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I’m afraid for the youth of the future. They will never appreciate an album. The whole economy and social security thing is pretty bad, but not being able to enjoy a piece of art? That is a tragedy.

No thanks to Steve Jobs and the iPod, kids don’t buy albums, they buy singles. Jobs has done for the album maker, what video did to the radio star. Who needs $13.99 for one solid single and 12 tracks of filler when you can spend $.99 for that one song. When I enter Newbury Comics my heart breaks a little.

How, you may ask, do I know this for a fact? Well, believe it or not, when I’m not checking concerts and sampling beer, I work as an assistant at a high school. Everyday I’m bombarded with students playing music far too loud and I apprehend an iThing as punishment. That’ll teach Timmy to ruin his hearing.

What really spurred this whole diatribe was a recent exchange I had with a student. He made a comment that he liked the Counting Crows because they write a lot of happy, upbeat songs. I gave him a funny look and asked what albums he had. None, he replied, he had a few songs on his iPod, and that was all.

Ok, anyone that has listened to the Counting Crows knows Adam Duritz is extremely depressed and writes sad songs. Did you ever listen to Recovering the Satellites?

I’m not trying to dissuade his opinion; I was merely displaying a trend: kids aren’t buying albums anymore instead they buy the ‘good songs’ to amass on MP3 players. When I was in high school a discussion about music was a fight for survival.  Nowadays, it all sounds the same, even if it isn’t on shuffle.