Time is something that is in short supply for me now, lots of things I used to take time over I now seem to condense or multi-task.

I was thinking this about music recently, I no longer seem to have the ability to settle on one song, music television channel or radio station for any length of time. When driving, I like to mainly listen to Xfm and Absolute as I prefer rockier type of music, however, I find it virtually impossible not to “surf” through the pre-set channels for an old cheesy classic on Heart or Magic or checking in with Kiss for any decent dance music. And then there are the times when No1 son is in the car, it always gets switched to Capital FM for chart music, which I find hard to like any of! Then when the twins are in the car they demand I play “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” off an old 80s compilation I used once to calm a tantruming daughter and now its ALL they ever want to listen to, and at full volume, you should see the looks I get from passers-by when I have “a-wimbaway-a-wimbaway” blaring from the car on the school run!

But what I think the biggest musical difference since my youth is the obsession factor. Before the age of downloading when we used to have to buy the albums on CD and vinyl, it was the most exciting part of my Saturday hanging out in HMV buying the new album to whatever artist I was obsessed with that month, then getting home and listening to every track over and over, studying the literature insert, deciphering the meaning behind the lyrics. I practically slept with Nirvana’s Nevermind album so meaningful the songs were to me! I went through a slight obsession with Lenny Kravitz first 3 albums, taking them everywhere with me, forcing them on friends and families – the modern day Jimi Hendrix, his last few albums I’ve bought I’ve listened to sporadically, sticking with the few tracks I liked and ignoring the rest.

Maybe there is too much choice now, MTV was only the music channel my friends and I watched, Top of the Pops was still an important programme to catch on a Friday night.

I recently saw the excellent Foo Fighters in concert and love their latest album, am looking forward to Red Hot Chili Peppers new album release next month but I know I won’t be rushing to the shops to buy it, bringing it home, closing my bedroom door, playing it through from track 1 to track 12 while studying the inserted literature. I will promise myself to listen to it all though, resisting the urge to switch back and forth to the radio halfway through.