If I were to ask you how many CDs you have, you would probably say that you don’t have very many, if any at all. You probably get all of your music off of the Internet and then download it to your iPod or MP3 player. I would also assume that your parents have an old record collection from their youth, collecting dust in an attic or storage closet.

In an article published on philly.com, journalist Michael Smerconish wrote about how the experience of listening to music has changed for the worst. In the article, he wrote down the answers from an interview with singer/songwriter Jon Bon Jovi, who also happens to be the lead singer of my favorite band. Bon Jovi spoke about how kids and teenagers today are missing “the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes, and getting lost in an album.” Smerconish then went on to tell of his own experiences with his own album collection, listing some of the albums he listened to, each one carrying a specific memory special to him. He too believes that the experience is not the way it should be.

I would have to say that I agree with both of them. What I like to do is find a band that I like—either by radio, Internet, or another source—and then go buy one of their albums. Then I listen to it at home, rip it to my computer, and then put the songs onto my MP3. My own collection includes Motley Crue’s Too Fast For Love, Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain, and Girls, Girls, Girls; Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic; Boston’s and Skid Row’s self-titled debut albums; Def Leppard’s Hysteria and Vault:Greatest Hits 1980-1995; Metallica’s Ride the Lightning and Metallica; The Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden; Kiss’s Destroyer; Journey’s Greatist Hits; Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits; a best of Eric Clapton album; and as close to a complete Bon Jovi collection that an incomplete collection could be. That’s not all of them either.

And I love having this collection. I actually wish it were bigger. Nowadays, all that kids do is hear some song (possibly a one-hit wonder), buy it online, and then never listen to any more of that artist’s music. They don’t get lost in the album or get to experience the music in its complete form. Not only do I think that this is a sad way to listen to music, but this is also making it increasingly hard for musicians to gain notability for their work.

I’m not denying that I buy songs online. It’s convenient, and there are some artists out there who only have a few songs that I like. But nobody will ever convince me that doing so will ever trump listening to an album in its entirety and experiencing the music as was intended.

So I’ll just leave it at this: next time you want to buy a song online, maybe you should try buying the whole album at a store instead. You might just like it.