SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE
Wonderful invention, the iPod. Thousands of songs, in your pocket. Music wherever you go. The soundtrack of your life. And then there are subscription services like Napster, offering downloads from every genre and sub-genre since time began. Not to mention music in cars, elevators, shops and restaurants, TV shows and advertisements, even while you wait for your phone call to be answered. Where melody, harmony, and beat were once an art, then a product, today they are almost a utility. Like electricity or water, they are ubiquitous.
MUSIC HAD AN ALMOST RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
For me, this sonic surfeit is not an unconditionally good thing. Growing up, I nearly always experienced music in intensely social situations. It was the glue that held many of my friendships together. Sharing a new Alice Cooper or Led Zeppelin album with a fellow initiate, poring over the meaning of every lyric, scouring the record’s sleeve for coded meanings. For teenagers, such rituals gave music a tribal, almost religious significance. Likewise, seeing bands in faded ballrooms or former cinemas, rather than at this century’s branded festivals and megastadiums, was infinitely more personal. It helped maintain the illusion that the music was meant only for me or, at worst, a few thousand cognoscenti. Not for the whole wide world.
Which brings me to my nephew’s iPod. Now I love Zeff dearly. But he’s only 18. So I was shocked to see what he’s listening to. Yes, he has 2008’s hottest acts like Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys. But he also has selections from the very best rock, jazz, reggae, Latin, soul, funk, electronica, and more produced over the last 50 years. I was well into my 30s before my playlist was as eclectic. And there’s the problem. Pioneering and original music scenes- from bebop to punk rock, from mod to new romantic—usually develop from coteries of players and devotees who are fiercely committed to particular sounds. By definition, others are excluded. If all youngsters end up with tastes as catholic as my nephew’s, how many new musical styles will ever develop the critical mass of purists they need to flower in the first place?
IMAGE
by J Rossol
Totally agree with you Simon - having only yesterday purchasing the new Bloc Party album as a download only [it was only announced two days earlier] i felt i was missing out due to there being no available artwork for the album once it was loaded into my Itunes.