Some days ago I decided to pay a visit to my local public library. The goal was to check its musical collection and see what I could find. In this post I will tell you about how this small decision made me rekindle my love for music and how it reshaped the way I interact with it.
Lately, I have been feeling quite burnt out with the Internet. I am getting really tired of discovering everything through an algorithm designed by a Big Tech company; I want to go back to a more natural way of living and discovering stuff. So I took some inspiration from several YouTube videos that I’ve watched in the past and decided to see what music I could find in my small-town library.
The day was sunny and going for a walk felt really refreshing. Once in the library, I discovered several drawers filled with CDs, so I started perusing them. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a wide selection of genres and artists, from flamenco to alternative rock. There were a lot of options and my girlfriend suggested to go drawer by drawer, so I picked three albums from the first one on the left. I have months of music in each drawer; what an amazing discovery!
The experience of exploring rows and rows of CDs brought me some good memories and reminded me of those days when I used to go to record stores to build my own collection which, gladly, I still have. I loved feeling the albums, looking at the covers, reading the names of the tracks, appreciating the designs, etc; I missed this. So I will make it a habit to, once or twice a month, pay a visit to that wonderful place and discover some new music.
I need more physical media in my life. The fact that I made the decision to go to that particular place, borrow some albums, and listen to them in their entirety makes the whole experience an incredibly meaningful one. From now on, I will always remember the day I first listened to that album, how the weather was, things I saw on my walk there, the beautiful person that came with me, etc. All those memories are now imprinted in the covers of those first three albums that I borrowed from my public library. This would not have happened if I had just looked for a song online or clicked in the newest algorithmic recommendation. The intentionality of it all makes a significant difference.
Since I don’t want this entry to be as long as the previous ones, I will tell you about those three albums that I picked in my next post. Until then, take care of yourself.