Molly Mary O’Brien, writing about the iPod:
I was imputed upon. The first song I played on my iPod was “Anthem Part 2” by Blink-182. It was a favorite song from middle school, and it felt right to begin with a sentimental choice. But it wasn’t long before I was approaching mp3 collecting with an almost deranged reverence for eclecticism. I needed to max out the hardware’s potential. I needed representation from as many genres as possible. Some of this desire came from the UX itself—when I used my thumb to rotate the pale gray click wheel, I felt a strong desire to scroll through a long list of artists, with each letter of the alphabet represented many times over. So Blink-182 got nestled between Black Sabbath and Bloc Party, followed by Billy Joel and Blonde Redhead.
Some days I really miss the iPod. The simplicity of it. Heading out for a walk with just music, no social media, no communication apps, just some headphones and an empty road.
And when music is pulled from Apple Music … even more so.