When I think on virtual or even augmented reality, inevitably one of the first things I picture is exactly that:  A picture.  For whatever reason (and there are several), our world is centered around our capacity for  vision, with the rest of the senses filling in the gaps.

While my imaginings of what an augmented reality would be are based heavily on HUDs, we don’t exactly have contact lenses that display information on what store the girl you’re staring at got her skirt (yet).  However, this doesn’t mean we haven’t started to alter our perception environment.  At least when it comes to sound, we have truly begun to fragment our collective experience.

Through the use of iPods and cellphones, Bluetooth and Blackberries, people are truly living in different aural worlds.  The market penetration of this is amazingly high, especially the younger the demographic.  The impact of this I feel is quite undervalued on a cultural level.  As technology continues to innovate, we will only find additional methods by which to replace our local perceptual data.  Today we have sound, but tomorrow it may be sight.  A sense of touch, next.  Suddenly, you’ve just removed a lot of reasons people go elsewhere while on vacation.

So what will change because of all of this?  I’m not smart enough to even guess, but already we’re seeing some unique changes within the music scene.  As the ability/opportunity to listen to music of your choice has expanded, so too has the desire to listen to more specific genres.  This desire met its answer through jumps in music accessibility, such as P2P systems and recommendation software such as what Pandora uses.    Unsurprisingly, you’re seeing an upswell of popularity in smaller bands, while the industry built up around a “Top 40” model is in decline.  While there are lots of additional factors at play, I’d put forth that the base reason is that people are now able to listen to music wherever they are, and so they’ll choose the relatively unknown song they like a lot versus the popular song they like ¾ as much.  Just as our communal aural environment has begun to fragment over the years, so too has the music industry into smaller and smaller subgenres.

But with that fragmentation, there also comes greater opportunities at connection.  Take for instance the trend for club DJs to have iPod docks on their turntables.  Never again are you out of luck when he doesn’t happen to have the CD of your favorite band, and what you once enjoyed alone, you now have the chance to share with others.

In short, I’m quite curious to see where it all leads.