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E-mail: dalatudalatu@gmail.com

Me and My IPod.

I recently moved back to Elon for my junior year and transitioning from on-campus living to an off-campus apartment, which is sure to bring its own set of new changes, but one change I can expect is in my music listening habits.

My hometown is Matthews, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte and not a great place to get around without motorized wheeled transportation, which relegated my iPod use in my middle and high school to times when washing dishes or doing homework. Instead of having two buds in my ears most of the time, a lot of my music listening was coming out of radio speakers on either the FM or CD channel, whether in my own room or parent’s cars as I was learning to drive.

That changed a couple years ago when I arrived at college. Suddenly, I didn’t have access to a car and I was walking everywhere I needed to go, and after getting more than well acquainted with my thoughts, the sounds of passing-by cars and bird chirps, I reached for my iPod. Walking to class, going to work at the school library, getting food or even just going outside to read, music never left my ears. It engrained itself so much in me that I can remember the soundtrack of walking to my first Art History class (Young Dro’s I Am Legend and Best Thang Smokin’ and Waka Flocka Flame’s Flockaveli) better than I remember most people from that class.

Early this summer, Emily White’s wrote for NPR Music “I Never Owned Any Music To Begin With”, where she described how she’s gone through her life without owning any music. That got me thinking about my own music listening history, and how the original iPod Mini I got in 7th grade changed the way I listen to music; I also thought about applying for that particular NPR internship and figured this works out as me living in an alternate reality where I live in DC, got that internship and blogged for them.

I’ve mulled over this topic all summer, trying to understand why I’ve grown to love this particular piece of technology so much. I think my conclusion was that on days where I felt overwhelmed with joy—walking out with a joyous step listening to D.O.P.E. enthusiastic “Deserve It All”—or face-on-the-floor-sobbingly sad—which for some reason last year always ended up with me listening to Juicy J’s Rubba Band Banks 2; my iPod has always provided a welcome soundtrack to these moments. It might seem a bit narcissistic to desire that particular musical accompaniment, but I’ve grown accustom to having my favorite songs with me and see no reason to change. 

  1. themusiklounge said: Does the iPod create this feeling specifically or is it any portable digital music player? I went through a panic phase when my first iPod died and then realized I had a phone I could load up along w/ other options for digital music listening.
  2. dalatu posted this