All true. I once read an article about how recorded music destroyed the individuality of musicians around the world. How before recording there was a Paris Vibrato and a Milan Vibrato and a London Vibrato.... and once musicians starting listening to recorded music it homogenized their styles. They just emulated the recordings they heard. I think a similar effect has taken place in the last 15-20 years with the consolidation of media outlets and standardized radio playlists (when radio was a thing). In the previous era it was possible to have regional hits and develop your career locally and build momentum before eventually breaking onto the main stage. Now it seems that Clear Channel and a handful of media outlets control 95% of what the general public hears and everyone gets the same playlist. Todays music to me seems like a grainy copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. I think that is why people don't value music as much in their lives as they used to, because there is no vitality or sincerity left in it. Or humanity (for the most part). Computer assisted music production has dehumanized the output and given us a standard that is technically "perfect" (quantized and auto tuned) but totally useless as spiritual nourishment. Especially on a societal level. In this climate it is difficult to see the value of devoting the time and energy it takes to become more than a novice musician. Add to that the grim outlook from a financial sustainability perspective and.... here we are in 2015.

 

Also to your point about motivation.... Everyone needs to eat, have a place to live and provide for their loved ones. Somebody is going to get paid something to make some sort of music. As far as jobs go it is a pretty good one. I can't fault people for wanting to be part of it. Some people are truly gifted at organizing sounds that make people feel good, or feel like spending money on some product. I think that is of value in this world. It is not the most noble of aspirations, but it is an honest living. There is also the job of musician that communicates a message and unites groups of people to make changes for the better or to move humanity forward in a way that only music can. I think it is as a sort of storyteller and historian/documentarian, a role that has existed in cultures for all of known history.

It seems that we are currently moving towards this digitally optimized civilization where only the most necessary functions to the machine are preserved and everyone else is subtly but surely being eliminated or cut off. Kind of how it is pretty easy to imagine that in the future the only animals left on earth will be the ones we eat.

 

USA differs from the Europe. Songs created in USA are still alive. Maybe because of their training system. Euros are more DAWisher than USAs. People in the USA live in the reality and other countries just mimic their lives by just searching the shortcuts in most fields such as music.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 4, 2015

Interesting. From the USA it looks like the opposite is happening!

I have often thought that the Euros have made better use of the technology and have established a more original style with it and when Americans use technology (with notable exceptions of course) it winds up sounding fairly "Euro-lite". I am generalizing broadly of course.

I really am conflicted about the whole dilemma. It seems like the music/art industry cannot be reformed without giving mega-corporations too much influence and access to our lives. I cannot seem to imagine a plan where people actually support and pay musicians again for music and using music and streaming music without putting Apple/Google/Amazon/Movie Studios in control of the entire internet and stomping out access, privacy and freedom.

Also I will add to the discussion of "what happened to the music industry and the musicians" that people used to buy music (to support the artists) 15 years ago, when a significantly smaller percentage of people had a monthly internet bill or a monthly cell phone bill. I imagine that all that money that is going to those megacorps (for these non-negotiable necessities) is the money that used to support the music/media/art industries.