Has our enjoyment of music diminished because of availability

nelly17

The U2/Apple thingy has got me thinking.

Is music too easily available to appreciate it now. Now I can fire up google music (Spotify Deezer or whatever) and have 90% of what Im after at my finger tips for a couple of quid a month. As a result I never really come accross a little golden nugget that I think is fantastic and I want too tell people about like I would have done years ago.

I'm starting to show my age now but years ago I remember when I was a teenager and we passed tapes around (which is effectevly low tech file sharing) between mates but every now and then you got something that you cherished and listened to constantly for months on end thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Now days I seem to just be a bit 'meh' and move on and never really find that golden nugget.

I just think the availability of so much music has watered it down as an art form if people dont have to work for it they dont really value it.

No, i still find new stuff and listen to it over and over

Keep looking and maybe you'll find something new to knock your socks off

Donkey Oaty

nelly17 wrote: »

we passed tapes around

:eek: Home taping is killing music!

pickarooney

I still get the wow factor regularly enough but it lasts a lot shorter before I find something else. I guess I enjoy indidvidual songs/albums less but music on the whole more.

seannash

Hypem and Soundcloud for new music for me.
Definitely still some great stuff out there but its harder to find because there's so much other ****e out there. This is due to it being cheaper to record music,you dont need a label to have your music out there online.

Will I Amnt

It's quite the opposite really. Instead of finding these little golden nuggets once in a blue moon I'm finding them all the time.

joeblogggs69

No. If anything I find myself listening to more music. More of the music I want to listen too as opposed to what the Radio Stations are churning out these days. Finding new acts has never been easier. I would even say with today's technology - listening to music is a far more enjoyable experience WRT to sound quality due to better headphones and speakers. Having music at our fingers tips is something our grandparents could have never imagined but yet our generation finds some way of ridiculing it. Be grateful for what technology has done for us over the past few years or you'll be miserable for the rest of your life. PM

OldGoat

nelly17 wrote: »

Now I can fire up google music (Spotify Deezer or whatever) and have 90% of what Im after at my finger tips for a couple of quid a month.

This might be why you are feeling jaded with music. You would seem to be only listening to your own music choices. Listening to other peoples playlists is where you'll find those Golden Nuggets.

Or, dare I say it, go out and listen to live bands. Having the on-line reminder of a gig that you've relished is a wonderful thing. Don't wait for your music heroes to arrive but actively go out and search for new bands.

The availability of music is a real boon IMO. Now I can hear a track, research the music, listen to the whole back catalogue, learn about the genre ad infinitum. My music horizons have broadened so much in the last 30 years that I'll even listen to country. I won't like it but I'll listen to it.

You can always come over to the Music forums and ask for recommendations in whatever genres you enjoy. Or push the boat out and ask for recommendations in genres you don't know as much about.

the_monkey

I agree with this, there is no sense of ownership with music anymore ,
when I was a teenager I used to love popping into town to buy a CD.

Music had to be "earned" then , and it wasn't as easy to give up on an album and move on to the next like it is now..

whiskeyman

Enjoyment of music hasn't deminished.
The value of music has.

caolfx

I think to a small degree.

It's just not just music though.

Movies are so accessible now too, there's not really the anticipation of waiting for a film to come out so you can rent it like the old (old) days.

You can pretty much get anything, anywhere, anytime.

Of course there's a huge upside to that. Movies I might never have known about I have watched and enjoyed. Same goes for discovering bands on Spotify/iTunes.

o1s1n

I think it's more to do with the physical act of 'putting on music'.

If you have physical media and have to reach out somewhere, put it on a turntable/into a CD drive then you're invested in it as you've made multiple decisions before the album comes through the speakers.

Not so much with a 'click' really. Even less so now with streaming services where you pick a genre/someone else's playlist.

Shakespeare's Sister

The whole thrill of finding a rare album/single and hearing a song on the radio that you'd rarely hear etc is gone for sure, but I still prefer the way things are now where it's all easily accessible. That's a thrill in and of itself, particularly if you remember the days of dashing to tape a song off the radio, painstakingly sticking a biro into the cogs of a tape to fix it because it's starting to get garbled but getting a replacement tape isn't an option because the album is so hard to find, etc.
Wouldn't like music shops to disappear completely though. I was glad to hear recently that Golden Discs' takings are up.

o1s1n

SuperOito wrote: »

there's not really the anticipation of waiting for a film to come out so you can rent it like the old (old) days.

You can pretty much get anything, anywhere, anytime.

As great as that is (and I definitely won't complain about almost limitless availability!) there's been a loss of wonder/anticipation/excitement with such technological developments.

Even renting stuff out years ago, in most cases we'd go into a videoshop and pick a film/game without knowing anything more than what was on the back of the case.

That might sound a bit mad to people now, but there was definitely an excitement to not knowing what you were in store for.

TheBeardedLady

Yeah I know what you mean to some extent. I remember buying CDs/tapes and I'd listen to them for months and months on end and now I've easy and cheap access to everything, I find myself rushing to hear something else after only a few listens. As someone else said, I'm listening to a lot more music than I did as I couldn't afford to buy everything I wanted, which is great but perhaps I don't value what I'm listening to as much; I'm not REALLY listening to it like I used to.

draiochtanois

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fryup

whiskeyman wrote: »

Enjoyment of music hasn't deminished.
The value of music has.

the quality of music has..

ever since stock aiken & waterman appeared on the scene back in the late 89s, pop music has gone downhill imo

ghostdancer

Will I Amnt wrote: »

It's quite the opposite really. Instead of finding these little golden nuggets once in a blue moon I'm finding them all the time.

this

blue note

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=88668220

I had this same thought a while ago. My opinion is that it has, or has at least changed our enjoyment of music. Back in the day I'd buy an album having not heard sometimes any of it and I'd go home and listen to it. If I didn't like it immediately I'd give it a good chance because I'd spent a decent bit of money on it.

Now, you can turn on something new and switch over during the first song if it doesn't grab you. And albums are not as important as they were, now an awful lot of people are listening to songs instead of albums.

Akrasia

Here's a few points worth making

1. Young people (teenagers) who are finding their way in the world of music and art experience much more intense connection to music than older people (mid 20s and older) who have already discovered loads of different artists and styles of music
I remember when I was 15 - 18 thinking that music was one of the most important things in the world, and now, I'm 31, music is still great, but it's way down the list of priorities) A lot of the 'music is worse now than before' sentiment that every adult feels is down to the fact that the adult loses some of the magic, rather than the music is actually worse.

2. One of the joys attached to music growing up was the joy of building up a collection. And part of the joy of having a collection is that it's is slightly exclusive. You own music that others do not 'own'. The fact that anyone can 'aquire' any song from any artist at the click of a button has removed this feeling of superiority one would have had from owning something that was hard to aquire. (this is the bootleg subculture, the recordings collected by bootleggers are rarely good quality, but the fact that they were hard to find, made them valuable)

3. In the old times, you actually wanted your friends to share their music with you. You wanted to borrow their cds so you could copy them because music was an expensive resource. You wanted to listen to the album your friend just bought. Now that everyone can 'have' all the music all the time, you want to share your musical taste with everyone (to prove how much better your taste in music is compared to others) but this results the old jukebox battles (where you're competing with someone else in the pub to pick the best songs from the jukebox) being constant, every time there is music, you have some guy say 'Oh, if you like thie band, you'll love this other band, here' i'll put them on for you' and you end up constantly having to put up with some 'cutting edge' noise that someone else thinks is cool rather than the music you originally wanted to listen to.


But, when all is said and done, I totally envy the youth of today. They have instant access to every band ever recorded and can explore music to their hearts content free from the constraints of commercial radio stations and the top 30 hits stock management systems of their local 'golden disks'

nelly17

draiochtanois wrote: »

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Classic Rock/Metal - 90s Dance
/edit: I'm impressed by a lot of the progressive stuff around but very seldome blown away

I know its a bit of an irony liking classic rock and complaining about not finding new music. But every now and again I do find it. But my point isint really about finding new music I dont value it as much as I used to and I just move on.

Maby its because I'm older now too as well as the accessability

Shakespeare's Sister

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

Yeah I know what you mean to some extent. I remember buying CDs/tapes and I'd listen to them for months and months on end and now I've easy and cheap access to everything, I find myself rushing to hear something else after only a few listens. As someone else said, I'm listening to a lot more music than I did as I couldn't afford to buy everything I wanted, which is great but perhaps I don't value what I'm listening to as much; I'm not REALLY listening to it like I used to.

Totally. I "flit" from song to song now, rather than listening to an album and getting to know it properly. It wasn't just the internet that started this, it was starting work, having money and buying a bunch of albums every so often rather than one album only occasionally and cherishing it. I have several unlistened to albums.

It's like I've given up on committed relationships and just hoor around now instead. :pac:

nyarlothothep

Akrasia wrote: »

Here's a few points worth making

1. Young people (teenagers) who are finding their way in the world of music and art experience much more intense connection to music than older people (mid 20s and older) who have already discovered loads of different artists and styles of music
I remember when I was 15 - 18 thinking that music was one of the most important things in the world, and now, I'm 31, music is still great, but it's way down the list of priorities) A lot of the 'music is worse now than before' sentiment that every adult feels is down to the fact that the adult loses some of the magic, rather than the music is actually worse.

2. One of the joys attached to music growing up was the joy of building up a collection. And part of the joy of having a collection is that it's is slightly exclusive. You own music that others do not 'own'. The fact that anyone can 'aquire' any song from any artist at the click of a button has removed this feeling of superiority one would have had from owning something that was hard to aquire. (this is the bootleg subculture, the recordings collected by bootleggers are rarely good quality, but the fact that they were hard to find, made them valuable)

3. In the old times, you actually wanted your friends to share their music with you. You wanted to borrow their cds so you could copy them because music was an expensive resource. You wanted to listen to the album your friend just bought. Now that everyone can 'have' all the music all the time, you want to share your musical taste with everyone (to prove how much better your taste in music is compared to others) but this results the old jukebox battles (where you're competing with someone else in the pub to pick the best songs from the jukebox) being constant, every time there is music, you have some guy say 'Oh, if you like thie band, you'll love this other band, here' i'll put them on for you' and you end up constantly having to put up with some 'cutting edge' noise that someone else thinks is cool rather than the music you originally wanted to listen to.


But, when all is said and done, I totally envy the youth of today. They have instant access to every band ever recorded and can explore music to their hearts content free from the constraints of commercial radio stations and the top 30 hits stock management systems of their local 'golden disks'

While I accept this is probably generally true, music has never gone down in the list of priorities for me. Also I still occasionally get a major buzz listening to 'new' bands/songs but they have to be exceptional like Ghost or Funkadelic. I don't agree with the idea that music or any other form of art follows this flat line of quality and that perceptions of whether it's good or bad is dependent on age. You'll always get exceptional artists in every generation but there will be some eras that are overall better. The current generation is a bit sh1t, I pretty much hate everything that's popular now. An example, in a pub they play Jungle Boogie, this song is seriously funky and everyone was into it. Then they play some modern dance floor tune and ok, people were still into it but I didn't sense the same energy after a while. Old school dance/funk music is just superior to what's put out now on average. That Talk Dirty to Me song, compare that to even Will Smiths Boom Shake Shake the Room and even 90s Will Smith is better. A lot of music today seems to be the specific preserve of assholes.

Yamanoto

I do recall the sense of excitement the teenage me would experience, when awaiting delivery of a dodgy VHS copy of stuff like The Flying Burrito Bros. on some obscure American TV show (ordered using International Reply Coupons ) in the pre-internet days. What we have at our fingertips today is frickin' amazing, but it does come pretty easy & seems a little less precious as a result.

Shakespeare's Sister

Yeh there's always brilliant music about. Today the internet makes it easier than ever to find great artists. If getting old was such a factor in turning against music of today, I wouldn't be saying the above.
But in relation to pop/chart/daytime radio music specifically: it's way worse and I don't think that's just because I'm getting old. Maybe there's an element of it, but 1991 is the year for me when chart music really started to deteriorate (although it was one of the best years ever for "alternative") - and I was only 13 that year so it was hardly an age thing. The quality of pop even only the year before was vastly superior (e.g. Deee Lite Groove Is In The Heart, Adamski Killer, Snap The Power, Beats International Dub Be Good To Me). You'll still get the odd good pop song, don't get me wrong, but the vast bulk of it is X Factor muck. Even Stock Aitken & Waterman stuff was less bland than that.

Reindeer

I don't know about the enjoyment. But the quality of it seems more questionable.

TheBeardedLady

Shakespeare's Sister wrote: »

Totally. I "flit" from song to song now, rather than listening to an album and getting to know it properly. It wasn't just the internet that started this, it was starting work, having money and buying a bunch of albums every so often rather than one album only occasionally and cherishing it. I have several unlistened to albums.

It's like I've given up on committed relationships and just hoor around now instead. :pac:

I'm just remembering my Walkman days with tapes. I remember I literally had The Beautiful South's 0898 on there for about half a year. I listened to nothing else and I never seemed to tire of it (it's a great fecking album though).

When I got a CD walkman, I'd carry around a CD case with about 5 CDs which I'd change over while I was on the go. I remember doing the the clumsy flip over on public transport on the way to college and being scarla' if I dropped one on the floor of the bus and had to scramble around under seats to retrieve it. AH! Those were the days! Seems so quaint now but I had the attention span to put an album on and listen to it right through multiple times but you didn't really have the choice as you couldn't carry many around with you.

Tbh, my attention span for most things is shot in general in these modern times where everything is so accessible in such a short time.

Saying that, I've only got an 8gb mp3 player and haven't invested in anything bigger out of laziness but it's forced me to appreciate the albums I do have on it, but I have to choose them carefully (I change them around every few months or so).

Akrasia

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I don't agree with the idea that music or any other form of art follows this flat line of quality and that perceptions of whether it's good or bad is dependent on age. You'll always get exceptional artists in every generation but there will be some eras that are overall better. .

I agree with this. Music from different times is of very different quality (or even just appeal to different tastes.. if you weren't into pop synth or glam rock in the 80s, you probably would have gravitated way more towards the 60s and 70s era music)

My point was more to do with people's emotional connection to the music. A 17 year old who experiences The Doors for the first time is going to feel emotions that are very dfferent to a 50 year old man who puts on his Riders on the Storm LP for the 6000nth time.

A young person is experiencing music for the first time, an older person is usually comparing music to the music he/she already knows. It's still possible to experience euphoria when hearing something completely new by a new genre bending innovitive artist, but this is rare, while to a 17 year old, Joy division's Unknown Pleasures is completely new despite having been released almost 30 years ago.

draiochtanois

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anncoates

Bought my first album in 1980.

It's great having easier access to music nowadays and wouldn't change it now.

Nor do I think there is less good music around.

But the memories of cherishing vinyl, the sheer effort of hunting it down, swapping and taping stuff and the reverence you had for a physical music collection is something I'll always remember.

The_Captain

I think before file sharing and downloading really became a thing, it was a lot harder for bands to release music.

In say the late 80s, you'd have Guns and Roses playing local gigs in Hollywood, unsigned. The only way they had of getting their music to an audience is to be spotted by a talent scout and sign a recording contract.

The label will give them access to top of the range recording studios, fly in producers, get the sound polished and refined before releasing a CD.
So of the 30 or 40 bands that were similar to GnR, the only one deemed good enough to sign was Guns and Roses

Because of the effort and cost in getting a CD to market, the label will only sign artists that are profitable. The same applied to indie labels, they'd only sign bands they like, that will shift CDs and sell tickets.

By and large, a band that make money, and a band that are 'good' are the same thing. Labels in the 80s/90s wouldn't have signed no hopers that were never going to make great songs.

There would be less music available, but the music available would generally be good quality.

With the advent of file sharing and downloading, bands and artists can record, "produce" and release their material themselves.
You had websites like myspace, where bands that wouldn't get within an asses roar of a recording contract could now get their material out there.

This means that the market is basically flooded with lower quality music, the modern day equivalent of Guns and Roses have to share with the 30-40 similar bands from their home town who are now all releasing songs themselves. That makes it a lot harder for a quality band to stand out, every band is going to be marketing themselves and a band with huge potential could get lost in all the noise. Listeners simply just don't have the time to listen to all those bands with full attention and find the one who could turn good.

It's even worse when you have bands who are good with scoial media and search engine optimisation. You've got guys like Chvrches misspelling their name to make them easier to find on google. It adds another level of difficulty. A great band who might know nothing about computers (or might not be able to afford a computer) are now completely anomymous because online marketing is now more important for an up and coming band than being able to play guitar.


tl;dr: blame Rebecca Blackand youtube

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Son Of A Vidic

anncoates wrote: »

But the memories of cherishing vinyl, the sheer effort of hunting it down, swapping and taping stuff and the reverence you had for a physical music collection is something I'll always remember.

I hear ya. My physical music collection became an altar that my peers would worship at. Going into a record store and searching for your latest gem was fun. Wanting the radio DJ to keep his mouth shut as you taped a track you coveted. Today, digital music and the convenience it brings at a finger tip, has removed all the fun for me.

The Purveyor of Truth

Reindeer wrote: »

I don't know about the enjoyment. But the quality of it seems more questionable.

pickarooney wrote: »

I still get the wow factor regularly enough but it lasts a lot shorter before I find something else.

Will I Amnt wrote: »

It's quite the opposite really. Instead of finding these little golden nuggets once in a blue moon I'm finding them all the time.

Why bring porn into the discussion lads?

anncoates

draiochtanois wrote: »

cherishing vinyl is a plastic fetish & it's got nothing to do with music

unless you are listening to it on a gramaphone there is going to be an analog to digital conversion at some point so vinyl isn't intrinsically better

Didn't say it was. I was just talking about the main physical music media of that time

eviltimeban

The event around it has diminished for me. I enjoy being able to find what I want easily enough; some rare 70s prog or early 90s ambient albums, there they are, in full, on YouTube. Great.

But the event - waiting for the date an album was released, building it up in your mind, going into HMV that morning, setting aside an afternoon or evening to listen to it... that's sort of gone now.

Now, when there's an album coming out, I sort of have to force myself not to look it up or try and download it, but wait for the physical release and go in and buy it. Its more exciting, makes you value it more, and creates a little event for you to enjoy.

blue note

I wonder was there ever a time when people said recorded music is ruining our enjoyment of music? As in, people are listening to it at home and getting crap quality music.

SuperGrover

I have Spotify premium and have never listened to so much music across so many genres. Also catching up with dozens of classic albums that I never got around to owning in the past. Great stuff.