Two sounds - one explosive, the other barely noticed at the time - branded a generation and a decade, changing the way we live, work and play. Dome Magazine October 7, 2011. By Joseph Serwach

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The iPodization of America
By rgoins (https://domemagazine.com/author/rgoins/) on October 6th, 2011
Columns
Joseph Serwach
The iPodization of America
October 7, 2011
Two sounds — one explosive, the other barely noticed at the time — branded a generation and a decade, changing the way we live,
work and play.
We all immediately recognized the importance of September 11, 2001, yet at the time we barely noticed the impact of an announcement
that came just 42 days later. Both had Michigan connections and both might provide good labels for the as-yet unnamed first decade of
the 21st century.
We all remember vividly where we were when we heard about 9-11. In one of the few simultaneously shared moments of the decade, all
together we saw or heard what happened. We all quickly knew the world was changed.
Just eight days after 9-11 as stock markets were plunging and the economy seemed to be in free fall, General Motors announced its
“Keep America Moving” plan to offer zero percent financing. Others followed.
Both government and business encouraged us to keep spending, to keep the terrorists from slowing our national momentum. Consumers
did and so did government and business. The 9-11 attacks and the deaths of 3,000 encouraged many to “Live for today, for tomorrow
may never come.” Convertible sales spiked upward, home ownership climbed and we bought songs like Live Like You Were Dying and
enjoyed films like The Bucket List.
By September 2008 the spending spree from consumers, government and business alike had helped fuel a massive stock market
meltdown. For the past decade we’ve been at war, and for eight of the past 10 years Michigan experienced a recession that would be
dubbed “the winter that never ends.”
In such serious struggles we seemed to pivot between needing to know the latest news updates immediately (often on our smart phones
or social media) and seeking some sort of escape. News ratings soared after 9-11 but so did the ratings of TV Land and rentals of old
movies, Netflix and sales of places of refuge like the iPod.
Just 42 days into that post 9-11 world came the unveiling of the work of a University of Michigan engineering graduate named Tony
Faddell and his Apple colleagues. The iPod would go on to sell more than 275 million units in its first nine years.
We could store all our songs (and later photos, videos and more) on one tiny device — not the hits but our personal favorites, tailor
picked by us — and escape to just the words and sounds we loved most. A world that was ours alone.

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Everywhere you walk, especially near the Capitol on protest days in Lansing, you can see the impact of the iPodization of America. You
see people walking in public, seemingly part of the community, but listening to or staring at their iDevice, safe within a personal cocoon
of their own making.
The guy I’ll never forget, on his way to a rally earlier this year, was carrying bongo drums. I stared and thought, “Bongo drums? Really?”
Yes, bongo drums, the kind Beatniks played in their own protests half a century ago.
Others seem to be trapped in other time periods — the ‘70s, the ‘50s, the ‘30s or maybe even Colonial America, depending on the event
and mindset — the protestors literally marching to the beat of their own personally chosen drummers. Is it any wonder why like attracts
like in capital cities?
The explosions of 9-11 and the quiet click of an iPod both rapidly changed our culture, our definitions of community and our mindsets.
One was a choice and one was forced upon us. Yet a major lesson of the iPod was that Steve Jobs was willing to cannibalize and
radically change his iPod to stay ahead of the competition.
The iPod eventually begat the iPhone and the iPad, making Apple the most valuable company in the world by 2011. And strangely, the
iPhone and iPod Touch have largely made the original classic iPod obsolete in less than 10 years.
When the sad news arrived Wednesday that Steve Jobs had died at 56, all on Facebook seemed to have their own personal tribute for a
man most of us only knew from his many new product presentations and his innovative work that changed our world. Many quoted his
now famous 2005 commencement address where Jobs said:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other
people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Joseph J. Serwach, who spent most of his career as a journalist, is managing director, communications for the Michigan Economic
Development Corp.
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Congrats on the column, Joe! Great article!
Loved this article Joe. Everyone’s life has a soundtrack and mine goes back to 1966 when my girlfriend and I made a mixed tape
before I went off to MSU. I listened to it everyday my freshman year. I still have it, but now it’s on my ipod and ipad. Thank you Steve.
rgoins (https://domemagazine.com/author/rgoins/)
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