic designer, just a struggling one.

But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Now I have started to begin getting rid of my old CD’s, and for good reason. Compact discs are a dying medium. CD’s were already waning in the dawn of Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher and similar, but it’s only a matter of time before no one will want to get a CD anymore. CD’s also are not quite as durable, even compared to LP / vinyl records. The plastic and chemicals that go into making a CD do not last - they age, to the point where they cannot be readable anymore.

Not many places distribute music on CD’s these days. I still bought CD’s for a time, if I want to get an autograph from the artists in the future. In the case for music sourced from Asia, however, CD’s are still king. Japanese and Korean imported music are still sold on CD’s or BD’s (especially in the case of Square Enix’s record label).

However, with recent discoveries that CD’s do not last as long as a vinyl, I may have to seriously consider buying vinyl instead. I do not own a turntable other than the one my dad still has, but I will have to eventually get around to buying a turntable that matches my dad’s old one - I do own a headphone amp that will be able to pair well with any turntable that I can find.

During the late 1990s up to the 2010s, I had amassed a large collection of contemporary Christian music on CD’s. I estimated that 30% of the collection was bought from a promotion offered by Columbia House. The membership was long since discontinued as I started to shop at Christian bookstores to buy music (remember when Family Christian and Berean Christian existed?)

While I acknowledged the existence of Kazaa and Napster as they started, they were only focused on secular music. There is no chance in (heaven / hell)? you would try to pirate a contemporary Christian album. You have to buy them the legal way.

Some of the bands do not exist anymore - DC Talk, especially (the group has been on a near-perpetual break and the band members have gone separate ways to solo careers). Steven C. Chapman still records music but not as often compared to his younger days. Michael W. Smith still records new music, however, even though I have not listened to them since my EDM switch. I did own some secular albums, and strangely enough, they are the only ones that I have kept:

• The Police’s greatest hits. This has been the first CD I ever owned. I’m curious if the CD is still good to play. The Police is widely known for its lead singer, Gordon Sumner (Sting), who still tours.
• BSB’s self titled album. BSB in 2019 reunited, released a new album, and now they do tours.
• New Order’s first Best Of album (which first released in 1994). New Order in recent years now does tours and released new material, as well as another hits album a few years ago titled “Total”, which includes songs from their Joy Division days.
• A few U2 albums.

I bought these albums in a traditional record store. I remember days when one would venture into a Wherehouse, Tower, or a Virgin Megastore to buy music. And of course - they’re all gone now.

I didn’t really get into EDM until 2004 when some of my work buddies introduced me to it. You cannot really buy EDM in a traditional record store as most of the music was made in the underground. I had to go to Beatport.com to buy a few tracks. It was the only cheaper alternative than going to a DJ-focused record store. (Beatport still exists today.)

Since then, I now only listen to EDM, and barely any Top 40 artists (guess I can forget about keeping my queer card but hey, I liked BSB!)

The only real “Christian” music I now own is mostly music from the 2010’s and newer - I keep mostly Hillsong stuff and any music from Passion / 268 Generation artists (i.e. David Crowder, Charlie Hall). I had Vineyard stuff as well, but I don’t plan to keep them anymore, especially now that most “worship music minded” American Christians listen to Bethel these days. The only recent CD purchases I have made are now almost entirely of either EDM or video game music.