McKay Thomas | Blog

Music As A Soul And Holistic Media

I’m nearing the end of Steve Jobs’ biography where there is a section about music. Walter Isaacson has a discussion with Jobs about his iPod and what he keeps there. Jobs has a deep appreciation and love for Bob Dylan and for The Beatles. I had known this before. However, some additional tastes were revealed in this section and as I was reading, I felt it fitting to experience the music as I was reading about it. I pulled up my own iPod, which is in my iPhone, and flipped to tracks that Jobs described as influential to him. I listened to U2 and Yo Yo Ma. I listened to John Mayer, whom Jobs described as one of the greatest guitarists ever. 

In this same section in the biography, there were several stories about the creation of iTunes ads. As I was reading I was reminded of one of my favorite iTunes ads which featured Paul McCartney and his mandolin playing Dance Tonight. I decided to flip over the YouTube app on my iPhone and watch it. As he plays he skips around a white place with rainbow colored houses floating in the air and a place where every step you take is met with explosions of paint. At the end of the commercial he begins whistling which signals elements and feathers to wisp around to create the Apple logo. It was great. Just as great as I had remembered. The book described a few iTunes ads I couldn’t recall from artists U2 and Bob Dylan. As I read about them I would return to the YouTube app and watch them. Knowing the story behind something offers an enriching context that makes appreciation both more likely and more lasting.

After I was done watching these YouTube videos, I double tapped the home button on my iPhone and returned to the iBooks app where I’ve been reading the biography. The next section briefly discusses John Mayer’s Gravity. I switched over to my iPod app and saw I didn’t have it, so I then opened up iTunes on my iPhone and began downloading it. Within a few minutes I was listening to something that connected me to the biography and Steve Jobs in a way that was deeper than mere words. We were sharing an experience, in a way.

Two things struck me about this. One, music is a connector of souls. Music is often the instigator and the perpetuator of movements, and connects people to times, events, and other people. It’s powerful. Music is how religious meetings begin and end. Music is often the invocation of political gatherings inside and the riots outside. Music is the anthem for many of the things we do and the places we find ourselves. Two, technology is empowering media to become much more integrated. If I were reading the biography in a traditional book, I would not have the same type of  experience as I had reading it on my iPhone, which has a resolution comparable to the printed page.

I plan on reading more books on my iPhone (this biography was my second) and experiencing a holistic story with each one.