The internet's impact on music megathread

[sus]

The other day I decided that The Shout Out Louds are our generation's Orchestral Maneuvers. I will neither expand on this nor defend it, but I am stating it for posterity

 

[version]

But at the same time I remember the pre internet world where music felt a bit more special and magically remote

It's happened with everything.

I mentioned skating above and it's the same there. You used to have to buy a physical copy of a vid from a skate store or go round a mate's and watch one with a group and now every pro just has Insta and is constantly badgered to post clips by their sponsors.

 

[sus]

It's the loss of material fetish, and it's good I think

 

[sus]

Decommodification and de-scarcification of culture

 

[version]

It's not just about the object itself though. It's about the positive friction that comes with working within limitations.

 

[WashYourHands]

does Neon Dreams come with a yt playlist?

could Mr Mac have written his magnus opus without dematerialisation?

 

[version]

I thought about making a thread on 'joyriding technology' recently, something Goldie said about making the Rufige Kru stuff, but we might be able to fold it into this one.

That Schrader film I watched the other night was interesting because he was working with and exploring the technology to hand, iPhones and whatnot. The film was full of grainy digital footage you couldn't do with pre-digital gear and he incorporated that into the themes of the film.

I just got a recent Ferrara thing in the post that's supposed to do something similar. It was filmed in Rome during lockdown and that's part of the film. Everything's deserted, it's all mediated through Zoom calls, drones etc. i dunno whether it'll be any good, but I appreciate the impulse and attempt to engage with the tech in an artistic way.

Hopefully there are younger people doing that sort of thing too, be a bit depressing if it's just these grizzled veterans still trying stuff and everyone else has just slipped into the stuff unthinkingly.

 

[version]

Precision beyond a certain point seems to be a negative. Maybe that's the crux of the issue with the mainstream use of The Digital, algorithms etc. You target and render everything too cleanly and precisely and it becomes lifeless.

 

[version]

I'm sure @woops once said something about not being able to really form memories when you're alone and I think he's right and that that's a big part of why targeted media consumption and all the rest of it's so slight and slippery.

 

[sus]

It's not just about the object itself though. It's about the positive friction that comes with working within limitations.

A classic argument of nostalgists. "Yes, strictly speaking things are better, but constraints and limitations are good, so they're actually worse"

 

[sus]

I mean I sorta get what you're gesturing at but we can say it about everything ever, every freedom enabling thing ever, so where do we draw lines how do we litigate

 

[sus]

That Schrader film I watched the other night was interesting because he was working with and exploring the technology to hand, iPhones and whatnot. The film was full of grainy digital footage you couldn't do with pre-digital gear and he incorporated that into the themes of the film.

I'm very upset I missed Master Gardener at the local Drafthouse theater two weeks back

 

[version]

I mean I sorta get what you're gesturing at but we can say it about everything ever, every freedom enabling thing ever, so where do we draw lines how do we litigate

You can say pretty much anything about anything ever. You might as well never discuss anything at all if you're gonna be that reductive.

 

[WashYourHands]

Working without limits but

I mean I sorta get what you're gesturing at but we can say it about everything ever, every freedom enabling thing ever, so where do we draw lines how do we litigate

can’t find the track on Spotify

 

[WashYourHands]

there’s a line you Amish melt

 

[version]

so where do we draw lines how do we litigate

On an individual basis, I think you just go on gut. We're in a great period for sugar, there's more sugary foods and types of sugar than perhaps ever before, we're in a sugar paradise, but we're also aware that indulging to the extent this allows will fuck us up, so it's advisable to impose some sort of limitation on our consumption.

 

[version]

You can't avoid limitations anyway so dismissing them as nostalgia is stupid. Nobody's made an album playing every single available instrument simultaneously. There are always choices to be made.

 

[version]

The question is what should the limitations be, not whether there should be limitations. You're gonna run into limitations whatever you do.

 

[sus]

On an individual basis, I think you just go on gut. We're in a great period for sugar, there's more sugary foods and types of sugar than perhaps ever before, we're in a sugar paradise, but we're also aware that indulging to the extent this allows will fuck us up, so it's advisable to impose some sort of limitation on our consumption.

I don't like gut for these things, for reasons aforementioned.

Hazy clouding of personal nostalgia and childhood

Ubiquity of cultural nostalgia & feelings of cultural decline from every generation ever

We can't trust our gut on these issues, we need something more solid

 

[version]

The flipside of the quality of an engineered mainstream hit not being relevant is perhaps the idea that you appreciate something more when you pay for it and force yourself to sit with it because of the limitations of vinyl and the pre-internet age.

Are you realising it's good or are you just manipulating yourself into liking it because of factors outside the quality of the music, exactly like the execs?