An iPod In Every Palm, And iTunes On Every Computer

It may not be a chicken or a car [screenshot] like Herbert Hoover promised in 1928, but Apple has had tremendous success delivering music to the masses with the iPod and iTunes.

The following blog post got me to thinking of how the iPod has changed the way people buy and listen to music since its introduction in 2001.

What Does Your Music Say About You and Do You Care?

If one were to judge me by the music I’ve put on [my mp3 player], I could be thought of as cool, sappy, tough, stuck in the 80s, a metal head, a nerd, a wussy or an intellectual lover of the classics (you know, like Mozart or Def Leppard). It’s a bit daunting to realize we are all a slave to the shuffle play (unless you don’t use your shuffle) when it comes to that first musical impression.

Licensed to Blog | Screenshot

At no other time in our history have people had access to such a wide range of music genres. I remember when CD’s came out, and what an innovation they were. It just wasn’t that convenient. You had to actually go to the store to buy one, you were limited to the selection the store had in stock, and it wasn’t always easy to carry around a CD player and additional CD’s. Today, you can literally have a music library of thousands of artists in the palm of your hand.

​It's All About The Music

Dave McGowan has recently done a series on the birth of the hippie generation, and how it was influenced by people who were directly connected with the military intelligence complex.

​Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation - Part I

One of the earliest on the Laurel Canyon/Sunset Strip scene is Jim Morrison, the enigmatic lead singer of The Doors. Jim will quickly become one of the most iconic, controversial, critically acclaimed, and influential figures to take up residence in Laurel Canyon. Curiously enough though, the self-proclaimed “Lizard King” has another claim to fame as well, albeit one that none of his numerous chroniclers will feel is of much relevance to his career and possible untimely death: he is the son, as it turns out, of the aforementioned Admiral George Stephen Morrison.

And so it is that, even while the father is actively conspiring to fabricate an incident that will be used to massively accelerate an illegal war, the son is positioning himself to become an icon of the ‘hippie’/anti-war crowd. Nothing unusual about that, I suppose. It is, you know, a small world and all that. And it is not as if Jim Morrison’s story is in any way unique.

the Center for an Informed America | Screenshot

After reading some of this fascinating series, it occurred to me that the music of this generation played a major part in the social chaos of the 1960s and ’70s.

Another revolution, with music at it’s core, was the Young Christian Revolution [screenshot] (maybe not the official term, but it sounds as good as any other) which began somewhere around the ’70s, and introduced us to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM); Christianity’s answer to rock music. However, if you take a look at the CCM groups of today, it’s hard to tell the difference between “Christian” and secular bands. After witnessing the evolution of CCM from the late 80′s, 90′s and through today, it appears it was always on a steady course to blur the lines between Christian and secular music.

Perfect Timing

It’s ironic how these two countercultures “came of age” around the same time in history (purely coincidental, I’m sure). These music “revolutions” had a significant impact in the development of our society. One causing social unrest with their psychedelic tunes of esoterically inspired lyrics. The other morphing Christian music into a more secular look and sound, no longer reminiscent of the religious denominations or churches of previous generations. Incidentally this all occurred around the same time that the New Age movement was starting to gain ground here in the United States. What a fluke!

​There's something happening here...

So the music of “the generation of love” was used to bring about social anarchy (while being completely controlled by military intelligence). CCM was used to “bridge the gap” between the Christian faith and the secular world, by blurring (erasing?) the lines between Christian music and secular music. And the iPod has certainly played its part in creating a generation where music interest is “anything goes” and it doesn’t matter what you have on you mp3 player, you can always change it to fit your mood (or whoever’s riding in your car).

Music has the ability to create strong emotional, even mystical, experiences, and this ability has been taken advantage of in the past. The iPod and iTunes creates a dynamic where one can be exposed to a VAST amount of music genres that was impossible to past generations. Thus making one all the more eclectic in their tastes, their sympathies, allegiances, and even their beliefs; certainly more than with the Jesus freaks and hippies of the past.