Alright. There was that piece in the Wall Street Journal where the writer, Terry Teachout, says he's cool with MP3s because they're wildly convenient and because he can't hear very well anyway, being middle-aged and all. He goes on to say that his hearing loss has set him free from the "snare and delusion of audiophilia"—that wallet-choking merry-go-round of upgrading for sonic improvements. And then there was that piece in the New York Times where the writer, Anthony Tommasini, says the convenience and portability of compressed sound, though neither rich nor deep, is "good enough."
Good enough?
Ugh, every time I hear the phrase "good enough," I want to vomit. When all we can hope for from beauty and life and wonder and art is merely "good enough," we might as well stop living. What's the point? Oh, that skyscraper-obstructed sunset is good enough; that polluted ocean is good enough; that dead tree, that concrete playground, that watered-down beer, that blurry image, that chopped-up song: Good enough.
It's not hard to be an audiophile in an iPod world. Actually, it makes perfect sense.
Thank goodness—really: thank goodness—there are passionate people like Fred Kaplan, reminding us that we can do better, that there is so much more to be enjoyed in the "life and essence" of music, that when advances in digital music take place "we will all rejoice."
