Long gone are the days of waiting
at your favorite Specs
or Peaches
for the newest record, tape and CD releases. In current times,
acquiring your favorite music can be easily done through ITunes,
Amazon or illegally through a file sharing site; like bit torrents.
The evolution of digital music has made it much more easily
accessible for listeners; at the same time making it easier for
musicians and non-musicians to create and distribute their work.
The impact this accessibility has
had on the quality of music produced is arguable. True audiophiles
say the best music is played via vinyl, on a classic turntable,
through speakers that utilize glass TWTs, etc. These types of systems
allow for a more pure listening experience, to artists that played
real instruments. It is my opinion- the knowledge that these artists
had of what a listener could and want to hear, required a different
level of talent than what is used in the production of music today.
However,
as times change so does public opinion and perception of what kind of
music is enjoyable to them. New talents have emerged, some good-some
bad, that have mastered the capability and advantage of digitally
manipulating music. Some of today’s most popular recording artists
use beats and loops that were completely created through digital
means. These ease at which someone can edit and remix tracks prove
most advantageous to their final product. There are also down sides,
for example auto-tune, giving non-artists the capability of digitally
manipulating music.
Music’s
digital convergence to MP3 and WAV has provided that both; many good
and many bad artists are given a means to be heard. Unfortunately,
the digital evolution has blurred the perceptual line of what is good
and bad. Just turn on the radio and listen, you can hear a song and
go “alright!” or hear a song and go “WTH is that?”; point
being-both are still getting played.
-Chris
Moses, DIG2000, Fall
The transfer of music over to digital format was huge! Now, you can literally access any song you could ever think of from the comfort of your own home. Convenience is key.... although, they have lost a lot of the finesse from the old days. The auto-tune absolutely kills me by the way! Especially when it comes to that freak fest Kanye! Great topic and blog post.
ReplyDeleteChris Ouimette
I am not an audiophile on any level but I would love to have a classic turntable and listen to vinyls all day. Music is losing the quality in the compression process when it gets transferred into other mediums and I would love to hear my favorite tracks completely uncompressed.
ReplyDelete- A. Walker
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ReplyDeleteOne thing I like too do is to listen to an artist on CD and then on vinyl. Because I am affluent in this kind of thing I can actual hear subtle differences between the two. Today most people record music onto an MP3 file format. What most people aren't aware the MP3 has a finite amount of space available so the computer automatically gets rid of the "unwanted information", compressing the music into an appropriate size. In my opinion I think every part of the song is important and that is why I prefer vinyl over CD. Although I do like the convenience of being able to attain music quickly just by downloading it.
ReplyDelete-Rhys Chartier