In this ever changing world in which we live in...

The music blogs I frequent have torn a new one in Andrew Sullivan for this mawkish drivel, in which he blames iPods for the increasing atomization of society. In pronouncements that rival Nick Hornby's for sheer bathetic generalization, Sullivan informs us that it takes a village (a global one?) to raise a child:

Music was once the preserve of the living room or the concert hall. It was sometimes solitary but it was primarily a shared experience, something that brought people together, gave them the comfort of knowing that others too understood the pleasure of a Brahms symphony or that Beatles album.

Guess Sullivan's been too busy tittering with the other Beltway corpses on "The Chris Matthews Show" to attend concerts. Or hasn't tossed out the Walkman and Discman taking up space on his closet shelves.