Is music becoming a passive experience?

[ryan summit]

i think that you can hear about a new band/artist
acquire everything ever done by them
and listen to the whole discography
without having to peel your ass from the same chair
has alot to do wiith peoples relationship to music
also the comraderee of turning someone on to new shit
or gettin turned on by someone you respect
and the passing of copied cassettes or even burned cds
listening to it first time in a room full of homeys
that shit was important
that shit doesnt really exist anymore, does it?
im old now, so what do i know

[D.o.S.]

I think it still happens, but it's more like "yo, you should youtube this band"

[spacelordmother]

listening to it first time in a room full of homeys

OMG that shit was the BEST.

I think it still happens, but it's more like "yo, you should youtube this band"

Why does every party these days end up becoming "let's take turns suggesting things to Youtube!" It's BULLSHIT and one more reason I don't fucking hang out with people.

[retinal orbita]

I just text message with my friends "did you hear this it rules" or whatever....

I still go record shopping but less often than I used to. When I was a teenager I'd spend the whole day hitting up the record stores, even had a route worked out....

Now I've got a job and a house and a wife and a dog and waaaaaaay less free time.

I used to go out drinking and skateboarding and no time for that stuff..... but that's okay things are pretty cool now too, I'm just glad I'm in my thirties and not a fucking douche who likes lame douche stuff......

[ryan summit]

Now I've got a job and a house and a wife and a dog and waaaaaaay less free time.

.

this is a personal excuse for each of us
but that doesn really effect society
our parents were thinkin tyhe same thing

and your last line there holy fuck
40s at the ditch,with a crack box
ive never wanted to stop going there
thats important,not wether you actually go and do shit
you dont think your too grown up for it
you just are
i know some people who laugh off that they ever "liked that stuff"
go fuck yourself
we had fun,and itd be fun if we did it RIGHT NOW!

[rustywire]

...
Nothing's more active, IMO, than sitting down with some vinyl.

Agreed it doesn't get much better than that. Listening to vinyl in a dimly lit space and really getting lost in the music.
That's the kind of experience that takes you places, without actively moving per se.
Playing records can be a focused, interactive experience or passive background supplement. Ultimately the listener decides how to consume content.

Music has become ubiquitous and image-oriented in the information media age. It's literally everywhere and shoved in your face, dripping with pretext.
When I first heard/saw some rapping cartoon or "edgy corporate guy" whoring it up in commercials...the writing was on the superficial wall.
Now commercial licensing is just about the only hope left, for musicians to earn anything of consequence from their music.
Or, write bubblegum/novelty that panders to the lowest common denominator...which may not be intended for commercials at the time of conception.

Lots of old timers talk about how in this new era, pop culture is much less homogenous than it had been...which does hold some myopic truth.
But now with the access of the internet in your pocket, the niches and countercultures are put on the fast track to becoming pop culture; when advertising swine decide it's economically viable for them to exploit and ride the newest "sure thing" trend.
Thanks to viral content and meme fetishization, nothing is safe from being overexposed and under-credited...eventually reduced to a hackneyed caricature by every profiteer looking to expand their demographic.

The music experience has become wrought with entitlement, disposable commodities...and blind to historical context.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I think he definitely has a point about the tour thing. I'd travel a long way to see a band I love. Before I had a car I'd travel a couple of hours on the train and sit in the station from the end of the gig till 6am for the first one home to see a band really quite often, and I've gone pretty far, stayed the night etc, so hearing other people bitch about how there's no gig exactly where they live is annoying. He brings up a solid point about the fact that the band is spending a tour travelling non-stop, so if you like a band you should maybe be prepared to put in some effort too.

On the other stuff? Kinda depends for me. I do find it harder to really absorb myself in a new album because I don't have the time to just zone out and listen to a record on repeat for an entire day like I could when I was younger. I still make myself listen to every album I buy (Blood Red Shoes' latest is on as I type...) repeatedly to let it soak in.

I also make a conscious effort to just go to a record shop and buy random things based on something a friend said, or something I saw in the paper or just it has a cool cover (that's how I bought the first BRS album actually, I'd heard them mentioned, happened to see it in a shop and was like yeah, why not?). Don't do this as often as I'd like but I find, like he says in the article, that it's much much harder to get into a band if it's just on the internet. Maybe that's just me but for some reason it doesn't sink in as much if it's just streaming.

That said without the internet as a tool for finding stuff and buying music my tastes and knowledge would be waaaay narrower so all in all it's a positive thing, it just means that I as a listener have to consciously try and put in effort to discovering and supporting music.

maybe that's all dumb rambling but I think there's a point hidden somewhere.

[retinal orbita]

What I do like about post internet music 2014 is there's much less of a "scene" attitude these days. It used to be, you liked this, and maybe this but ultimately you "were" something (raver, goth punk, sXe, crusty, thrasher, emo, whatever) and now people just seem to be more into music for the music (or everyones a fucking hipster as the internet would have you believe).

Maybe that's a good thing and maybe it isn't. I'm glad I spent up until about age 20 "only" doing hardcore punk and metal and subsequently everything else after, but it must suck for kids nowadays who have trouble identifying with something during their formative years. Now the problem is everyone's an expert regardless if they lived it or read the wiki......

[D.o.S.]

related - there's no way to passively listen to Prince.

[backwardsvoyager]

> makes boring derivative alternative rock music
> is angry that his fans are mostly spoon-fed zombie morons

well, uh, i think i found your problem

Regardless, don't you also see the situation he is talking about across most musical genres, barring a few that have an extremely rabid sub-culture? I still haven't listened to his band, and I doubt I will, but it got me thinking because it's something that I've noticed more, and in myself as I mentioned. I don't even know if I want to obsess over bands like I used to, but I wonder why that is and wanted to hear what others thought.

Things change. We can either become apathetic like everyone else or take the time to engage with the artists who make music that means something to us and immerse ourselves in that music. We can complain about current trends in music consumption or we can continue to produce music because we love it and want to share it with others like us, however few that may be.

Sure this is a negative side effect of the post-internet era, but there are so many positives that outweigh it.

[well... it's green]

related - there's no way to passively listen to Prince.

I can very very passively press the delete button as if it never happened

[D.o.S.]

how dare you.

[Achtane]

I HATE MUSIC

[D.o.S.]

MUSIC HATES YOU

[AxAxSxS]

Can't we all just get along?










































































No



















No we can't . Fuck everything and everyone.