A friend not so long ago asked me what i think about the music of today. as i did a research project on this subject last year, there was never going to be a simple one line answer, and i wasn’t prepared to let it go without some deep searching and explanations. there are many contributions to the ever evolving music of today, and why the music of the past was so popular and still is to this day.
lets start with the early music, you see music from 80’s was and is still a great era for music, and the 70’s, 60’s and so on, you get the picture, music from the past was so successful, due to one significant reason, there was no real involvement of the internet. you see back in the day, the only way to listen to music was via the radio or going to a gig, and the only way to have possession of a recording was to buy a record, so bands, singers etc (up until the internet and downloading became a main factor of the music industry) sold millions of records making the music from that era seem the best ever created. nowadays we have other ways to listen to, buy and have possession of music, and the main reason being the use of the internet, for instance a band could sell a million records, by download only, but this doesn’t mean that that song is going to be all over the radio, you see there are now just so many ways that music is distributed, it is hard to keep a total record of how many records have been sold in one week, and the fact that the internet is now worldwide makes the whole music selling boom even harder to control. This in a way is a good thing to have happened to the music world and the industry, though this is treading on to new grounds, so i will leave that there.
moving away from that area, lets now talk about the other reason why music has changed so much, and this time talking about the use of electronic instruments, or basically, technology/computers. i see it as this,
“Technology has shaped music, the way that music has shaped technology”.
you have to understand, and like it or not, but technology has had such a huge influence on music, from as early as the phonograph effect to the first computers to ever invade our homes. when technology started to attach itself to the evolve-ment of music, those who were using it to their advantage were unknowingly starting a new revolution, when Igor Stravinsky started to write pieces that were exactly the same length of the record, i don’t think he knew just what he was doing for the future of music, the first vinyl records were roughly 3 minutes and 30 seconds in length, which is why we have grown up with nearly all songs being the same length.
but the importance of technology to music doesn’t stop there, music is just as ‘good’ and as advanced as it always has been, if all that music that we all love from yesteryear was the same in todays world, all the same notes, songs, tunes, then we wouldn’t have evolved very far with ourselves, i mean we all wouldn’t want to be walking around in shell suits still would we.
so no matter what we make of all the music there is out today, we just have to accept that if its come this far it deserves at least a little respect, and people need to search hard and far for what they ‘like’, instead of blaming TV (come on you know the culprits- X factor, pop idol etc etc), because music doesn’t stop there it is and always has been a universal language.
