Second Generation iPod Nano

By Carly Larkin

April 7, 2021

Do you ever remember listening to "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake in 2006? ¹  Or maybe it was "Umbrella" by Rihanna in 2007. ²  Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh, yes it is playing in all of our heads now. The memory of listening to these songs while they were on their respective years top 100 hundred lists, possibly reminds you of the rectangular, colorful, pocket-sized device that many of us used to listen to our favorite songs from 2006 to 2010. This is when the iPod Nano, second generation, four gigabytes, came out. It was released in silver, green, blue, pink, and red. ³  I vividly remember the blue one as I made sure to not let myself go anywhere without it. The circular controller in the center of the device had the functions of, playing and pausing, skipping ahead, and rewinding backward. This fun and trendy music playing device was manufactured in Cupertino, California but widely distributed across the world and consumed by all ages. ⁴  There was about a three-hour battery life, imagine if our smartphones were the same! And, the four gigabytes held roughly 1000 songs. ⁵  What do you think your top three songs were fourteen or so years ago? The iPod Nano was a revolutionary device as for many of us, myself included, this was the first Apple product we owned. This device I assume can be credited for the large consumption of Apple products today through the status and identities that were created with it. It was more than a music player, it was a social identity creator. If you had an iPod Nano, did it make you feel a certain way in society?