Re: Brian Eno about recorded music

[tyler newman <tyler@batterycage.com>]

hi-

Part of my beef with the way things are currently,  is exactly that we can live in micro niche's musically because of the ways that Amazon, Ebay,
Pandor and other entities keep recommending things that are like what we have liked in the past.  I'm all for resonance, but:

I remember when underground FM radio first started in the hippy days in Northern California that you could listen to a DJ play Odetta,  the Doors,   Joni Mitchell and

then Ravi Shankar on the same program.  There was a sense that you could discover new worlds, musically at that time.

well, i totally understand what you're saying here. it's important to not let the recommendation algorithms be the ONLY source of musical suggestion. there's still no substitute for doing your own legwork, and digging up new sounds on your own. personally, i listen to a very wide range of musical styles, so the algorithms keep things fairly diverse for me...but if i went solely on their suggestions, i would indeed drive myself into a corner fairly quickly. it's all about the input that you feed it.

to be honest, i'm not old enough to remember broadcast radio as anything but corporate hits (i kind of came of age with radio in the 80's, and my parents had pretty mainsteam taste). and "kids today" are even less so. the vast majority of broadcast radio stations are playing the same songs, at the same times, in all markets. there's no diversity whatsoever, it exists solely on the internet. i would LOVE it if broadcast radio could be the wildly diverse spectrum of music that pandora can be. but we all know that's just not going to happen. playlists that include sigur ros, britney spears, cannibal corpse, arto lindsey, front 242, and shostakovich within one hour may work in MY house, but there's no commercial upside for that in reality :)  so for most people, whether we like it or not, the internet IS that new frontier...it's up to the listeners drive to explore that defines their experience.

Lately,  I find that the kids that I teach know only specific genres of music and frequently , aren't interested in other kinds of music at all.  
This makes for some shredding speed metal and punk drummers, I'll have to admit, but there seems to be a mono fixated quality to their listening and playing habits.

in a lot of ways, it's the dividing line between people who truly appreciate music, and passive listeners. passive listeners are people who listen to broadcast radio, and generally are responsible for driving the success of the huge commercial acts. they're spoonfed easily digested music, and are satisfied with it. they don't go digging into obscure musics, or into individual artists backcatalogues or anything like that. music is a background aspect of their lives, a soundtrack to their daily grind. 

someone who really gives a shit about music, especially musicians, are doing themselves an extreme disservice by focusing solely on any one style or genre. it's one thing to have a deep appreciation for something and a true depth of knowledge about it, but it's sort of akin to only ever eating steak and potatoes. the kids that you mention will probably eventually give up on creating their own music because their lack of passion doesn't allow them to ever gain any deeper understanding of music as a cultural ideal (that is to say, something that can be appreciated across a variety of stylistic choices).

Additionally,  they don't have any concept of longer forms of music.  They never listen to an artist's albums because they are always purchasing
single songs on iTunes.   I frequently get, "Jimi Hendrix?    What songs does he do?"    I have to admit that I can't remember all the song
titles on the wonderful Electric Ladyland double album but try to convince them that they are missing something if they are only playing his
'greatest hits' and not experience how he, as an artist created this beautiful long form musical work. Listen to single tracks out of order
from THE side of Abbey Road by the Beatles and you've missed something important in my own opinion.

i definitely agree. this is far and away (for me) the greatest downside to the notion of digital purchasing. while i'm generally down with the idea of allowing people the option to cherry pick albums, it definitely does cause some problems for listening to the context of the work as a whole. abbey road is a perfect example. i do love the "shuffle" option, because it can expose me to deep cuts from the bowels of my music collection. but it can definitely detract from gaining a deeper understanding of the artist intent, particularly when the album sequencing is done intentionally to expose some kind of dramatic arc across the length of the album. that said, we can't change the ADHD nature of our society, so it's up to us to work within that limitation (or ignore it, as the case may often be).

my original post was made mostly just because i am surrounded by musicians and label people constantly, and this whole "the industry is collapsing" thing is all i ever hear. and a lot of that gets blamed on MP3 technology, which is just nuts. that's like blaming cars for car accidents. having seen a wide variety of creative expression here on this list, i was just a little surprised to hear that type of thing happening here. i do have hope that there is a solution out there waiting to be found. but sitting around and complaining about it won't necessarily do it. luddite tactics ("cds / vinyls / wax cylinders were better than mp3") aren't going to fly either. it's up to US to choose what we do with the technology available to us.

ps, that said, i don't have the answer either. but i keep my eyes and ears open to possibilities.

- tyler / informatik

- www.nymphomatik.com

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