“Soon after its 1979 launch, Sony’s Walkman was already seen as much more than a trendy audio player,” writes Paul Schrodt in Thursday’s (8/15) Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “Crucially, it became an escape hatch…. It made five-hour flights bearable and took the sting of loneliness out of the once ultimate injustice of strolling somewhere unaccompanied by music…. Many of us are locked inside whatever beat or podcast is snaking through our earbuds today, distracting us from our morning commute or our struggle on the gym treadmill. But the idea was once revolutionary, even shocking….. The Walkman not only presaged Apple’s iPhone; it also spurred innovative audio technologies such as the Minidisc and downloadable MP3s, helped popularize self-reflexive styles of pop music and dovetailed with a 30 per cent increase in walking as exercise…. The primitive player was once transformative, helping music nerds shut out the world as each played curator to a personal soundtrack. ‘Why does the Walkman matter? Content control. It individualized entertainment,’ says David Hajdu, music critic at The Nation…. That isolating habit, of course, also has created social distance. It’s easier and more convenient than ever to shut out humanity.”
Posted August 21, 2019
