On a coffee date Saturday, One World Cafe’s music stopped playing all of the sudden. My boyfriend and I felt the need to lower our voices, and I began to look around and notice how quiet the room was. A few minutes later, their playlist started up again and it didn’t feel as awkward to resume our normal level of conversation.

This made me realize that I had not been paying attention to who was singing or what they were saying. Music has lost its luxury. We have begun to take for granted the thing that inspires many and gives life to more.

The fact that I have almost 15,000 songs on my iTunes account and have not listened to all of them makes me cringe.

Our generation knows how to rip music from YouTube, torrent, and stream from Spotify and Pandora. We have become accustomed to purchasing expensive tickets to our favorite festivals months in advance.

We are taking music for granted.

It wasn’t until the mid-1900s that music was being recorded and made readily available for the public to play at their leisure.

Columbia Records is the oldest label in the recording industry, having been founded in 1887 as a group of investors forming the American Graphophone Company.

Due to 125 years of evolving and taking risks, Columbia Records has established a standard for many companies and labels to look up to and strive for.

When albums were first being released, one would have to go to a store and purchase a physical copy. You had no other option. There wasn’t an Internet search engine to find when your favorite band was performing live. There wasn’t a way to find new music besides word of mouth, perusing through records and hearing a live band.

With every dollar spent, each moment listening to this work of art was savored. Now we sit in coffee shops without even noticing the background music.

We scarcely take it in.

With the redundancy that has infiltrated the entertainment industry, fewer people are interested in digging, learning and appreciating the art that is music.

With the American dream driving each of us and the “I want it now” mentality, artists are touring more than ever, releasing singles on iTunes and previewing their records months before entire albums are released.

We have grown accustomed to being numb. 

We have forgotten the simplicity of enjoying an album from start to finish, of obsessing over a band and yearning to see them live at least once. We are consumers. We take, overindulge and don’t stop for a second to realize what anything means anymore.

Musicians were once looked at as the movers and the shakers. Now we just look to them for one-hit wonders and radio ratings.

Unfortunately with the rapid increase in technology and our American mindset, I fear that we will continue to take this art for granted.

Music is an integral part of history and shapes people’s lives. It’s a big deal and we need to acknowledge it. I know few people who live like that and care anymore.

Jimi Hendrix once said, “Music is my religion.” I challenge you to open your mind and stop taking it for granted.