Ted Gioia is an American music critic and historian. He is author of eleven books, including Music: A Subversive History, The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire, The History of Jazz and Delta Blues. He is also a jazz musician and one of the founders of Stanford University's jazz studies

 

The flood and shortage of everything is a warning.

The flood of incompetent musicians from all countries, the flood of incompetent producers, the flood of audiences and ignoble masses, the flood of worthless productions.

 

the internet amplifies everything. that was always there, you are just now more acutely aware of it's existence.

 

There are probably several points of view, depending on where you stand it looks like this or that:

From the point of view of the people who earn money with it.
Or from the point of view of the people who sit at their home PC and make music.

There are so many more possibilities today with the PC and the Internet and the end is open. At the end of the day, there are more people making music today, there are more music instruments - it's all gotten a lot better, the quality of the technology is great as well.

So be skeptical and don't believe everything you are told. Take your future into your own hands and make the best of it.

 

it is precisely because I am skeptical that I posted this video. Because there are other alternatives than those proposed in this interview. As I already said in another thread, I mainly make money with music by doing recording and production during the summer with modest musicians. The rest of the time I find food jobs. But I feel good about it.
The questions and answers in this interview are often related to the new web technologies and their power of nuisance. It's just a debate.

 

I agree with most of his assertions, for the most part, however, most of the assumptions have not changed in step with technology.
Aesthetic is deemed more important than content with integrity. It is always the case that the organic growth of a movement within a genre dictates the market then the suits try and replicate it in the mainstream after the horse has been flogged.

Digital markets are still divided into mainstream money dominance with a large ratio of independent self-determinated growth. Spotify starts off as a good idea then becomes a Ponzi scheme jacked by the cartels (Eek now makes military hardware whilst streaming protest songs). The commodification of music has always compromised quality, art, and integrity.

The main thing that has to change is people's attitude to the value of art. Digital recording technology has enabled people to actually become empowered to produce art however it has somewhat devalued art as there are many who give it up for free just to be heard.
When you make more money from your T-shirts than from selling your record, the industry has lost its way.

 

Video IS a nice intelligent discussion - just not new.

 

Comments must not be more than 6 words - f*#k - limit exceeded.

 

Hey @Xupito, In the ongoing race to be first to spot 'you know who',
I'm going out on a limb and guessing on 1st post. Seems appropriate in a thread with "nothing new here".

 

Not trying to be foster here... But,

Its only when we start studying and analysing music that we know what's trash and what's new and what's good. An average listener starts liking what's being played the most. He will not try searching for new stuff himself and most likely see what's recommended to him by an algorithm. Familiarity and nostalgia are two things which can make even the shittiest songs sound good. Our brain starts liking shit when all it listens to is shit. Why do songs from 10 years ago become hits on TikTok now? Nostalgia.

Would our musical tastes have changed if we were not into music and listened it only for passing time or casually? Would we listen to some small SoundCloud artist if all we ever cared about was Spotify Top 50 Global? Education is important for all things. There is no evolution without education.

Money will destroy everything one day. I hate those stock market people.

 

and not just shit content - shit format too.
A point discussed in the video... TV screens are bigger and better than ever, no-one would willingly endure monochrome 15" TV screens to watch movies - but play back music on crappy lo-fi earbuds and most people just don't care.

 

Based on (and follow up to) one interesting part of the video...

Eleven Wild Guesses on How Blockchain and NFTs Will Actually Impact Musicians and Songs
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/eleven-wild-guesses-on-how-blockchain

Ignoring the many pros and cons, ignoring the many desirables and undesirables,
this is still an interesting read that's making interesting informed guesses about what might emerge - like it or not.

 

one thing is certain and hasnt changed over time. you either provide something unique and beautiful. or you drown in an ever growing mass of average. everyone has the same tools and access to them. the best you can do is invest time in coming up inventiong something that noone else does and keep the skill to yourselves. invest time so people recognize this and demand it. along the way perfecting your skill.
these days a second hand cheap windows laptop, headphones, a converter/hp amp and a sister with a site is all you need.

 

According to my theory, it works like this: profession comes from vocation. If you have some talent and have learned a lot and have professional practice what you do (Almost) automatically finds its way to the listener or buyer.

Many musicians in bands learned an instrument - that takes about 9 years until you master it perfectly - 4 hours of daily practice and talent are the prerequisites. Then live gigs and if your music is hot right now, you will be able to earn money and pay off your loans for the equipment and the studio. Most of the time you will be discovered by record companies and then promoted.

In a short time we have massively expanded the digital and the internet, many musicians now have access to the world beyond their national borders. But that also means that the competition has become bigger and bigger. And almost every style of music has already been invented. I don't think it will always go on like this, but the point will soon be reached where there will be almost nothing new, which leads me to the question, must it always go on and always be something new?

I think at some point there will be the 80s music as retro. I recommend to read specialized books and to visit Workshops and to learn an instrument. Also the foundation of an artist collective is advisable, so you can use rented rooms and recording studios together and share the costs. Maybe build a common website and distribute his music there and also organize live concerts.

Internet sometimes makes lonely and maybe there will be a trend again sometime to meet in public space again and make music together and talk again from person to person and to act.

 

I really thought I was going to hate this. I'm not a fan of Ric Beato. He's a miserable wannabe boomer who's overly in love with the 60's and 70's. (Full disclosure: I'm at least ten years older than Beato.) His titles are almost always clickbait (this was no different) and his videos just tend to annoy me. A good 80% of his 'great' songs are not my idea of 'great'. I also loathe Rhett Shull, though I'd like to watch videos of Rick and Rhett having dirty daddy sex.

Gioia was great though. Even where I disagreed with him (which I often did) I found his arguments well reasoned and persuasive. And Rick did what he so rarely does -- kept his mouth shut and let his interviewee do the heavy lifting. It had my Googling for Gioia's books.

 

I'm not a fan of Beato either, but he is on point every now and then, like here. That's why I still subscribe but actually watch maybe 1/3s of his content. But as it happens, the quality music channels are too few and far between, so even if I watch a clip a month or so it's all good.

 

Case in point. Boone had as much soul as a smiley face.

 

Out where?