IVIV music

[Carvill, John]

I found that whole 'listening booth' scene very puzzling. 

Obviously there is the modern-day resonance. But even a jaundiced view of today's popular music environment would have to include at least some positives. Yes, people are walking around plugged into their iPods, engrossed in their own digital music libraries, etc. But then there are all those music websites, blogs, streams, giveaways, etc. Not to mention the wonderful world of file sharing, peer-to-peer networks, bittorrents, etc. All of these enable people to share music much more easily and, a lot of the time, at little or no cost, except of course for the baseline cost of internet access. 

I never thought of listening booths as isolating or in any way negative, quite the opposite, although by the time I was buying records such booths were long gone. I don't really 'get' what Pynchon seems to be saying about the shift from 'free and communal' to 'commercial and isolating'. I don't think those divisions really work the way they appear to be presented. I realize I can't claim to know what Pynchon is trying to say, that's why I say I don't understand what he *seems* to be getting at. Was rock n roll ever free? There were some free music festivals, though just how cost-free (literally or otherwise) they ever were is open to question, surely. I think this subject was discussed here before.

Can a shift from rock concerts/festivals, to buying records, really be seen as negative? To me, the record was the heart of rock n roll, and for a lot of bands the live performances they gave were often significantly less important, to their own self-image, than how their records sounded. A-and, the owning of each record was a key part of the listening experience. You could make a cassette copy of a record, and that would certainly be a very acceptable alternative, but ideally you wanted the original - the vinyl, the sleeve art, etc. Which is one of the reasons that digital formats - from CDs to MP3s - always seemed less special.