Is anyone else concerned by how quickly we consume and discard new music these days? I was at a Plants and Animals show a few weeks ago, and during the show I was lamenting the fact that my interest in the band had already peaked after only two weeks of hearing that they even existed. The system that we have allows us to access complete discographies of bands within minutes of hearing about them. We listen to the music fervently when it's still new and fresh. When the band comes to town, we go see them live, buy a t-shirt, go home and forget about it. The next day, we find a new band.
When I was a young lad, growing up in the wilds of the Canadian National Capital region, a rock band was not something that one simply snatched up, used up and threw away. It was something that was savored, cherished, and studied. I think I spent 7 years of my adolescence listening to Pearl Jam before I got to see them live. Now, I know much has changed in the world of music distribution, and the days of going to a record store to buy your music are a thing of the past. All I'm saying is that the music world, like many things in our modern society, seems to be moving too fast.
So my question is this: Has music simply become another consumer good, mass produced, distributed, consumed and then disposed? I would like to think not, but as I stood watching Plants and Animals, I felt a great sadness in the way I perceived the indie rock scene at the moment: An assembly line of new bands, fueled by internet hype machines and buzz blogs. It's like no one's taking time to sit back and really absorb the music, we are simply buying, consuming and disposing it, like your morning Orange Mochafrappacino from Starbucks.
Now, I have a friend, let's call him B. Isopp... (actually that's much too obvious, let's call him Bernty I.) He sees this issue in a much more positive light. He looks at the music industry in its current form as an efficient machine, cranking out constant entertainment for the masses. Thanks to iTunes and Amie Street and a plethora of other legal music download sites, anyone anywhere can access music once reserved for those who live in cities. Which, in itself, is truly a great thing.
We live in a society constantly bombarded with media, and I fear that the human of the future will resemble the fat idiot depicted in that delightful movie Wall-E. Maybe I'm just sick of letting the internet tell me what music to listen to. The problem is that it is always right! Maybe that's what will distinguish the age of the internet. It will be known as the death of Subjectivism. . .or maybe the dawn of neo-Subjectivism?. . . Ok, I'll stop now.
Some final questions for you to ponder:
Is consuming a large amount of media a good thing?
Is appreciating art a self-serving distraction or does it have intrinsic value?
3 comments:
I was actually just thinking about that a few months ago; with the ridiculous number of (arguably) good bands that seem to pop everyday, it's hard to tell whether any of them will even "matter" after a few months (and I don't mean that just in the grand sense of mattering to society or history or what have you, but even just mattering to you personally). When I was in high school, every other band that put out a decent debut album was welcome to join my roster of favourite bands of all time (I stalked the tour bus, bought the t-shirts, the early singles, the whole shebang), and I still remember every single one of them. Now, I can't even remember which 7 albums from pitchforks "best new music" section I've just added to my ipod. I've become too skeptical to just buy a new album... Instead, I find myself re-discovering old bands since I know how the whole story will pan out eventually... So, in summary, and to answer your questions, we should just all listen to the Kinks all day and feel nostalgic for the good old days, when album sleeves were something to relish and MTV actually played music videos.
I never said that. I think the music industry and overconsumption sucks.
Good for people to know.
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