"...When I got my first wide shelf and lined all my CDs up, alphabetically, then chronologically, on its four tiers, I looked at it from across the room with immense satisfaction. I was a curator. That shelf is in a landfill now, just another casualty in a long parade of units that were outgrown and cast off, left on Salvation Army loading docks.
Today, I buy a lot more vinyl than CDs. Both are space-consuming media, though they consume it differently. As much as I love the square foot of a record, when CDs are on a shelf together en masse, spines lined up neatly, they have a visual heft that no other medium can claim. And we're living in the CD-packaging enlightenment, especially for reissues and compilations. Perfect binding, slipcases and other innovations have vastly improved the CD's ability to serve as an art object on par with an LP, or at least one worth keeping on a shelf."
PITCHFORK: Medium Uncool: The CD Turns 30
No comments:
Post a Comment