All Things Must Pass

Have we reached peak evolution in the way we consume music?

Tower Records on Sunset, 1988 by Images Alight is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as the internet.

It’s an alien concept now — the thought that, at one time, you did not walk around with all the world’s knowledge in your pocket — but it’s true.

If you needed to “do your own research,” you had to go to this place called a library, which was this giant building full of books — sort of like a Barnes & Noble, but without baristas and board games.

If you really want your mind blown, go look up the word “microfiche.”

Since I just replaced the top of your head with a mushroom cloud, I may as well tell you now about the outmoded way we used to discover new music.

For music lovers of all persuasions, a trip to your local record store was a time-honored rite of passage — our very own pilgrimage to musical Mecca.

The record store itself was an entirely immersive experience full of not just the sounds one would expect from a retail house of musical worship, but of the …