Conversation: with Robert Kaiser - recommendations for music and iPod experiences - 25 February 2008

[3.2] I spoke with Rob from the Bible study that I am in, and he recommended an interesting topic: Christian metal bands. He talked about what Revolver magazine calls the ‘trinity’ of Christian metal bands (As I Lay Dying, Underoath, and Demon Hunter), and how they have managed to make it big in the mainstream market. “They sell really highly.” He also talked about other styles of successful Christian bands, such as Striper, a 1980s glam-rock band, and Petra, a Christian rock band from 1972.

[1.1] He owns two portable music data players: an Olympus M-Robe 50, which also has a touch screen and a camera, and can show picture and play video as well as music. His second device, an LG 8800, does all of that as well and it’s a phone. When I asked whether his friends owned portable music data players, he decided to rephrase the question to “who doesn’t own one?” He only knows of one person that does not have one, and she has a portable cassette player. “I was surprised to see a cassette player.” [This idea fits in more closely to what I had first envisioned: that it's no longer "Who owns a music player", but rather, "How many of them?" Even the people who do not have a music data player have a portable music player of sorts, whether it plays an MP3 CD or cassettes. I will need to test this theory to see if the portable music data player is indeed that pervasive amongst C4C. Perhaps a questionnaire might be in order.]