Like many aspects of our lives, music has gone through tremendous changes in the past decades. Some have deeply changed the way we create new music, others altered our recording, production and distribution processes. But one of the most overlooked aspects of music that has gone through no less than a revolution is in the way we discover and consume it.
When I was in my early teens and my interest in and hunger for music started to grow, the main medium in the music consumer market was cassette tapes, later to be replaced by CDs. I remember saving money for weeks, sometimes even months, to buy a new cassette or a CD, if I wasn't able to record the album I was after from a friend or the radio (piracy of the 80s if you like)...
Playing cassettes and CDs with a sane quality however, required a good quality tape deck, an amplifier and a decent pair of speakers, that would cost a broke kid a fortune. But I worked my ass off and got what I wanted after a few years of listening primarily on a crappy tape machine and what we used to call the "Walkman", regardless of who manufactured it ("Walkman" is a trademark of Sony I believe).
Physical Mediums Are Expensive
So, music was expensive and hard to organize, physical mediums took a lot of space in your room and would sometimes get physically damaged or lost. You had to buy a whole album and, at least in the tape era, seeking song number 8 was not an easy task, so you would listen to the entire album most of the time... But, there were good parts to that too, so which I only learned to appreciate when they were taken away.
I believe that when you save for something you want really bad, you appreciate it more when you finally get it. You will give it a chance, even if it's not exactly what you thought it would be. Judging music, or many other art forms, without really paying attention to the details, is not possible unless you're looking for catchy, poppy, hits that evaporate before the next track even begins... I honestly can't imagine songs like "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd and many other masterpieces from the same era, making their mark on music history today. Why? Because today, no one would keep listening after 5 seconds of no audible sound, change, or progression of some kind... why wait when you can skip to another song using the latest fart recognition technology and without even having to move a muscle, right?! And now we're so used to it, we can't do it any other way... I find it sad, because I seriously feel that we are losing our ability to pay attention to details and go beyond the obvious, because we are so spoiled by the convenience of our technology. The irony here, is that the more our technology advances, the more our world becomes flat, two dimensional and boring. To me craving for something you love and working hard to get it teaches you a lot of values, and it's much more rewarding to get something you had to work hard or wait for.
What Happened to Music Albums?
Another side effect, is that you no longer have to get an album. Why do that when all you want is just that one cool song? While that might sound like a great thing, I would argue that we are missing a lot here. Good music, or art for that matter, doesn't have to be just a bunch of individual songs. Songs of the same album are usually recorded during a relatively short period of time, usually using the same gear and in the same studio facility (even if it's someone's home). That ties them all together from the sound and production style stand point. But more importantly, the artists are going through a specific period in their lives, which affects their mood, their energy, their musical style, musical skills and physical abilities. When you listen to a good album from beginning to end, it usually sounds like one piece of work. Yes, maybe not all of the tracks are equally good, but an album is another type of entity. An entity that is defined by all those songs played back to back... if you love the artists and care about what they have to say, it just doesn't get any better than that...
Concept albums are an extreme example to just that. Take for example The Wall by the Pink Floyd, or Tommy by The Who. Both albums tell a story and can be experienced as one long song, and both are considered to be masterpieces by the way (if you are not familiar, stop reading and go listen). Not only that the sound and production are very consistent throughout the album, there are repeating lyrical and musical motives or entire compositions that repeat with a different feel or vibe. "Another Brick in the Wall" Part I, II, and III from The Wall is the best example I can think of. You just can't tear such albums into a list of individual songs - they just don't have a life of their own! Such albums are greater than all the songs that make them. They have something serious to say, they reach depths you can only experience in movies and theatre. And it is so beautiful and special. And today you don't hear that anymore... and I believe it is at least partially because artist know that it is not relevant in today's world of streaming services and fast food. They know that very few will actually listen. They know that if the chorus doesn't start 30 seconds into the song, their song is irrelevant...
Just to make things clear, I'm not saying that there is no good music today, or that it is impossible to make good music today. And who defines "good" anyway, right? But, I do think that we've lost something precious and I don't think that there is a way. I think that any situation that is convenient to most people, cannot be changed to something less convenient, even when everybody knows it's not good for us (you know, global warming and shit). So this is no more than just my feelings about the subject, with hope to reach someone and make even the tiniest difference.
Music can be much more than just a bunch of songs...
Cheers