Sony Walkman cheapened music?

Norman Lebrecht, writing in the Evening Standard (21 July 2004), argued that "No invention in my lifetime has so changed an art [music] and cheapened it as the Sony Walkman, which first infiltrated our culture 25 years ago this month.". Such crime, of course, is now being perpetrated mainly by the iPods and other portable digital music players.

To quote him further, "25 years of Walkman usage has destroyed any sense of a piece of music having a place in the world, in time, in our personal lives. Music, made portable, is removed from any frame of reference. It becomes a utility, undeserving of more attention than drinking-water from a tap." Well, I thought being able to drink water from a tap is one of the greatest achievements of mankind!

"The decline in classical concert-going may be partly ascribed to the Walkman, which devalued magnificence and rendered it utilitarian. A Bruckner symphony buzzing away while you brush your teeth is an altogether different experience from attending a Vienna Philharmonic concert in the Musikvereinsaal." I don't need you to teach me that! In my opinion, classical music can live and thrive without snobs such as Mr. Lebrecht.