CD's are SO overrated!

I remember when CD’s initially became available to the masses. It was the dawning of a new era in sound technology. CD’s were immortal, and the sound clarity was infinitely better than that of tapes. At least that’s what they told me. However, since their onset, and since I’ve had the opportunity to waste buckets full of money on them, I have become convinced that CD manufacturers indeed duped me and the rest of society.

It is my belief that for something to be technologically superior to its predecessor, it needs to provide me with most, if not all, of the advantages that its predecessor possessed, and then other obvious, added advantages.

Well, in that department, Compact Discs fail miserably.

As far as I’m concerned, there are only two major advantages that CD’s have over tapes. The first, and probably the most significant to the general public, is the ability to skip back and forth through the tracks on an album with near instantaneous response. I must admit, this option has made listening to my favorite songs over and over again much more enjoyable (probably not as enjoyable to anyone that is around, hearing me repeat the same song). The second major advantage is storage space. With CD’s, you can burn an “endless” amount of songs onto one disc, especially if you download songs in data disc form. With tapes, you were limited by the length of the ribbon, and this was typically broken down into minutes. On a good tape, you might get 45 minutes on both sides A and B (remember that, tapes had sides!).

So here’s the recap: Skip ability and storage space are CD’s advantages. THAT’S IT! There are ZERO other significant advantages to CD’s over tapes.

One might note that I have left out the sound quality that CD’s have over tapes as an advantage. Well, that’s because I know most people aren’t even aware of the difference. If you are in the music industry, sound quality makes a huge difference, but not so much for the casual listener. I’m sure most people wouldn’t know the difference if a radio DJ played a song from a CD or a tape. In fact, I know that sometimes DJ’s use tapes and Records because a particular song may not exist on CD (they often make a point of telling the listening audience that they had to use “wax” or a tape because they didn’t have a CD for that song). Furthermore, during the major transition period from tapes to CD’s, there were tapes that had been developed to be CD quality. I remember owning some and listening very closely to see if I could hear the difference. As far as I could tell, the sound quality was virtually the same as the quality from CD’s, and I critically doubt that the average person (indeed even a trained ear) could easily tell the difference. So, for everyone touting sound lucidity as a major advantage, I challenge you to really sit back and listen for a while!

My biggest frustration with CD’s is that they are so quickly and easily prone to skipping. I have had the sad misfortune of pulling a CD fresh out of its package, placing it in the CD player, and having my brand new CD skip. This has occurred more than once, in more than one CD player. Furthermore, if your CD doesn’t skip now, no matter how well you take care of it, it will with time. Either dust, scratches, or the glue coming loose will cause this to occur.

It shouldn’t be that way. I never had that problem with tapes. I’d put a tape in the tape player, press play, and that was all she wrote. There was no skipping of my tape. Now, with all fairness, one frustration with tapes is that sometimes the ribbon would get “chewed up” by the tape player. However, the incidence of that happening was far less frequent than the ever-looming reality of a skipping CD.

A highly significant disadvantage of CD’s is that you can’t take full enjoyment of recording possibilities like you could with tapes. With tapes, if I wanted to record myself playing my saxophone, all I had to do was get a recorder with a microphone (which was virtually every tape recorder), pop in a tape and press record. If I wanted to tape something off of the radio, all I had to do was place a tape in the tape player, switch the radio on and press record. If I wanted to record a mix tape (or dub a tape), all I had to do was place two tapes in a tape deck, and record various songs from many tapes all onto one tape.

All these things I did with high frequency and efficiency with tapes, and can do none of them with the same ease with CD’s. In order to do any of these things with CD’s you need software that has that capability, and that means that you need a computer (and sometimes other accessories like a microphone). Obtaining the computer, software, and accessories alone makes these tasks less likely, but on top of that, this would mean that you’d need a computer around with you to perform these things; even with a laptop, that can be a trying situation.

Finally, tapes were more durable. I could put a tape in its case in my back pocket. In fact, I could put a Walkman (remember those?) in my back pocket; there were even belt buckle and wrist attachments for Walkman tape players. In order to carry around a CD or a CD player, you need another piece of luggage or enormous pants pockets.

As you can see, there are some huge disadvantages to CD’s versus tapes that, to me, outweigh their advantages. Therefore, I believe that CD’s are incredibly overrated and am glad that we are moving out of the CD era and into the digital/mp3 era in music.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not nearly as frustrated with DVD’s versus VHS tapes as I am with CD’s versus cassette tapes. Who knows, maybe I will be in the very near future.

-Maelstrom

Remember that CD’s would last forever? Well check out this site:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/05/06/disc.rot.ap/