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In Defense of the Compact Disc

I am a child of the 90s. That decade shaped my adolescence and prepped me for an adult life in the new century. Like any adolescent, music was an important participant in the shaping of who I am today. I heard music through the radio and television, but the main format of my music consumption was the compact disc. I had a few cassette tapes in my earlier years, but the CD became the storage medium of choice for all my music needs. Trips to the music store were a weekly event, borrowing and copying CDs from friends were even more common, and yes, I even belonged to Columbia House to get 12 CDs for the price of one. Multiple CD cases were filled and were constantly being updated with new music. Furniture was bought for the sole purpose of CD storage. Obtaining a CD burner threw out limitations. It was a good time.

Towards the end of the decade, computer-based music and downloads were starting up and I fully took advantage of the high-speed internet in college to create a new library of music. But even with this, I never gave up on my CDs. There was something that these digital downloads could not replace. To me, it was something about the experience of the album as a whole. Each song meant something to the songs before and after it. I would be able to sing the first notes of the next song as soon as one song ended; you just knew the order. There is just something special about listening to the whole album, not just a single here and there.

Yes, I am well aware that digital players and media libraries have album-playing capabilities and you can experience the music just the same as if from a CD. But for me, there is a difference. I don't know if it is just having something tangible with you or if disc artwork makes a stronger impression, but I enjoy having a collection of CDs at hand. It becomes a more important decision when cycling through pages of CDs and their covers as opposed to scrolling through lines of text or hitting 'random'. It is a slower process, but it can also be more satisfying.

So even today, I still have soft cases of CDs in my car for my car's CD player. I could update to a digital based system, sure, but I like my discs. I like paging through the cases and picking out that CD that fits the mood I am in at the time. I don't mind that it sometimes takes some creative reaching and poor driving choices to get that certain CD out and in the player. Yes, the occasional CD skipping is an annoyance, but it makes me think of just how many times I may have listened to that album and maybe I need to do some backing-up, repurchasing or re-burning.

I think I am chalking this opinion up to pure stubbornness on my part; something in me that is holding on to those years in the 90s that molded my ears into the custom music receptors they are today. I experienced music in album format, off a plastic disc. I liked what resulted. I will continue to listen to those discs and experience those 80 minute journeys one at a time. Efficiency and durability may have improved with the adoption of newer formats, but CDs still provide me with a feeling that the new ways cannot. It may take a bit more care and maintenance, but I will stay loyal and stick with my spinning plastic discs that have always treated me well.