Dire Straits were, at one point, The Biggest Band in the World. Now yes, that’s an extremely subjective thing to say and is a bit meaningless since there’s really no absolutely 100% accurate metric [...]]]> This is another entry in my series where I expand on the artists I mentioned in my Fifteen Albums post.

Dire Straits were, at one point, The Biggest Band in the World. Now yes, that’s an extremely subjective thing to say and is a bit meaningless since there’s really no absolutely 100% accurate metric to measure this by. But they are one of the bands that are acknowledged to have been that.

They only released six albums, but one of these albums was 1985′s Brothers in Arms, which holds the distinction of being the first album where CD sales surpassed vinyl. It’s also the first rock album to be recorded with the CD format in mind – it was recorded completely digitally and the track lengths were not hindered by vinyl’s limited capabilities (in fact, some of the songs were edited down for the vinyl release).

One of the most super-awesome-famous songs in the universe, Money for Nothing, is from this album. Pointless trivia about that song: the, at the time, ground-breaking computer-animation-heavy video for it was the first video played on MTV Europe.

The band, which was enjoying fairly decent success before this album, became a huge success after it.

I can’t really talk about Dire Straits without talking about Mark Knopfler. Which makes sense since he really was the band.

I know I’ve said I don’t really do “fandom”, but if there’s anyone I’m close to being a fan of, it’s Mark Knopfler. The man is a genius, in the same way that Mozart was a genius. If he were born 200 years earlier, I firmly believe that people would still be listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Knopfler.

The problem with being a band as successful as Dire Straits is that you have to play gigantic arenas ans similar venues, and Mark Knopfler didn’t enjoy that very much. HE disbanded the group and continued to record and tour under his own, slightly less recognisable name, and now he plays semi-large theatres rather than arenas.

I have been to several of his concerts locally. Sadly he always plays at this one theatre where if you don’t have the PERFECTLY IN THE MIDDLE seats, the sound just turns into white noise. It’s fairly irritating. Especially since the theatre right across the street seems to be a lot better. But I digress and confuse. But that’s ok because I’m out of material anyway.

Next up on MyDef: Jethro Tull. Ooooooh boy.

But he does on occasion come out with some fantastic stuff. And I know [...]]]> Tom Petty is one of those people who has some stuff I like, but I don’t feel the need to get every album of. Actually one of the very very few “Best Of” albums I have is one of his.

But he does on occasion come out with some fantastic stuff. And I know I said this wouldn’t be a blog where I make people watch a buncha videos, but we’ll do this one since it’s a great example of exactly what Non-Adjective Rock Music should sound like.

The video is… extremely creepy. But it does ‘star’ Kim Basinger. It’s also grandfathered because when I first heard it, Mary Jane meant nothing more than hey, that’s the same name as Spider-Man’s girlfriend. I mean the song is called Mary Jane’s Last Dance and in the video he does dance with someone who might be named Mary Jane for all I know.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

No, Foo Fighters do not count as “Oldies”.

Thank you.

When I was about 14 I went to the local record store (which was, by the way, tiny) and bought my first copy of The Wall. When I brought it home, my mom saw it and said “Pink [...]]]> There were so many titles I could’ve used for this post… and I went with that one.

When I was about 14 I went to the local record store (which was, by the way, tiny) and bought my first copy of The Wall. When I brought it home, my mom saw it and said “Pink Floyd? Are you crazy??”

I can appreciate why she’d say that, at least form the perspective of over 20 years in the future. It’s really the same reason that The Wall is my second least favourite album of a band that I think is phenomenal.

Pink Floyd had recorded and released many, many albums prior to The Wall, ranging in quality from pretty darn good to friggin legendary. Rather than write half a dozen essays about each and every one of them, I’ll just do a Brief Summary.

This is complicated by the fact that their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was recorded when the main guy in the group was still Syd Barrett. Poor, poor Syd Barrett, who’s dreams of stardom actually drove him insane. Well, that and the drugs. The first album has a lot of child-like innocence mixed in with the psychedelic, but Syd would not last much more than one album. Luckily they brought in Dave Gilmour to cover for him… and eventually just stopped picking him up on the way to performances. He was quite far gone by then. This was in 1967, and haunt them for the rest of their lives.

They released several albums after that which, while pretty darn good, I don’t have a lot to say about.

One I will mention, though, is 1969′s Ummagumma. This was a double album, half of which was a collection of live performances, and the other of which was recordings made by the individual members of the group.

This is important mostly because there have been practically religious wars over who’s responsible for the Sound of Pink Floyd (mostly between two members of the band, really), but if you listen to the individual efforts of the band members it’s quite clear that it was all of them working together which really make it work. I’ll get back to that in the future.

They also released two albums (Atom Heart Mother in 1970 and Meddle in 1971) which are notable for having an entire side devoted to a single track. This is back when albums had sides. Nowadays people probably wonder what’s with the random 22-minute track. They also recorded a couple of movie soundtracks.

Then, in 1973, they released Dark Side of the Moon.

There are a lot of interesting facts (and a LOT of interesting “facts”) about this one. It spent an insane amount of time on the Billboard Top 200 chart (before they changed how they count that). There was a factory in Germany that did nothing but produce Dark Side of the Moon CDs. It was estimated that one in five people in the entire world has a copy of this album in one format or another. And it syncs up with The Wizard of Oz. Distinguishing between facts and “facts” is left as an exercise for the readers. This one’s real (thought it might not make sense if you’ve never heard the album) – Clare Torry was paid a mere £500 for her vocal performance. Her unbelievable and completely improvised vocal performance (although they did give her a bonus when they heard it).

Wish You Were Here was released in 1975, and was basically a big tribute to Syd Barrett. Rather than a single track taking up an entire side, Shine On you Crazy Diamond was split into two parts which open and close the album. There’s a now famous story where, despite none of them hearing anything from him in years, Syd showed up at the studio while they were recording this track. Just to say hi. They barely recognised him. He wandered around for a while and then left. The band members all pretty much said they were in tears after that.

I’m going to diverge for a minute to mention some (well, all) the members of the band.

Nick Mason was the drummer, Rick Wright was the keyboard player. They both contributed to the compositions, and I suppose vocals (though Nick Mason’s amount to one garbled line).

Dave Gilmour was the lead guitarist and vocalist. He contributed to lyrics and did a lot of compositions. Being a guitar-lead band, he’s responsible for a lot of the most recognised sounds.

Roger Waters was the bass player (kinda), and would occasionally sing. He wrote a large amount of the lyrics. He also decided he’s the band leader after Syd left, and tried to take over and enforce his view more and more.

The first time this was really obvious was with 1977′s Animals, where Dave Gilmour refused to sing some of the lyrics Roger Waters had written because they were unnecessarily harsh. The vocals actually switch from Gilmour to Waters mid-song.

Which leads us to The Wall, which is basically Roger Waters’ fictionalised autobiography performed by Pink Floyd. Waters was apparently being so crazy that Rick Wright quit the band.

And it also contains what is sadly the most iconic Pink Floyd line ever. The line where, if you yell “PINK FLOYD!” at people, this is what will inevitably and immediately pop into their mind. The line that made our parents thing Pink Floyd are Bad People. And (as if I really have to tell anyone) this line is, of course:

Also one of the stupidest lines that anyone ever tried to work into what he considered a serious work.

Not only is that line just plain dumb because dammit, if there’s anything the entire world does need, it’s education, it’s also completely contrary to the rest of that track. The song is basically about how schools shouldn’t be stifling, brain-washing robot factories, and how teachers shouldn’t be plain mean and abusive. I’m fairly sure everyone, including our parents, would agree with that. But what line do people remember? Yeah, that one.

Anyway, after The Wall, Waters wanted to make an album with all the songs that were rejected from that album. Nobody really wanted to do that, so he went and wrote an album about how the Falkland War sucked. At least this album was honest and was labelled as a work by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd.

After that they pretty much broke up and sued each other over who gets to use the name “Pink Floyd” and, believe it or not, who gets to use the giant inflatable pig.

Gilmour, Mason and Wright recorded a few more albums and toured under the name Pink Floyd, and Waters went around doing giant The Wall concerts on the Berlin wall. Oh and he recorded some albums I guess. Oh and he’s doing another huge The Wall thing right now.

The other three also released some solo albums. I will say that Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports and Rick Wright’s Broken China are both, at the least, pretty interesting. Wright’s album also features one of the best performances I’ve heard by Sinaed O’Connor, by which I mean I don’t want to hurt myself when I hear it.

Oh, Syd Barrett also recorded some solo albums. Dave Gilmour helped on some of them. They’re… I don’t know if I can find the words, really. If you know hiss history, you can listen to them and pick out the glimmerings of genius and the glimmerings of madness. I don’t know that I’d recommend them, but I love them. Syd Barrett died in 2006; the best thing I can say is that he was always well cared for and didn’t really lack for anything.

Rick Wright also passed away, in 2008. The remaining band members have said that that’s pretty much it for ever reviving the band.

Well that’s a bit of a down note to end on, so I’ll tell a Personal Anecdote.

When I was 18, I got to go to Germany. This was an unexpected work trip, and in the two weeks I was there I had about half a day to actually walk around Hanover and look around. Naturally at some point I went into a record store and found what at the time seemed like a rare Pink Floyd CD (it was Obscured by Clouds, one of the aforementioned movie sound tracks).

Nothing much happened after that till the flight back home. Security at the airport was insane, and I mean INSANE. All the taking off shoes stuff we have now is nothing. This was like a big warehouse-like area where everyone’s luggage got opened and searched, and I mean the checked luggage, not just the carry-on.

This worried me a little since my method of packing at the time involved tossing everything in the suitcase and jumping on it till it closed, and I figured if they mess around in there too much there’d be a dirty clothes explosion.

Anyway, my turn comes around, the guy opens my suitcase and that CD is sitting right on top of everything.

Guy looks at me and goes “Oh, Pink Floyd, very good, very good,” closes my suitcase right back up, and passes me through.

I like music a lot, and there are plenty of artists I like, appreciate, admire and love. But I really don’t consider myself a “fan”.

A whole while ago I had a ticket to go see [...]]]> I figured I should write this up since it’s been bouncing around in my brain for ages.

I like music a lot, and there are plenty of artists I like, appreciate, admire and love. But I really don’t consider myself a “fan”.

A whole while ago I had a ticket to go see Cat Power play a concert at a small theatre at the local university. There were two shows, and I think they were two hours apart – my ticket was for the 5:00pm show (I might be paraphrasing the actual time).

It was general admission, so I showed up semi-early to get a good seat.

Then I decided that standing in line with a bunch of smoking collage kids was silly so I went and waited at a coffee shop and came back about half an hour before the show. I assumed the doors would be open by then. They weren’t.

At 5:00pm, the doors were still not open. I asked other people in line if they knew what was going on, but nobody knew. Eventually I walked up to the doors and knocked until someone bothered coming out and telling us that the show was delayed and they wouldn’t be letting people in till 6:30pm.

At this point I asked if anyone wanted a free ticket, gave mine to the first person who didn’t think I was joking, and went home.

When I got home I thought it might be a good idea to post something to a local online forum to let people who might have tickets for the 8:00pm show know that there is no way that thing is starting on time. I did post that there was a huge huge delay, that the people running the theatre didn’t bother coming out and explaining anything and were content to let us all wait out in the rain.

Some people asked how come I hadn’t waited. I explained that I actually had stuff to do that day, and that standing outside in the rain with a bunch of people who were already pretty drunk and smoking all over the place was just not something I’m willing to do just to see a Cat Power concert.

People just couldn’t understand the reasoning and basically a flame-war erupted where people were giving me crap for leaving. One person commented (again, paraphrasing) that “…isn’t it funny how a little rain separates the TRUE fans from the wannabes?”

That’s really when it struck me – no, I’m not a fan.

The word “fan” is derived, for good reason, from the word “fanatic”. “Fans” are the people who buy every single album – including reissues, different versions of the same album, Japanese imports, whatever. They’re the ones who go to every single show. The ones who WILL wait out in the rain, the snow, the heat, whatever. The ones who scream when the show starts.

That’s just not me.

Here’s an example – there are not a lot of musicians I admire as much as Mark Knopfler. Guy’s a genius. I keep saying that if he was born 300 years ago, people would still be listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Knopfler. That’s the extent of his genius in my book. I was really disappointed when I missed his concerts twice before I finally managed to hear about them more than 24 hours before they took place and got tickets to see him.

I was obviously very excited to see Mark Knopfler play live. Sadly, the concert itself was a let-down.

Did I ever write about how one of my pet peeves at concerts is that they’re just too loud? Well, this one was too loud. And the venue Mark Knopfler plays at when he’s in town has some serious sound problems. Unless you’re sitting at a very narrow sweet spot, the sound will be horrible. The seats I had at that concert, some of the time all you could here was – and I’m serious about this – white noise.

Not music, not even painfully loud music, just the SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHFFFFFFFF of white noise. No recognisable musical note whatsoever.

I assumed that was accidental – nobody could want the sound to be that bad, right? So I went to see Mark Knopfler the next time he was in town and the same thing happened. That time I actually complained, which is how I found out about the sweet spot.

The last time I saw Mark Knopfler I got seats that I thought were near enough to the sweet spot… but they weren’t. Plus it was just… painfully loud.

(The whole loudness is a totally different topic, I suppose, but I will say that yes, people have suggested I take ear plugs to concerts. Which just boggles my mind. Why on EARTH would I go to a MUSIC CONCERT if I can’t HEAR THE MUSIC? I already know what Mark Knopfler looks like, I’m not there to LOOK at him. I’m there to hear him play the damn guitar. But anyway).

Last year when Mark Knofpler was once again touring and playing a local show, I didn’t bother trying to get tickets. I figure it’s just too much of a gamble.

The other night, K called me a “fanboy” just because I went to a craft store, got some iron-on letters and made a slogan-shirt which I wore to a Nellie McKay concert. I don’t really think that makes me a fanboy. I mean if I had no reason whatsoever to think that she’d see it, maybe. But there was a pretty good chance she would (she tends to stay around after the show to chat/sign autographs/pose for photos for my other blog). And really me doing something weird on the off-chance that it’ll entertain one single person isn’t really new. Heck, this isn’t even the first time I made a t-shirt for that purpose. The fact that it DID entertain Nellie McKay is definitely a plus. But that’s another point – she actually takes the time and makes the effort to interact with people, even weird people with silly action figures, so she deserves the extra effort (plus I learned how to iron-on patches. Ok, I learned that I’m bad at it).

Alright, I think that’s enough tangents for one night. Honestly I think I’m still a bit wired from the three cups of tea I had at Nellie’s concert (yes, that’s what heavy drinking at a concert is around here – tea.) To summarise: I love music and I’m ever so grateful and appreciative to the wonderful artists who make it. But seriously, I’m not going to stand outside in the rain or suffer through enough noise that it makes me want to pass out just so I can say I’ve been there.

Oh, also, if you guys could stop trying to sell $50 t-shirts at your concerts, that’d be cool. I happen to know for a fact that iron-on letters cost like $3.

I’m going to twist that a bit. I’ve been meaning to start writing posts about music that was defining for me – the bands where I went [...]]]> There’s a meme going around on a certain social network that shall go unmentioned right now where people are tagged to name fifteen albums in fifteen minutes.

I’m going to twist that a bit. I’ve been meaning to start writing posts about music that was defining for me – the bands where I went out and bought every single album, and I’m going to use this as something of an introduction/thought exercise for that. I’m going to go in chronological order, list the Top 15 bands/singers/acts I ever got into, and the FIRST album of theirs I listened to, and maybe throw in some information about why/how/where/etc. At some point I’ll write an actual entry about each of them and expand on that.

So here we go, and again, chronological order.

#1: The Beatles – Let It Be

Ironically, their last-released album was the first album I heard. Mostly because we had it at home – it was one of my mom’s favourite albums. I was probably twelve when I started listening to it. Then started the long, arduous task of buying all their other albums, which is no mean feat when you’re 12 and there’s no such thing as an iTunes Gift Card.

#2: Pink Floyd – The Final Cut

Once again, their last released album! Even funnier, it’s now my least favourite Pink Floyd album (and The Wall is my second-least -favourite) – so much so that I currently own every Pink Floyd album except this one.

I was probably fourteen when I heard it. A friend of mine insisted that he had to lend it to me and wouldn’t take it back till I listened to it. Back then it seemed really, you know, deep. Nowadays it’s just Roger Waters being whiny.

Interestingly, I didn’t actually get into the good Pink Floyd stuff till much later.

#3: Dire Straits – Making Movies

Ah, Dire Straits – proof that there was some good rock music in the 80s. I remember listening to tapes of this album on a walkman while taking the bus to work.

Dire Straits, at some point The Biggest Band In The World, only released five albums. But I’m counting Mark Knopfler’s solo albums in this.

#4: Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick

This was another album someone lent me and insisted I listen to it. One night I decided it’s time to clean my room, so I plugged in some headphones and put the CD on.

After the first fifteen seconds I was absolutely hooked and knew I need to get everything these people ever made. And I’m going to describe them now.

This album (which is basically one long track) starts with a mellow-ish acoustic guitar riff, followed by the line “Really don’t mind if you sit this one out.”

That was it. The delivery on that is just perfect. It didn’t hurt that this part is immediately followed by a flute (yeah, I didn’t know Jethro Tull were so heavily flute-based), and that Thick as a Brick is basically a phenomenal album.

Incidentally, Thick as a Brick is the first CD I bought on the internet. This was before there were websites. You had to telnet to the store. But that’s another story.

#5: Led Zeppelin – IV

This is almost too obvious that it’s embarrassing. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Zeppelin anymore for two reasons: first, I don’t think they really had any musical growth. A track from any of their albums would feel right at home on any other album. Second, well, I believe Homer Simpson put it best when he said “There’s Jimmy Page, the biggest thief of American black music who ever walked the Earth.” But everyone goes through a OMG STAIRWAY!!!! phase, and I bought a lot of their albums during that time, so…

#6: Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps

See, I don’t listen exclusively to British bands!

Late one night I turned on the TV and there were these… weird robed figures with shiny eyes walking on the stage. They looked like giant Jawas. Then this guy came on and played some mellow stuff. Then they rearranged the stage and he rocked the living crap out of the place.

Years later I was listening to this CD on a bus (yeah, on the way to work, but in a discman this time) and when Neil Young said “Rock and Roll will never die” it just hit me that, you know… it kinda had.

#7: Frank Zappa – Sheik Yerbouti

Frank Zappa was just completely, totally different from anything else I’d ever listened to before. It kind of defies description, really.

I remember buying this CD and then listening to it on the bus on the way home (I swear, this is the last bus story) and just trying really, really hard not to laugh the entire way.

A lot of people find Frank Zappa offensive, but those people are jerks (see what I did there?) Zappa hardly ever pulls punches and considers pretty much anyone a valid target. Which is just fine by me. Zappa died way too young. He should still be here annoying the hell out of everyone.

Intermission

There’s a bit of a gap in years between the last entry and the next one. I had moved to a different country and could only take 50 CDs with me. This was well before it was practical to rip and encode your entire music collection – it took over a day to rip one album and there weren’t as many automated tools to name the tracks for you.So there were a few years not having any money, and of reacquiring old music before I could really get into new stuff.

#8 Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner

I was actually on a road trip and decided to pick up some new CDs because I was getting bored with the ten I’d brought with me. This was one of them (there were actually three Tom Waits discs, but this is the one I listened to first). I listened to it while driving late into the night. It’s kind of a perfect night-driving album.

Interesting note: Tom Waits was the first artist who’s songs I first heard by downloading them off the internet. This prompted me to buy just about every single album he ever released.

#9 Joni Mitchell – Clouds

Joni Mitchell is on the list of People I Should’ve Been Listening To For Ages. Before getting her CDs, I’d actually heard more covers of her songs than her actual versions of them. I got this album because I remembered Judy Collins’ cover of Both Sides, Now.

I do have quite a few Joni Mitchell albums, but I have to admit that the very heavy jazzy ones don’t really do it for me.

#10: David Bowie- Space Oddity

Ok, before anyone freaks out, yes I did say this is in chronological order. However, Bowie is one of those artists where I’d get one of his albums every 3-4 years. I got the first one when I was 16 or 17, and I’ve been getting more every few years, and I’ve only recently decided that, yes, I do actually have a considerable amount of his music. Which is interesting since I have absolutely ZERO interest in anything he did after 1977.

#11: Loreena McKennitt: … I’m not really sure.

Back in 1994 there was a TV show named Due South. It was a Canadian TV show, and regularly featured music by Canadian artists.

One episode featured this one sing that was just beautiful. And I had to wait well over a decade for the DVDs to be released, so that I could buy them and pause the credits to read that that song was called Prospero’s Speech and it was by an artist named Loreena McKennitt. Luckily we had Google by then so I could find that it was part of an album called The Mask and Mirror… which wasn’t available anywhere.

I ended up getting a boxed-set that contained four other albums, and I really don’t remember which ones they were or which one I listened to first, or when at some point all her other albums became available again, but when they were, I bought them, too.

Interesting note: Loreena McKennitt is, to this date, the only artist I’ve found who sells their music online in FLAC format (this is cool, trust me).

#12: Cat Power: The Greatest

One of the very few “I Heard A Review On The Radio” artists. And frankly it makes me a bit sad to talk about Cat Power. I absolutely loved her first six albums, which evolved form very low-key, almost lonely girl-and-guitar sound, to a somewhat more coherent sound with an actual band, but never anything really crowded. And there was always a… vulnerability in there.

One day I was listening to the radio and the DJ said “Up next, new music from Cat Power!” and I was really happy. Then they started playing it and I was “Uh… is that… a cover of Sinatra’s New York, New York??? And a pretty horrible one, at that?” and it kind of all went downhill from there.

#13: Nellie McKay: Get Away From Me

Nellie McKay is the anti-Cat Power. Heard her on the same radio station (where they toned her down a lot). Her musical style and voice also evolved, but she seems to be going in a direction that only improves and works even better for her. Her latest album is basically all covers – it’s a tribute to Doris Day, and it’s just so obvious that she should be doing that.

I think Nellie McKay is the artist I’ve seen live the most times. Which isn’t saying a whole lot for me, but hey.

#14: Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen

Yeah, I know, I should’ve been listening to Leonard Cohen for ages. And I do have vague recollections of hearing him on the radio in the 80s. And I heard a lot of his songs performed by other artists. One day I decided it’s about time I hear his actual music so I bought a whole chunk of his stuff. I really prefer the style of his early stuff.

#15: Fairport Convention: What We Did On Our Holidays

Yeah, I know, I should’ve been liste… wait, I already said that. Ok, honestly, I have NO IDEA how Fairport Convention slipped under my radar. Just no idea. Especially considering that Jethro Tull have been there forever. But hey, they’re here now.

Epilogue

I want to be clear that these aren’t all the bands/artists I listen to, nor all the ones I really like, nor all the ones I have a lot of albums. They’re just the top 15. Or the first 15 I could think of. Or something. And yeah, I will try to write longer entries about, well, fourteen of them, at least.

Before I start, though, I have to mention that, yes, there are some advantages to buying music online. Being able to select [...]]]> Yup. I still buy CDs. I have several hundred of them, and I have no plans to stop anytime soon. Since this seems to be rare nowadays, I thought I’d explain why.

Before I start, though, I have to mention that, yes, there are some advantages to buying music online. Being able to select tracks, for one. Albums might end up cheaper. You can always download album art and lyrics (plus album art really hasn’t been the same since we moved away from vinyl).

Stealing Doesn’t Count

Figured I’d put this one right up at the beginning. Yes, we all know you can download whatever you want online, but contrary to popular belief, that’s still wrong.

Now I’m not morally opposed to a… shall we say, try-before-you-buy kind of experience. Download some music, but if you like it, you really should buy it.

It’s A Physical Object

I can hold a CD. I can pick it up, move it around, put it on a shelf, or put it in a box in the attic. Which is what I actually do. The music gets copied to the computer, then the CDs get put in a box in the attic. More on why that makes sense later.

DRM

Yeah, you can buy DRM-free music online, but it’s still not ubiquitous.

Freedom

Say you buy a track in iTunes. It’s not really super easy to ditch iTunes and go somewhere else. Yes, there are other online music stores, but lets face it, iTunes is pretty much the top dog.

When I buy music, I want to be able to listen to it in my living room, in my car, in the gym, while walking the dog, while kayaking, wherever. I want it on the CD, on CD-Rs, on my media center computer, on my MP3 player, on a USB thumbdrive, on my cellphone, etc. I want to be able to copy and move my music around to wherever I want. I don’t want any restrictions.

Lossy vs Loseless

I mentioned earlier that I copy all the music from my CDs to the computer. Lossy compression is the reason that makes sense. It’s also the most nerdy.

Raw data on a CD takes up a large amount of disk space. An MP3 file (or a WMV file, or an AAC file, or an OGG file) is a compressed version of this file, and so it takes much less space (on the order of a 90% less space). The compression scheme these files use is what is called “Lossy” compression – which means that the content actually CHANGES. If you uncompress an MP3, you don’t get the original track. You lose some data, and therefore quality.

Compare this with loseless compression, like you’d get with a ZIP file. When you uncompress a ZIP file, you get the exact same file (or files) back.

There are loseless compression formats available for music. FLAC is the most popular one nowadays. The data in a FLAC file is exactly identical to the original music track. The downside is that these files are much larger than an MP3 file (about 50% smaller than the original track rather than 90% smaller).

The value in this is that, with loseless compression, you have a 100% complete copy of your CD. You can always uncompress it and burn it back to a disc with no data or quality loss.

Data formats tend to change over time. MP3 may be ruling the roost today, but there are other, superior formats. Perhaps some day we’ll want all our music files in a different format, for whatever reason. You can uncompress your MP3 files and recompress them in the new format, but doing so definitely results in data loss. Not so with loseless algorithms like FLAC – you can recompress your music into whatever format you like, as many times as you like, with no data loss at all.

I’ve seen albums for sale in FLAC format online, but the prices have been exactly the same as a CD!

SACD

I’m only half-serious about this one, but there are other music formats available on CDs, or CD-like media. SACD and DVD-A both provide much higher sound quality, and (optionally) full 5.1-channel surround sound, as opposed to CDs plain-old-2-channel stereo.

I’ll have to write more about those some other time.