Travel Through Time with Space and Sound
by Jerry Haha
January 29, 2025
With all the recent travels, it allowed me to have even more time to explore new music. Without touching the screen of the inflight entertainment once over a course of a 13 hours flight, I’ve only been entertained by a music streaming platform.
Having about 5 hours of listening time with active noise cancelling on over a 13 hours flight and a 6 hours layover might not sound as practical. But as much as technology is evolving, having to charge for 30 minutes every 5 hours might not sound as bad as I thought. The idea of not having active internet on the plane forces me to curate a playlist just for the time when I’m 35,000 ft up in the sky. Sometimes when you’re too caught up with taking out your laptop and your belt while holding up your pants when going through customs, you do forget to download that one album or track that felt extremely relatable to you at the time, so you loose the chance to relive that moment while you stare at the blank screen in front of you.
Spotify has recently introduced a playlist that is curated for you just for when your connection to internet goes missing called “Offline Backup”. The initiative behind is exactly for what I have just mentioned about hopping on the plane with no pre-downloaded music. Music has been a tool for me to capture time and memories, it’s one of the only medium that could trigger emotions within me. With it being so accessible in Mordern times, people have lost the ability to build a POV and taste towards anything really. Growing up going to record shops I’ll have to physically pick up a record and find the player that is on display to listen what it was about, this would be the equivalent of a playlist streaming platforms offer to you. But at the time I would still need to discover the record to start, no matter if I’m attracted by the cover art or it’s playing in the shop.
I grew up in between a transition of time from the world going fully digital, I was born with the internet. But at the time internet to me was for playing pinball mainly, things weren’t accessible back then. It wasn’t until middle school that I’ve started to develop my own music taste but it was solely based on my other interest in life. To me, music is more than just wavelengths. It’s held in a very special place in my heart. Most of the moments in my life would have a track if not a sound attached to it. If every time I’ve heard that particular sound, it would bring me back in time.
All this I’m not saying how bad AI is or how the algorithm is ruining humanity (…?) But more about how can we not let it take over self awareness. Being able to take control of your own choices in life is going to open more doors compare to it being served in front of you. Having such universal access to music constrained listener’s behaviour, being one click away from discovering your next favourite record may not necessarily be the best way for explorations after all.
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