This is going to be another music post. And I’m going to sleep after this. Yes, its 8.16pm now, but I stayed up till 3.30am last night to study Bio (only).

The exams today were really God’s grace. I only started studying for Bio P3 and Geog P2 last night. And Bio consisted of neurobiology and further human physiology and Geog consisted of hydrology, lithology and settlement. The diagram that was supposed to be labelled was in the notes I studied last night and I could only remember one thing: sinusoides. I really tikam-ed everything else, and since it said it was a liver cell, I just thought of bile and bile duct. After the exam I checked the notes and my answers were all right, with the exception of “liver tissue” which I labelled as “duodenum”. And for Geog, it was pretty bad, but at least I could crap out some stuff for everything. Thank God.

Yes, now to get down to business.

“Ageism.  You think it'll never happen to you.  Then you reach a certain age and your opinion no longer counts, the kids control the music and those aged executives still in power wear baseball caps and try to act like kids themselves.  If you don't look the part, don't play hit music, you might as well be dead.

But it's baby boomers who grew up with music at the center of their lives.  There were no cell phones, there was no MySpace.  We lived to twist the AM dial in the car, if we were lucky we had a phone in our bedroom.  The glue that kept us together was the music.  They call this music "classic rock".  Classic, as in aged, as in done.

I was watching Billy Bob on Bill Maher.  He posited that none of the acts of the last twenty years would be remembered after they were done.  In other words, the youngsters have taken over the business and killed it. It’s not what it once was.  Now it's something you do to become famous, to tie in with corporations.  It's all about raining money.  Or, you're one of those individuals with little talent foisting your wares upon an uncaring public complaining you're not getting your due.  And those of us who lived through the revolution, that period in the sixties and seventies where acts wrote their own material or reinterpreted the works of others to the point where you could barely recognize the tune, scratch our heads and wonder where it all went.

You can go see a classic band in concert.  But you don't want any of their new music.  It's the opposite of what once was.  Rather than being vital and from the heart, it's mannered and bland.  It's actually creepy.  About as bad as their efforts to resist aging.  Do they really think the audience wants to see old performers who appear younger than they are? …

Prior to the Internet era, we couldn't own all the music we wanted.  You made choices.  So I never owned a Batdorf & Rodney album.  Don't even remember hearing the act on the radio.  Saw their albums in the bin, but just like most people don't have twenty cell phones, we couldn't own 20,000 albums. …

That's the way the whole "Old Man Dreamin'" album is.  You put it on and you like a few tracks and then you play it again, and after each and every play new nooks and crannies are revealed, you like it more, and then play it more. This is the classic rock experience.  Coming home, breaking the shrinkwrap and dropping the needle and being drawn into a whole new world.  Amazingly, this concept lives on in the twenty first century, with John Batdorf's new album.

I give him credit for soldiering on.  It's hard to break through, especially when you're used to having someone else do the business.  Now you need an MBA to make it.  Unfortunately, too many of those people with degrees have the skills but are purveying substandard music.

I could sell this album out of my trunk to baby boomers.  This is what they're looking for.  Youngsters will laugh and say that the record is wimpy, but they never lived through an era where you could love both Joni Mitchell and AC/DC.  There's nothing wrong with soft, there's nothing wrong with tuneful.”-Bob Lefsetz

The bit about how people want to see classic bands perform but they never want to hear new material. Like when I went to the Oasis gig, people went without knowing any of the new songs. All they wanted to hear was “Wonderwall”, “Champagne Supernova” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger”. Which is a pity, because “The Shock of the Lightning” or “Falling Down” or “Get Off Your High Horse” or “I’m Outta Time” could be classic Oasis hits.

I’m not going to talk about all the stuff he said, but the bit on making choices. I’ve never thought much about the digital revolution changing the way I perceive music. But today it hit me hard that it totally changed my attitude in buying CDs. I used to have to make choices. I still remember when I was in Sec 1, I would scrimp and eat less just to get a CD. I was permanently broke then. Same case for concert tickets in Sec 2 when I started going. I could only afford the cheapest tickets to the concerts, but it was an experience anyway. My first concert was The Black Eyed Peas and now as a concert-goer I know they didn’t put on their best performance. But it was my first concert. I was still blown away.

So anyway, in Sec 1, I made choices. I could choose to get a CD, or another one. But not both at the same time. The others would have to wait. The effort I put into buying a CD, saving, travelling to the store, and making a choice, made me love every album I bought.

Now, I have the capacity to get more CDs. I can afford to get a CD every week if I handle my finances right. I can get more than one CD at a time. I don’t need to make any choices. I download everything and listen to everything before I get a CD that I really think is good. And it has changed everything in my music experience.

My “music time” used to be sacred. I would endure the bus ride home from Parkway/Tampines and tear the plastic and look at the lyrics booklet inside the CD case. I would be really impatient to get home and put it in my CD player that looks really cool. I get home, switch on the player and pop the CD in. And I sit there and listen to every song, either doing nothing or reading a book. That was my music time. I no longer have that anymore. My CD player even lies dusty and forgotten.

The digital revolution made music “valueless” to me. I played it on the laptop. It was no longer something I worked hard to get. There was no real excitement and impatience I had to endure. I never felt that since I played an album on the CD player today. And the value of that also diminished because I heard the album long time ago.

I played the Viva La Cobra album by Cobra Starship that I got today from HMV Heeren for $28.50. Costly. But its sold out everywhere else. It was sold out at HMV Heeren a while ago but I guess they brought in stock. There was only one copy left. And no copies of While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets. And yes, they ripped the name “Viva La Cobra” from “Viva La Vida”, but at least they admit it. Ashley Tisdale name her new album “Guilty Pleasure” (song by Cobra Starship) and she has a song “Hot Mess” (upcoming album from Cobra Starship).

Anyway, I put it in my CD player and heard the oh-so-familiar tunes, that sounded so incredibly different and fantastic with a proper player with the bass turned to the max. I was in the shower while it played and I heard the bass through the shower. Amazing.

Now, I’m able to get any song I want, and delete it readily because I don’t like it. When I could only buy CDs and the CD turned out to be horrible, I had to live with that regret. I may be embarrassed to admit I own certain CDs, but I’ve only regretted buying one. JoJo’s first album. Yes, it was that bad to me. I didn’t like R&B that much and it just wasn’t nice-sounding. Now, I mostly buy CDs after I’ve heard them, either through downloads or YouTube.

Now I’m wondering if I should just stop. But if I do stop getting music online, I’ll be broke. Because I’ll want too many albums. Hmm. Now this is a question I have to ponder on.

I finally got the NME issue of the tribute special to MJ and a review of Glastonbury 2009. I allowed myself to shed some tears for MJ today.

And just something Bob Lefsetz said that I totally agree with-“It's kind of like those concert reviews in the paper.  Why do these writers even bother going?  If you're not a fan, why do I care what you think?  Tell me what someone who loves the band thinks.  Same deal with recorded music.  I don't want the musings of someone who got to have lunch with the star or is playing a game of endless favors with the flack, but someone who's so enthused about the music that he can't help but tweet about it!”

Just to leave you with something nice.

Cobra Starship (left to right): Ryland Blackington, Nate Novarro, Victoria Asher, Gabe Saporta, Alex Suarez