Am I the only Potential Consumer Between The Ages Of 25 And 35 who doesn't “get” the I-pod? Because I don't. No desire to own a portable MP3 player of any kind, whatsoever. I have like 30 MP3s and never get around to downloading anything, because I am CHEAP. Also because I am nearly terminally un-hip, and don't know what's out there and am too damn lazy to find out. Also, because I had a Walkman back in the day and found it significantly less convenient and cool than I thought it would be. Ditto portable CD player. I've heard bad things about the crankiness, fragility, and expensiveness of I-Pods and their ilk, and really don't want to throw more bad money after the previously thrown bad money. If something is inclined to suddenly dump my entire playlist, refuse to re-charge, or otherwise pitch a hissyfit and stop working, I'm not inclined to pay good money to live with it.
I like music, I like shaking my butt, but I can't stand having “background noise” all day. I feel like it is wasting the music to use it as a daily soundtrack. It distracts me. It also causes me to break out into song and dance routines as though the waking world was a gigantic Bollywood set, and while that works in a Coca-Cola advert, it doesn't work so well in a municipal office. Maybe that's why they won't let me listen to headphones at my desk anymore…