What ever happened to the good, old-fahsioned jukebox?  Every tavern, ice house, beer joint, and wine bar seems to have ditched the old machines that used to spin CDs for quarters (and vinyl before then).  In their place, we’ve got these Internet jukeboxes that download MP3 tunes from the Web.  They play a hell of a lot more songs for a hell of a lot more quarters, but are they really better?   They don’t have the charm that the real thing had. 

With the old jukeboxes, you only had 100 discs worth of songs.  For decades, bartenders and tavern managers lovingly tended that 100-disc collection, trying to put together the best collection of rock or country they could.  There was pride in having the best jukebox selection in town back then.  Sometimes, you’d happen into a place and find that the CDs in its jukebox hadn’t been changed out for 20 years.  It was always fun to take a sonic trip through these musical time capsules and try to listen to Heavy D and the Boys with fresh ears. 

You can find Heavy D on the new Internet jukeboxes, too, but it’s not the same experience.  There’s no love put into the jukebox, and there’s no luck involved with finding your favorite song.  The jukebox in every place is the same now—and crap like Evanescence can get played even at the coolest bar in the city.