Two of Us Riding Nowhere

I have a love-hate relationship with my MP3 player.

99.65% of the time, I have at least 25 CDs in my car: 12 in the center console, 2 below my CD player, 5 tucked next to my cupholders, 5 in the side panels, and a minimum of 1 CD riding shotgun. Now, granted, an MP3 player is great for keeping your car clutter-free. And I really like having the variety of music available to me, but without the physical CDs (thus, using an MP3 player), I feel like the music isn't authentic. Sure, you have the thumbnail of the album art and the song titles with your MP3, but you're not able to glance at the back of the actual album to see where exactly you are in the album or brush up on the lyrics while stopped at a stoplight.

Overall, though, my main beef with MP3 players is the "Random" or "Shuffle" feature. To me, when you purchase the album of an artist, you are obligating yourself to listen to a certain selection of songs in a certain order. If the artist didn't care what the tracklisting was or if the songs weren't connected somehow, they would just get released as singles. In a perfect world, artists know exactly how they want you to hear that music, and shuffle totally ruins that environment. Three examples:

1) The way the hey-oh! at the end of the Beatles' "The Continuing Story of Bungalo Bill" flows into "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the "White Album" is minimalistic genius.

2) The one-two punch of "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill" opening up Rush's strongest LP Permanent Waves, two of their greatest FM powerhorses.

3) Coheed and Cambria's sweet and soft ballad "Wake Up" is punctuated by the heavy-hitting "The Suffering" on their prog opus entitled (deep breath) Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV - Volume One: From Fear through the Eyes of Madness.

For me, the arrangement of the songs is just as important as the songs themselves. It defines the personality of the album by offering contrasting sounds, providing a landscape, ebbing and flowing or embracing homogeneity. With actual CDs, you have no choice but to listen to the CD in order. With MP3 players, it's a different story. No one is forced to use shuffle, but if the option's there, who really isn't going to use it some?

The pros of shuffling are many. It gives you your own personal radio station, filled with all the songs and artists you like. The variety enables you to not as easily wear out a song or an album as listening to an album by itself. And most importantly, you may stumble across a song that you haven't heard in a while, inspiring you to re-discover the artist.

However, to reiterate, here's what I can't stand about shuffling. It encourages album promiscuity. With all this bouncing around from artist to artist, you aren't committing to a single album and listening to the piece as it was conceived.

I'll rant later about how I fear the death of the album, but if your MP3 player has been on shuffle for a while, how about you stay put with an album? You may fall in love with the artist all over again. But then again, when I had my MP3 player shuffle only my Rush collection, it was one of the most amazing mixes I have ever heard.

But what do you think? Are you a stayer or a shuffler? Sound off!

I Changed by Not Changing at All

Hello, friends. It's been too long. Since Stereo Plasma's inception, I've struggled to find this blog's identity. I've tried having weekly features, different gimmicks, and even contemplated looking for unknown bands to discuss. And the only result is a sporadic posting schedule--and much frustration on my end. So now I come to you with a re-invigorated purpose and goal.

Let's start from the beginning. To explain, "Stereo Plasma" is a phrase that I've tossed around since 2004, which I coined for a short film I made in high school. The film was about a teen in the wake of a relationship, struggling to connect with his friends and his ex's decision. The teen found solace in music and used it as an expression of his emotions. In my mind, music is as much a part of me as my blood. Therefore, "Stereo" for music, "Plasma" for blood.

The wonder of music is its ability to move people. While this isn't a unique revelation, I have broken down and cried many times while listening to music, simply caught in the emotion of a song. Yes, sometimes this was in a very "emo" context moping over a failed love. But sometimes, an artist can eloquate (not a real word, but the connotation is perfect in this situation) the beauty of life, the mystery of death, or the essence of humanity so well that the tears are not out of sadness but rather a profound understanding and connection. When I started this blog, my goal was to share that connection and love of music with others. At the end of the day, it's the connections you make with people that really matter.

Some music blogs will focus on news; others, discovering new bands; and many, writing reviews. While I may fall into such niches at times, my main goal is to share thoughts and ideas. Whether I'm defending "Rock Band," explaining the story behind an album, or musing on the importance of album art, music is the focus. This blog is only about music and the many ways to embrace and celebrate it. In the month and a half hiatus of this blog, I've listened to a ridiculous amount of music, and as much as I enjoy listening to music, half the joy of listening to albums is discussing them with people who care.

If you love music, please participate with "Stereo Plasma."

My name is Chuck Smith, and I love music.

Sound off, and sound often.