What happened to going to a friends house after school and checking out his or his older brother's record collection. Sitting in front of the record player listening to Aerosmith while checking out the album covers. Checking out the marketing gimmicks on some of the album covers like opening the windows on Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, or the flimsy vinyl used on "The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane." In the past album covers were art.
Also,the sound quality on albums wwasn't perfect,with the random pops and static sounds but that gave it a special nuance.
Now we live in the world of perfect sounding music played on a personal player for 1 person to listen to.Instead of a group of people listening to music together and asking what they think of the band or song,now you just hand your earphones off to your friend while he/she listens to the song. Instead of album covers you can hold in your hand, youre either looking at them on a computer screen or squinting to see it on an ipod screen.
With music alot more accessible today, gone is the excitement of running home to listen to the new album you bought, gone are the independent record stores with all the band posters hanging on the wwalls smelling like incense,flipping through albums with your friends, Now you can listen to music anywhere and if you need some new songs you just log on to your computer and download it.
So my question is, do you think technology made music more impersonal ?
Lady Silver Rose * Wolf2009-02-13T12:07:35Z
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Bad day, Riki? {{{HUG}}}
Most important part first :~ I *LOVE* album art! A personal favourite : http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/F/fleetwood_mac.html
Well, technology has it's advantages. Albums that faded with time can now be restored to their former glory, and actually be enjoyed by more people ~ I'm thinking of bands like Trees and Mellow Candle, who only released 2 / 1 album(s) around 1970 / 71 before vanishing into the mists of time, and lack of interest meaning those albums were remembered only in the archives of fans of the time.
Downside : Yes, the advent of the MP3 player {and to some extent, the CD Walkman, which I use} has in many ways made listening to music a solitary pastime. To my mind, this is very, very sad. But, speaking on a personal level, I have always been a solitary music listener, except for when in the car with my parents ~ mum and I were singing along to the radio this morning! This solitude was never from choice, just circumstance. However...
I don't believe that new technology has to impose such confines on music lovers. People are still buying record players. Sales of HiFi systems are up. And, as we frequently see here, we share music with one another via Youtube links and such ~ I'm sure we aren't all alone when we listen to them. Personally, I send a couple of e-mails a week to someone I occasionally work with, sending him "Silver's song(s) of the day / week / special event" links to a wide variety of music I think he may enjoy.
And *some* of us still experience a thrill, a chill up the spine, a quickening of heartbeat and breath when we hold a new CD in our hands, take out the liner-notes and open them with reverance, making time in our day to read them thoroughly and marvel at the cover art, lifting out the disc and putting it in the player with hallowed reverence {just as when we lifted the needle to the record}, and hold our breath as we wait to hear the evocative auditory fantasies. :)
Honestly, I truly don't think technology has made music more impersonal. There will always be a select group of people who will always want to buy the actual CD and, in some cases, people who still want to buy the actual vinyl (mainly collectors for that nowadays).
I know that I'd much rather by a CD than an MP3. In fact, the 69 albums on my iPod are albums I actually have on CD. I actually have over 200, but I'm unable to put them all on my iPod since I can't use iTunes on my home computer. One day, I'll have them all on my iPod!
Of course, I still like the packaging of a CD. I mean, I like having all the liner notes and the whole packaging. Plus, if something happened to my iTunes library, I could always replace them without paying to get everything back.
this question is kind of hard to answer because i have a few answers. i dont think its made music more impersonal i just think its made things change. i mean now people can get to together over the enternet without ever having met and make a song. there is a website specifically for that. i think that that does make it some what less personal but i think if your a muscian and you have a true love and passion for the music you listen to and the music you create then it doesnt really have much of an impact on making the music less personal for you.
also i think that friends do still sit around and talk about music it just depends on the people you hang out with.
also now there are websites and things like this that make it easy and fun to talk about your favorite bands and songs and everything so no i dont think technology has made music more impersonal COMPLETLEY but i do agree that it is alot nicer to do things in front of people. like i was saying a few months ago everyone is doing everything online. even protesting and its just freakin stupid and pathetic.
so i wish more people would talk about things in person rather then on a computer or make music in person and not on a computer but hey this is how things are for right now.
Technology has made music more impersonal in at least two ways. The first way is that, because music is in MP3 format, this does not allow you to physically hold albums in your hand. I am an album guy, and I love sharing albums with friends. The MP3 idea has placed the emphasis on the Song and taken it away from the Album.
The second way technology has made music more impersonal is that when you have no album, you have no album art. Album art is another medium for artistic expression. Some of the classic albums of all time have amazing artwork; take "Revolver (1966)" by the Beatles for example.
I am not a fan of MP3s and I still do not have an IPOD. I listen to CDs only. People tease me because I walk around with my discman and huge studio headphones; but, for me that is the only way to go. I am very sensitive to production, mixing, and sound quality; and, I feel like the MP3 technology sounds worse than CDs, in many cases.
So, in my view, MP3s have ruined the concept of the album, and the artwork that went along with it. Great question! There are still a few of us around keeping the idea of The Album alive.
For sure. There used to be a balance between talent and technology used to give the image of talent. There was always far more talent involved with making music, and there was more heart in it too. The way it used to be was perfect, and your question brings up a lot of good memories. But now, pretty much anyone can make it big because technology has taken over that balance. When you hear someone go "I'm gonna make you a star!" Now, it's literal. They will make you a star whether you're good or not. So I'm probably getting a bit off topic but the main difference between then and now was the camaraderie shared between fans of a specific musical artist. Now, favorite bands/music/styles change with the days of the week and with minutes of the hour. Of course, that's all just my opinion.