Comments on: Where Has All The Music Gone?

By: andy morris

andy morris — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:05:33 +0000

and a damn fine soundtrack it is

By: Andy Morris

Andy Morris — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:04:21 +0000

you have a point. I distinctly remember the wow the first time I played Bauhaus' Third Uncle from a record I'd borrowed from the public library the previous day. That night, I stayed up til dawn playing the track and Prince's Temptation (borrowed at the same time) back to back. It was the night I discovered music.
I now have over 40,000 songs in my collection, and yet all I listen to is http://www.radioparadise.com.
Ex-Duran Duran bassist Roger Taylor nailed it for me in the BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/834717...

By: Michael Carter

Michael Carter — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:05:56 +0000

I think you've underplayed the packaging. My technology busting 15 year old Godson wants the sound track to 'The Boat That Rocked' for Xmas. For him it's not so many tracks hoovered together by grab from the Internet – it is a slice of life – albeit a fav memory of Richard Curtis of an era (over 40 years ago).

Packaging does provide a context. Just as only performing in concert halls.

By: paulrutherford

paulrutherford — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:26:47 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to read, and the thoughts. I agree with you; MP3 is just the next step in a continuum that leads from shellac discs to the radio. But even with broadcast, there is an element of limit to access. The question of our capacity to listen is, I think, inextricably linked to the ubiquity of the technology. At a subconscious level, we always know that there is the potential to repeat the experience. That's why Drummond introduces an auto-destructive element to his work; if you don't pay attention, you're going to miss it.

By: Giffin

Giffin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:12:53 +0000

Good, thought-provoking stuff.

I think there are two issues here. One is “experience”. Since we remember what we were experiencing while the music was playing, then our memories are equally valid whether we listened to an MP3 or a live band. And the most emotionally-charged music we probably ever heard was in a party or disco or movie – recorded music played as part of a wider sensory experience. And let's face it the music was always a secondary element there!

The second is “attention”. I don't see that MP3's are essentially different to radio – music being streamed to you, only now selected by you or the Genius playlist rather than a DJ or produce. So I'm not convinced about the “attention” deficit involved in music as “wallpaper”, I rather think that it's the lack of other elements that diminish the overall emotional charge compared to when we saved up to buy an album when we were kids – that album represented a huge capital investment that would be repaid by becoming a personal soundtrack to all the other things we experienced at that time.

So perhaps the issue is that people just don't listen. And that's not an issue of environment or ubiquity, it's that they are always doing something else rather than just listening. You have to make a space in your life to just listen to music. I enjoy my music collection on MP3 as much as I did on album or CD, and I still buy new music. But I now have a room in which I can listen to it, and sitting in my library with a glass of wine creates the same enjoyment as sitting in my bedroom as a kid.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:58:19 +0000

But I thought you had to listen a third time before you reached the conclusion that you didn’t want to listen for a third time?

By: Geoffrey N Moss

Geoffrey N Moss — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:00:10 +0000

My brother just lent me Mark Knoffler’s lastest CD “Crimson something”. After two plays I’m rather regretting my three listens rule

By: David Thornton

David Thornton — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:02:00 +0000

A thought provoking piece as is the norm Paul.

Music is certainly ubiquitous these days, more variety, easier to access and for those of us who still (mostly) pay for it as cheap as chips. The only problem I find with this abundance, are we really listening to it?.

Hejira – Joni Mitchell, Illinoise – Sufjan Stevens, Bright Lights – Richard and Linda Thompson .

Three random items from the Thornton collection and top of any list that I would prepare if I were to ditch the CD format. Any replacement would have to be the entire record as it was conceived and originally released, because I am interested in the totality of the work not the highlights. Individual tracks from each lose much of their impact listened to in isolation, highlights in any case change over time. When I hear the fade out of “Coyote” my brain is already receiving the opening bars of ” Amelia” …..

A common factor in all of the above and indeed probably all of my favourite CDs is that the work has grown on me. It has taken time for me to be completely absorbed by the work. I admire Mossy’s three listens before forming an opinion and am now doing this myself. Back to Hejira, it’s not an easy listen. Today, when most of us can download 4-5 full Cds in the time taken to type this comment, I wonder whether the same record released today by an unknown would find an audience willing to give it the time to get to know and enjoy it.

By: Geoffrey N Moss

Geoffrey N Moss — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:17:16 +0000

Whilst the Beatles clearly stopped performing live for artistic reasons and that no one was actually listening to them, George Harrison was a major protagonist in their packing it all in.

He had a morbid fear of flying, accentuated by the “flimsy” aircraft used whilst touring the States and that several of his heroes had perished in that way – ergo Buddy Holly (good link there)

Boarding one such plane he noticed a rope ladder and enquired to the cabin crew its purpose.

“That’s in case we have an emergency, Mr Harrison, and have to exit the plane quickly”

“So we’ll be cruising at a constant twelve feet” was Harrison’s tert reply.

By: Geoffrey N Moss

Geoffrey N Moss — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:17:22 +0000

Undoutedly the buying experience of music has completely changed and there is a significant generational shift involved. My thoughts on downloads are well documented, and now the source of much teasing (along with mobiles, dvd and even cd before that), and I am finding that my ever increasing collection is now “soul less” being my own cds from downloaded/borrowed (friends and libraries) without the inserts, etc.
But it has enabled me to exponentially widen my listening experience across genres and artists at a significantly reduced cost. I treasure and value them to be played repeatedly in the future, something I think that any one under 30 seems to disregard as being unworthy. I think they might regret that when they become middle aged and will be re visting.
For me the bottom line is that music creates memories, whether it be LC at Glastonbury or a time shared. Recorded music allows you to immerse your self in a time and place long gone, and for that reason it will survive. Nostalgia is a strong human emotion.