After a lengthy hiatus, Records & Riffs is back — and there are many episodes in the hopper coming through the remainder of the spring in summer. The first episode of 2022 is all about a device that hundreds of millions of people used over the past two decades. Apple recently announced it was no longer manufacturing the iPod.
This is the perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on the so-called "iPod era," a particular near-decade of music obsessiveness that paved the way for the streaming-service dominance we live in now. Matt Norlander is joined by Joe Ovies to reflect on what was better 15 years ago in music-listening culture vs. where we find ourselves in 2022. But there’s also a case to be made about what wasn’t better.
And how did the iPod set up this streaming era? What are the benefits to finding and listening to music in 2022 vs. what we were doing in, say, 2007? Ovies is an expert, and if you’ve ever felt a certain connection to syncing your iPod to your computer, popping in earbuds and tuning out the world for 15 minutes, an hour or two, you’ll probably identify with a lot of the topics on this episode. Best of all: an incomplete list of iPod artists that you will not want to miss. A teaser: Interpol, Ne-Yo, Phantom Planet, Hot Hot Heat, The Hives, Aqualung …and that’s only the beginning. Get ready for the flashbacks! Thanks for listening, and if you’re not already, you can subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts here.