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 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: Michael Carter

Michael Carter — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:22:00 +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: 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: paulrutherford

paulrutherford — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:58:00 +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: Geoffrey N Moss

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

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