Has technology made music more impersonal?

Bad day, Riki? {{{HUG}}}

Most important part first :~

I *LOVE* album art!

A personal favourite : http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/F/fleetwood_m...

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.

Your statements are so true.

As a kid, I remember going down the street to a firends house and going into his older brothers room. Its was like a shrine to the classic rock kings. It seemed like some kind of cool secret society that parents tried to hide.

I think that with the gobalization, made possible by all these advanced media types, nothing is indegenoius anymore. People don't "follow" bands as they grow. There are very little home grown bands who represent themselves just as they are.

Because of the globilization, music has become much more of a profitable business than it used to be. As I always say, MTV is the best thing for the music business, and the worst thing for the music. I could go on and on about the state of music, but I won't.

Its funny you should ask this question. Just recently, I have used my computer to find a band that was a big part of my youth. Me and my friends used to go see them in local places. We even went to a party in a barn with them playing. If figure I will share it with you, even though they don't mean anything to you personally, you will see the difference from today and the days you are remembering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kr6hyAgdnw&feature...

PS-I prefer the sound of a vinyl record to digital anyday. An upright acoustic bass sounds much richer on vinly. I have heard people say that vinyl has a warmth that digital doesn't have. I agree.

I have to say I do enjoy the fact that music is much more accessible these days. I do like it that I can find any song I like and download it right now and have it on my ipod for free.

I do remember the excitement of buying a new cd that I've wanting for ages... I don't remember a time were sound quality wasn't perfect though (I'm only 16).

But I have to say that it's a small price to pay. the fact that I can listen to anything I want for free and easily has lead me to discover some great bands and there would be no way that I would have discovered them if it wasn't for the internet.

I was just thinking about this the other day when I was talking to my mom. I was looking at the albums she has in her room. I wish I could have grown up during that time, really.

Album art is basically dead these days. There's not much effort going into it either. So yeah, cancel that out.

My friends and I are pretty distant when it comes to sharing music. I'm probably the nerdier one that listens to a bunch of random stuff, while they're listening to Avenged Sevenfold and things like that (we're 15)

We can sit back and listen to albums of ours still to this day. We do that sometimes and it's a lot of fun just talking and hanging out. I think that MP3's are really useful when you're traveling (especially when you have to cancel out the country music playing in the background on your bus haha) and things like this. I do wish it were a little like it use to be, and reading what you had to say kinda made me a little jealous of everyone who grew up in a new and fresh time. To be honest, it just doesn't seem like there's that many people I know that are passionate about music, which is kinda sad. They download the one-off songs they hear on the radio and call it good. What fun is that? Honestly.

Nice question.

Yes.

Digital music is a computer program of a sound.

Analog and vinyl are the actual recording of the sound, making it more personal and creating a "feel" you cannot obtain digitally.

It's the difference between looking out the door, and looking out the door through the screen. Yes, you can still see everything, but some of it is in fact blocked by the screen. Same way with music. Try it if you don't believe me. Put in Kill 'Em All for example. On the vinyl, you can hear everything from the "pleh" of the pick hitting the strings to every squeak of the fingers running across the strings. It's still there, kind of, on the digital versions. Just not so much you know?

hmmm the 90s killed the independent record store with the chain record store, but now the independent record store (well, the ones savvy enough to have a digital store to go along with the brick and mortar one) are making a comeback and the chain record store is being killed by the chain store that carries records.

Vinyl making a comeback. and to top that off, you have your choice between getting the vinyl and getting the digital in most cases, you didnt before. i can get music from just about any band i want in 5 seconds. and any band that wants to can record (only a small percentage could record before) and distribute that music readily on sources like myspace. I can burn a CD in 5 minutes and give it to a friend. i can email a song to a friend in 1 minute. hell, i can go home and record a song tonight and email it to a friend. and maybe i don't like aerosmith, i have a choice now to say f*ck aerosmith i want to listen to some rare 30s calypso that never really made it out of trinidad that i would have had no chance to find back in the day. If you want to have friends over to listen to music- why don't you? it isn't technology's fault that you aren't doing that. i'm tired of nostalgic people complaining that things are getting better. what the hell is andy rooney still doing on 60 minutes anyway, damnit?!

edit: sorry if that last bit came off harsh- i know you are cooler and more informed than andy rooney- i was just trying to end with something funny. and one last thing- the only thing i use head phones for is studio isolation when recording-when i use my mp3 player i use it to play over real speakers- the point being you always have a choice.

I think so, but for a different reason than what you think. I can always hear a difference between, say, a Zeppelin song and a Linkin' Park song or something, because due to technology, they remove the impurities. The vocals are mixed thoroughly to get a full, resonant tone, the drums sound more like drum machines... Nowdays people plug their instruments straight into a mixer, in the old days people just put mics in front of the amps. Just my 2 cents on that.