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Hello, Hola, Guten Tag, Bonjour, こんにちは !
Welcome everyone,
this is a podcast for those wanting to learn about U.S. culture through Standard American English, also known as General American. We talk about various different topics related to the U.S. and the U.S.'s relations with other countries.
My co-host and I would like to think of this as more of a journey because you never know where it’ll take us. Plus, since the journey’s more important than the end or the start, we hope that you’ll be willing to join us!
Let’s see where it takes us!
Hello and welcome.
My name is Christopher Chandler.
And my name is Chris Schauer.
And we are Generally American.
In our podcast, we discuss events,
culture, whatever else we want from a
Generally American perspective.
From our differing viewpoints, our goal is
that we can offer others and ourselves
nuanced opinions on fascinating topics
related to the U .S.
We invite you to be part of the discussion
and we hope that you'll stick around to
see where the conversation takes us.
So let's dive in.
And.
We're live.
Yes we are.
And I'm just going to get into it right
away that I'm upset because I'm pretty
sure we talked about the weather last
week.
It was starting to get a little nicer.
It's currently snowing.
Is it really?
And I have to go and do errands after
this.
And ever since moving to work from home, I
don't leave the house very much and I
really don't want to in the snow.
But I will.
Is it a lot of snow?
I'm actually peeking out the curtain right
now, it's a...
Looks like at least an inch or two stuck.
It's still going.
Okay, that's worth mentioning.
So the weather here has been kind of, you
know, terrible as always.
It was pretty nice a couple days back.
It was like 60, 70 degrees, which I think
is very agreeable.
But ever since then it's just been
raining, raining, raining, raining.
Which really sucks because I'll be moving
soon, finally, after almost...
Decade of living here not moving the kind
I'm not moving out of the country.
I'm just moving literally to the next town
over So I'm only moving like three miles
away But still you know now I got to carry
all my boxes in the rain So that's not all
that fun But that might be worse than when
I moved in like negative 20 because that
sucked okay, but nothing is gonna get wet
and ruined I Don't even know if it gets
that cold here.
Um
Honestly, I kind of miss that because
during the Christmas season we like to
drink hot wine, which sounds disgusting,
but it's actually very delicious.
But it only really works if it's really
cold outside.
And unfortunately, because of, I want to
say climate change, but you know, you'd be
the judge of that.
It doesn't get that cold here anymore.
So it's not as enjoyable drinking, you
know,
hot seasonal wine during the Christmas
season Yeah, that does not sound good at
all.
No, but I don't really like wine.
I like some whites and that's it Yeah,
ever since You know ever since we tried to
conceive so now we have a daughter I just
kind of stopped drinking Because you know
Kind of like a side note has nothing to do
with the weather but you read all these
articles saying like, you know It's not
just the responsibility of the man
It's also the of the woman, or sorry, the
other way around.
So it's not just the woman, but it's also
the man.
Like, so if men take certain things, drink
a lot, smoke a lot, then that kind of
affects your ability to conceive.
I don't smoke though.
Like, I was being super cautious.
I wasn't drinking that much anyway.
But yeah, I thought like every little bit
counts.
So, side note.
But yeah, the weather here is terrible as
always.
Hopefully it'll be better in, in April,
you know, April showers bring May flowers,
as they say.
Here's hoping.
The thing that irritates me the most is
looking at the forecast.
Our weather goes and this has been it's
been this way for like the last couple of
weeks.
It's OK to nice during the work week and
then as soon as Friday hits snow.
And I already see snow in the forecast for
Saturday next week.
So week six days from today.
After it's going to be OK for the whole
work week when I'm not.
gonna wanna go anywhere, but anyway,
that's enough of me complaining about snow
in Montana, which should be expected.
Yeah, yeah, so that's the bi -weekly
weather report for those who care.
So what are we talking about today?
We're talking about music from a few
different angles, like mediums, discovery,
or how you discover new music, because
that's...
That's changed a lot in the last few
decades.
I guess depending on how old you are.
Because I'm in my 30s now, so I can say
some of you younger kids out there might
not have known at that time when you found
new music on the radio.
Yeah, overall, that's where we're going
today.
Yeah.
I have to admit though, according to my
health insurance company, technically
until 35, I'm still considered young.
Because I'm also in my early 30s, so I'm
still young, but we're about the same age.
Yeah, so generally when people talk about
music, I think a lot of it is like
reminiscing.
I think I'm guilty of that, where I still
listen to the same stuff I listened to
like 20 years ago.
A lot of the music for me is just for like
nostalgic reasons.
So I get stuck in like this loop of just
listening to the same stuff over and over
and over again.
And it's really hard to break out of that.
So...
You mentioned discovery, so I guess we can
start there.
So how do you discover new music?
So lately, and this is something I
actually highly recommend you do with a
handful of friends, so probably a year and
a half or so ago, maybe like four or five
of us, of my friends, we started like a
music exchange group where we randomize
who someone picks an album, we all listen
to it.
and we all review it, we score it one to
10, and we actually have a spreadsheet
with every album we've ever reviewed, and
because a few of us are kind of numbers
nerds, so we have like, our spreadsheet
calculates like, who has the highest
average score, lowest average score, you
know, all the albums, average rating, top
to bottom, like it's just fun for us.
And doing that, I have discovered a lot of
music I don't think I ever would have
found on my own.
and in some genres.
Like there's a Carly Rae Jepsen album,
which I don't think I've ever listened to
her once in my life.
I'm like, oh, I actually like this.
Like, and it's it's kind of interesting
because, you know, like a lot of pop stars
have those like you can kind of tell when
it's like a radio hit.
Like, yeah, I didn't like a lot of the
radio hits on the song, but there was the
album.
But there was some other stuff buried in
there that I thought was pretty good.
Didn't she write Call Me Baby?
Isn't that her?
I don't know.
I don't know.
But anyway, that's...
I don't think that's a usual thing people
do, but it's been very fun for me in
expanding my musical horizons, so I highly
recommend doing that.
That's honestly a really good approach.
So my approach is less inspirational, or
less interesting, I would say.
I just use the continue function on Apple
Music.
So when I'm listening to stuff I really
like or if I'm feeling in a certain mood,
I'll put on a song I like and then I'll
just let Apple take me, you know, wherever
it wants to.
So like the two biggest today are, is like
streaming.
So you have Apple, Spotify, and a bunch of
other things.
We'll get to that later down the road.
But for me, it's just listening to stuff
on
randomly on Apple Music.
Honestly, I discover a lot of music that
way.
Mostly because I'm kind of forced to
listen to it.
So generally when I'm cleaning, I'll put
my phone somewhere and I'll just let it
play.
And I don't really have like my hands free
to kind of skip over the songs.
So I just, I get forced to listen to it.
So, and honestly, it helps me too because
it helps me get past my, my bias.
So like there are some artists like, like
you were saying, like with Kylie Rae
Jepsen.
Oh, there's no way I would ever listen to
this person.
Because you have like these preconceived
notions of how this person is.
And then the system recommends a certain
song and I'm like, oh, okay.
Well, it's actually not that bad.
And then I look up who it is and like, oh
God, that's the person.
And so, I don't know.
Then it becomes like a guilty pleasure, if
you will.
Yeah.
And I don't know if you've ever had this
happen to you.
So...
Post Malone was another artist where I
don't think I ever would have gone out of
my way to listen to.
But someone like a year ago picked the
album Beerbongs and Bentley's.
And I thought it was okay at first.
I like it a little bit more now.
But there's something about the sound he
uses in that album.
Like when I'm having headaches, it makes
my head feel way better.
Or if I'm like stressed or something, it
helps me calm down.
So I don't know what's going on there, but
I...
I kind of appreciate that I have like a
handful of like weird almost medicinal
albums I can turn to when I'm feeling
certain ways.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I don't think I've ever really listened to
anything by Post Malone.
I pretty much stopped after like 2008 or
2009 to be honest and so ever since then
it's just been by chance.
So I don't really listen to the radio.
I don't know if you do.
Like an actual radio, like an actual car
radio.
But I think the last time I regularly
listened to the radio was when I was a
cook mmm, and we had a radio on the line
Yeah, I I think that was part of the same
for me too when I used to work in a
restaurant as you would have or you would
have the radio on in the background and
That that's pretty much it so
I know for like a lot of like supermarkets
for example or like grocery stores,
whatever in the US they have like just
music playing in the background.
They have that in Montana, don't they?
Yeah, it's never anything new.
No.
You're not gonna discover.
I have to say, so I worked at a grocery
store for like two and a half years,
something like that.
And it was the weirdest thing.
So you get used to, there's not that many
songs that can play on it, right?
But like three times in my time there, it
played Hotel California.
And Hotel California is a good song.
I don't think it's like amazing, but it's
better than anything that would play over
the speakers.
And I was like, why is like, how is Hotel
California in this rotation that it plays
once every like six months?
Like, how is this happening?
Yeah, I mean, honestly, a lot of the music
that you hear.
stores is to die for in the sense of not
that it's good.
It's just that it's a torture Yeah, we we
found the music so we learned there's
actually dials in different departments
that control the speakers Oh, so ours was
in the bakery department, which was like
right next to ours like I could walk ten
feet and be in the bakery and Everyone
hates it.
So we would turn it down a little bit and
management would get mad if they found out
I don't know who it's for I
I don't know who's enjoying the music at
the grocery store, but we have to have it
apparently.
Yeah, I mean, but that's just an
interesting cultural aspect because we
don't have that here.
So we don't have like music playing in the
background at all, really, for like stores
or banks or anything.
That's sort of super.
I don't know.
I wouldn't say it's anything specific to
the US.
I don't know all the countries on Earth,
but comparing the two between like Germany
and the US.
you never hear music really playing
anywhere.
Everything's just dead silent.
Because everyone loves their peace and
quiet.
You know, now that I think about it, I'm
pretty sure Costco doesn't play music.
I haven't been there forever.
I've been shopping in Costco more lately.
But something I want to circle back to
before we get lost on it, you were saying
you're so you're just using Apple Music, a
streaming service to discover new music.
Yeah, pretty much.
That kind of introduces an interesting
problem one You're trusting an algorithm
and Two you're trusting a corporation.
Oh So if there's an artist That
theoretically you've never discovered but
might be your favorite artist ever if you
if you listen to them But they don't have
a contract agreement with Apple music or
whatever and that's the only streaming
service you use you're never gonna hear
them
Also, if there's like incentives with that
streaming service to push one artist more
than another or you might hear stuff you
normally wouldn't.
And also the algorithm algorithms in
general for the internet are about keeping
you engaged.
So it's probably not going to send you a
bunch of new genres.
You might hear some out there stuff every
now and again, but it's not going to take
you from like, you know,
electronic to country to rap to you know
it's not going to take you on a crazy
journey like that yeah now i feel like i'm
you know the spotlight's on me and i'm
part of the problem but that that's
actually a very interesting point that
you've raised um and honestly i noticed
that a lot so if i like what would be like
a good example if i put like on a
metallica song or whatever and i just let
it recommend the next song
Then it might be like a Black Sabbath or
then it might be like ACDC or something
similar to that or anthrax I don't know
But you're never gonna like you're right.
You're never gonna get from Metallica to
like Taylor Swift You're it's never gonna
like make that leap because Taylor Swift
is just way too different Than Metallica
unless Statistically speaking their model
says people who like Metallica also love
Taylor Swift I don't know if that's
necessarily true.
It could be
But yeah, to avoid that, I generally try
to listen to songs from different genres.
So I'll listen to rock, country, pop, hip
hop, and then I'll have to always switch
it up because otherwise I listened to
country for like three hours and I didn't
even want to.
I'm just too lazy to turn it off,
basically.
So it's been kind of interesting for me.
So because of that music exchange group
I'm in, I'm listening to a lot more
genres.
And I usually use - so YouTube music is
primarily what I use because I have
YouTube premium.
So I have the YouTube music premium for
free.
I'll usually just listen to stuff I've
liked and I have a pretty big liked
playlist I'll just throw on shuffle.
If I just let something play through or I
finish an album and let it go to the next,
sometimes it won't go to like another song
it recommends based on the album.
It'll be like, we know what kind of music
you like.
You were listening to this.
you know, it'll pick up on something I had
to listen to for an assignment and then
play, you know, another song by that
artist.
Which, on one hand is kind of annoying
because a lot of those artists I don't
like, but on the other hand, it's probably
a good thing so that it's like, all right,
you just listened to the album you wanted
to listen to.
Now give something completely different a
try that -
similar to something you listened to
before, but not something you just now
listen to.
I've never used YouTube music.
I used its predecessor, which is Google
Music, which is now dead.
Yeah, that wasn't very good.
Oh, that was terrific.
I loved it.
I loved Google Music.
But now you can't get me to pay for
YouTube premium.
That's just way too expensive.
But I do use YouTube to find new music and
I use the same method and I just let it
recommend stuff, which...
what I discovered was lo -fi music.
And I love it.
I love it to death.
It's incredibly relaxing.
And it recommends me a lot of good lo -fi
music.
Most of lo -fi music is honestly, for me,
like I'm not like a connoisseur or
anything, but it's almost all the same.
So I don't really care.
I will say though, for whatever reason,
people love to put ads in lo -fi music.
And I think there's a special place in
Hell for people like that.
Because, like, I'll be relaxing to, like,
lo -fi music, and then I'll hear some ad
about some car or whatever, and it just
totally ruins the experience.
Are they baked into the video?
Like, an ad spot?
It's not, like, a YouTube break?
Oh, no, it is a YouTube break.
But, like, you can't skip them sometimes.
So it ruins the experience.
Or, like, nature sounds, like...
I'm listening to like whales and then
there's some ad about like the brand new
iPhone.
Like I don't care about that.
I just want to listen to whales.
I think I've had YouTube premium for like
a decade at this point.
I can't go back.
Yeah.
I had it for three months when it was
free.
Cause you get like a free trial on it or
something and it was awesome.
And then one day I realized, Oh yeah, you
got ads again.
And it just, it just really ruined it.
But yeah, so those are the main methods I
used to basically discover new music.
Sometimes word of mouth, like for my
friends and family, like back in the
States.
And pretty much anything that's popular in
the US will kind of eventually like
trickle over here, I'll say.
But it takes a while.
So something that's popular like in
January will probably be popular here in
like May or something, or like June.
So it's really, really, really late.
But a lot of the stuff, like if I really
want to discover like American music, I
have to pay attention to like Facebook or
like Twitter or like Instagram, because
that's where like a lot of the stuff is
like recommended in the sense of like
talking about like American culture,
because here, you know, they only do like
the really popular songs.
Like on a closing note, I think like
Beyonce is coming out with like a country
album or something.
I think like Texas Hold 'em is one of her
singles.
And the only reason I know that is because
I've been like reading American stuff.
Like none of that stuff like really
arrives here and like really reaches us.
Interesting.
You know, another thought I had, do you
think there is a noticeable difference
between how people discover music based on
like levels of wealth?
So the go -to in my head would be most
newer vehicles.
So I have a 2017 now.
I used to have a 2016 that had Bluetooth,
right?
So as soon as I got Bluetooth, I never
listen to the radio in my car again.
I'm always listening to a YouTube video or
music from my phone in my car, no matter
where I drive now.
But if you have an older car, because
that's either that's just what you want to
drive or that's just what you can afford,
you're going to be listening to the radio.
So you're going to be hearing different
things.
Honestly, that could be an interesting
like paper, like musical taste based on
wealth.
That would be very interesting read.
I mean, yeah, I think that's actually a
good question.
So.
For the first time in my life, I have a
car that's actually from this decade and
not from like the 80s or the 90s, both of
which I've had.
And so I just use my cell phone to listen
to music.
I haven't touched the radio in God knows
how long.
It's probably been at least like six,
seven years.
And so like I was saying before, for me
personally, then I just kind of stay in my
own bubble.
I don't really actually discover any new
music unless I really want to.
And radio kind of forces you to listen to
new music, I would say.
But then again, it's really only like the
top 10, you know, like pop music.
It's nothing revolutionary, I would say.
So I don't think you're really missing out
on anything.
But there are different types of radio,
you know, like there's satellite radio for
cars, for example.
which costs a lot of money.
Yeah, my dad uses a Sirius.
I was gonna say that's it, yeah.
Every now and again I'll be in the truck
with him and like, oh, I'm, you're way
different stuff here.
Yeah, and I think that costs money.
Oh yeah, it does.
Yeah, so I don't know if I've ever had it.
And then the quality is completely
different.
Now the quality of the podcast, the
quality of like the music you get
recommended and whatnot.
And so that probably definitely affects
your tastes.
You know what's interesting?
And I have a limited sample size.
You probably have a bigger one considering
you grew up in the St.
Louis area.
So...
I remember going to Denver, I don't know,
maybe six or so years ago and spending
some time in Denver.
And we were driving around going, I can't
remember where we were going, but we're
going to do some touristy stuff.
And we had the, we had the local radio on
in the car and it blew me away how
different it was than the radio I'm used
to here.
It was the music selection was a little
bit different, but what kind of blew me
away was.
it was like 65 % music and like 35 % ads
and just the radio DJ talking.
And I was like, this is so weird, but it
felt a little bit more curated also, just
a little bit more.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a good point though.
It's like it being curated.
Um, and like the whole DJ talking, uh, I
guess that's part of the experience I
would say.
It's not really an experience that I
personally need, but it is nice when
you're driving on like long stretches of
road in the US, which is very common, and
you have no one to talk to.
The radio is actually kind of nice because
it feels like it's a conversation, so to
speak.
Although how enjoyable that is is a
different question because once you move
to like a different county,
then you have like a different radio host,
like a different DJ.
And so it kind of ruins the experience.
But...
It does give you kind of a nice...
One thing I do miss about it, and I've
noticed this just in several aspects of my
life.
I feel like I'm so plugged into like the
news of the country and the world.
And then someone will come and talk to me
like, Oh, did you hear about this
happened?
I'm like, oh no, where'd that happen?
Like, uh, two blocks over.
I'm like, oh, I have no idea what goes on
in my hometown.
I mean, a little bit, but that was kind of
the fun thing about listening to the radio
is you're like, even if it's just an ad,
like, Hey, this bar is doing this special
on Tuesday.
Come on down.
Like it's an ad, but you know, like, Oh,
they're, I can go to trivia Tuesday night
at shooters or I can go to.
you know, ladies night, Wednesday night at
Hooligans or whatever.
Yeah, honestly, that's actually a very
good point.
And a big part of that is I also got off
Facebook.
Oh.
Well, I'm kind of forced to be on Facebook
because that's where all that's what
everyone is in terms of my family and
friends.
Although I found out that Facebook is
apparently for old people.
So I guess I'm old.
I don't really care though.
Social media isn't something that's super
important.
However, I will say like Facebook shorts,
YouTube shorts, and to a lesser extent
TikTok are really good at promoting music.
And so that's one of the ways I've
indirectly found like new songs because
people like to be dramatic.
And so they'll overlap their videos with
some song or montage.
and like, oh, like what's that song?
I've never heard of it before.
So that's a small side note.
Oh, I can't remember the name of the
actual song, so I feel a little bad, but
do you remember the coffin dance memes?
No, I don't think so.
Look at it.
You can look it up even now if you want.
It's not that long, but like look up
coffin dance.
It's like, it's not the actual name of the
song, but.
It was a pretty good meme back in the day.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I do.
I do.
I just looked it up I do remember that
yeah, yeah a lot of people like actually
and I feel again I feel bad for not
remembering the name of the actual song
but a lot of people found that song
through the coffin dance Okay, yeah,
that's that's pretty interesting too
though because a lot of Yeah, a lot of
memes a lot of like shorts like I said,
like you did talk YouTube shorts and
whatnot.
I
really help discover new things.
So yeah.
At the risk of being a complete nerd about
things, I've been listening to a lot of
Persona music lately.
And if you're now familiar with the
Persona games, like a big part of their
selling point is that the music is just
incredible.
Like the joke everyone likes to make is I
just bought the new Persona album and it
even came with a free game.
Yeah, a lot of soundtracks to movies and
to video games are also really popular
ways of promoting music.
I think for a lot of movies, the
soundtrack is really what carries the
movie or carries the video game.
Yeah, and it's kind of hard to rate music
like that on its own because music made
for like a game or a movie, it's made to
be experienced in tandem with that game or
movie.
So if you don't already have that
emotional connection, it's kind of hard to
enjoy it.
I think most persona music is good enough
and of a style that you can listen to it
as just normal.
some a good amount of it as just music and
enjoyed for that but there's some some
soundtrack pieces where it's a good song
but you love it because you associate it
with like a great scene in a movie or
something like it's a part of a whole hmm
yeah yeah definitely um i don't know if
soundtracks though are as popular as they
used to be uh
But definitely when I was growing up,
people would actually buy the soundtracks
to certain movies.
Nowadays, I don't know if that's still
really a thing.
I know that they do like produce and
publish the soundtracks to like movies and
video games, whether or not they're still
popular, I guess it's like a different
story though.
Which is crazy.
So a lot of the times on Steam, if you go
to buy a game, you can check like that
game store.
and you can buy the soundtrack, which you
can find all that music online for free,
like not even in shady places, you can
usually find like official versions of it
like on, you know, music streaming sites.
I think I can't remember what it was.
I think I saw a soundtrack the other day
for $35.
Oh, wow.
And I was like, I wouldn't buy it for
five.
Like I'd have to like just because.
I'm going to.
Am I gonna physically like download music,
put it on my computer and listen to it?
Like, no, I'm gonna use YouTube music like
I do every single day.
Yeah, I mean, that's a very interesting
point.
So, I mean, we've talked a lot about like
discovery, like how to use like these
different medium and whatnot to find
music.
But I mean, that's an interesting point.
So, I mean, we don't have to go all the
way back to like the 19th century, but...
I mean, for like the longest part, vinyl
was the way to really listen to music, you
know, having like these big like vinyl
records.
I mean, that's that was way before my time
and way before your time too.
But I know that my parents had them and
sometimes listen to them.
I remember them buying like a huge record
player and I was fascinated by the fact
that you could like speed it up and slow
it down.
But by today's standards, it's, you know,
like ancient.
But you know, if we fast forward a little
bit and then to see these was just, you
know, what we grew up with.
I would go a step farther back.
Oh, really?
To like cassettes?
So, yeah.
So when I was a kid growing up, my dad, so
in our basement for the time, my dad had
like a big entertainment set up
downstairs.
And he like had kind of surround, like he
had these ancient looking, they're like
wooden with metal.
Like they were either really old or just
built to look like antiques speakers in
the back and then a bunch of speakers in
front.
Like it was a cool surround sound setup
and he had, um, he had a CD player, but he
also had a cas - a cassette player with
stacks and stacks and stacks of cassettes
from like the eighties and stuff.
And I, there was like, you know, Ronnie
James Dio, ACDC, um,
I think there was some Metallica, like
just all these, all these, you know,
classic eighties rock stuff that you think
about.
And in hindsight, and I don't even know
what he did with them.
I think he finally must've gotten rid of
them because they take up so much space.
But that was so cool growing up and I
didn't really think about it.
Yeah, like this whole like aspect of
collecting things, you mean?
Well, even just having access to it.
Like, I'd play them sometimes.
And I was just like, that's just something
I did, but it wasn't something I thought
too hard about.
And it just feels like I should have
appreciated it more.
I definitely feel that way about a lot of
things.
My dad also had a boatload of cassettes.
I was still fascinated about the fact that
you had like these little, you know,
cassettes and like the Walkman, the
cassette player.
Which even like, you know, once I got
really got into music, I mean, that was...
pretty outdated, but it was still, I don't
know, really interesting making your own
cassettes, like burning your own CDs.
I'm pretty sure everyone did that.
But yeah, this whole aspect of like
wanting to own your music, which is
something we weirdly enough haven't
actually touched on at all, which is you
don't really own music anymore.
I mean, technically speaking, you never
really owned it anyway.
You just had a license to listen to it,
but that's...
legal jargon.
But at least like with a cassette or a CD
you felt like you owned it, you know, you
felt like it was your property.
And we sacrificed that for convenience
because Spotify is only $10 a month as
opposed to $35 for a CD, which I don't
know anyone in their right mind would pay
that much money for a CD though.
I mean as a collector maybe.
Maybe.
Like if it's a collector's version and it
was signed,
then maybe I'd pay 30, 40 bucks for it.
But I don't even know what a CD costs
anymore, to be honest.
No idea.
And I kind of mentioned it earlier when I
was talking about that soundtrack I found
for $35 on Steam.
I could buy it, sure, and I can download
it straight to my computer.
I'm never gonna listen to it.
I don't wanna open up my file system and
find an album I downloaded.
I wanna just...
log on to the streaming service I use
every single day and I can look up
anything I want.
Yeah.
And that is the most important aspect is
just having access to everything you want
at any possible time, which isn't, which
wasn't possible with like vinyl or like
cassette or like CD.
You can still buy vinyl, funnily enough,
and CDs.
You can still buy CDs too.
I don't know if you can actually buy
cassettes.
I think cassettes are pretty much dead.
Um, oh yeah in terms of music, uh, I know
cassettes are still used for other things,
but in terms of listening to music,
they're I think they're pretty much dead.
Uh, Oh speaking of uh, cassettes I had a
friend in high school who had the coolest
thing.
Or actually, no, I had two friends who had
this.
So you know how a lot of cards had aux
chords and those used to be the key.
So,
They made a cassette that you plug into a
cassette player.
And then there's an aux cord that comes
off that and you can plug your phone into
it.
Oh yeah, I know I use that.
The first time I saw that I was like, wow,
that is so...
That's so ghetto.
I love it so much.
It's genius.
Yeah, I mean, I had these...
I had that exact same thing.
I bought it from Walmart.
Ah.
Maybe it was like 10, 15 bucks, I don't
remember.
It was super cheap.
And I was a high school student, so I
didn't actually have a lot of money.
And as anyone who's been listening up to
this point, I'm not a huge fan of the
radio and I hated listening to the radio.
And so, yeah, so you bought it, you put
it, or I bought it, I put it into the
cassette player and I could connect it to
my iPod Nano.
which is probably the most like 2000
sentence you can say.
But yeah, I love that.
That brings back a lot of memories.
It saved my life.
I remember being so jealous of all my
friends who had one because I used to
drive a 2004 Impala, which is a nice car,
but it just had a CD player.
So I had a handful of CDs.
So I had American Idiot by Green Day for
when I was growing up.
I had...
I can't remember.
It was an AWOL Nation album.
I can, hold on.
which album was it's the one that had sale
on it uh...
i don't know i had mega lithic symphony
okay and i had a transit of venus by three
days grace so those are like the three
albums i had in my car and i would you
know i would swap them out like once a
month but i would just listen to that
album
that I had in at the time over and over
and over and over for like a month and I
imagine that was the same for a lot of
people and you just get like really uh
familiar with the album I wouldn't even
say it's a bad thing but it's kind of nice
driving around just you know singing along
to the album you know every word yeah
unless you were rich and you had a cd
changer in the back of your car you
remember those things I've never seen
someone have them in their car
Yeah, I've had them.
I haven't had them, but uh, I don't know
if Hagrid actually had one, but you...
Either it was in the back of your car, or
it was in the front where the radio was,
and you could like load in like three or
four different CDs, and just like kind of
switch between them if you wanted.
I mean, but those are pretty dead.
I mean, those died, you know, the way the
dinosaurs basically.
But yeah, I mean that was basically the
2000s version of...
uh...
like streaming i guess you know call it
that is just having like various different
cds uh...
cd player so cd changer i think uh...
and but they were expensive it was so i i
brought that up because it was crazy to me
so i i wanted an ox court so bad right
just so i could cuz a lot of times i was
just like listening to like a podcaster
like a youtube video at home
and I'd be going somewhere and I'd just
turn off the radio in my car, I'd set the
phone in my lap.
I'm not watching it, but I'm just
listening to the video while I'm driving,
right?
And I was like, man, if I had an aux cord,
I could just plug this in.
And then I got my 2016, so I have a 12
year newer car.
and I remember telling myself, like, I'm
not getting anything that doesn't have an
aux cord, like, that's what I want.
And I just skipped straight to Bluetooth
and it was like, I didn't even know this
was a thing, I didn't even know this was
possible, this is like a whole new world,
I can never go back.
I didn't know that it was either.
So I was just kind of Googling the whole
aux thing.
And apparently, instead of having a cable,
they have a Bluetooth receiver now.
which is very interesting.
So you can buy these cassettes that either
have a cable or Bluetooth receiver.
Oh my God.
But that is definitely super retro.
That's like a 40 year technology jump.
Yeah.
This is a little bit different than music,
but it's still within the same topic
realm.
where there's this trend on YouTube and
whatnot, I guess maybe Facebook, to
retrofit a lot of these older devices.
So if you take, for example, the iPod
Nano, which is ancient by today's
standards, it's 20 years old, it obviously
didn't have Bluetooth at all.
And so a lot of people will kind of
disassemble these things and then install
Bluetooth on them.
They'll add Bluetooth receivers.
So you can use your...
$500 AirPods Max, whatever they're called,
with your 20 year old iPod Nano using
Bluetooth, which is just crazy.
But yeah, I miss those days.
I definitely loved having that.
It made things a lot easier having the
receiver or the aux cable.
Yeah, I remember being my dad had like an
08 truck that had one and I noticed and I
was like, what are you doing?
Why are you not using this all the time?
I was, I remember being so jealous.
Yeah, definitely.
So, uh,
But yeah, discovery in medium.
And so I think it's really interesting to
think about what the future will bring
because we've made so many leaps and
bounds in terms of how we listen to music.
And so now we're in the internet of
things, which I guess I found out today is
an old term, but I still like using it.
So I wonder what will come next.
And I've heard some people talk about the
Neuralink from...
like Tesla or Elon Musk or whatever it's
called.
And then like basically listening to music
in your head via like a Neuralink chip,
which for me is like super sci -fi -y, but
you know.
It sounds terrifying.
Does it?
I think it does too.
Well, I don't know if you get this, but
sometimes you get a song stuck in your
head.
Like I can get a song stuck in my head for
like a whole day.
Can you imagine if there's a malfunction
and you actually have a song stuck in your
head?
That's honestly, that's a really good way
of putting it.
Uh, yeah, no, no, I definitely couldn't,
uh, I couldn't imagine that.
We're, we're going to let the neural link
thing play out for a while before I dive
into it.
Apparently there was, um,
a guy recently who had it done and he was
able to play i think it was civilization
six using it alone and uh...
he didn't just do it to do it it's uh...
i kinda skims uh...
skinned it but it sounds like he would he
was actually disabled to a degree so he
didn't just do it to do it you know no
yeah just just like uh...
for the hell of it yeah i mean
I don't know who would actually really...
Well, I mean, there are plenty of people
who would actually just do it just for the
hell of it, just for the fun of it.
We've seen with every big leap in
technology, there's always people willing
to be beta testers for basically no
reason.
I get it if you actually have a health
issue or something.
Yeah.
One, you're donating yourself to the
cause, I guess, and two, there's a good
chance that...
you know, your quality of life is going to
improve.
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true.
But we're slowly coming to a close here,
Neuralink beside.
But yeah, so I think the way that we
discover music, the way that we relate to
music is very, is very different.
I would say maybe this is like a hot take,
but I would say like the emotional
connections we have to music are a lot
weaker than they used to be because we
don't really own.
a lot of the things.
So a lot of it is very, uh, like very
fleeting, if you will.
So like you stream a song and then you
kind of forget it.
Um, unless you make like a playlist or
something.
Whereas, you know, we used to own the
music and like kind of pass it down for
example.
But yeah.
Yeah, that's for sure.
And I, you know, and I don't know the
specifics and I've heard that artists that
have
been around for a while and are
transitioning into the more stream heavy
market or have had to transition.
They have said they have to write music a
little differently now.
Yeah, that's definitely true.
Yeah, it definitely has to fit in like a
radio format.
It has to be like radio friendly and
whatnot.
Otherwise, it doesn't really sell.
Unfortunately, so which comes back to what
you said about the algorithm, that if the
song doesn't really fit to the algorithm,
then
Like no one will listen to it or no one
will hear it.
Yeah So, I don't know if you have a point
you want to touch on before we get out of
here.
Uh, just one more.
Uh, I would hi We spoke about this or I
spoke about this at the beginning.
I do highly recommend get it get a handful
of friends together Um, it's especially
nice if you have a decent, you know range
of ages And musical taste and do like an
album exchange group like just take turns
pick someone at random, I roll dice and
take a picture of it and send it to our
Discord channel, it's not that
complicated.
I mostly just like rolling dice.
But...
Boy games.
Yeah.
And then you just listen to...
You'll listen to things you've never
thought of listening before.
And I'll be honest, there has been albums
I've absolutely hated and I will never
listen to again.
Like there was one album I hated so much
it made me physically ill.
But I've found a lot of music I like, I've
learned, and it's really fun to talk about
music.
And I think it's good for your brain to...
It's a good mental exercise to have to
listen to something.
Actively listen to it, form an opinion,
and think, how am I gonna review this, how
am I gonna word it?
Because after like the tenth or so album,
you...
you realize you can't just say, I thought
it sounded good.
7 out of 10.
I thought it was boring.
4 out of 10.
Like, you have to actually use good
descriptors.
Yeah.
I think it's a good experience.
I highly recommend it.
Now, that's definitely honestly a really
good approach.
I might try that soon.
Yeah, so take more interest in your own
musical tastes and do your best to like
leave your bubble.
I know I'm guilty of that.
So.
and you'll be amazed by what you can find.
Thanks so much for listening.
I really enjoyed it.
I hope you all did too.
And we'll catch you all in the next one.
See you on the next one.
Bye.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
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