John Coltrane + John Tesh + Whitesnake + Kanye West = Freedom?
I love music. All kinds of music. I'm not an audiophile with a $10,000 turntable and hundreds of vinyl records in protective plastic sleeves (not on my salary). I'm not an expert on the history of jazz and I don't own any Chopin (to my knowledge). I am as likely to listen to Dixie Chicks as I am to queue up Miles Davis' "Birth of the Cool" and I probably know more about Stevie Wonder than I do about Steve Vai. My tastes are all over the place, and that's ok with me.
What I like in my music is variety. I like finding new music and discovering forgotten classics. I'm old enough to have bought my first album (your first clue...), Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" (...your second clue...), on 8-track (...your third clue...) in 1979 (...and we're done). But I love the variety of
artists and the availability of music everywhere online today. But you don't need to wait until you can afford that sweet new laptop to start experiencing musical democracy. For decades, the Library has been in the business of doing for music what it has always done for books: making available the widest variety of music from every different genre for FREE. You might have to get up out of your seat to get it, but your body will thank you for it. And you won't have to pay $9.99 or more to download it. Sure, you could scour BitTorrent sites for that lost Wham! remix, but is it really worth the guilty conscience?
The library was democratizing music selection before DARPA even conceived of the Internet (and probably before "mutually assured destruction" was coined). A wide variety of all types of music, always free, all the time. They can't do that online without the FBI getting very interested. And librarians are in the business of staying up-to-date on the latest musical trends, while also making room for genres that may have more limited appeal. Record sales don't factor into our decisions, so if polka is your passion, we'll probably have some. And if you're looking for suggestions for new listening, ask a librarian. Don't wade through countless computer-generated Amazon.com "recommendations" based on your purchase of "The Best of Barney" for your nephew last year. Life is too short. Get out of your seat and get to the original home of free musical variety. Get to the library and start exploring! As my 5-year-old son says, "Rock on, dude!".
You might even get some circulation back in that leg.