The iPod - What's next?

Picture the scene. The year 1980; a young girl unwraps her 10th Birthday present, desperately hoping that beneath the paper will be the most wanted object imaginable. She’s over the moon to discover that, yes; she is the proud owner of a shiny red Walkman. Imagine the thrill, the novelty of being able to plonk in her favourite cassette and actually go out whilst listening to music.

Fast forward. The year is 2008, a thirty-something (you do the maths) woman unwraps her Birthday present. She’s over the moon to discover that, yes; she’s the proud owner of a shiny pink iPod. She sits and plays with the new toy, with the same fascination that the 10 year old held for the Walkman all those years ago.

It’s true that our Birthday girl was late to acquire an iPod. According to Wikipedia, by 2007, 150 million iPods had been sold worldwide since they first came onto the market in 2001. It wouldn’t be an understatement to claim that in that time they have revolutionised the way that we listen to, purchase and, indeed, perceive music.

In the years in between, videos and CDs have come and (nearly) gone. Records are the sole territory of DJs and those with a love of charity shop chic. Betamax is now an ‘in’ joke, told by those born in the 1970s to make a subtle point that they were cool enough to know the words to ‘Cool for Cats’ when those born in the 80s were still in nappies. Cassettes? They vanished from the music scene long before Top of the Pops faded from our TV screens.

Living in times of all things digital, it’s no great surprise that music is a ‘virtual’ concept. But, in an age of downloads can music shrink any further than the iPod?

Before the takeover of the CD, record shops used to be somewhere to ‘hang out’ – they were filled with teenagers every Saturday. If you wanted to meet up with your friends, you knew they’d be there. Heading home to listen to your new LPs with friends was cool. It was just as exciting to make your own cassette copy of an LP to transfer over to your Walkman. Everything to do with music was ‘touchy feely’ – the idea that you might, one day, listen to an album without ever holding it was unthinkable.

This isn’t just nostalgia. There’s no doubt, that what we’ve lost in terms of sociability when it comes to music, we’ve more than made up for in convenience.

However, what is exciting is the, slightly ironic, thought that perhaps we’ve finally managed to find a music format that will stick around for a while. No doubt the hardware itself will continue to shrink. But, it’s as ground breaking as any new innovation, in the ever faster digital world, to think that the iPod revolution has created something that might actually stay?

Then again, in 1980, it was difficult to imagine anything smaller, or ‘modern’, than the Walkman coming along…

About the Author

Sarah Maple used dealtime.co.uk and uk.shopping.com to compare iPod prices.

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