How to Listen to a Music Album the Old School Way : No Shuffling!

Cassette tape collection of someone from the internet.

I am a Xennial, I have seen how music formats and media has evolved. From vinyl, cassette tapes, CD’s, MP3’s, FLAC’s, AAC’s to streaming. From medium susceptible to scratches causing massive sound degeneration to lossless formats. From walkmans, CD-man, mini-disc players, iPods, Zune (yes they existed), iPhones, iPads to wearables. I have gone through the days of using pencils to wind cassette tapes just hear a particular track.

Been there, done that!

Of all the changes that I have been through, there is one particular thing that remains. Like maybe some of you who have lived through the serial or synchronous way listening to music albums, I have never been fond of the idea of shuffling. I grew up during the heydays of the cassette tapes. The first album that I ever bought was Greendays’ Dookie! From there, the collection grew and grew. Back in the good old times, I would sit back and listen to an album from track 1 to track N while singing along with lyrics provided on the inlay. No skipping! Probably because of the idea that constant rewinding or fast forwarding will damage the media. I learned to love each song, some sucked big time on first listen, but becomes more tolerable in time.

While it is true that random music playing in your ear eliminates monotony, it limits the time frame allotted for a listener to better appreciate the artists’ musicality. You cant gauge an artists’ potential based on a single billboard hit. The idea of “one hit wonders” reflects this concept. Sometimes, a single song sells like hotcakes for some other reasons besides a good lyrics and a melody. There are also artists that can come up with an album worth of good music and, sometimes, some of the best songs are not those that were released for airplay. That’s the beauty of listening to the entire album, we discover things that others would not even know. There are surprises that are kept in between the tracks that are always waiting to be discovered.

Taken from a Beatles album cover.

Here are two concepts that I think can help others reconsider the beauty of not shuffling .

1. Most musicians are also great poets and great storytellers. The song that they release for airplay may just be a small part of a bigger story that goes along with the album. Each track can become a chapter of a story. When it is read in random order, it can be confusing, but when arranged chronologically, it would offer a very great story. Some albums were created with this concept and the best way to experience it is to listen to the whole of it in the manner how the artists have arranged them. Beatles were good at this concept.
2. An album can be a well-planned recipe. Each song contributing to its envisioned overall taste. To appreciate the whole piece, you have to listen to the whole album and enjoy the different tracks mixing subconsciously in your head resulting in a sublime dose of wonderful music.

Here we are nearing the end of yet another year. Streaming music has been a trend and we have been served with personalized playlist brewed by the most advanced A.I. Still, there are things only human understand and feel. Music is definitely one of them. So away from the technologies, try something new, go back in time and enjoy music albums the old-fashioned way. No shuffling!

The original article was posted in my personal blog in 2011. I have edited some parts to make it relevant in 2017.

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