CDs will never be cool – they’re too good for hipsters
1.2.2022
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
Records, music cassettes and tape machines enjoy a lot of retro charm. Unlike CDs. Why’s that? Here are some reasons that don’t speak against – but rather for – CDs.
Many things seem to go through a kind of cycle. First, everyone uses them because they’re contemporary. A few years later, they’re obsolete and no one’s interested in them any more. And after that, they become sought-after collectors’ items. For example: in the 80s, the Walkman offered a new way of listening to music. Anyone who still carried a Walkman in the noughties was ridiculed as a backward fossil. Today, these things sell on second-hand platforms for prices in the four digits. Records and reel-to-reel tape also went through this cycle. Today, they’re not very common, but do enjoy a lot of sympathy.
This same phenomenon also exists in old computers, cars and fashion, where a 90s revival would have been unthinkable in the 00s.
Going by the logic of this cycle, CDs should also be deemed super cool in the future. But there are a few things that speak against it.
CDs are too ordinary
Collectors prefer to hunt for rare items; these are the trophies to be truly proud of. CDs have a bad hand there, because they’re anything but rare. In this respect, they’re the victim of their own success. CD sales in the last 40 years far eclipse all other forms of music consumption.
Source: IFPI
CDs are too easy
Records require a lot of care and maintenance. Anything you have to constantly attend to will get a lot of love and appreciation. You build a relationship with these items. CDs, on the other hand, work even when treated with no love. And should one break, I can even burn a new copy myself. Accordingly, hardly anyone considers CDs a valuable treasure. The same applies to the playback device: it’s maintenance-free. It just works. A cheap device doesn’t sound much different to an expensive one – quite the opposite of record players and cassette decks. As such, CD players don’t cut it as collector’s items, either.
Source: Shutterstock
CDs aren’t sensual
A big part of the fascination I have for reel-to-reel tape is that I can actually watch the music as it plays. I see how the music is transformed. This is also true for records and, to a certain extent, music cassettes. A CD, on the other hand, disappears into a drawer and isn’t visible during use. This isn’t the case with all CD players, mind you, but with the vast majority. Either way, almost all CD players look the same. Techmoan recently made a video about this – with a fancy CD player, of course, that looks totally different and makes the music visible.
CDs were never cool to begin with
Despite its unprecedented success – or perhaps precisely because of it – the CD has never been cool. It embodied the mainstream too much. CDs were bought on a large scale even by people who were hardly interested in music. Because the CD was so hassle-free, it was perceived as a mere commodity, roughly comparable to a milk carton. In addition, there were the previously widespread prejudices against digital music, which often drifted into the esoteric. Music from CDs was said to be «soulless» – as if grooves stamped into plastic had a soul.
A case for CDs
The chances of the CD becoming the next cult item are slim. But everything that speaks against the CD as a trend speaks for the CD as a commodity. The range is huge, the handling simple. CDs provide good sound reliably and cheaply. You get a bit of a retro vibe, but without the hassle normally associated with retro sound mediums.
However, the most important reason for listening to CDs is not nostalgia, but your appreciation of the concept of an album. An album doesn’t just play you songs thrown together at random. It gives you music that fits together and belongs together, in the intended, well thought-out order.
CDs appreciate the concept of the album. For records, the album length is limited to about 45 minutes; a CD album can be up to 74 minutes long. And it can be played without a half-time interruption. It doesn’t surprise me that many more albums were sold – and are still being sold – on CD rather than on vinyl.
Of course, I can also listen to entire albums on streaming services or through downloads. But most of the time, I don’t. And even if I do, it’s just not the same. The simple fact that no other music is available until a new CD is inserted makes a difference. When I insert a disc, I commit myself fully to the album.
CDs increase the likelihood that you’ll listen to an album multiple times. In doing so, you’ll discover new, hidden details and rejoice in them. You might notice that the unremarkable pieces of an album are actually the highlight. You discover music.
That’s what CDs are all about. They’re not about hipster coolness. Or fetishising a sound medium or playback device. They’re not about being an audio snob. And they’re also not about this crazy notion of having to have and know everything. CDs are pure. CDs are wholly about listening to music.
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
