The lost art of keeping a secret

I just spent the past two hours scouring the internet for an album to download. Not because I’m too cheap to buy it, not because I don’t care about supporting the artist – because the album hasn’t actually been released yet. And the fact that my time spent searching certain sites that may or may not contain the words “rapid” and “share” has thus far yielded no results is not making me a happy girl. Seriously, how dare they keep this album under such tight lock and key that I can’t even find it a week before it hits stores? Who do these people think they are?

Let’s rewind for a minute. All the way back to 1995. October 3, 1995, to be exact. I was sitting in social studies class, supposedly learning about the Civil War, but actually counting down the hours until I could get the hell out of school for the day. Because you better believe I had already made 100% certain that my mom could give me a ride to the local record store to pick up the just released “What’s the Story Morning Glory.” Cause like-oh-my-god-Oasis-is-totally-the-best-band-ever!!! A huge fan of the band’s previous album, this then 14-year-old budding Britpop enthusiast was being driven crazy with anticipation; I’d had the date of the new album’s release circled in my school calendar for weeks. There may have even been a few hearts drawn around it.

It’s a feeling that I miss. Whenever there’s talk of the evils of file sharing, seldom brought up is the fact that easy access to leaked albums has destroyed the concept of looking forward to anything. There’s almost no such thing as “release dates” anymore – there’s just whatever date somebody puts it up on the internet. It’s not something that I expect will go away, nor do I think anyone should step in to try to control such things. It's just one of those things that you accept because, well, times change. Personally, I am well aware that my behavior will remain the same – if I know an album I want is readily available online prior to its actual release, I’m going to go find it. But sometimes I’m nostalgic for the time when that wasn’t an option, when you actually had to count down the days until you could hear your new favorite CD.

So, anyway, let me get back to searching for that album. Somebody’s probably got it up somewhere. But you know what? I kinda hope I don’t find it.

- Amirah