When I was born people were still playing Victrolas and 78 rpm records. My father had a collection of Big Band records– Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman etc. Then there were albums and 45s (i.e. singles), and then 8 tracks and cassettes, and then CDs, and finally MP3s and various variants thereof. The technology of recording has of course evolved in parallel with the delivery modes, with the most significant advance probably being the shift from analog to digital. But the latest development– the growth of the MP3 industry, and the decline of CD sales, record companies, artist contracts and the like is at the end of the day not an advance, but a retreat a retrograde development in various ways, not least because we are talking disembodied music of lower sound quality.
Now perhaps the IPod and MP3 generation cannot really tell the difference between the sound of an MP3 and the sound of a song on a CD played through good speakers, but anyone who is or has been a serious musician or audiophile can certainly tell the difference, and it is noticeable and telling. MP3s should not be anyone’s music format of choice. Of course it is true that MP3s are convenient, easily downloadable into your Itunes (or other formats) accounts and onto your IPods. And yes you can plug your IPod into your car speakers and use them that way, though there is definitely some lose in sound quality doing that as well.
While all of this is problematic enough, what is even more disturbing is the severing of the music from the artist, the art work, the liner notes, the credits, and the explanations. Apparently this Gnosticizing of modern music doesn’t bother most of the Ipod generation. Apparently they don’t much care what went into the creation of this or that song, or the stories of this or that artist, or even the intentions and meanings of the lyrics.
Apparently today its almost entirely about and not above the level of sophistication of “I like the way this sounds in my earbuds”. This is beyond sad. And then there is the problem of the ripping off of music that is available online such that the artist is not paid for his hard work and creativity by ever so many people. This is cyber piracy which could just as easily be compared to the piracy off the coast of Somalia, except that while the artist isn’t losing his life, he often is losing his livelihood.
Disembodied music is so very different than say what made music special in the 60s and 70s. We had concept albums (see the Moody Blues Question of Balance or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon etc.) with gatefold albums and incredible art on all four sides of the sleeve. There were notes explaining the songs, and clues about their meanings, and the albums were worth keeping, the music worth pondering again and again. Much of this music was both memorable and memorizable, not disposal, like so much of popular music is today. It is not at all clear to me that a good deal of the technological revolution has been good for good music, be it rock or jazz or classical or even country.
Now some aspects of the technology when it comes to performance are real blessings, for example the various sorts of sound boxes you can hook up to keyboards and guitars etc. these days, which allow more creativity. But these advancements are off set by the decline when it comes to the packaging and context and art and aesthetics of good music at the delivery system end of things.
No wonder there has been a revival of interest in buying vinyl, buying actual 33 and a third albums. Somebody noticed something was missing in music these days. And of course I could talk about the degeneration of pop music into rhythmic talking with borrowed sampling of earlier rock tunes, but I won’t go there in this post. Not all hip hop and rap is disgustingly vulgar and bad lyrically and weak musically, but far too much of it is.
I was privileged to go to a private concert by Phil Keaggy and Shake Anderson this week in Mitch Barnhardt’s house here in Lexington. Shake of course was a member of Earth, Wind and Fire before he really gave his life and musical talents to fulltime service to the Lord, and Phil Keaggy is a marvel unto himself– one of the best guitar players of any genre ever, and a wonder writer of songs as well, still creative in his late 50s.
What struck me from talking with both Phil and Shake during the break is the profound sadness they feel for the demise of good popular music. Shake and I could have talked for a while about the decline and fall of real soul music of the classic sort, and the same could largely be said of rock music. There are no giants left in the land, except a few walking dinosaurs. And some of those dinosaurs have become mere shadows and parodies of themselves. If you want to know why so many artists are doing classic rock concerts these days,and why the tickets are so high in cost, it is because this is the only way that most of them can really make any money anymore. You may thank the Mp3 online revolution for a good deal of this demise.
I hope the 21rst century has some more new wrinkles up its sleeve when it comes to popular music of various sorts, but I am not encouraged by the growth of the MP3 market in the land like cudzu growing over old growth trees and the parallel decline of CD sales, record companies and decent contracts for artists. This is not, on the whole, an advance to a bold new frontier. It is a sign of decline, and a sign of a lack of caring about the quality, context, artistry, and aesthetics that have heretofore been part of the musical package.
While it is not listed in the Bible as a sign that the eschaton is at hand that a band like the Eagles once noted for its political commentary, would sell out to exclusive marketing by Walmart and to obscene concert ticket prices, it surely does not augur anything good about the future of good music in the land. And dat’s all I got to say ’bout dat.
posted November 7, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Unless your speakers are pretty decent, you can’t really tell the difference. If people are listening to the music through their earbuds, it doesn’t really help to be using a CD player. Same with my car stereo.
Blaming the mp3 market for the decline of music seems unrealistic. The market for NEW music had already been tanking before mp3s even hit the scene… the studios were surviving by re-selling old albums in new formats.
The new innovation of the next century is that studios themselves have become obsolete. The album (yes, album) getting the most play in my house right now was recorded in the artist’s garage. It sounds great, and the kid didn’t have to sign his life away to some faceless corporation. That’s a win in my book.
posted November 8, 2009 at 7:16 am
Hi Micah:
Thanks for this. I think something is gained in terms of independence and artistic freedom when one has not signed with a major label, but something is certainly lost as well–namely any chance at a major audience in most cases. Why? Because without the sort of marketing a major company can produce for the artist (and artists like the Eagles recognized this when they cut a deal with WalMart) what you end up with is more and more artists playing to smaller and smaller audiences.
BW3
posted November 8, 2009 at 10:16 am
Music sales went up 10% in 2008, as did the sale of LP’s and vinyl. Music downloads went up 32% (and that’s legal downloads), although physical cd sales were down 14%. While some people pirate albums online, having music in mp3 format seems to have helped the music industry. I bet most people heard a song or two online and later decided to buy the entire album because of it – and they’d have never heard of the artist without the availability of the music online. Let’s face it, radio stations only play a small percentage of music styles. Maybe major artists could argue they’ve been hurt by piracy (though the numbers don’t reflect it), but it’s definitely helped beginning artists gain widespread recognition beyond their local radio and shows.
I think the argument that artists are losing their livelihood due to internet piracy is just an emotional appeal. As I mentioned, perhaps major artists could argue that money is being stolen from them, but for the people who actually need their records to sell in order to eat and pay rent, the internet is a blessing. They are reaching much broader audiences than was ever possible 15 years ago.
Perhaps being able to buy one song off an album increases artistic accountability. No longer will people buy albums because they liked a song on the radio. Artists have to make great albums in order to sell them. People can preview songs on itunes, and usually listen to 4-6 full tracks off an album before they decide whether to buy it. I know that growing up, I had entirely too many cds that only had one good song on them. That’s no longer the case.
posted November 8, 2009 at 2:17 pm
lots of people have some funny ideas about piracy “killing” the recording companies. music pirates spend more on music than non-pirates.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/illegal-downloaders-spend-the-most-on-music-says-poll-1812776.html
But, on the whole, i agree with you wholeheartedly.
posted November 8, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Well, the source makes all the difference in the world. I have a Sandisk Sansa Clip flash player (the best sounding mp3 player of 2008 according to some, it was only 49 bucks, and with 256 bit mp3s and a set of Shure SE 530 earphones, it sounds fantastic. It may not have the power of a cd played through a set of $1000 Pioneer speakers, but it’s pretty darn good, and you don’t get any cd hiss with a good digital mp3. My Grado SE 125 cans sound awesome with my Sony minishelf system listening to cds, but they sound pretty good with my Sansa Clip as well.
For true audiophiles, Apple makes a lossless music file, but it takes up 4 times the space of a 256 bit mp3 and I don’t sense much of difference, certainly not enough to convert me.
Some do prefer the warm, rich sound of vinyl, but most old lps to my ears sound muddy and murky, plus you have to deal with the snap, crackle, pop of needle on vinyl.
posted November 9, 2009 at 1:16 am
The Eagles? Are they still alive? Oh yes, I have an album of theirs. Hotel California, great song. The rest I never listen to. As for obscene concert prices, well yes, that’s what happens when concerts are no longer subsidized by obscene markups on recorded music (most of which ended up in the pockets of music industry executives, NOT in those of the musicians). You can’t have it both ways.
posted November 9, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Dr. Witherington, every industry has had to reinvent itself in our new “digital age”. Although I do think the new music industry serves its customers better than the old, there is still something to be said for nostalgia! Thanks for the post.
posted November 9, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The severing of music from the artist and the story is due to songs being written for groups manufactured by the music industry with only one aim – to make money. The fault is largely the industry for being the dinosaur and not moving with the technology. In fact the change has been a demonstration of people power in the face of record companies’ stifling control. Perhaps the artist is the one that has lost the most. However, many artists don’t look as if they are desperately struggling to make ends meet. Apple has addressed the issue of inlay cards, which is good. I still prefer purchasing the CD.
I connect my iPod to a NAD amplifier that drives good Monitor floor standing speakers. The amp is designed to give greater warmth to the digital signal. It does an excellent job. So much so, I am hard-pressed to notice any significant difference when compared with a CD.
On the point about Rock Bands, you claim there are no giants. Muse have the creativity and lyrical content to rival any of the older bands. Plus their live shows are equal, if not better (again due to technological progress) than the live shows of the bands that you may have in mind. There are others like Radiohead.
So, I understand your point, but, all is not lost.
posted November 9, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I have to disagree with your initial premise that the MP3 is responsible for “music of lower sound quality.” This burden must be placed upon the introduction of the CD itself. The bit depth of audio sampling (16 bits for CD), allows for only 65,536 discrete values to reproduce the audible frequencies that occur between 20 and 22,000 Hz (at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz). Because CD is simply not capable of reproducing all of the tones in the audible spectrum, they must be approximated to their nearest equivalent. This is why vinyl has not died as CD enthustiasts said it would. The beginning of low fidelity sound started with the CD.
While MP3 is a lossy audio standard, using even more averaging to achieve a smaller storage footprint, it is still based upon the CD standard of 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling. People have become so accustomed to the poor audio depth of CD sound, the move to MP3s has been very natural since there really isn’t a lot of difference (except for lower sampling rates which result in obvious lack of depth and bandwidth).
The music industry has made attempts to present new formats of audio storage such as SA-CD and DVD-Audio which have near vinyl quality bit depth (24 bits for over 16 million discrete audio values) and sampling rates (96 kHz), but whether it be due to poor marketing or poor profit margins, they just haven’t caught on with the general public. The last hope for high quality audio now rests in the hands of Blu-Ray.
As to the death of “good” popular music, I think popular taste has been dying over the last 30 years, with much of that owing to the commoditization of art (the iPod is just the latest market tool). And all artforms are suffering for it. It’s no wonder that the majority of film and music produced is so bland, when it is essentially produced using a mathematical formula to ensure high profits that keep company executives driving BMWs.
posted November 9, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Gosh. Talk about being controversial.
I am apparently of the younger generation that has no clue. Beyond sad, right? I’m just happy that my teenager bought me an ipod so I can listen to something besides preschool music. 
posted November 10, 2009 at 9:14 am
I don’t see the big deal with vinyl. My two cd set The Very Best of the Eagles sounds WAY better than the vinyl releases the band put out in the 1970s. No comparison.
As far as music today goes, I’m not ready to write an epitagh. P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Michael Franti, Taylor Swift, Sean Kingston, Sara Evans and the Black Eyes Peas, among others, have released pop songs in the past year that stand up to most of the new wave claptrap that I heard on top 40 radio in the early 1980s.
Groups like The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Jars of Clay, Relient K, and many others can still rock a little, too.
posted November 10, 2009 at 9:22 am
My tastes in music preclude me from commenting on the decline of the industry today, though I can’t keep myself from commenting on the sound quality issues that have been raised.
It may be controversial around here, but most people can’t tell a full-quality (320 kbps) MP3 from its WAV source file. Try ripping a CD into WAV format, convert the WAVs to MP3s, then compare them in a media player like Foobar2000 with its double blind test plugin. Anyone with reasonable hearing can tell a low-quality 64 kbps MP3 easily, but I suspect you’ll start having difficulty by 192 kbps. That doesn’t stop me from being irrational and ripping all of my CDs to FLAC or Apple Lossless. : )
Now, about the quality of CD audio – many releases today (*cough*Metallica*cough*) sound bad enough before being digitized, and afterward the CD is made so loud that ugly distortion is unavoidable. Properly done, CDs lack nothing that the normal person can hear. A test showed* that subjects with good hearing on a good sound system could not tell a difference between an SACD and the same SACD converted to CD-quality audio.
It’s a slow day at work, so I’m off to listen to something… It’ll probably be something old but a bit edgy – maybe a Poulenc organ concerto, or some Bartok…
http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/explanation.htm
posted November 10, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I notice that none of you comment on the denuding of the music from its artistic context. This for me is one the big problems with MP3s.
Ben
posted November 10, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Umm, okay. I’ll bite. I’m one of those strange people who really do read the album cover papers from end to end, try to analyze the art, try to pick up on the message, etc. So, yes. The MP3 does seem to divorce the artist from his/her larger theme and context. I guess that I assumed that most people who downloaded a song would buy the entire album (hardcopy) if they liked the overall sound of the group. It seems stats don’t bear that out. My husband and I read the cover of an old Kansas album awhile back – the message was entirely pro-PETA. Very interesting to learn, retrospectively, that THIS was what those songs were about. I never woulda guessed without reading the album. My question is, is this: Do most young artists today put together coherent and cohesive themes for an album? It seems more random to me.
posted November 11, 2009 at 7:07 am
Holly you are right, that sometimes it is entirely random, indeed it seems that that is the case most of the time. There are excepts (see Green Day’s American Idiot), but basically you are right. I suppose one of the reasons for this is that most artists today do not have causes or messages to support. Its more narcissistic than that– they just love much and want their music to be loved or at least be bought.
BW3
posted November 13, 2009 at 5:10 am
The mp3 formate of music now in this day so popular and every where it’s using like in mobile,computer,websites,i-pod and other music related equipments.
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posted November 14, 2009 at 4:02 am
http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/11/12/do-music-artists-do-better-in-a-world-with-illegal-file-sharing/
well, now you know.
posted November 16, 2009 at 10:20 am
Not sure anybody’s still reading the comments for this post, but if they are you should definitely check this out:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/copyright-time-bomb-set-to-disrupt-music-publishing-industries/
posted January 29, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Photo cool.