Zombie Future

Downloading Kid A was probably my generation’s last novel, shared musical experience. I recall being driven around by a band-mate who’d burned the final running order, and thinking, “This was literally never possible before.” And it felt weirdly small and private, like Radiohead were no different from any other band, their music suddenly richer for existing outside the promotional hegemony of radio and television. The same way bootlegs conferred heightened status to rabid Bowie or Cure fans—a deeper and more exclusive experience—but exploded across the Internet. Since we had to burn these MP3s to CD, because the iPod did not exist when Kid A was released, our historical reception of music via physical media continued uninterrupted. For all the hysteria and novelty surrounding the MP3, the three-year window where MP3s had to be converted to CDs to be enjoyed outside your computer felt nearer to the past than the future, a new process with the same result. I don’t know if anyone will even remember it, but it had a definite texture.