I heard an interesting blurb on the radio this morning about Bon Jovi accusing Steve Jobs of "killing music". I didn't actually read the original article because that would require a subscription, but a Google search of the topic brings up various sources that paint a pretty decent picture of the situation.
As interesting a topic this may be from all perspectives, I'm interested in discussing what these implications mean for the active participant and the remixer. On one hand, I understand Jovi's suggestion that being able to download music and take it with us everywhere we go on iPods has changed how we listen to music, but I'm not sure that his claim that we no longer put the time aside dedicated solely to listening to our new musical investment has changed the 'magicalness' of the musical experience holds water. I think the act of remix may prove a bit of a counter to his claim. Although the way we listen to music may have changed, in order to be able to remix and interpret music, there still needs to be active participation. The ease by which people may now remix and the vastly growing number of remixes out there, regardless of medium, would suggest that there is still a pretty decent amount of active participation. By no means am I suggesting that Steve Jobs has been the sole provider of this opportunity, but I certainly don't think that his empire has impeded this at all, either. The only thing is, that these modes of participation have changed, and this is what Bon Jovi seems to have a problem with. They have changed in the past, and they will continue to change well into the future.
I'm curious to know if anyone else has any thoughts about what iTunes and iPods have done for music. Has the way that we interact with our music changed so much that we are totally disconnected from what we're consuming? Or have these modes given us new ways of sharing and obtaining? Have they given us the potential to remix or have access to new music that we may have never otherwise had the opportunity to be exposed to? Is music really dead?
Dead? No. Dying? Yes.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason to think that Mr. Bon Jovi is talking about, thinking about, or even hinting at remix in any way. He's talking about listening to a created body of work, an album, for what it is - an album. He is obviously mistaken, in part, for pointing the finger directly at Jobs. The networks of peer-to-peer file sharing were already there. The iPod just capitalized on this untapped market.
I don’t know anyone who purchases music off iTunes if they can avoid it. It is just too easy (and free) to simply download whatever song you want. The iPod requires digital musical, making CDs and Vinyl obsolete, which just feeds the appetite of the downloading culture. So what Bon Jovi is sick of is people taking his songs out of their album sequence, converting them to various file formats that may or may not degrade the quality of the recording, and detaching them from the accompanying visual artwork.
The music industry, as we know it, is dying. Record stores are closing more and more. There is only one record store left at Conestoga Mall (Sunrise closed about a month ago) and The HMV that used to be on University also closed last year. There is now a Burger King standing in its place.
I think there is something to be said about the access we now have to MASSIVE amounts of music. This blog kind of made me think of Benjamin (maybe a stretch) in that the sheer amount of music may decrease its value for us. Though more and more people are participating in the musical community, it is even more likely that you will get lost in the vast quantity of music that is out there.
ReplyDeleteThis means that we won't have the same experience of a particular album or song because we get distracted by the next thing we download. Shuffle has made us accustomed to hearing a wide variety of music in a row, rather an appreciating a whole album.