But they were at least limited in their portability and loudness and battery life. Now you can have a tiny speaker that gives up any semblance of sound quality for loudness, but will also manage to last 8+ hours.

Ahhh, well, it is just me out there so no one else can hear my music, there isn’t another house for a mile in any direction… but this is not an issue with just camping. Jerks blasting their music from their boats as they go by on the lake is a problem but that has been going on since the invention of music. Spock had to Vulcan nerve pinch a dude on the bus across the Golden Gate Bridge in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home back in the 80s because someone was playing music too loud and wouldn’t turn it down.

Yeah, the variety of music got more accessible I suppose but group camp grounds have been filled with music for a long time now, it was something that bothered me back in the 80s when I was a kid. This isn’t really a new issue due to technology, I am sure plenty of bards have been killed throughout history for playing their music too loud in the woods, or in parks, or wherever. Everywhere music can be played it has been played too loud.

Wholeheartedly agreed. It was late and I misinterpreted the intent of the post, it is other people’s music that is the problem that OP was referring to, not the accessibility of music in general.

I have AirPods and headphones and love music. I have plenty of ways to stream it from the ether and into my head without others listening but I don’t like to do that in nature. I like records better for that because it has to be intentional and, from a functional perspective, I’d like to be able to hear a rattlesnake rattle before it bites me, or a bear or wild boars rustling in the trees/brush before it becomes an issue and they are right on me, with earbuds in or headphones on in nature can cause a safety issue. I like to be in the moment in nature and there are plenty of times where I do listen to the crickets or the lapping of the water with no music playing. I like feeling vibe of the moment, select the record and then have ~20mins of that music until it stops playing and I either switch records because the vibe has changed or I want to bring a different energy to the moment. It is more situational and tactile with records. Not having an endless stream of random music on a constant cycle is key for me to enjoying those moments in nature.

Like I said, I thought the OP was talking more about accessibility of music in nature in general, not the intrusion of other people’s music onto your life while one is in nature. It is a problem that is not specific to just campgrounds but I can see where it is a bigger problem in a campground than in normal daily life nowadays. With the advancement of technology in regards to streaming, wireless earbuds/headphones and personal technology I think music intrusion on a day to day basis is less intrusive now than it was 10 years ago or more. There are still people blasting music in their cars at midnight driving down city streets but there are less people playing boomboxes while walking down the street or while on the bus, subway or other public places because technology has advanced to a point where we can limit that intrusion on others and most reasonable people take advantage of that more now than they ever have before.