Music & Life

How many people like doing nothing? Writing using a computer is very slow work. People’s brains don’t work properly while staring at the computer. Perhaps writing using paper and pen is the best way. One thing I noticed in Haruki Murakami’s What I talk about when I talk about running was his repeated passages describing the music he was listening to. He didn’t want to use an iPod. He didn’t want to mix computers with music. Of course, modern music is all created using digital methods. This may include computers in many different stages. He wrote that he liked his MD Walkman. What I do know about MDs is that it is small, carries ATRAC2 compressed sound files, and has a group of supporters even now.

I wonder how Murakami listens to music now. Most people around me listen to music using their phones. Some people are able to obtain their music from YouTube. (Through various programs or by downloading the video itself and taking the sound only from it.) What is the importance of music in our lives? The newly emerging habit of listening to High-Resolution Audio seems to be gaining ground. Do we require music that sounds like a live performance? Will it not take away the special quality of going to a real live performance or concert to listen to music? The Walkman created by a small idea of Akio Morita caused people to walk around the streets listening to music. Nowadays, it seems normal when someone passes by with earphones in their ears. This is mostly due to Akio Morita. Sound engineering used to be a popular subject. New compression methods came out every few years. The newest so far is FLAC, which is also known as a Hi-Res audio format. Incidentally, the various software available for a Western organizer of music may not be enough. Windows Media Player and iTunes is the two most used media players in the world. The other ‘good’ player is Media Go. In this software, various types of Sony Technology are employed. x-Appli is also very original and useful for Japanese users of Sony Walkmans. There are issues with compatibility for the available Sony Software. ATRAC Advanced Lossless audio and FLAC can only be played on Walkmans and certain software that has the capability. In certain shops we can see MDs and other out-dated types of storage media. There are still people who record their tapes and CDs to MDs. Why is it that the sound of the CD can be reproduced accurately using a MDs through the ATRAC2 method? Is the ATRAC family a very good method of compression? Why is it that very few people use it now? Everyone uses mp3, wma and others. 

Music and life are not always closely connected. There are times when we do listen and other times when we don’t.