It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
It was the best of times... for music listeners.
Case in point: the other day I thought "hey, I'm curious about that group Gar Samuelson was in before joining Megadeth. I think I read somewhere they were technical and a bit jazzy..."
I didn't even have to remember the name of the band. Just type in the tube "Gar Samuelson", and in about 8 seconds I was listening for the first time to Fatal Opera. The whole album.
About 10 years ago, the exact same typing would have probably generated only excerpts, information about the band... In fact, I still remember the moment when this switch in accessibility happened for me. It was 2011; I knew that a certain band was about to release a new album, so I shyly made the query on the album, hoping to find some info on the release, track listing, some interview... To my (bittersweet) amazement, I found the whole thing was already available online; it almost "jumped" on me.
Going a bit backwards, in the pre-Internet times, my aforementioned curiosity for Samuelson's band would have been only an isolated thought. Then, if the odds were good, in a few months I would have perhaps found, and read avidly, some small reference in a magazine, and if stars aligned right, at some other point maybe I would have found someone who knew someone who could record a tape for me. (Of course, all those hurdles also made the experience more valuable in your eyes when you finally got "the prize"... and you listened to it over and over and over...)
(To provide additional contrast, I also remember a movie I watched that happened in the 16th century. In a certain scene there was a couple in a palace, and at one point she asked him "fancy some music?". When he said yes, the lady clapped twice and a bunch of guys appeared from behind a curtain, with lutes and flutes and tambourines, and started playing as they continued the conversation. When the couple had enough music, the lady clapped again, and the guys stopped at once and disappeared behind the curtain again. Having live music is always great, for sure, but I think it's safe to say that this kind of "music players" were not available to so much people as they are now! :) ).
It was the worst of times... for music makers.
The dark side of this situation is that music, in the popular lore, has become something that is not considered worth paying for (recorded music, I mean).
The exception would be perhaps streaming services, of which I've spoken before. They do generate business, it seems. But in those services people is paying music "by the ton", very little, and besides the music makers get zip from those deals.
Music making has become something that you do just as an act of love, because you "can't help yourself", it is your gateway of expression of choice, or think that a world with music is more beautiful than without it. Streaming services, in my view, "pimp" that love ruthlessly, giving nothing in return. I'm alright with the fact of not getting paid by my music, if that's the sign of the times. But I'm not alright with the fact that at the same time other people is in fact getting very well paid. That's where I draw the line. That is fishy. That is a swindle.
At the same time (but this is a different matter), the same technology that makes the thievery possible has also made quality recording way cheaper. This is a great possibility to create good music for every one; but at the same time, without a criteria of selection, the flood of released stuff makes it a bit difficult to differentiate good music from plain amateurism (those guys for whom the computer led them to music, instead of the other way round).
Regarding music worth that name, what I'm seeing is a lot of first efforts that don't continue. Everybody has a band in their 20s. Everybody writes. Everybody acts. Everybody makes short movies. Because at that age, the world is like your buffet; you like to try everything once. Traveling abroad. Recreational drugs. Sexual experimentation. Recording an album. Etc.
Don't get me wrong, some of those albums are great, but they have the limitations that are typical of the first efforts: the good ones are usually like a big "soup bowl" of influences, that would need further developments to deepen their character, narrow down the style... ("Fatal Opera" is precisely a good example of this. Another illustrious one for me would be Smile, the original band that would later evolve to become Queen). The novelty wanes and then the twenty-somethings move on to the next hot thing. Why should they keep at it when fun is the only motivator? (Only a few masochists/genetic mutations, like myself, usually do). For the rest, bungee jumping will be more fun next week.
So I see a very dark side to all the music abundance I mentioned at the beginning; it is focused on the past only (how long ago since Gar Samuelson passed?) None of those bands that we are enjoying could appear or survive in the current state of things.
And being focused on the past only is depressing. A society without plans for future is bad news. As in many other areas, we are just looting a treasure we've been given, without making any effort to protect it or renew it...
These are just a few unconnected thoughts, that could be perhaps summarized simply by saying that "the whole thing is a mess". Music is intensely connected to life, it's as natural in human beings as breathing or walking. Nothing can take such purity away. The rest, all around, above, behind it... is disgusting. But music will always be there, in some form. I guess the core of my sadness is living in a society that is so sick in my view, that gives such a huge value to things that I don't give a fuck about, things that are silly or downright harming, and yet neglects things that for me are basics of dignity. But what you gonna do, this problem (the individual-society tension) is not new, I guess being a dissident in Hitler's society wasn't a walk in the park either...
Case in point: the other day I thought "hey, I'm curious about that group Gar Samuelson was in before joining Megadeth. I think I read somewhere they were technical and a bit jazzy..."
I didn't even have to remember the name of the band. Just type in the tube "Gar Samuelson", and in about 8 seconds I was listening for the first time to Fatal Opera. The whole album.
About 10 years ago, the exact same typing would have probably generated only excerpts, information about the band... In fact, I still remember the moment when this switch in accessibility happened for me. It was 2011; I knew that a certain band was about to release a new album, so I shyly made the query on the album, hoping to find some info on the release, track listing, some interview... To my (bittersweet) amazement, I found the whole thing was already available online; it almost "jumped" on me.
Going a bit backwards, in the pre-Internet times, my aforementioned curiosity for Samuelson's band would have been only an isolated thought. Then, if the odds were good, in a few months I would have perhaps found, and read avidly, some small reference in a magazine, and if stars aligned right, at some other point maybe I would have found someone who knew someone who could record a tape for me. (Of course, all those hurdles also made the experience more valuable in your eyes when you finally got "the prize"... and you listened to it over and over and over...)
(To provide additional contrast, I also remember a movie I watched that happened in the 16th century. In a certain scene there was a couple in a palace, and at one point she asked him "fancy some music?". When he said yes, the lady clapped twice and a bunch of guys appeared from behind a curtain, with lutes and flutes and tambourines, and started playing as they continued the conversation. When the couple had enough music, the lady clapped again, and the guys stopped at once and disappeared behind the curtain again. Having live music is always great, for sure, but I think it's safe to say that this kind of "music players" were not available to so much people as they are now! :) ).
It was the worst of times... for music makers.
The dark side of this situation is that music, in the popular lore, has become something that is not considered worth paying for (recorded music, I mean).
The exception would be perhaps streaming services, of which I've spoken before. They do generate business, it seems. But in those services people is paying music "by the ton", very little, and besides the music makers get zip from those deals.
Music making has become something that you do just as an act of love, because you "can't help yourself", it is your gateway of expression of choice, or think that a world with music is more beautiful than without it. Streaming services, in my view, "pimp" that love ruthlessly, giving nothing in return. I'm alright with the fact of not getting paid by my music, if that's the sign of the times. But I'm not alright with the fact that at the same time other people is in fact getting very well paid. That's where I draw the line. That is fishy. That is a swindle.
At the same time (but this is a different matter), the same technology that makes the thievery possible has also made quality recording way cheaper. This is a great possibility to create good music for every one; but at the same time, without a criteria of selection, the flood of released stuff makes it a bit difficult to differentiate good music from plain amateurism (those guys for whom the computer led them to music, instead of the other way round).
Regarding music worth that name, what I'm seeing is a lot of first efforts that don't continue. Everybody has a band in their 20s. Everybody writes. Everybody acts. Everybody makes short movies. Because at that age, the world is like your buffet; you like to try everything once. Traveling abroad. Recreational drugs. Sexual experimentation. Recording an album. Etc.
Don't get me wrong, some of those albums are great, but they have the limitations that are typical of the first efforts: the good ones are usually like a big "soup bowl" of influences, that would need further developments to deepen their character, narrow down the style... ("Fatal Opera" is precisely a good example of this. Another illustrious one for me would be Smile, the original band that would later evolve to become Queen). The novelty wanes and then the twenty-somethings move on to the next hot thing. Why should they keep at it when fun is the only motivator? (Only a few masochists/genetic mutations, like myself, usually do). For the rest, bungee jumping will be more fun next week.
So I see a very dark side to all the music abundance I mentioned at the beginning; it is focused on the past only (how long ago since Gar Samuelson passed?) None of those bands that we are enjoying could appear or survive in the current state of things.
And being focused on the past only is depressing. A society without plans for future is bad news. As in many other areas, we are just looting a treasure we've been given, without making any effort to protect it or renew it...
These are just a few unconnected thoughts, that could be perhaps summarized simply by saying that "the whole thing is a mess". Music is intensely connected to life, it's as natural in human beings as breathing or walking. Nothing can take such purity away. The rest, all around, above, behind it... is disgusting. But music will always be there, in some form. I guess the core of my sadness is living in a society that is so sick in my view, that gives such a huge value to things that I don't give a fuck about, things that are silly or downright harming, and yet neglects things that for me are basics of dignity. But what you gonna do, this problem (the individual-society tension) is not new, I guess being a dissident in Hitler's society wasn't a walk in the park either...
