Culturebox: Lester Bangs' Basement

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music box Lester Bangs' Basement What it means to have all music instantly available. By Bill Wyman Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 11:55 AM ET Lester Bangs, the late, great early-rock critic, once said he dreamed of having a basement with every album ever released in it. That's a fantasy shared by many music fans--and, mutatis mutandi, film buffs as well. We all know the Internet has made available a lot of things that were previously hard to get. Recently, though, there are indications of something even more enticing, almost paradisiacal, something that might have made Bangs put down the cough syrup and sit up straight: that almost everything is available. Music and movie fans of a certain age and a certain bent have strong visceral responses to this issue of availability. We grew up in an age of excited, roiling change in the music and film worlds, but the vicissitudes of the technologies and industries involved made the logistics of merely keeping up--much less being an expert--a time-consuming, expensive, and sometimes impossible chore. I won't bore you with the details, but let me tell you--it was a drag. To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Biography of a Talking Point: "We Don't Have a Revenue Problem. We Have a Spending Problem." Game of Thrones, Reviewed: Severed Limbs! Incest! Wolf Pups! James Frey's New Novel Hurls a Bombshell at the Religious Right	Advertisement
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