Popular Culture Review 30.2
stant to sever from his gums when he drank coffee , or iced water , and once when he was riding in an elevator . ( 105 )
The analogy between these musical media and the young man ’ s struggle is more than suggestive : that is , nominally , Nikhil Ganguli is a new identity for a previously shaped personality within the same physical body ; literally , the compact disc is a new body for a previously shaped musical artifact whose identity has not nominally changed .
But much else has . In the mind of aficionados , the analog-to-digital evolution in form had serious consequences . Dwelling on the two-sided format of a vinyl record reproduced as a compact disc , the “ Vinyl Freak ” columnist John Corbett explains a concern that in the 1980s and 1990s engrossed millions of music lovers skeptical of the digital industry ’ s claim to “ progress ”: “ The drama of vinyl , in part , is an echo of theater ’ s standard use of the intermission . Something happens . Then a break to reflect , shake it off . Something else happens .... There are always two sides to the story ” ( 12 ). With the CD , no longer two sides ; and as if both resisting and resigning himself to this upheaval , Nikhil treats the CD like the traditional LP , unaware that this pop culture artifact replicates the splitting in two of a seemingly unified product of civilization called a marriage . There is no going back .
Furthermore , the compact disc “ revolution ” brought with it the loss of sonic fidelity , a sterile digital sound , at least in the first-wave of analog-to-digital discs�a major point of contention among anxious Beatles fans who closely monitored their transition from analog to digital in 1987 and 1988 . In his assessment of digitally engineered Beatles albums , Paul Winters analyzes compact disc ( monaural and stereo ) and vinyl remasterings and reissues of the Fab Four catalog from
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