Has Technology Damaged Music?

Has technology damaged music?

 

Great post. I want to think on it more, but would like to say that I am both comforted/ saddened by the thought that the next Jimi Hendrix or take your pick is out there, perhaps never to be "discovered." What great music will never be heard by us! But I think the urge to create music will never be extinguished.

 

I think spotify(insert any other low res lossy streaming service) has done the most damage to music.

 

Playing music and listening to music are fundamentally different experiences, so I don't see technology changing the latter as stunting the former. In fact, I can speak from direct experience and say if I hadn't been getting more and more into hi-fi these last few years, II wouldn't have picked up an instrument and relearned how to play.

On the other hand, if all hi-fi had to offer was shitty chifiman playnars and O2 amps, I would be so unengaged with music and sound that I would have picked up another hobby. Maybe quilting.

 

I think another technology that did alot of damage to music is the introduction of badly/cheaply/low power designed sigma delta dacs, especially the CS4398 or it's equivalent SOC counterparts. This chip killed alot of plankton and removed alot of soundstage detail. This along with the MP3 era...(some of my music is still in mp3 and I can't find the original discs anymore)

 

Still miles ahead of YouTube!

With that being said, I love Spotify for exploring music. It guides my vinyl and CD purchases.

 

I bet youtube has helped musicians more than hurt. Today you can learn to play guitar for free by watching youtube instruction videos. There are also more outlets to get independent artists music out there to be discovered ala bandcamp.

This is the same argument that they had about the electric guitar ruining "music" as they knew it. In the future when out great grandkids are playing laser boards and air harps we will have to right to complain again.

 

I think of this completely the opposite. If it weren't for technology I would not have gotten to experience some truly unique and talented musicians and performances.

How about this guy? How many people would ever get to experience this field recording without good old YouTube?



The things that musicians are willing to try when they know they can get it to a larger audience through technology are pretty stunning:



Performance for others helps increase the drive to create. Technology brings the audience to the musician and vice-versa and creativity begets creativity.

 

the reason to play an instrument changed, no doubt about that. on my father's side almost everybody played an instrument, and the choice of instrument was to complete the "family band". it was a familial activity and pretty much the only thing to do after dinner. and also the ancestor of the radio. if you wished to listen to music you needed someone to play.
now those who like the act of playing will do it, those who just like listening to music have a much better way of doing it. it's like painting and photography, portraits logically moved on to photography that did a much better and easier job of it. it may make musicians (or painters) a smaller, more elite group, but I don't think we're really missing out on talent and quality. it's not like a lot of casuals would become world class phenomenons anyway, talent isn't in everybody, but even then it's a lot of efforts to simply be ok and so much efforts to be and stay real good.
now if less people learn to play the accordion, can we really blame them?

 

i thought the only reason to play an instrument was in the hopes it would get you laid one day. I was doing it wrong.

 

1986

Girl: You play guitar, cool. What's the name of that song?

Me: The Rain Song, Led Zeppelin

Girl: That's soo pretty! Oh, there's my boyfriend, bye.

 

What about Carcass?

"Hey Linda check this out!"

"Aw Bill that's uh cute. What's it called?"

"EMBRYONIC NECROPSY AND DEVOURMENT!"

"What?"

"Look at this collage I made..."

and Linda calls the police.

 

I think computer based music allows for people who don't know music to make music and that results in inferior music. This predominates in EDM, hip hop and pop where you can make music without being a musician or having an understanding or feel for melody and harmony - two of the three pillars of music. Even the rhythm - which is the backbone of these types of music - loses something because of its copy and paste perfection and repetitiveness. The result is denuded music that falls well short of music's potential to communicate with the soul.

 

And the removal of dynamics from music as well.

 

Worked for me.

 

Cannot agree more with this. The internet music scene is both vapid and beautiful. I've always thought that the best musicians out there are probably locked in a basement somewhere. The best artists are sometimes so dedicated to their craft that they neglect other things in life. Because of the internet, these people have a way to get exposure without going the typical route of climbing the industry ladder.

But they're hard to find amidst the sea of amateurs. Everyone's a musician these days. Some of them are skilled - they've put in the time. But it's not all a matter of skill. Anyone can develop a skill. You can have an intimate understanding of structure, but nobody can teach you how to hone a distinctive sound or string together melodies and rhythms that move hearts and minds. Many are simply imitating what is popular... ...like a psychopath mimicking human emotions.

It truly has no reason to exist... ...nothing that distinguishes it from anything else already out there. It contributes nothing to the zeitgeist. We don't need more of the same! It completely misses the point of making art. The idea is to share something new with the world... ...to say something only you can say, as only you can say it. Do you want to impress people and make money? Or do you want to dedicate your life to having a dialogue? These are vital questions to ask yourself before you throw yourself into music.

I think that too many people have this dream of being major career musicians, but they just don't have what it takes. I'm not trying to be negative, here. It's just that society can't support THAT many musicians. We only need so many to make all of the good music. It's not like we need hundreds of thousands of people slaving away in factories 8 hours a day making enough for the masses to consume. That job doesn't exist. One person can make one good record and millions of people can have it. A few thousand of these extraordinarily talented individuals can supply the world. The demand for good musicians is not very high and the amount of money that people, as a whole, will invest in that is rather limited. The market is saturated. That job spot is beyond full.

You really do have to be in that 1% in order to succeed. And even then, it takes a lot of luck. If you don't have both, I really think you are wasting your life. 3 years of experience with fruity loops does not make a you worthy musician. Live your life, continue to work on it, and maybe in 10 years time, you will have something. Probably not, but at least you'll have skills that allow you to survive in the world and afford you the luxury of doing what you love on the side.

Everybody wants to be someone these days. I say there's no shame in just doing some blue collar work and having a hobby... ...I see these kids out there putting up kickstarters to fund their album or buy gear so they can make what they promise to be the most revolutionary electronic or indie-folk music and shake my head. Meanwhile, they're still living with mommy and daddy (or in an apartment paid for mostly by them,) harboring this idea that somehow their music is gonna get them out of their bedrooms. Most of them will be flipping burgers in a couple of years. They just wanna make art and have fun. They somehow have it in their heads that if they get an art degree, they'll become true artists, be able to immediately go out into the world, and just do what they want for the rest of their lives. Somehow, that equates to fame in their minds. It simply isn't true. The ease of creating and putting art out there has created the illusion that putting your nose to the grindstone is no longer necessary.

I feel like a lot of these people never had anyone to sit them down and tell them that what they're doing is probably a bad idea. Their friends and family are super-impressed with them and suddenly they fancy themselves as musicians. Realistically, nobody else cares. I'm not saying that it's bad to have a dream... ...it's just that you are not special just because you can make something that sounds like actual music. That's the easy part. Anybody can and is already doing that. This much should be clear by now.