Since way back in the dawn of history, music has always been about man producing sound with what ever he has available at hand; sticks, stones, skins anything at his disposal including his voice, that could create sound and be used as medium in making it. The purpose of music was simple, to cheer the spirit and provide courage for hunting or war, as a mating call, to frighten enemies, or to moan the dead. It was very impulsive, emotional and very instinctive, a raw expression.
As part of evolution and human progress, in more recent times we have sophisticated these basic elements and built instruments of various kinds. Specially from the 9th century on to current times. But the uses has remained very similar, more complex in details but still emotional. Music in the early 9th century was a monophonic sequence of notes that made a melody with some simple rhythmical notations. There was three schools that cultivated music, the Church and the religious music, the pagan brought by minstrels, jugglers and buffoon's that served he more entertaining side, and the military that was less sophisticated but just as effective. The principle remained the same, emotions + instrument + technique = music. To my point of view the two first are indispensible meaning that I consider an instrument the voice, a whistle, a clap of hands. Technique is a bonus but not strictly necessary. Technique matured over the centuries along side the sophistication of instruments and became more essential.
Over time music has never stopped evolving, through experimentation musicians came to produce polyphonic melodies and increasingly more complex rhythmic combinations, still in a simple way but getting increasingly more and more complex, adding new and more voices through more and more refined instrument. Leading us in to the era of harmony. Harmony is the art and ability to play two different musical scores simultaneously and in combination and make them sound pleasing to the human ear. Notes and tempo notation came in place building a language of its own. As music has evolved so has human ear along side it, we now have a far grater knowledge at listening and interpreting music understanding it to a much deeper degree.
If you have read this far you might be asking yourself where am I going with this post. Well as I have said above, music has always been about an artist manipulating his instrument and producing engaging sounds for the rest to here and enjoy (and I am aware that this is a question to a full debate). Well I am concerned that this may be part of the past, I don’t want to sound like Bob Seger but there is a very fine line here that we don’t want to cross. In my unauthorised opinion, music needs to look back and regain its purpose. The industry is rushing in to a situation where you can buy a CD or download a song from iTunes, where only one musician has performed with his voice and there is no further instrument. All has been sampled, looped and synthesised out of thin air. Were the person putting it all together need absolutely no musical training. Where the feel and the emotion of a piece are produced by software algorithms that know nothing about intensity or emotions. I am not attacking electronic music or DJ or Producers, there is much electronic music that has my respect and enjoyment. But that is the point, “it is music”, down to the basic a musician or several expressing something in a musical way. Not just a beat with extra bass and a lot of fancy effects driven buy a computer software with an option that says humanize. Any form of music has my full respect, I have my preferences but I disrespect none, but it needs to be able to be called music by my definition for me to count it as such. It is much like food. To me, food needs to be made and it is a human process, even fast or junk food. If it is synthesized it may feed and serve the biological purpose us but I don’t call it food, would you call a vitamin capsule food? Not me that is for sure. Food like music fills a lager space in us that just that, they feeds the soul and produce pleasure.
My concern is about the industry and how cheap can record labels, get this pseudo music produced and industrialized. They can put big buck in to marketing something as sterile as a pill, and make it hit. The less people on the payroll the more profit to be gained, why pay a drummer if I can fake one, the same with bass, pads everything. I am sure that if possible they would do without the singer and vocals. who cares how it is consumed or who buys it as long as we make our money, is their strategy.
I can see and understand why the industry did this move. Musicians became gods during the late 20th century, and made the industry regret working with them, in the best of cases. So when confronted with a chance to build their own cloth or dummy gods and crown and replace them at will. They didn’t hesitate a single instant, how can we blame them? If we want to continue enjoying music (as my definition states) we have two roads; a) live from the records from the past. b) get back to making music, but with a less godly attitude. As said by Led Zeppelin “there is always time to change the road you are on”. If the industry can make money on MUSIC we stand a chance if not who knows how this will end. It is also necessary to build a collective conscience in the final user, so that they discern what the difference is between food and pills, and demand food. I regret that we have reached a point where regression seems to be the path way ahead.
I know there are millions out there that can still tell the difference and feel bad about where music seems to be heading to. Not all the industry is dead, not all is lost but we need to push on our side to make a difference. I never download music I have not paid for and I only download music form musicians, or must I specify I only download MUSIC. Every time I buy music (of my own taste), I feel that I am helping a fellow musician and contributing for the right thing, save the MUSIC.
Remember to visit Slice at his You Tube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/inside71slice
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed, comments are very welcome. in favour or against.
Ian
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