LPs, v. iPods - round 1

Controversy! While watching the Yankees beat (finally) the Red Sox yesterday, I saw a great TV ad. A guy fights with his significant other because of the giant stacks of LPs all around the apartment. Clutter, clutter everywhere, nor any place to sit!! She storms out, flinging a record at him.

Next scene … he proceeds to rip every record to an electronic file and loads the files onto what appears to be an iPod in a docking station.

When the girlfriend returns home, all the records are gone and the spotlessly clean apartment is decorated in some sort of post-modern IKEA stuff. Where did the records go? A tag sale? No time for that. Goodwill? Maybe. A dumpster? Most likely.

The punch line of the ad is to buy the vendor’s digital audio product – because low bit rate digital is A-OK – and restore harmonic bliss to your life. The subtext of no need for high quality audio reproduction in your life is lost to all but we audio hobbyists and music lovers, I suppose.

I don’t really know why, but this ad really bugged me. I like the Yankees and the Red Sox. I like records. I like girls. I even like the iPod. Maybe it’s the representation of music lovers, record collectors, audiophiles as socially deficient pack rats. Are we really perceived by society as such?

Just a rant, I guess.

Bob R.