The internet's impact on music megathread

[linebaugh]

the flip is that we get a massive underground and access to new stuff like weve never had before, thats the correction. but that doesnt mean we have to be called boomers every time we say that Captain marvel isnt as good as kubrick

 

[linebaugh]

I think cultural decline is very interesting when talked about non moronically. thats the great normie project. the loss of the mainstream is something to be reckoned with

 

[linebaugh]

music is tough because its an innately abstract form. Movies and writing and other mediums can be measured 'fairly' by looking at the relationship between the ambition of projects and popularity of projects. Even thats a little dubious but youve got to draw the line in the sand somewhere

 

[version]

You can say everything's getting worse except art. People won't accept it for some reason despite all the conditions around it which lead to its creation seemingly being agreed on as getting worse.

 

[version]

You can say people have less free time, less disposable income, are more stressed, more anxious, have shorter attention spans, that money has more control in entertainment than ever and so on, but apparently you can't say that any of that translates into artistic decline.

 

[linebaugh]

with the caveat that were talking about the mainstream here, sure

 

[linebaugh]

Music though Im a little hung up on. Its hard to come up with an argument that says Elvis/the beatles is better than dua lipa that isnt risible

 

[blissblogger]

Streaming is unhealthy

Literally - instead of getting up to get a CD or record I own from where it is stashed, I can select it from the infinity archive of Tidal or whatever while remaining seated. This miniscule-seeming-per-individual-instance reduction in physical effort adds up cumulatively, increasing my total time sitting, which causes inflammation (or so I have read).

There's also less crouching while flicking through stacks of vinyl going on, so that would affect flexibility

(I also think the gaps in between playing things - like when flipping from one side of an album to another, or going to find and fetch a record - contributed to better musical 'digestion' and agitated against the tendency of constant sonic flow to turn everything into sonic wallpaper. But this is to stray from the physiological to the aesthetic)

 

[linebaugh]

And i still do like the occasional popular song

 

[version]

The best thing about the internet re: music is definitely access. The depth and breadth of the online library's brilliant.

 

[WashYourHands]

Can anyone posting remember cultures before the internet?

 

[version]

I remember skateboarding before the internet.

 

[linebaugh]

I cant

 

[Corpsey]

I wouldn't say music is worse - how could you even tell, with 80k tracks coming out every day?

But when there's so little chance of your music being heard - or listened to more than once or twice, does that discourage you from putting your blood sweat and tears in?

It seems like to sustain a career in music now you might have to constantly put music out, because whatever you put out last is so quickly forgotten.

I think this stuff influences the creative process

 

[sus]

it is worse, everyone agrees even suspended he just wants to be a little butt about it

I don't and I will never

 

[Corpsey]

Can anyone posting remember cultures before the internet?

I'm 37 so I'm at quite a good age in terms of having been exposed to the pre and post internet world's without feeling overly attached to either

 

[sus]

I wouldn't say music is worse - how could you even tell, with 80k tracks coming out every day?

But when there's so little chance of your music being heard - or listened to more than once or twice, does that discourage you from putting your blood sweat and tears in?

It seems like to sustain a career in music now you might have to constantly put music out, because whatever you put out last is so quickly forgotten.

I think this stuff influences the creative process

Thank you for re-focusing us.

I think the most important thing is the decontextualization of music. Lifted outside of its album, its local scene, any biographical context, put on a playlist. Massive compilations of amazing amazing tunes from every era and geographic local all next to each other in The Stream. What does that do to our sense of tradition and lineage, how does it allow new hybridities and cross-pollinations, how does it change the sense of vibey aesthetic "appropriateness" of interlocking parts

 

[sus]

the flip is that we get a massive underground and access to new stuff like weve never had before, thats the correction. but that doesnt mean we have to be called boomers every time we say that Captain marvel isnt as good as kubrick

This seems like a very reasonable take. I think it partly has to do with audience fragmentation, right?

 

[version]

It's telling that in the original article there's never any mention of the quality of the music. It's just about how the manipulation tactics that used to make a hit don't work anymore. Whether the music's actually good doesn't seem to enter into it.

 

[Corpsey]

I am massively grateful for the internet for all sorts of things relating to music -- forums like this, exposure to stuff I'd never have heard, etc.

And I don't miss having to spend twenty quid on a CD that turns out to be 85% trash and all that.

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