The music world has shifted back to what it was in the 50s. It used to be all about the hit song on the radio and getting people to buy the album for that. That lasted through to the 70s, when the album became the main draw. The 80s became about the music video, but the album was still important and it stayed like that into the early 2000s until mp3s came along, and suddenly it was all about the single again, and it's been stuck there for 20 years. I love listening to albums because you get to find the gems the studio or the musicians thought wouldn't be hits but usually turn out to be the best songs. Release by Pearl Jam, Don't Cry by Seal, or Like a Tattoo by Sade. These are killer songs you'd only hear by listening to the album. And then there's the experience of the album. I could listen to all those songs by themselves, but listening to them in the album order builds up the impact of the song. You completely miss that with just getting singles. You also miss the growth of the musician. You get to hear their sound change (or not change) through their albums, and that's another awesome experience. Listening to a single is almost like watching a clip from a film. That moment might be awesome, but it works better in context. That said, sometimes there is only one good song on an album.
I agree with the Album stuff, but its nothing like the 50's now. The range of 'popular' music is vastly wider now. I have 3 kidults between 19-25. They all love music, but such a wide range. I thought I was eclectic liking Napalm Death and FSOL, but am pretty narrow compared to them. They do stream albums and I've gained some new bands through them - Marmozets for instance. So (to refute Dave...) does it matter if there are no mega bands any more, so long as good bands can find an audience?
Who actually follows the charts any more.. In the 50s that was all you had and radio.and shops to buy the records. .. Not sure I agree With you.. As the infrastructure ain't there no more...
Rock's not dead, it's just been sterilized and commercialized. It lost it's roots of being a force of defiance to the status quo. It's fans are more worried about having the gear their "legends" had instead of following the message they were conveying. And now that other genres are coming up and doing what rock used to do, the rockheads are dumbfounded because they live in the past.
When I bought Iron Maiden’s newest album Senjutsu I drove my car for about 50 miles so I could listen to it FULL BLAST in its entirety without complaints. The construction of an album is paramount.
Metal has always been album orientated and I don't see that changing. Maiden's new one is damn good, it's incredible how good they still are after 14 albums or however many it is now...
Music is consumed differently nowadays than it was growing up. It's a sad state of affairs that our heroes won't be replaced once they're gone. I miss the days of going to the local music store and looking through the album covers. (I'm guilty of buying albums that have cool cover work). I hate what music has become via MP3 and all these one price per month for most everything. The internet has become one of the greatest and worst things to ever happen to us in tandem.
A lot of the music I love came from the myspace generation of bands. I don't think its the internet. (although spotify definitely did change the way I listen to music, I also just got older, and more concerned with life).
@@AuntAlnico4 Very True. After I wrote the post about heroes not being replaced I thought about taking it out. As long as we have people like Dave Simpson and the rest that are as passionate at making great music as we are, we will always have heroes. Thanks for pointing that out. It's important.
Music has fragmented almost to a fractal degree. It’s not the Beatles vs Stones or Oasis vs Blur any more. Scenes are micro scenes- there’s about 10 types of death metal! As ppl today grow up today they find their favourite genres earlier and can have quite eclectic tastes. Each band finds a market but a smaller market. I think it’s far less likely today for anyone to be a ‘broad appeal’ band in the grand sense.
Although the so called Beatles V Stones was totally concocted by the press . History has shown the two bands orchestrated the release of their records so they didn’t coincide.
At 64, I'm probably one of your older fans here. I just love your playing and the sound you create, putting your heart and soul into it. You are right, I too miss those times when I spent hours hunting for records, bring them home and listen to them over and over again. Deep Purple, Moody Blues, ELP are the bands I grew up with and treasure. However, I have to say that the likes of Spotify have widened my musical horizon quite a bit. e.g. I can listen to 'Artist Radio' and by doing so come across artists I have never heard of but like. Then I stop right there and search for an album of that artist and listen to the whole album. Thanks to Spotify I have learnt about artists like Tinariwen, a band none of my friends like but I thoroughly enjoy. I have a whole list of ‘Desert Blues’ artists in Spotify that have enriched my musical smorgasbord. So there always two sides to the coin.
Martin, I agree with you, but it was Pandora radio for me playing artist music that opened the door to me to the world of singer / songwriters, otherwise I would still be stuck on the classic rock that I grew up on. I might add that back in the 60's it was AM radio only. We went out and bought 45's (singles) and albums. Auto Manufacturers arent even offering CD players in the newest vehicles - sad.
Everybody still listens to music but you are right. Music is on everybody's phones and the source is limitless. When people still bought albums/CDs and casettes there was more thought behind it. When you made a tape for your walkman you made sure you picked songs you really loved. Of course some people still do that with playlists on Spotify but it's easier and songs get replaced more easily so they don't really get a chance to really grow on you. Easy access makes people less picky and songs become more interchangeable. People probably mostly pick the big hits and not whole albums.
I completely agree with you Dave, i am only a teen and im completely emersed in music, its my life. I also get down when i see people saying that music is gone and dead, and that i have no chance to make it. But there is a new generation of genuinely great music coming and you'll be apart of it! Don't lose hope.
I remember talking to the guy in a record store describing him what I was looking for: spaced-out psychedelic rock with long tracks Does this exist, I was asking, and he without hesitating dropped Space Ritual by Hawkwind on the table: Listen to this! And from this moment I had learned that a genre called Space Rock exists!
I think somewhere along the line rock music forgot it had to make people dance for mass popularity. When rock was young it made people groove, and that's why the kids loved it. It doesnt really do that anymore so hip hop, dance music, etc filled the space.
A pitiful lack of good small music venues has compounded the issue. In the late 70's and early 80's local bands had residencies at various pubs and clubs, they would appear at the same venue on a weekly basis and (if they were any good) attract a solid and loyal following. They would develop their craft and experience and sometimes reach the holy grail of a "record deal" and go on to bigger things. At the gigs like minded people would meet and share their musical insights and knowledge of other bands of a similar genre....movements began....punk...metal...new wave...mod....new romantics. Music was, for so many of us, not just about the "tunes" but about belonging, energy, excitement, surprise, feeling "cool", developing a "look" etc ,etc, etc. It was an identity and a lifestyle and loyalty to a favorite band/genre became indelible and a badge of honour.
When I grew up (in the 60s early 70s), music was everything for us. I knew literally all members of every band. I was interested in the lyrics and I saved my money to buy certain records. Music was so important. Today there is no real music around. Here in Germany each song they bing out sounds the same. I don't know the artists and I do not rember the songs. Radio and TV do not play relevant music. I know, there are still people out there, who want to hear good music and go to concerts, but the get neglected. It is so sad. But as a an old guy I can say from experince (hey Jimi), everything comes back one time . So I give not up the hope. And you Dave, you do what you can and give us back an echo of the old times.
Yeah, Dave,..."cheapened" IS the right word. Imagine how I see it from my perspective. I'm about to turn 70. I saw (heard) the emergence of The Beatles, Hendrix, et al, from the beginning. Imagine how it looks like utter shite to me.
I think you’re just a true music fan, Dave. You appreciate music on a much deeper level than your average listener. Most people don’t like music, they dislike silence. They are happy to consume whatever the music industry gives them and not think for themselves. Very few people just sit down and listen to music anymore. The music industry wants to make the most amount of money for the least amount of work which is why we have the music we have today. I think it’s always been this way but the power dynamic used to be a bit more even between the talent side and the business side. You used to need talent to break in to the industry and the best bands rose to the top. Now, the talent doesn’t matter as much as looks and it’s all business. It’s cheaper to pay a disposable pop-star singing through auto-tune than a whole band who spent years honing their craft and earned their due.
another problem is not a lot of kids and teenagers aren’t open to rock music. I’m in high school and my friends torture me with their trap rap but I gave it a chance I didn’t like it. But as soon as they hear an electric guitar they automatically think emo or death metal and demand me to turn it off. Like they actually told me that can’t stop by the chili peppers was metal.
When I first started listening to music, you just listened to it. It wasn't played on TV 24-7 and it was really just about the music you were hearing. When you went and bought an album then you would see what the band looked like in few pictures. You bought the album for the music and the good vibes you felt from it. It all changed and turned into a spectacle of sorts and music was just the back round instead of the forefront. All about the glam, outlandish clothes, makeup and some fake persona to sell records. The music became secondary and it's very sad it has gone that route. Plenty of great musicians never get their due because they didn't look the right way or fit the mold. They never got recognized and were pushed away by top producers for a pretty face so to speak. Thankfully there are people like you Dave, that still put the music first. I respect you for your music, guitar skills and personality. That is the way it should be. Keep the faith Dave 🍻
I'm 45, and my optimism for the failing record industry left me completely when albums like Dark Side of the Moon were chopped into individual tracks for sale on iTunes in an inferior state of MP3/4 fidelity. I was immediately screaming in my head: "That's NOT how you are supposed to DO THAT!!! It's sad that generations now will never know the true life altering experience of donning some headphones, and experiencing that album front to back in it's entirety as it was originally intended. Blood Sugar Sex Magic and Siamese Dream are some other albums that instantly spring to mind that MUST be listened to in this way to fully appreciate IMO. I seems like the current consumer market has the memory retention of a bleeding goldfish, and the subpar product now pushed on them has the shelf life of day old bread. I'm completely with you on this RANT Dave. I've been preaching similarly for quite some time now. Cheers! Stay safe & well man, and Happy Christmas!!
I used to go a dingy record shop called Soundhouse in Leamington Spa. Second hand cassettes for £1 and second hand vinyl for about £2.50 back in the mid 80s to mid 90s. Thumbing through all the records and picking a new metal band by their cool artwork on the sleeve. Getting home, anti static cloth to clean it, on the turntable being careful not to bang anything in case you scratched it!
On the contrary. There's more significant music today than there's ever been back in the day. What has happened is that you don't see that music in mainstream.
In my opinion much of the music these days has just become some background noise for people to listen to while they do something else like computer work, homework, exercise and so on. Everyone nowadays mostly listens to music in a passive way - they put it on in the background and don't really think about it. Gone are the days when you would have to buy a vinyl, cassette, CD or so on just to sit down at home and actively start listening to the album you just got, taking in all of the lyrics and sounds. Now you just type up "Lo Fi" on Spotify, put on the first playlist you see and start listening to some sound, which you feel no connection to. I'm not saying that it's bad to have background music as it definitely has its place, I'm just saying that "active" listening has had a really serious decline.
I agree totally. Even myself, as much as I love music and even making my own, I find that I don’t listen as actively as I used to. I miss the days of buying an album and listening to every song multiple times and how certain songs would grow on you as time went by. Nowadays, there’s too much out there. I tend to get choice paralysis and not know where to start.
Until recently, I played in a fairly decent band. Gigging two or three times every weekend. I was a fraud! I didn´t deserve to be there. I can "play" guitar, I can "sing" but I am absolutely not of a standard where I would like to be. The thing is, I loved it, we were successful, people loved us! The pinacle being headlining a outdoor festival... Am I the "next big thing"? Hell no! I just loved it and gave everything! Yes, it sustained my life for several years, but there are so, so many more talanted musicians out there, just a shame its not any of them in the top 20 today!
Great topic, as a musician and music lover, an interesting thought is that Rock music specifically has went full cycle, like classical, jazz, blues, big band, and swing. All of those had a log run, and had a few artists that mastered the genre. Honestly I can not imagine another Beatles, a band that stops the world again in Rock. But to add to that issue, in the USA an artist was outspoken that a record label even pushed him to switch from rock to rap because it sells easier. The last piece is the Red Hot Chili Peppers story, their label invested in them for a decade before they took off, that gave them time to develop. I don't believe anyone is investing in talent anymore and developing it, they want immediate return. Beyond all that, there is an issue with distribution, The radio was an easy way to reach the masses, now it is nearly impossible with all the fragmented sources.
I don't see anything changing soon, we lost our souls for a few "likes". No one has time to listen to an album from the first song to the last anymore. People just spend their time on social media. I remember coming home from school and putting a disk or a cassette before doing anything else. One song would end and I knew the first few lines of the next one before starting. To this day, if I listen to Operation mindcrime, I have to listen the whole album. I can't listen to just one song. music needs dedicated time, and listening to already made playlists from RUclips music or Spotify is not investing own time. I am so happy I found someone like you Dave. You are teaching me ones again about the value of dedication, of research and discovery. So you are doing the perfect thing already. You are the change you are seeking already. I love your music. It goes straight in to my soul, filling it in. Thank you so much.
I remember the late sixties the excitement of having Electric Ladyland on order at a record shop in Crystal Palace.....got it! rushed home, dropped a tab of acid and that was it for the next few hours....or lifetimes. The same with Hawkwind.....I couldn't wait for "In search of space" to be released......oh happy days.
I was lucky to be born in the 1980s. I never thought I would write this one day ... but I have to say it: i feel that the internet has destroyed most of the values people used to follow. It is sad, but we live in very strange times and this applies to every area of life.
I know you commented this 7 months ago but I couldn’t agree more. It’s devalued so much in peoples lives. Things just come and go now and people don’t care. I remember saving up pound coins as a kid and begging my mum to take me to HMV to see if they had By the Way because I heard it in friends mums car when I was a kid. Got there and it was £1 more than I had saved 😂. I played that CD front to back a thousand times, still have it now. My point is though people don’t have that appreciation now. They don’t understand waiting outside a record shop for it to open in release day so you can be the first person to get a new album. Now they just get ten releases from the same artists a year, don’t even listen to it and brand it as “mid” because they saw someone else say that on the internet. Appreciation for music is at an all time low with the masses but it doesn’t mean there’s still not amazing music out there to be found (dave is a prime example!)
I hear you Dave, it's very sad. However there are still a few of us out there who still buy vinyl on discogs or at record stores, complete albums in wav format on Bandcamp or even CDs. The problem is that peoapl are not willing to pay for music, they take it for granted, like something which is free and disosable. Paying for music means supporting the artist. (MP3 sucks I agree, I only listen to Spotify on my long walks.) Keep on making these vids bro, we love what you do.
Listening to this “rant” is provoking so many different thoughts, and too much to summarise in one comment.. the internet is the blessing and the curse for music. My opinion is that since the beginning of music people talk, spread the word, tell a friend, buy a magazine see the latest album with how good the music magazines rate it, whether that was kerrang, raw, melody maker etc. and those magazines would tell you where these bands are playing etc. I know some of these mags still exist, there rather expensive now, compared to just clicking on Google. But… without the internet, I wouldn’t be listening to your amazing playing Dave and loads of other artists on the likes of RUclips. Artist’s will explain the there’s not loads of money in album sales and streaming, it’s more in the performing and merchandise, which means that more artist’s and bands are doing it for the love of music, and that’s fantastic, if you came with the trio to my town Dave and you were selling vinyl, I’d come and I’d buy your album 100%. Music means a ton to so many people, it’s just amazing to hear music. Long live music.
Well F'n said. I agree totally. I remember saving the $2 everyday my Mom gave me for lunch in Grade 9. At the end of the week I had enough to buy a record or cassette. Music meant so much more.
The one great thing about these times is we can get to hear someone like yourself play. I've been following your channel for over a year, and I'm amazed how much your playing has improved. Great infusions of emotion. A tip of the hat from central New Jersey in the states!!!
Ah dave, you say exactly what I feel in my heart. But I'm 73 now still feel the same, started playing at 13, I've lived through so much, multi instrumentalist, song writer. Your view is balanced and heartfelt. Bless you and your loved one's, deeply ❤ Rodge David kidderminster uk 🇬🇧 ❤ we will be OK, love your band ❤
I agree with a lot of your points however, I think to find the scenes in the UK nowadays you have to go past what's on pop radio. I'm a Jazz player and there's load of wicked scenes across the UK (Leeds, London, Bristol, Glasgow etc) similarly, in the the indie rock world there's plenty of different scenes that exist however they don't really penetrate into the top tier (I.e. top 40 charts etc) anymore like artists from those genres used to. I would say the same about albums (I'm a spotify user but still only really listen to albums) if you dig past what mainstream music advertisement and publicity is trying to sell you you'll find incredible albums being released every day. I don't think any of these things are 'dead' I just think to earn money and reach more people as a unique, grass roots artist/band these days it takes a lot more work to get to that top level and it's very rare that it will happen at all (it's like 'commercial top 40 music' and actual music are 2 completely different art forms that don't often have much in common at all). But the thing is there's still so many incredible bands making music and touring and making a living from music and that are able to continue to do what they do it's just never going to be like it was in decades gone by (at least not for a long time and with a lot of change having happened to facilitate it) One final thing, there's still good music being released by top 40 artists - Adele's latest album is wicked, the 'Silk Sonic' album is awesome and there's plenty of other examples, obviously there is a lot of formulaic stuff but at the end the day it is the Music 'business' and if you had a formulaic, guaranteed way of making money from every product your business released would you not use that method. Hope this doesn't sound too mardy/negative, just trying to offer some counter points for you to consider.
Really frustrating when guys like Dave get on their high horse with a video like this. Like dude, You've set yourself up to be a gear channel, Don't go telling your fanbase that music is dead because YOU think its dead as a GEAR channel. Its not a good look.
Whether we want to admit it or not, recorded music is product, and since day one it's always been a push pull between the art/artist and commerce/the suits. The way consumers consume recorded music has always been dependent on the current technology, and prevailing marketing schemes. That said, I also miss the dominance of albums.
I totally agree with you, speaking as a 66 year old music has been in my life since l was 6 when l picked a guitar up, Pink Floyd summed it all up with welcome to the machine, about the music industry. To many people think they are musicians or song writers just because they have PC or an iPhone or an iPad with a few apps on. I think it’s this technology that’s bolloxed the forgotten art of making albums, it’s become far to easy to make good or bad music theses days, 64 track recording on a phone WTF, obviously the internet has played it’s part, particularly RUclips and other platforms, sometimes it works in the artist’s favour, but at the end of the day who’s making the most money, it’s all very depressing only if you let it get that way, still play my albums from when l was in my youth, it keeps me sane, stops the rott if you will, being able to hear music and even play an instrument is a gift we must appreciate more, How can you be depressed with the talent you have Dave and a stunning Bass player tabout, you got it all my friend 🎸🎶🎸🎶🎸🎶
Thanks Dave I'm with you 100 percent! I grew up in the 50s and 60s albums were everything. Just like you noted some of my favorite songs were buried deep in an album; I would have never have heard them without listening all the way through! Today people let someone else dictate what is "good" and only buy that single! They miss out on a lot. Don't even get me going on digital formats! When MP3s just came out my two daughters and I did an experiment, as they didn't believe what I was saying about sound quality. We picked a song that we had on album, tape, CD, and MP3. We listened to each format through the same quality stereo system, and immediately they were (and are) believers! Sorry for my Rant, and thanks for yours!
Nice to see a few more of us ancients in the comments and echo their sentiments. Albums were treasures and got played till the grooves were flattened. Totally agree about so much that gets churned out, as someone once sang "it says nothing to me about my life"... I'm an MP3 hater. It's like a tracing of music. Commerce has eviscerated meaning and given us bubblegum, but there'll be a fight back. It's an essay worthy subject!
When I played a music festival a few years ago and saw a mass of people dancing to two guys fiddling with a laptop and a turntable on the mainstage, I realised the live music I grew up with was pretty much dead. Walked over to the other side of the field and a great live band were playing to just 100 people. Its sad but Rock's gone the same way as Jazz. That doesn't mean people can't make it work - but its damn hard to do so if you're doing it as a living, especially due to covid. Lets hope covid finishes soon as most pandemics eventually do, and the music festivals that don't put morons with a laptop on the mainstage, get really going again.
Guy with a laptop is like going to McDonalds that's done by millions of people everyday... The band with a hundred people in the field watching is the Michelin 5 star restaurant only some can fully appreciate... Gimme that 5 star food any day of the week...
I,m 63 today, I have grown up with physical music, people playing instruments, breathing and strumming life into them but things move on. Look at the tech needed to get tone from instruments these days.
Sad but spot on Dave...I really hope for a musical revolution for our kids and theirs. Luckily my kids listen to all great music from the past and love it and get lost in it. Creative people will find their way, but I’m very worried in general when it comes to emotional experience. It is dumbed down and framed as a unnecessary waste of time.
Totally agreed Dave! I am 49 so grew up with grunge etc. I remember buying records and CDs from bands who could actually play and no auto tune etc. Now local bands play very poor musicianship wise as they don't practice as much as they watch Netflix and PlayStation etc now. It's a shame but music is not appreciated by the public anymore.
The songs you don't like so much are like a valley of sorrow that you pass through along the way, and make the arrival of the good songs so much sweeter. If they are all good songs there is no DEPTH.
I remember when I was young, “I’m 49 now” but Sunday I used to get the tape lined up ready to record the top 40 and it was an art to record the music without the voice of the radio dj, it was a great feeling when you played it back but that has all gone, the digital age has killed all that, the youth of today are only interested in singles yes but what I find is they can’t even listen to the whole song anymore it’s painful. I remember Noel saying a few years back “where’s the new oasis” it isn’t there, it’s so sad, your so right to bring this up
Okay, so just going through some of the existing comments, I think I'm gonna be on my own here, but I'll try to make my point as respectfully as I can and we'll see how we go. I'm 26, born in 1995, so I find myself at a bit of a crossroads in terms of music consumption. I remember CD's, I remember an iPod coming into the house for the first time and being astounded that all the music that filled up my bookshelf could suddenly fit in my pocket. It was pretty incredible. I've been in love with music since I was a kid, I was raised on Queen, Status Quo, Zeppelin, The Beatles etc. But as I grew up, having so much music be so easily accessible through streaming sites and youtube broadened my horizons and let me fall in love with hip hop, stoner rock, more extreme types of metal. If its music and it's good, I'll listen to it and that includes what's in the dreaded "charts". I've also been playing guitar and writing songs since I was 12 and gigging in bands since I was 16, so here's my perspective on some of the points that Dave's made: Singles taking over: This is a bit of a trend, but there's always been "singles" bands. Some of the Beatles biggest songs were non album singles. No one buys albums/discovers albums anymore: From my experience this isn't necessarily true. Vinyl is extremely popular (vinyl sales were at the highest point in 30 years last year), and many artists still release albums that achieve critical acclaim. Listening to an album on a streaming site might not be the best way to support an artist financially but you can still listen to an album and allow it to unfold the way you would buying a CD. Similarly, you said that people aren't likely to delve deeper into a band's career from finding a single. Music is now so at peoples finger tips and so easy to access I cant imagine this being true, I and several of my friends have found ourselves finding whole new favourite artists just by finding single songs and diving into their back catalogues from there. There's more ways to support artists these days than just buying the music, tonnes of bands (including my own) survive on merch sales, and fans are more than happy to buy merch. Music is cookie cutter/popular musicians aren't nutured/no unique personailties: Another thing that isn't true if you're watching the scene. There's tonnes of big personalities making off the wall music in the mainstream and in the underground right now. She's an easy target for jaded old guitar blokes, but you can't listen to Billie Eilish's whiper-quiet vocals and eerie/industrial percussion choices and say its akin to something like Girl's Aloud or Sugababes. I think the main issue is that a lot of people who grew up loving rock etc. think mainstream music is shit just because they don't like it, which isn't really a fair take imo. There's no grunge/rock/metal/glam "scenes" anymore: This one irked me a little so I'll try and be as measured as I can. Dave. I honestly can't think of a single band that you've championed or shouted about on this channel who formed less than a decade ago. The rock scene is full of tonnes and tonnes of unique bands with tonnes of influences stemming from the bands you love, and they're playing packed out shows in venues across the country to passionate fans who are screaming every word back. How do I know? I'm giving new music a shot, I'm going to these shows, my band are playing opening slots on these shows. I'm sorry to come across as brazen but this take comes across as extremely out of touch. So thats my two cents, I hope we can have a pleasant discourse...
I agree with you Dave, I am about 12 years older than you and I also grew up on album based music. Before the album based music, there where 45's, 78's, and it wasn't until the LP was invented that albums became a reality. The radio was more like a what we have today as streaming services, same with jukeboxes along with club dj's. Music is definitely been cheapened, it is more accessible in a more convenient manner, and it is no longer valued, nevermind people only getting music they already like, one song at a time. Great video, important topic. Music is always changing. We still have live music, even though that was going to go the way of the dodo-bird with recorded music. I do share your concern, as a lot of people can make music a lot easier also, but just making music doesn't necessary make you a musician.
The masses will generally follow the mainstream and just listen to the newest garbage pop song on the radio or spotify hitlist. I found that people who are actually into music still love albums, and typically become superfans of their favorite artists. I've had the new Mastodon album on repeat for weeks now and I still can't believe how good it is. Jerry Cantrell just released a new solo album too, and it's fantastic. There's still lot's of amazing music to discover, it's just that the industry serves up crappy WAP music to the masses, which unfortunately, most people are content to consume.
I think that with the dawning of the internet, music is too accessible, there is no mystery anymore. The only time you'd get to learn something about an artist is if you read a feature in a monthly magazine, and you would relish the chance of finding that and then going and buying a physical document of music and poring over the artwork for hours lay on your bed listening to this thing that you'd brought home on the bus, whereas now you can just download it for nothing and we know what a "celebrity" does from the minute they wake up to when they go to bed. The info is there at your fingertips and it reaches saturation point, the thrill of the hunt is no longer a thing, attention spans have decreased and nobody sits or lies down and listens to an album from start to finish anymore, or if they do they are looking at their phone at the same time. It makes me wonder if in another 40 years my kids will be saying "oh I remember when we had to download music by ourselves, those were the days" Change is inevitable and not always for the better.
The Anderton’s and Thomman’s , my local guitar shop, my guitar teacher, music schools , they are all doing pretty well now a days.Sales of guitars I would guess are more healthy than sales of DJ equipments . The world of music is always changing and there is an enormous amount of people these days playing an instrument and learning about music all over the world. We all can’t we famous but can enjoy making music .
Punk, Mod rude boy rocker so pleased to live through these times it only takes one creative spark from any individual no matter what genre of music always hope Dave!🙂
True art liberates the soul. The powers at be do not want it. I grew up in the 80's I loved going to record stores after school hunting classic metal, rock, blues albums and going home and listening to the whole album. It was a ritual I love albums nothing competes with escaping into the world of music. The human race will be finished without music.
Brilliant thoughtful video Dave. Sad because it’s true. Worse still is that it’s not just music that has been devalued by digitising the world, and making humans a throw away commodity
Great video and interesting discussion! IMO, the mainstream has almost always contained duds and watered down versions of lesser known, better artists. Though, there are always those rare artists that can break through. Nowadays it does seem that even music out in the pop sphere is just totally lacking in creativity and completely disingenuous, maybe I'm just getting old... I think comparing it to the single dominate era of the 50s etc. is a good comparison, I mean what did those songs really mean anyway? I am a devotee of the album format, but personally I'm not too upset that the single takes precedent, good music is good music. That being said, at least back in the 50's and early rock n' roll/pop music there were real musicians playing real parts. I think the biggest impact on modern music is the pervasiveness of digital instrumentation and production, and a system that capitalized on this technology, thus allowing it to sell product faster. For me, when it becomes too easy to create music, either playing or recording/producing, it's a detriment to creativity, and what's worse, prioritized and manipulated by an industry who's main goal is profits, engagement and quickly churning out hit after hit. Like fast food, anything that is manufactured to sell massively and cheaply will be produced at the expense of a "good" product. Why would any young kid out there pick up a real instrument in this environment? Playing an instrument is hard, it takes dedication and practice and the people who get the most press and sell (stream) the most don't play an instrument of any sort. So, when it comes to giants like Spotify, these are the artists that get the most streams, get put on playlists and get the most exposure. After a long rant, good music is still out there, it's just harder to find!
Also, I am mixing about 50 years of Metal together in my new project. No screaming, but lots of low tuned fuzzed out guitars. Heavy and Weird. We need to start new genre's!
1000% agree with you Dave and i've been saying the same thing since around 2001. new "music" has become completely soul-less and it makes me physically ill just to hear this stuff forced down our throats every day on the radio and commercials etc.. disgusting
You are right, as a kid I would buy an album something like Taste and listen to it with mates and discuss it, some of my mates had never heard of Rory Gallagher and were totally blown away and became instant fans, sometimes I would go and sit and listen to one of their albums, maybe Family or Led Zeppelin and I became aware of those bands. I have to admit that being 14 and so many great bands around was excellent, in my humble opinion my mates and I went out of our way to listen to as many bands as possible. We all played a bit and had a little band that did covers, so it was an adventure to hear talented musicians. Great channel Dave.
I think how we treat music is almost hilarious now. From a professional musician pov (not really me though) we record our £2000 piece of perfected tonewood guitar through a £1.5k tube amp into a finely tuned 4x12 speaker cab miked up with a £100 sm57 mic to capture the ‘feeling and warmth’ of the player. Into a£20k recording unit so every note can be captured to pure musical perfection. Then the whole thing is listened to through a 2mm iPhone speaker!!! In mono!!
Dave, I feel the same, like most guitarists or any general musician. I started playing guitar in 1980. I still play it feverishly even though its not made me much money. I love getting tones, learning new songs, techniques, getting new and used gear. What attracted me was a combination of music genre( rock and metal), certain bands and players( Van Halen, AC/DC, Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Metallica). Likewise I loved going to the record store, buy LPs, soon cassettes, then CDs. Countless good and bad albums but there were plenty that put me in such a place to form me as a musician, but a person as well. Yet the internet came along and when I sold all my music and gravitated towards iTunes, Google music etc I knew despite the convenience of finding anything at the click of a mouse or touch of a screen I knew the album format was done and its all about the song now. Its all about pop music and spectacle and its sad seeing drums, bass, keyboards and now guitar taking a back seat to nothing but the singer. You are right that these singing shows( American Idol, The Voice) are dumbing music down. All in the name of money. Even Gene Simmons says "rock is dead". In his day you could get a Marshall stack that you could crank out in a garage and you would be noticed. Not anymore. I know of a few people that have the evil Spotify and they don't see that artists are being paid peanuts. I saw the CEO in some interview and despite his billions he is a greedy prick. This pandemic has prompted some to pick up the guitar as they say guitar sales haven't been this good since the 60s. But I think it will be short lived as a lot of people after being locked down, unemployed are just doing it because video games and TV is not enough of a hobby. It is strange times as in recent years there is way more gear than there ever was. Still its like some New Years resolution like some do to choose to go to the gym yet fail miserably. You would think after so many websites and You Tube channels to learn that everyone would be playing. So many ways to learn but people don't commit as its too much work. Sad as I said.
Pearl Jam Ten is one of my favourite new album moments ever. I remember the first time I got it home from Our Price or Woolworths, cranked it up and probably had homework to do but then just sat and listened to the whole thing. Then again and again while reading the liner notes and (firmly pre-internet) tried to find out more about this band over the following few days. A week later my neighbour got the same album and would crank it from his bedroom window too. I didn't know anyone in that area, we only lived there for a year, but that really made me smile. Maybe it's a GenX experience that wouldn't make much sense these days. My kids don't really believe me that I didn't have always-on broadband and streaming music when I was their age, it doesn't compute. The music browsing, finding, buying and playing experience was entirely different. And I miss liner notes.
I grew up with the little music we had on cassettes, I'd take mp3s over a tape recording anytime, cassettes were really bad, they wore out quickly, no top end, stacks of hiss. We are so lucky now the fidelity of music listening is generally so much higher than when I was young in the 70s. I think it's very easy to forget for far things have moved on, CDs really changed things, for the positive in my view, at the time they were criticised for sounding bad compared to records, yes if you had thousands to spend on a to end record player, top end speakers, amplifier etc maybe, but for most people that want ever going to be affordable. The record player we had was terrible, it may have been mono. Transcribing was really hard as you couldn't loop difficult sections, easily slow down the music, we are so lucky now
I think we all on here feel your pain Dave. The music biz is just part of a larger global picture that is unfolding before our very eyes.. Stay strong. X
I love the album. Whenever I listen to music I listen to an entire album rather than a list of artist's singles. I'm only interested in releasing and creating albums and not singles.
Music is rarely a shared experience anymore and recorded music is a commodity at 75+ million songs available. All the great music is still available and new great music is still being created but it's marketability is not very profitable and has to compete against well funded ego projects. Cheers Dave!
As a fellow original music making, gigging musician that lives in the hash tag world, I agree completely. There used to be a passion, a therapy for artists and people to find common ground on, but now it’s “what catchy line can we sell”? Honkey Tonk Badonka Donk? Red Solo Cup? Granted those examples are “country” songs, but you can see that the thought process is, can we catch phrase our way to money. I dunno, maybe I’m cynical, but I’m turning 39 the day after Christmas and I grew up on 90’s music--I’ve been signed to an indie label and toured the states--and I’ve slowly watched as cds turned to MP3’s and now to a blip on some story somewhere on social media. It won’t stop me from doing what I do cause I love it, but yes it’s frustrating and it’s heartbreaking. All my love my friend.
Oh man country music has gone downhill since after the 90's, now country is the biggest collection of every ridiculous American stereotype, it's a total joke!
I was a fan of ac/dc, iron maiden, sabbath led zeppelin etc as a teen. That was when Perry boys were trendy, new romantics and electro pop filled top of the pops. Rock was always about the album and still is. Pop was always about the single. 3 minutes started in the age of the 78 because that was the limit of the technology. Now it's about algorithms,. However, vinyl is back which means increasingly albums are being experienced by a new generation who find the journey we experienced when we 1st heard those bells on back in black etc. For the people who really love music, it's still there. Pop fans have always been rich pickings for unscrupulous businesses.
I agree with some of the points you’ve made. We live in a society where everyone needs instant gratification may it be with television or music but like with any other eras of music you just need to adapt. There are a lot of exceptional new musicians/artist currently, they may not be like our guitar heroes of the past but they still make incredible stuff. There has never been a greater time to buy gear, learn an instrument and promote your music on online platforms. If it wasn’t for these types of platforms we may never have discovered artists like yourself Mr.Simpson. I think that sometimes we forget that in every decade there’s great music and not so great music but it’s the great ones we remember. In saying that there is a lot of garbage nowadays, but I think it’s a price worth paying if it means more people are exposed to platforms where they can express themselves creatively through music, may it be by playing guitar or by other means.
I 100% agree with every single thing you have just said and it is extremely sad. Some of my favorite albums of all time were ones that didn’t really grab me on first listen but I felt obliged to give them continual go’s, often because I’d spent $30 for the thing (which was a big deal, as a teenager). I sometimes had to really try to like them and, more often than not, I eventually did. These continual listens brought subtle melody’s to light, which I don’t think I would find today if listening to the same albums on Spotify for the first time. Without skin in the game, I’m as guilty as the next person nowadays of moving on if I’m not caught on the first listen or so, and I don’t like that, not one bit!
I used to buy an album for one or two songs, and enjoyed listening to the whole album discovering epic songs that never got airplay and some still unheard by the masses. The internet for all it's good, has destroyed many things. Oh and for you kids out there, if it doesn't have real guitar, bass and some drums, it's not music. Play long...Play loud 🇦🇺🤟🎸
I see the frustration, but with the new world of music we get things like this where people can come and connect directly with their favorite artists. Also for Spotify, it allows people who do love music to have no limits, I can go listen to 3 albums in a night of bands I've never heard if I want to. Then it's up to me to decide how I can support them: buy a physical album, go to a concert, etc. Regardless, great content as always Dave!
I still love to do the record shop thing. Spinning discs in sheff is epic. I think one of the reasons the mainstream music scene is so bland (aside from a few gems) is because record companies almost never take a risk on something they don't know for a fact they're gonna get they're money back on.
You're right Dave, it has cheapened, and for all the reasons you mentioned. So many musicians from the 70's and 80's have gone on record saying how they were financially screwed by their record labels and managers, yet they are now putting their music on streaming services for fractions of pennies. I don't understand that. The domino effect of streaming services is that it's caused bands to drastically increase ticket prices to see them live. You mentioned that 3% of the UK population wanted tickets to Knebworth. These days, 3% may want to go, but it's simply unaffordable, and it's not the bands fault, as it's the only way to make a living from their music. Sad state of affairs, Dave.
As a 34 year old I hate the fact the vinyl shops have virtually disappeared. I'll put on a cd. But if I can put a vinyl album on I will. Preferably over headphones so I can really take it in. Early queen and pink Floyd records headphones are a muss!
Totally agree about MP3 sound quality. About all it is useful for is checking out a new band, before getting the CD. I think peoples attitudes haven't changed that much, the 'pop' market has always been superficial. I think what HAS changed, is record companies attitudes to artists. As you say, they are no longer willing to invest time and money into an artist's career, they want instant success from a 1st album, so there's a lot of formularized, pre-chewed mush from mainstream labels. It seems to me, we're going through a lull, a bit like the superficiality of the 50's pre Rock 'n' Roll, and the pre-Beatles 60's. Sooner or later, it'll all come around, a new and original artist will blow the doors off the accountants office doors. It's always been hard to get noticed, get a record deal etc. Think of how many times the Beatles were rejected, or how hard it must have been for T-Bone Walker or BB King to get started and to make a living. Like all those Blues players, without big company backing, artists will have to gig where they can, rely on word of mouth, and self-publish. Regardless of the initial publishing/distribution method, a song like Cigarettes and Alcohol will get noticed. Eventually there'll be a new Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin, etc., something with a broader appeal, that can't be easily ignored or packaged as a disposable consumer item. As John Hunter says, the internet is a double edged sword. It allows consumption with very little investment of attention or money, and has fragmented music in general, but it has also democratized it, by allowing more people to self publish and get their music heard, and it allows people to get a taste of, and get into many musical genres. The death of Rock 'n' Roll has been reported since Elvis went into the army, and it gets re-born time and time again, because people keep on adding to it, recording it and playing it. And people keep turning each other onto new things by whatever media is popular at the time. All we can ever do, is keep playing, listening and communicating the music, for the music, regardless of popularity or market share. By name checking bands, you promote them (how many of your viewers besides you, and me had heard of Candlebox before), by playing you inspire others to play. We're all custodians of music, we listen to it, cherish it, and pass it on, either by sharing what we listen to, or by teaching what we know about its playing. As long as we do these things it will survive.
I get exactly where you're coming from Dave... I'm guessing we're a similar sort of age (30s?), and I often worry about these things. I've always felt completely out of step with most of my generation, never more so than when it comes to music. Most of my heroes were dead long before I was born, and those still going are well into old age now. I'm very much an album guy too... I always listen to albums in full, even the tracks I don't particularly like, for the simple reason that I consider the album itself to be a single work. I have to really dislike a track to want to skip it, which is extremely rare. Very often I find that the tracks I didn't like so much on my first listen, eventually became favourites on repeated listens. But most people don't do that now... If a track doesn't grab their attention within the first 5 seconds, they skip it. Maybe we've just come full circle... We've arrived back at the 1950s again, where Spotify is essentially the 21st century juke box. If that's the case, maybe the album's time will come again in the next decade or two. Whatever happens I agree the only thing we can do is to keep playing, writing and recording. If you haven't seen them already, I highly recommend finding the BBC 6 Music John Peel Lectures online. They used to be on RUclips in full but they aren't that easy to find now... Specifically watch the ones given by Pete Townshend and Iggy Pop, it's very interesting stuff.
Back in the old days of my youth, late 70's, hanging out with friends meant sitting around listening to albums. We couldn't afford everything we wanted but one guy would be into a particular group, someone else another group. We would bring our new album and listen together, so you didn't have to buy everything, and then we could borrow each others records. Can't lend your iTunes or Spotify list. For the teenagers I know now it's a similar scenario but with gaming, but that has gone more online too. Those that are interested in real music, of any genre, have parents that play albums, put cds in the car, and still go to pub gigs. Us old rockers have become a subculture of our own, but we have to accept that the culture of the future is always led by the young. It's up to us to expose them to our culture. About five years ag"o a friend's child, a girl of about 8, was fully indoctrinated into being X-Factored, until I said "listen to this". I then played Whole Lotta Love through her headphones, from my phone, sorry. At first her face was one of "what's this crap old man", then the stereo instrumental hit and her eyes nearly popped from her head. She is now a shit hot guitar player, plays lead in a band of older teenage boys. We're still here, our culture is still here, our music is still here, the only thing that has gone is the money. The future is in the hands of the young, but we can still show them the way. Long Live Rock!!!
We I was a kid we would buy an album and would invite our friends to listen to it! We would tape it for our friends! We would agree what albums we’d buy to avoid repeating albums because we could no afford to b6 every record that came out, so I a friend would buy a record we would meet in his house to listen and to tape it for ourselves. That’s how things were and the LPs were selling.
Thanks for addressing a subject that I'm sure a lot of musicians have been thinking about recently.Playing to a camera is not the same as playing live that's for sure All aspects of life have been adveresly affected by technological change , not just music.Everything you say here is valid, and I have to agree,Business has consolidated into the Major giant corporate companies to the detriment of small businesses, so everything is affected.The new covid pass doesn't help either , because our ability to go to large events is not so straight forward and so people may very well decide not to bother. Excellent rant , thankyou, keep up the good work.
Dave I feel so connected to this subject music has become a product. That's why we must not allow people to forget the talent in being musical and expressing emotions through our instruments. One love Dave keep up the good work
Hi Dave, have hope I see youngsters in HMV looking through the vinyl and getting excited, that makes me smile with hope, I think they are waiting for something to completely blow their minds tbh. Something is out there somewhere in the world bubbling away waiting to take over. You don't have to be too old these days to start saying " back in my day..." I'll continue to buy physical media, full length LPs, it's the only thing I can control, but I have to also accept its a new age for the consumption of media in all its various shapes. Every generation of music fans have had a change forced on them, but I do have to admit, the smaller music scene is far more exciting to me than the huge area/stadium scene. Wolf Alice are one of the most exciting new(ish) UK bands for a long time.
As always David cool improv, what a warm up, brill stuff, love how you correct mistake notes and carry on to a very cool rendition from the heart. Please keep up your music it keeps musicians like myself on track to keep learning to produce from the heart. David maybe you need a new Quest, change happens we cannot stop this, it is part of the human Quest to evolve and so it seems will music, but it is important to keep the roots alive. How about a possible documentary from yourself on your outlook on the history of world music so far, some detail of great gigs and bands from working class to the top. The truth of creative music struggle.
Besides the excellent points Dave made. I kept thinking about how much the more recent advancements in technology hurt music the internet and streaming being obvious ones but all the digital tools and such musicians have access to now definitely can cause things to be very cookie cutter and uninspired sounding. Musicians treating each other like crap doesn't help either, we need more lifting each other up instead of trying to climb over one another. Also, there's some fantastic comments here so its nice to see others that genuinely care about music. I'll never stop getting together with people to go looking for music or to listen to whats new.
I found your mention of alice in chains and pearl jam interesting purely because I found it quite relatable. Back in the 90s I bought albums by both bands and back then I didn't really hear pearl jam. I played pearl jam but I didn't really hear them and value the music until 20 or 30 years later. AIC always struck a chord with me, and that doesn't mean AIC were a better band than pearl jam or wrote better songs or did music better than pearl jam. the difference was always me. value is in the intention of the music maker and in the listener. entirely subjective, and perspectives change. bands change, musicians change and so do listeners. value... we all determine value.
I'm 50 years young now and feel the same way about not only music but life in general. Music has been my favorite (and probably most effective) med for most of my life and it doesn't feel the same anymore, so I mostly listen to older stuff with a few exceptions. I also catch grief from the people who prefer the soulless instant downloads for doing so, but I know I'm getting so much more out of it than they are so I'm not going to worry about their opinions. Lately I have been inspired to learn to play guitar by people like yourself so don't feel like you and other artist who put their hearts into it aren't making a difference because you do!
I'm 65 and my music obsession was kicked off hearing honky tonk women on a radio. I was 13 had no money for albums and no record player anyway lol Music kept me alive and my shit guitar kept me sane Great musicians always find a way. Music is unstoppable When it seems like it's all over just means something new and exciting is coming
My thought is that mainstream music has become extremely not about music. It's always been about money, but has morphed into something even more bizarre, hard to define. The underground scene I would claim is more thriving than ever.
Hi Dave, I'm a 1962,at 5, on the coffee table belting out Elvis,etc, music was Big, no internet, black and white tv, in my 18's, Twisted Sister rented out a car wash to practice, went to see, Vixen Rainbow,Pat Travers,The Cars, Pink Floyd, Madison Square Garden, and so much more. People today and the Industry,I don't know what happened here but it's sad, Troy from Alantic City
This is something that has been eating at me for a couple of years now. I’ve got more thoughts than I could ever fit in a comment on this topic. Too many factors play into it. Technological advancement. Cultural norms shifting. New generations hurtling forward to kill the old trends and install their own. Where and how we consume music is itself currently in flux. We are on our way to Demolition Man. We’re all going to be singing commercials before we know it. I would love to be able to have an extended talk about all this because It would help me get out of my own head and I do see a potential way forward. I feel there is some fragile hope. Keep faith man!
I have a turntable and buy albums of all genres online and from second hand shops. Since going back to Vinyl life has become exciting again. I agree there's no scene today, I agree. The Lockdown was one of the major contributors in my opinion.
I totally get it. I've been writing my own songs and just generally enjoy playing for my own sake. I'll post them on RUclips but haven't really found a group of people I belong to. I'm 26 and would rather hang out and make music with friends, but again, haven't found my group yet. I truly don't like social media. I feel hypocritical for trying to expose my music on any platform. It's useless and incredibly depressing. Music is the only thing that makes me happy, but without that connection, why even bother?
Streaming has made the process of consuming music too boring and harmful to the average musician. I miss talking to my friends about bands, swapping albums every now and then. I still owe many great discoveries to them and I hope to have done the same. Nowadays the algorithm is your only "friend", telling you what to consume next. Bandcamp all the way, as least it is fair to the artists!
Dave, I hope that I can give you a little bit of hope here. I am 54 now and have experienced a lot of what your talking about. I have a sixteen year old daughter who has been writing, singing, playing guitar, flute and piano in one form or another since she was eight. Her hero is Taylor Swift (like that or not) and as we did/do, she waits in excited anticipation for an album launch. Like us, she takes the album to her room and plays the living daylight out of every track until she knows every line, word and note. Music still means a lot to our youth and thankfully they don’t need record companies to put their music out there. Things have changed in a consumer society but I think there will always be anarchism and people that care. We have to accept we are a different generations living in a world where bastards will bomb our kids standing in a crowd. One great thing is RUclips and social media gives us access half way around the world to musicians like you that realistically I would never have heard of or seen 20 years ago. Remember its the minority that lead change so your doing you bit as I see it. Chin up mate, every cloud and all that.. 👍🇦🇺
Having listened to you and read the comments below, I'm in agreement with how you all feel about music, I'm of mature age, shall we say, I can recall hearing Leadbully for the first time on a BBC request show for troops deployed out in the British Empire somewhere, one Sunday morning after church. Then later, I heard The Beatles on the same show. Those events stuck with me. Then at the church youth club, the older kids brought their records in to play on a Saturday night, from early Presley, Carl Perkins, Eddy Cochran, and all of a sudden John Mayall. The first 2 albums I bought with my 13th birthday money were "The Blues of T-Bone Walker", and a "Golden Guinea" compilation of Rhythm & Blues featuring John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Howlin' Wolf. Of course The Beatles had exploded by then too, along with many others, and my generation had something to base a culture on, the haircuts, the fashions, and a lifestyle where music was at the centre, and separated us from the previous generations. As time has gone on many other genres had their moments in the spotlight too. I'm always keen to listen to music of different genres, good music, well played. More recently music has not been able to break through the cacophony of media available to everyone, and in particular to the younger ones hungry for something special for them. Having said that you might be interested to know that there is still a hunger out there. My son teaches music technology at university level, and even through the pandemic they have been oversubscribed on all their courses, kids keen to get into the business as performers and the whole thing. I should also mention that Andy James who was at college with my son, has recently joined "Five Finger Death Punch", and now based in LA. Andy was often ridiculed for pursuing his style of playing back then, during the rise of Oasis and Blur, but he stuck at it, and has built a great career from it. I think we can all take some encouragement from these. It won't be the same as before, but it will come. You must press on with your music, you just never know when an opportunity will turn up.
CD’s are cheap, a quid in the charity shop. The reason they’re cheap is because people space-save with a laptop and spotify. What a great moment to build a massive cd collection. Vinyl on the other hand, is worth more than ever, so thats a good sign. There was so much money in music videos in the 80’s that at one point, bags of coke were pinned to the worksheet noticeboards on shoots. Look how albums emerged, because such great singles were made. Release 7” singles on vinyl.
Maybe it needs to be the grassroots local bands performances that keeps music alive, kinda like how bands in the past decades created the roar of music in peoples lives in the first place. Support your local live music scenes...
I guess One Direction is Oasis' successor, kind of. Different genre but the same buzz, although it's a bit difficult to make comparisons since social media didn't exist in the 90's. It's a weird time to feel that passion with music, the kind of passion I feel myself and the one you describe in the video. It seems like people don't have the time or interest anymore in, for example, spending 26 minutes of their life listening to 'No Control' by Bad Religion, let alone a 50-minute album. My take on this is, music felt really "revolutionary" back in the 70's or the 90's, people identified with it and it made them think, it felt like a movement, but since the 00's and until today, everything took a 180º turn and TV/social media/busy lifestyle/daily worries/negativity/mental health/lots of other factors affect people much more, and instead of finding an exit or an answer in music, society has chosen (or has been educated) to find other ways that are more "passive". Gaming, streaming, infuencers, celebrities, TV shows etc. have taken the spot and they create today's "rock stars". Nowadays, music is just something you play in the background while you wash dishes, drive or party. Back then, it was the same, but also much more than that. I may be wrong, I may be idealising the 90's and not understanding today's society. Maybe this is a problem that's been there for decades, only now with social media it has accentuated much more. I'm just a 24 year old guy from Spain who's been raised right between the Oasis era and the One Direction era, so I might be wrong. But yeah, it's a shame that feeling true passion for music is the rare thing now.
The music world has shifted back to what it was in the 50s. It used to be all about the hit song on the radio and getting people to buy the album for that. That lasted through to the 70s, when the album became the main draw. The 80s became about the music video, but the album was still important and it stayed like that into the early 2000s until mp3s came along, and suddenly it was all about the single again, and it's been stuck there for 20 years.
I love listening to albums because you get to find the gems the studio or the musicians thought wouldn't be hits but usually turn out to be the best songs. Release by Pearl Jam, Don't Cry by Seal, or Like a Tattoo by Sade. These are killer songs you'd only hear by listening to the album. And then there's the experience of the album. I could listen to all those songs by themselves, but listening to them in the album order builds up the impact of the song. You completely miss that with just getting singles. You also miss the growth of the musician. You get to hear their sound change (or not change) through their albums, and that's another awesome experience.
Listening to a single is almost like watching a clip from a film. That moment might be awesome, but it works better in context. That said, sometimes there is only one good song on an album.
very well said, and i agreed 1000percent
@@kowalguitarlife9119 history repeats itself
@@theviewfromhere5388 right on
I agree with the Album stuff, but its nothing like the 50's now. The range of 'popular' music is vastly wider now. I have 3 kidults between 19-25. They all love music, but such a wide range. I thought I was eclectic liking Napalm Death and FSOL, but am pretty narrow compared to them. They do stream albums and I've gained some new bands through them - Marmozets for instance. So (to refute Dave...) does it matter if there are no mega bands any more, so long as good bands can find an audience?
Who actually follows the charts any more.. In the 50s that was all you had and radio.and shops to buy the records. .. Not sure I agree With you.. As the infrastructure ain't there no more...
Take heart dave , they have been saying Rock is dead for almost 50 years now, buy we're still here and always will be!
If guitarists actually wrote songs well instead of constantly just trying to impress or “prove wrong” other gutairists then we’d be sweet
Rock's not dead, it's just been sterilized and commercialized.
It lost it's roots of being a force of defiance to the status quo.
It's fans are more worried about having the gear their "legends" had instead of following the message they were conveying.
And now that other genres are coming up and doing what rock used to do, the rockheads are dumbfounded because they live in the past.
@@Bleats_Sinodai What genres would that be?
depends on your age...I cant look up to Ed Sheeran or Adele...or Beyonce..not at 64
@@vincentl.9469 check out Tyler Bryant & the shake down
When I bought Iron Maiden’s newest album Senjutsu I drove my car for about 50 miles so I could listen to it FULL BLAST in its entirety without complaints. The construction of an album is paramount.
Metal has always been album orientated and I don't see that changing. Maiden's new one is damn good, it's incredible how good they still are after 14 albums or however many it is now...
Music is consumed differently nowadays than it was growing up. It's a sad state of affairs that our heroes won't be replaced once they're gone. I miss the days of going to the local music store and looking through the album covers. (I'm guilty of buying albums that have cool cover work). I hate what music has become via MP3 and all these one price per month for most everything. The internet has become one of the greatest and worst things to ever happen to us in tandem.
Yes everything is internet
A lot of the music I love came from the myspace generation of bands. I don't think its the internet. (although spotify definitely did change the way I listen to music, I also just got older, and more concerned with life).
With people like Dave Simpson keeping the old Heroes alive through song we will still have good music at least !?
@@AuntAlnico4 Very True. After I wrote the post about heroes not being replaced I thought about taking it out. As long as we have people like Dave Simpson and the rest that are as passionate at making great music as we are, we will always have heroes. Thanks for pointing that out. It's important.
Tbh, I scroll bandcamp and listen to albums with cool covers, I guess thats kinda similar, you might like the platform
Music has fragmented almost to a fractal degree. It’s not the Beatles vs Stones or Oasis vs Blur any more. Scenes are micro scenes- there’s about 10 types of death metal! As ppl today grow up today they find their favourite genres earlier and can have quite eclectic tastes. Each band finds a market but a smaller market. I think it’s far less likely today for anyone to be a ‘broad appeal’ band in the grand sense.
I’m into death metal and all these so called sub genres do my head in! In my world it goes, Rock, Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal and that’s it
Although the so called Beatles V Stones was totally concocted by the press . History has shown the two bands orchestrated the release of their
records so they didn’t coincide.
At 64, I'm probably one of your older fans here. I just love your playing and the sound you create, putting your heart and soul into it. You are right, I too miss those times when I spent hours hunting for records, bring them home and listen to them over and over again. Deep Purple, Moody Blues, ELP are the bands I grew up with and treasure. However, I have to say that the likes of Spotify have widened my musical horizon quite a bit. e.g. I can listen to 'Artist Radio' and by doing so come across artists I have never heard of but like. Then I stop right there and search for an album of that artist and listen to the whole album. Thanks to Spotify I have learnt about artists like Tinariwen, a band none of my friends like but I thoroughly enjoy. I have a whole list of ‘Desert Blues’ artists in Spotify that have enriched my musical smorgasbord. So there always two sides to the coin.
Martin, I agree with you, but it was Pandora radio for me playing artist music that opened the door to me to the world of singer / songwriters, otherwise I would still be stuck on the classic rock that I grew up on. I might add that back in the 60's it was AM radio only. We went out and bought 45's (singles) and albums. Auto Manufacturers arent even offering CD players in the newest vehicles - sad.
Everybody still listens to music but you are right. Music is on everybody's phones and the source is limitless. When people still bought albums/CDs and casettes there was more thought behind it. When you made a tape for your walkman you made sure you picked songs you really loved. Of course some people still do that with playlists on Spotify but it's easier and songs get replaced more easily so they don't really get a chance to really grow on you. Easy access makes people less picky and songs become more interchangeable. People probably mostly pick the big hits and not whole albums.
I completely agree with you Dave, i am only a teen and im completely emersed in music, its my life. I also get down when i see people saying that music is gone and dead, and that i have no chance to make it. But there is a new generation of genuinely great music coming and you'll be apart of it! Don't lose hope.
I remember talking to the guy in a record store describing him what I was looking for: spaced-out psychedelic rock with long tracks Does this exist, I was asking, and he without hesitating dropped Space Ritual by Hawkwind on the table: Listen to this! And from this moment I had learned that a genre called Space Rock exists!
Try Can’s early albums too.
I think somewhere along the line rock music forgot it had to make people dance for mass popularity. When rock was young it made people groove, and that's why the kids loved it. It doesnt really do that anymore so hip hop, dance music, etc filled the space.
A pitiful lack of good small music venues has compounded the issue. In the late 70's and early 80's local bands had residencies at various pubs and clubs, they would appear at the same venue on a weekly basis and (if they were any good) attract a solid and loyal following. They would develop their craft and experience and sometimes reach the holy grail of a "record deal" and go on to bigger things. At the gigs like minded people would meet and share their musical insights and knowledge of other bands of a similar genre....movements began....punk...metal...new wave...mod....new romantics. Music was, for so many of us, not just about the "tunes" but about belonging, energy, excitement, surprise, feeling "cool", developing a "look" etc ,etc, etc. It was an identity and a lifestyle and loyalty to a favorite band/genre became indelible and a badge of honour.
When I grew up (in the 60s early 70s), music was everything for us. I knew literally all members of every band. I was interested in the lyrics and I saved my money to buy certain records. Music was so important. Today there is no real music around. Here in Germany each song they bing out sounds the same. I don't know the artists and I do not rember the songs. Radio and TV do not play relevant music. I know, there are still people out there, who want to hear good music and go to concerts, but the get neglected. It is so sad. But as a an old guy I can say from experince (hey Jimi), everything comes back one time . So I give not up the hope.
And you Dave, you do what you can and give us back an echo of the old times.
Sounds like we're about the same age, with very similar childhoods, despite growing up on different continents.
Yeah, Dave,..."cheapened" IS the right word. Imagine how I see it from my perspective. I'm about to turn 70. I saw (heard) the emergence of The Beatles, Hendrix, et al, from the beginning. Imagine how it looks like utter shite to me.
I think you’re just a true music fan, Dave. You appreciate music on a much deeper level than your average listener. Most people don’t like music, they dislike silence. They are happy to consume whatever the music industry gives them and not think for themselves. Very few people just sit down and listen to music anymore. The music industry wants to make the most amount of money for the least amount of work which is why we have the music we have today. I think it’s always been this way but the power dynamic used to be a bit more even between the talent side and the business side. You used to need talent to break in to the industry and the best bands rose to the top. Now, the talent doesn’t matter as much as looks and it’s all business. It’s cheaper to pay a disposable pop-star singing through auto-tune than a whole band who spent years honing their craft and earned their due.
another problem is not a lot of kids and teenagers aren’t open to rock music. I’m in high school and my friends torture me with their trap rap but I gave it a chance I didn’t like it. But as soon as they hear an electric guitar they automatically think emo or death metal and demand me to turn it off. Like they actually told me that can’t stop by the chili peppers was metal.
I DESPICE rap hip hop and trap, but even more so pop! I hate pop the most!
As long as there are people like you creating music out there, Dave, it will always mean something.
When I first started listening to music, you just listened to it. It wasn't played on TV 24-7 and it was really just about the music you were hearing. When you went and bought an album then you would see what the band looked like in few pictures. You bought the album for the music and the good vibes you felt from it. It all changed and turned into a spectacle of sorts and music was just the back round instead of the forefront. All about the glam, outlandish clothes, makeup and some fake persona to sell records. The music became secondary and it's very sad it has gone that route. Plenty of great musicians never get their due because they didn't look the right way or fit the mold. They never got recognized and were pushed away by top producers for a pretty face so to speak. Thankfully there are people like you Dave, that still put the music first. I respect you for your music, guitar skills and personality. That is the way it should be. Keep the faith Dave 🍻
I'm 45, and my optimism for the failing record industry left me completely when albums like Dark Side of the Moon were chopped into individual tracks for sale on iTunes in an inferior state of MP3/4 fidelity.
I was immediately screaming in my head: "That's NOT how you are supposed to DO THAT!!!
It's sad that generations now will never know the true life altering experience of donning some headphones, and experiencing that album front to back in it's entirety as it was originally intended.
Blood Sugar Sex Magic and Siamese Dream are some other albums that instantly spring to mind that MUST be listened to in this way to fully appreciate IMO.
I seems like the current consumer market has the memory retention of a bleeding goldfish, and the subpar product now pushed on them has the shelf life of day old bread.
I'm completely with you on this RANT Dave. I've been preaching similarly for quite some time now.
Cheers!
Stay safe & well man, and Happy Christmas!!
I used to go a dingy record shop called Soundhouse in Leamington Spa. Second hand cassettes for £1 and second hand vinyl for about £2.50 back in the mid 80s to mid 90s.
Thumbing through all the records and picking a new metal band by their cool artwork on the sleeve. Getting home, anti static cloth to clean it, on the turntable being careful not to bang anything in case you scratched it!
On the contrary. There's more significant music today than there's ever been back in the day.
What has happened is that you don't see that music in mainstream.
In my opinion much of the music these days has just become some background noise for people to listen to while they do something else like computer work, homework, exercise and so on. Everyone nowadays mostly listens to music in a passive way - they put it on in the background and don't really think about it. Gone are the days when you would have to buy a vinyl, cassette, CD or so on just to sit down at home and actively start listening to the album you just got, taking in all of the lyrics and sounds. Now you just type up "Lo Fi" on Spotify, put on the first playlist you see and start listening to some sound, which you feel no connection to. I'm not saying that it's bad to have background music as it definitely has its place, I'm just saying that "active" listening has had a really serious decline.
if we had the intehwebz n mp3 compression back in the 70s .. the werld would b a different place ay!? :p
I agree totally. Even myself, as much as I love music and even making my own, I find that I don’t listen as actively as I used to. I miss the days of buying an album and listening to every song multiple times and how certain songs would grow on you as time went by. Nowadays, there’s too much out there. I tend to get choice paralysis and not know where to start.
Until recently, I played in a fairly decent band. Gigging two or three times every weekend. I was a fraud! I didn´t deserve to be there. I can "play" guitar, I can "sing" but I am absolutely not of a standard where I would like to be. The thing is, I loved it, we were successful, people loved us! The pinacle being headlining a outdoor festival... Am I the "next big thing"? Hell no! I just loved it and gave everything! Yes, it sustained my life for several years, but there are so, so many more talanted musicians out there, just a shame its not any of them in the top 20 today!
Great topic, as a musician and music lover, an interesting thought is that Rock music specifically has went full cycle, like classical, jazz, blues, big band, and swing. All of those had a log run, and had a few artists that mastered the genre. Honestly I can not imagine another Beatles, a band that stops the world again in Rock. But to add to that issue, in the USA an artist was outspoken that a record label even pushed him to switch from rock to rap because it sells easier. The last piece is the Red Hot Chili Peppers story, their label invested in them for a decade before they took off, that gave them time to develop. I don't believe anyone is investing in talent anymore and developing it, they want immediate return. Beyond all that, there is an issue with distribution, The radio was an easy way to reach the masses, now it is nearly impossible with all the fragmented sources.
I don't see anything changing soon, we lost our souls for a few "likes".
No one has time to listen to an album from the first song to the last anymore. People just spend their time on social media.
I remember coming home from school and putting a disk or a cassette before doing anything else. One song would end and I knew the first few lines of the next one before starting. To this day, if I listen to Operation mindcrime, I have to listen the whole album. I can't listen to just one song. music needs dedicated time, and listening to already made playlists from RUclips music or Spotify is not investing own time.
I am so happy I found someone like you Dave. You are teaching me ones again about the value of dedication, of research and discovery.
So you are doing the perfect thing already. You are the change you are seeking already. I love your music. It goes straight in to my soul, filling it in. Thank you so much.
I remember the late sixties the excitement of having Electric Ladyland on order at a record shop in Crystal Palace.....got it! rushed home, dropped a tab of acid and that was it for the next few hours....or lifetimes. The same with Hawkwind.....I couldn't wait for "In search of space" to be released......oh happy days.
I was lucky to be born in the 1980s. I never thought I would write this one day ... but I have to say it: i feel that the internet has destroyed most of the values people used to follow. It is sad, but we live in very strange times and this applies to every area of life.
Yeah, the internet has had a few positive effects on life, but 95% of what the internet has done is ruin life.
I know you commented this 7 months ago but I couldn’t agree more. It’s devalued so much in peoples lives. Things just come and go now and people don’t care. I remember saving up pound coins as a kid and begging my mum to take me to HMV to see if they had By the Way because I heard it in friends mums car when I was a kid. Got there and it was £1 more than I had saved 😂. I played that CD front to back a thousand times, still have it now. My point is though people don’t have that appreciation now. They don’t understand waiting outside a record shop for it to open in release day so you can be the first person to get a new album. Now they just get ten releases from the same artists a year, don’t even listen to it and brand it as “mid” because they saw someone else say that on the internet. Appreciation for music is at an all time low with the masses but it doesn’t mean there’s still not amazing music out there to be found (dave is a prime example!)
I hear you Dave, it's very sad. However there are still a few of us out there who still buy vinyl on discogs or at record stores, complete albums in wav format on Bandcamp or even CDs. The problem is that peoapl are not willing to pay for music, they take it for granted, like something which is free and disosable. Paying for music means supporting the artist. (MP3 sucks I agree, I only listen to Spotify on my long walks.) Keep on making these vids bro, we love what you do.
Listening to this “rant” is provoking so many different thoughts, and too much to summarise in one comment.. the internet is the blessing and the curse for music. My opinion is that since the beginning of music people talk, spread the word, tell a friend, buy a magazine see the latest album with how good the music magazines rate it, whether that was kerrang, raw, melody maker etc. and those magazines would tell you where these bands are playing etc. I know some of these mags still exist, there rather expensive now, compared to just clicking on Google. But… without the internet, I wouldn’t be listening to your amazing playing Dave and loads of other artists on the likes of RUclips. Artist’s will explain the there’s not loads of money in album sales and streaming, it’s more in the performing and merchandise, which means that more artist’s and bands are doing it for the love of music, and that’s fantastic, if you came with the trio to my town Dave and you were selling vinyl, I’d come and I’d buy your album 100%. Music means a ton to so many people, it’s just amazing to hear music. Long live music.
Well F'n said. I agree totally. I remember saving the $2 everyday my Mom gave me for lunch in Grade 9. At the end of the week I had enough to buy a record or cassette. Music meant so much more.
The one great thing about these times is we can get to hear someone like yourself play. I've been following your channel for over a year, and I'm amazed how much your playing has improved. Great infusions of emotion. A tip of the hat from central New Jersey in the states!!!
Ah dave, you say exactly what I feel in my heart. But I'm 73 now still feel the same, started playing at 13, I've lived through so much, multi instrumentalist, song writer. Your view is balanced and heartfelt. Bless you and your loved one's, deeply ❤ Rodge David kidderminster uk 🇬🇧 ❤ we will be OK, love your band ❤
I agree with a lot of your points however, I think to find the scenes in the UK nowadays you have to go past what's on pop radio. I'm a Jazz player and there's load of wicked scenes across the UK (Leeds, London, Bristol, Glasgow etc) similarly, in the the indie rock world there's plenty of different scenes that exist however they don't really penetrate into the top tier (I.e. top 40 charts etc) anymore like artists from those genres used to. I would say the same about albums (I'm a spotify user but still only really listen to albums) if you dig past what mainstream music advertisement and publicity is trying to sell you you'll find incredible albums being released every day.
I don't think any of these things are 'dead' I just think to earn money and reach more people as a unique, grass roots artist/band these days it takes a lot more work to get to that top level and it's very rare that it will happen at all (it's like 'commercial top 40 music' and actual music are 2 completely different art forms that don't often have much in common at all). But the thing is there's still so many incredible bands making music and touring and making a living from music and that are able to continue to do what they do it's just never going to be like it was in decades gone by (at least not for a long time and with a lot of change having happened to facilitate it)
One final thing, there's still good music being released by top 40 artists - Adele's latest album is wicked, the 'Silk Sonic' album is awesome and there's plenty of other examples, obviously there is a lot of formulaic stuff but at the end the day it is the Music 'business' and if you had a formulaic, guaranteed way of making money from every product your business released would you not use that method.
Hope this doesn't sound too mardy/negative, just trying to offer some counter points for you to consider.
Really frustrating when guys like Dave get on their high horse with a video like this. Like dude, You've set yourself up to be a gear channel, Don't go telling your fanbase that music is dead because YOU think its dead as a GEAR channel. Its not a good look.
Whether we want to admit it or not, recorded music is product, and since day one it's always been a push pull between the art/artist and commerce/the suits. The way consumers consume recorded music has always been dependent on the current technology, and prevailing marketing schemes. That said, I also miss the dominance of albums.
I totally agree with you, speaking as a 66 year old music has been in my life since l was 6 when l picked a guitar up, Pink Floyd summed it all up with welcome to the machine, about the music industry. To many people think they are musicians or song writers just because they have PC or an iPhone or an iPad with a few apps on. I think it’s this technology that’s bolloxed the forgotten art of making albums, it’s become far to easy to make good or bad music theses days, 64 track recording on a phone WTF, obviously the internet has played it’s part, particularly RUclips and other platforms, sometimes it works in the artist’s favour, but at the end of the day who’s making the most money, it’s all very depressing only if you let it get that way, still play my albums from when l was in my youth, it keeps me sane, stops the rott if you will, being able to hear music and even play an instrument is a gift we must appreciate more, How can you be depressed with the talent you have Dave and a stunning Bass player tabout, you got it all my friend 🎸🎶🎸🎶🎸🎶
Thanks Dave I'm with you 100 percent! I grew up in the 50s and 60s albums were everything. Just like you noted some of my favorite songs were buried deep in an album; I would have never have heard them without listening all the way through! Today people let someone else dictate what is "good" and only buy that single! They miss out on a lot. Don't even get me going on digital formats! When MP3s just came out my two daughters and I did an experiment, as they didn't believe what I was saying about sound quality. We picked a song that we had on album, tape, CD, and MP3. We listened to each format through the same quality stereo system, and immediately they were (and are) believers! Sorry for my Rant, and thanks for yours!
Nice to see a few more of us ancients in the comments and echo their sentiments. Albums were treasures and got played till the grooves were flattened. Totally agree about so much that gets churned out, as someone once sang "it says nothing to me about my life"... I'm an MP3 hater. It's like a tracing of music. Commerce has eviscerated meaning and given us bubblegum, but there'll be a fight back. It's an essay worthy subject!
When I thought you couldn't play whith more feeling, you did It again. I think you say It blows your mind. Thank you man for those moments.
When I played a music festival a few years ago and saw a mass of people dancing to two guys fiddling with a laptop and a turntable on the mainstage, I realised the live music I grew up with was pretty much dead. Walked over to the other side of the field and a great live band were playing to just 100 people. Its sad but Rock's gone the same way as Jazz. That doesn't mean people can't make it work - but its damn hard to do so if you're doing it as a living, especially due to covid. Lets hope covid finishes soon as most pandemics eventually do, and the music festivals that don't put morons with a laptop on the mainstage, get really going again.
Guy with a laptop is like going to McDonalds that's done by millions of people everyday... The band with a hundred people in the field watching is the Michelin 5 star restaurant only some can fully appreciate... Gimme that 5 star food any day of the week...
I,m 63 today, I have grown up with physical music, people playing instruments, breathing and strumming life into them but things move on. Look at the tech needed to get tone from instruments these days.
Sad but spot on Dave...I really hope for a musical revolution for our kids and theirs.
Luckily my kids listen to all great music from the past and love it and get lost in it.
Creative people will find their way, but I’m very worried in general when it comes to emotional experience.
It is dumbed down and framed as a unnecessary waste of time.
Totally agreed Dave! I am 49 so grew up with grunge etc. I remember buying records and CDs from bands who could actually play and no auto tune etc. Now local bands play very poor musicianship wise as they don't practice as much as they watch Netflix and PlayStation etc now. It's a shame but music is not appreciated by the public anymore.
The songs you don't like so much are like a valley of sorrow that you pass through along the way, and make the arrival of the good songs so much sweeter. If they are all good songs there is no DEPTH.
I remember when I was young, “I’m 49 now” but Sunday I used to get the tape lined up ready to record the top 40 and it was an art to record the music without the voice of the radio dj, it was a great feeling when you played it back but that has all gone, the digital age has killed all that, the youth of today are only interested in singles yes but what I find is they can’t even listen to the whole song anymore it’s painful. I remember Noel saying a few years back “where’s the new oasis” it isn’t there, it’s so sad, your so right to bring this up
Okay, so just going through some of the existing comments, I think I'm gonna be on my own here, but I'll try to make my point as respectfully as I can and we'll see how we go. I'm 26, born in 1995, so I find myself at a bit of a crossroads in terms of music consumption. I remember CD's, I remember an iPod coming into the house for the first time and being astounded that all the music that filled up my bookshelf could suddenly fit in my pocket. It was pretty incredible. I've been in love with music since I was a kid, I was raised on Queen, Status Quo, Zeppelin, The Beatles etc. But as I grew up, having so much music be so easily accessible through streaming sites and youtube broadened my horizons and let me fall in love with hip hop, stoner rock, more extreme types of metal. If its music and it's good, I'll listen to it and that includes what's in the dreaded "charts". I've also been playing guitar and writing songs since I was 12 and gigging in bands since I was 16, so here's my perspective on some of the points that Dave's made:
Singles taking over: This is a bit of a trend, but there's always been "singles" bands. Some of the Beatles biggest songs were non album singles.
No one buys albums/discovers albums anymore: From my experience this isn't necessarily true. Vinyl is extremely popular (vinyl sales were at the highest point in 30 years last year), and many artists still release albums that achieve critical acclaim. Listening to an album on a streaming site might not be the best way to support an artist financially but you can still listen to an album and allow it to unfold the way you would buying a CD. Similarly, you said that people aren't likely to delve deeper into a band's career from finding a single. Music is now so at peoples finger tips and so easy to access I cant imagine this being true, I and several of my friends have found ourselves finding whole new favourite artists just by finding single songs and diving into their back catalogues from there. There's more ways to support artists these days than just buying the music, tonnes of bands (including my own) survive on merch sales, and fans are more than happy to buy merch.
Music is cookie cutter/popular musicians aren't nutured/no unique personailties: Another thing that isn't true if you're watching the scene. There's tonnes of big personalities making off the wall music in the mainstream and in the underground right now. She's an easy target for jaded old guitar blokes, but you can't listen to Billie Eilish's whiper-quiet vocals and eerie/industrial percussion choices and say its akin to something like Girl's Aloud or Sugababes. I think the main issue is that a lot of people who grew up loving rock etc. think mainstream music is shit just because they don't like it, which isn't really a fair take imo.
There's no grunge/rock/metal/glam "scenes" anymore: This one irked me a little so I'll try and be as measured as I can. Dave. I honestly can't think of a single band that you've championed or shouted about on this channel who formed less than a decade ago. The rock scene is full of tonnes and tonnes of unique bands with tonnes of influences stemming from the bands you love, and they're playing packed out shows in venues across the country to passionate fans who are screaming every word back. How do I know? I'm giving new music a shot, I'm going to these shows, my band are playing opening slots on these shows. I'm sorry to come across as brazen but this take comes across as extremely out of touch.
So thats my two cents, I hope we can have a pleasant discourse...
I agree with you Dave, I am about 12 years older than you and I also grew up on album based music. Before the album based music, there where 45's, 78's, and it wasn't until the LP was invented that albums became a reality. The radio was more like a what we have today as streaming services, same with jukeboxes along with club dj's. Music is definitely been cheapened, it is more accessible in a more convenient manner, and it is no longer valued, nevermind people only getting music they already like, one song at a time. Great video, important topic. Music is always changing. We still have live music, even though that was going to go the way of the dodo-bird with recorded music. I do share your concern, as a lot of people can make music a lot easier also, but just making music doesn't necessary make you a musician.
The masses will generally follow the mainstream and just listen to the newest garbage pop song on the radio or spotify hitlist. I found that people who are actually into music still love albums, and typically become superfans of their favorite artists. I've had the new Mastodon album on repeat for weeks now and I still can't believe how good it is. Jerry Cantrell just released a new solo album too, and it's fantastic. There's still lot's of amazing music to discover, it's just that the industry serves up crappy WAP music to the masses, which unfortunately, most people are content to consume.
I think that with the dawning of the internet, music is too accessible, there is no mystery anymore. The only time you'd get to learn something about an artist is if you read a feature in a monthly magazine, and you would relish the chance of finding that and then going and buying a physical document of music and poring over the artwork for hours lay on your bed listening to this thing that you'd brought home on the bus, whereas now you can just download it for nothing and we know what a "celebrity" does from the minute they wake up to when they go to bed. The info is there at your fingertips and it reaches saturation point, the thrill of the hunt is no longer a thing, attention spans have decreased and nobody sits or lies down and listens to an album from start to finish anymore, or if they do they are looking at their phone at the same time. It makes me wonder if in another 40 years my kids will be saying "oh I remember when we had to download music by ourselves, those were the days" Change is inevitable and not always for the better.
The Anderton’s and Thomman’s , my local guitar shop, my guitar teacher, music schools , they are all doing pretty well now a days.Sales of guitars I would guess are more healthy than sales of DJ equipments . The world of music is always changing and there is an enormous amount of people these days playing an instrument and learning about music all over the world. We all can’t we famous but can enjoy making music .
Congratulations for 98k subscribers dave!!!
Punk, Mod rude boy rocker so pleased to live through these times it only takes one creative spark from any individual no matter what genre of music always hope Dave!🙂
True art liberates the soul. The powers at be do not want it. I grew up in the 80's I loved going to record stores after school hunting classic metal, rock, blues albums and going home and listening to the whole album. It was a ritual I love albums nothing competes with escaping into the world of music. The human race will be finished without music.
Brilliant thoughtful video Dave. Sad because it’s true. Worse still is that it’s not just music that has been devalued by digitising the world, and making humans a throw away commodity
Great video and interesting discussion! IMO, the mainstream has almost always contained duds and watered down versions of lesser known, better artists. Though, there are always those rare artists that can break through. Nowadays it does seem that even music out in the pop sphere is just totally lacking in creativity and completely disingenuous, maybe I'm just getting old... I think comparing it to the single dominate era of the 50s etc. is a good comparison, I mean what did those songs really mean anyway? I am a devotee of the album format, but personally I'm not too upset that the single takes precedent, good music is good music.
That being said, at least back in the 50's and early rock n' roll/pop music there were real musicians playing real parts. I think the biggest impact on modern music is the pervasiveness of digital instrumentation and production, and a system that capitalized on this technology, thus allowing it to sell product faster.
For me, when it becomes too easy to create music, either playing or recording/producing, it's a detriment to creativity, and what's worse, prioritized and manipulated by an industry who's main goal is profits, engagement and quickly churning out hit after hit. Like fast food, anything that is manufactured to sell massively and cheaply will be produced at the expense of a "good" product. Why would any young kid out there pick up a real instrument in this environment? Playing an instrument is hard, it takes dedication and practice and the people who get the most press and sell (stream) the most don't play an instrument of any sort. So, when it comes to giants like Spotify, these are the artists that get the most streams, get put on playlists and get the most exposure.
After a long rant, good music is still out there, it's just harder to find!
Also, I am mixing about 50 years of Metal together in my new project. No screaming, but lots of low tuned fuzzed out guitars. Heavy and Weird. We need to start new genre's!
1000% agree with you Dave and i've been saying the same thing since around 2001. new "music" has become completely soul-less and it makes me physically ill just to hear this stuff forced down our throats every day on the radio and commercials etc.. disgusting
You are right, as a kid I would buy an album something like Taste and listen to it with mates and discuss it, some of my mates had never heard of Rory Gallagher and were totally blown away and became instant fans, sometimes I would go and sit and listen to one of their albums, maybe Family or Led Zeppelin and I became aware of those bands. I have to admit that being 14 and so many great bands around was excellent, in my humble opinion my mates and I went out of our way to listen to as many bands as possible. We all played a bit and had a little band that did covers, so it was an adventure to hear talented musicians. Great channel Dave.
I think how we treat music is almost hilarious now. From a professional musician pov (not really me though) we record our £2000 piece of perfected tonewood guitar through a £1.5k tube amp into a finely tuned 4x12 speaker cab miked up with a £100 sm57 mic to capture the ‘feeling and warmth’ of the player. Into a£20k recording unit so every note can be captured to pure musical perfection. Then the whole thing is listened to through a 2mm iPhone speaker!!! In mono!!
Dave, I feel the same, like most guitarists or any general musician.
I started playing guitar in 1980. I still play it feverishly even though its not made me much money. I love getting tones, learning new songs, techniques, getting new and used gear. What attracted me was a combination of music genre( rock and metal), certain bands and players( Van Halen, AC/DC, Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Metallica). Likewise I loved going to the record store, buy LPs, soon cassettes, then CDs. Countless good and bad albums but there were plenty that put me in such a place to form me as a musician, but a person as well.
Yet the internet came along and when I sold all my music and gravitated towards iTunes, Google music etc I knew despite the convenience of finding anything at the click of a mouse or touch of a screen I knew the album format was done and its all about the song now. Its all about pop music and spectacle and its sad seeing drums, bass, keyboards and now guitar taking a back seat to nothing but the singer. You are right that these singing shows( American Idol, The Voice) are dumbing music down. All in the name of money. Even Gene Simmons says "rock is dead". In his day you could get a Marshall stack that you could crank out in a garage and you would be noticed. Not anymore.
I know of a few people that have the evil Spotify and they don't see that artists are being paid peanuts. I saw the CEO in some interview and despite his billions he is a greedy prick.
This pandemic has prompted some to pick up the guitar as they say guitar sales haven't been this good since the 60s. But I think it will be short lived as a lot of people after being locked down, unemployed are just doing it because video games and TV is not enough of a hobby. It is strange times as in recent years there is way more gear than there ever was. Still its like some New Years resolution like some do to choose to go to the gym yet fail miserably. You would think after so many websites and You Tube channels to learn that everyone would be playing. So many ways to learn but people don't commit as its too much work. Sad as I said.
Pearl Jam Ten is one of my favourite new album moments ever. I remember the first time I got it home from Our Price or Woolworths, cranked it up and probably had homework to do but then just sat and listened to the whole thing. Then again and again while reading the liner notes and (firmly pre-internet) tried to find out more about this band over the following few days.
A week later my neighbour got the same album and would crank it from his bedroom window too. I didn't know anyone in that area, we only lived there for a year, but that really made me smile.
Maybe it's a GenX experience that wouldn't make much sense these days. My kids don't really believe me that I didn't have always-on broadband and streaming music when I was their age, it doesn't compute. The music browsing, finding, buying and playing experience was entirely different.
And I miss liner notes.
I grew up with the little music we had on cassettes, I'd take mp3s over a tape recording anytime, cassettes were really bad, they wore out quickly, no top end, stacks of hiss. We are so lucky now the fidelity of music listening is generally so much higher than when I was young in the 70s. I think it's very easy to forget for far things have moved on, CDs really changed things, for the positive in my view, at the time they were criticised for sounding bad compared to records, yes if you had thousands to spend on a to end record player, top end speakers, amplifier etc maybe, but for most people that want ever going to be affordable. The record player we had was terrible, it may have been mono. Transcribing was really hard as you couldn't loop difficult sections, easily slow down the music, we are so lucky now
I think we all on here feel your pain Dave. The music biz is just part of a larger global picture that is unfolding before our very eyes.. Stay strong. X
I love the album. Whenever I listen to music I listen to an entire album rather than a list of artist's singles. I'm only interested in releasing and creating albums and not singles.
Music is rarely a shared experience anymore and recorded music is a commodity at 75+ million songs available. All the great music is still available and new great music is still being created but it's marketability is not very profitable and has to compete against well funded ego projects. Cheers Dave!
As a fellow original music making, gigging musician that lives in the hash tag world, I agree completely. There used to be a passion, a therapy for artists and people to find common ground on, but now it’s “what catchy line can we sell”? Honkey Tonk Badonka Donk? Red Solo Cup? Granted those examples are “country” songs, but you can see that the thought process is, can we catch phrase our way to money. I dunno, maybe I’m cynical, but I’m turning 39 the day after Christmas and I grew up on 90’s music--I’ve been signed to an indie label and toured the states--and I’ve slowly watched as cds turned to MP3’s and now to a blip on some story somewhere on social media. It won’t stop me from doing what I do cause I love it, but yes it’s frustrating and it’s heartbreaking. All my love my friend.
Oh man country music has gone downhill since after the 90's, now country is the biggest collection of every ridiculous American stereotype, it's a total joke!
I was a fan of ac/dc, iron maiden, sabbath led zeppelin etc as a teen. That was when Perry boys were trendy, new romantics and electro pop filled top of the pops.
Rock was always about the album and still is. Pop was always about the single.
3 minutes started in the age of the 78 because that was the limit of the technology. Now it's about algorithms,.
However, vinyl is back which means increasingly albums are being experienced by a new generation who find the journey we experienced when we 1st heard those bells on back in black etc.
For the people who really love music, it's still there. Pop fans have always been rich pickings for unscrupulous businesses.
I agree with some of the points you’ve made. We live in a society where everyone needs instant gratification may it be with television or music but like with any other eras of music you just need to adapt. There are a lot of exceptional new musicians/artist currently, they may not be like our guitar heroes of the past but they still make incredible stuff. There has never been a greater time to buy gear, learn an instrument and promote your music on online platforms. If it wasn’t for these types of platforms we may never have discovered artists like yourself Mr.Simpson. I think that sometimes we forget that in every decade there’s great music and not so great music but it’s the great ones we remember. In saying that there is a lot of garbage nowadays, but I think it’s a price worth paying if it means more people are exposed to platforms where they can express themselves creatively through music, may it be by playing guitar or by other means.
Overall saturation, the way it's being consumed now. These are both issues.
I agree with both your sentiments and your lament, 100%. I actually feel less alone knowing somebody feels just like I do.
I 100% agree with every single thing you have just said and it is extremely sad. Some of my favorite albums of all time were ones that didn’t really grab me on first listen but I felt obliged to give them continual go’s, often because I’d spent $30 for the thing (which was a big deal, as a teenager). I sometimes had to really try to like them and, more often than not, I eventually did. These continual listens brought subtle melody’s to light, which I don’t think I would find today if listening to the same albums on Spotify for the first time. Without skin in the game, I’m as guilty as the next person nowadays of moving on if I’m not caught on the first listen or so, and I don’t like that, not one bit!
I used to buy an album for one or two songs, and enjoyed listening to the whole album discovering epic songs that never got airplay and some still unheard by the masses. The internet for all it's good, has destroyed many things. Oh and for you kids out there, if it doesn't have real guitar, bass and some drums, it's not music.
Play long...Play loud 🇦🇺🤟🎸
I see the frustration, but with the new world of music we get things like this where people can come and connect directly with their favorite artists. Also for Spotify, it allows people who do love music to have no limits, I can go listen to 3 albums in a night of bands I've never heard if I want to. Then it's up to me to decide how I can support them: buy a physical album, go to a concert, etc. Regardless, great content as always Dave!
I still love to do the record shop thing. Spinning discs in sheff is epic. I think one of the reasons the mainstream music scene is so bland (aside from a few gems) is because record companies almost never take a risk on something they don't know for a fact they're gonna get they're money back on.
You're right Dave, it has cheapened, and for all the reasons you mentioned.
So many musicians from the 70's and 80's have gone on record saying how they were financially screwed by their record labels and managers, yet they are now putting their music on streaming services for fractions of pennies. I don't understand that.
The domino effect of streaming services is that it's caused bands to drastically increase ticket prices to see them live. You mentioned that 3% of the UK population wanted tickets to Knebworth. These days, 3% may want to go, but it's simply unaffordable, and it's not the bands fault, as it's the only way to make a living from their music. Sad state of affairs, Dave.
Thanks dave! I feel the same way. Back in the day we use to listen to the album from beginning to end and get lost in it just as you said. Well said!
As a 34 year old I hate the fact the vinyl shops have virtually disappeared. I'll put on a cd. But if I can put a vinyl album on I will. Preferably over headphones so I can really take it in. Early queen and pink Floyd records headphones are a muss!
Totally agree about MP3 sound quality. About all it is useful for is checking out a new band, before getting the CD.
I think peoples attitudes haven't changed that much, the 'pop' market has always been superficial. I think what HAS changed, is record companies attitudes to artists. As you say, they are no longer willing to invest time and money into an artist's career, they want instant success from a 1st album, so there's a lot of formularized, pre-chewed mush from mainstream labels.
It seems to me, we're going through a lull, a bit like the superficiality of the 50's pre Rock 'n' Roll, and the pre-Beatles 60's. Sooner or later, it'll all come around, a new and original artist will blow the doors off the accountants office doors. It's always been hard to get noticed, get a record deal etc. Think of how many times the Beatles were rejected, or how hard it must have been for T-Bone Walker or BB King to get started and to make a living.
Like all those Blues players, without big company backing, artists will have to gig where they can, rely on word of mouth, and self-publish. Regardless of the initial publishing/distribution method, a song like Cigarettes and Alcohol will get noticed. Eventually there'll be a new Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin, etc., something with a broader appeal, that can't be easily ignored or packaged as a disposable consumer item.
As John Hunter says, the internet is a double edged sword. It allows consumption with very little investment of attention or money, and has fragmented music in general, but it has also democratized it, by allowing more people to self publish and get their music heard, and it allows people to get a taste of, and get into many musical genres.
The death of Rock 'n' Roll has been reported since Elvis went into the army, and it gets re-born time and time again, because people keep on adding to it, recording it and playing it. And people keep turning each other onto new things by whatever media is popular at the time.
All we can ever do, is keep playing, listening and communicating the music, for the music, regardless of popularity or market share. By name checking bands, you promote them (how many of your viewers besides you, and me had heard of Candlebox before), by playing you inspire others to play. We're all custodians of music, we listen to it, cherish it, and pass it on, either by sharing what we listen to, or by teaching what we know about its playing. As long as we do these things it will survive.
I get exactly where you're coming from Dave... I'm guessing we're a similar sort of age (30s?), and I often worry about these things. I've always felt completely out of step with most of my generation, never more so than when it comes to music. Most of my heroes were dead long before I was born, and those still going are well into old age now.
I'm very much an album guy too... I always listen to albums in full, even the tracks I don't particularly like, for the simple reason that I consider the album itself to be a single work. I have to really dislike a track to want to skip it, which is extremely rare. Very often I find that the tracks I didn't like so much on my first listen, eventually became favourites on repeated listens. But most people don't do that now... If a track doesn't grab their attention within the first 5 seconds, they skip it.
Maybe we've just come full circle... We've arrived back at the 1950s again, where Spotify is essentially the 21st century juke box. If that's the case, maybe the album's time will come again in the next decade or two. Whatever happens I agree the only thing we can do is to keep playing, writing and recording.
If you haven't seen them already, I highly recommend finding the BBC 6 Music John Peel Lectures online. They used to be on RUclips in full but they aren't that easy to find now... Specifically watch the ones given by Pete Townshend and Iggy Pop, it's very interesting stuff.
Back in the old days of my youth, late 70's, hanging out with friends meant sitting around listening to albums. We couldn't afford everything we wanted but one guy would be into a particular group, someone else another group. We would bring our new album and listen together, so you didn't have to buy everything, and then we could borrow each others records. Can't lend your iTunes or Spotify list.
For the teenagers I know now it's a similar scenario but with gaming, but that has gone more online too.
Those that are interested in real music, of any genre, have parents that play albums, put cds in the car, and still go to pub gigs.
Us old rockers have become a subculture of our own, but we have to accept that the culture of the future is always led by the young. It's up to us to expose them to our culture.
About five years ag"o a friend's child, a girl of about 8, was fully indoctrinated into being X-Factored, until I said "listen to this". I then played Whole Lotta Love through her headphones, from my phone, sorry. At first her face was one of "what's this crap old man", then the stereo instrumental hit and her eyes nearly popped from her head. She is now a shit hot guitar player, plays lead in a band of older teenage boys.
We're still here, our culture is still here, our music is still here, the only thing that has gone is the money.
The future is in the hands of the young, but we can still show them the way.
Long Live Rock!!!
We I was a kid we would buy an album and would invite our friends to listen to it! We would tape it for our friends! We would agree what albums we’d buy to avoid repeating albums because we could no afford to b6 every record that came out, so I a friend would buy a record we would meet in his house to listen and to tape it for ourselves. That’s how things were and the LPs were selling.
Thanks for addressing a subject that I'm sure a lot of musicians have been thinking about recently.Playing to a camera is not the same as playing live that's for sure
All aspects of life have been adveresly affected by technological change , not just music.Everything you say here is valid, and I have to agree,Business has consolidated into the Major giant corporate companies to the detriment of small businesses, so everything is affected.The new covid pass doesn't help either , because our ability to go to large events is not so straight forward and so people may very well decide not to bother. Excellent rant , thankyou, keep up the good work.
Dave I feel so connected to this subject music has become a product. That's why we must not allow people to forget the talent in being musical and expressing emotions through our instruments.
One love Dave keep up the good work
Hi Dave, have hope
I see youngsters in HMV looking through the vinyl and getting excited, that makes me smile with hope, I think they are waiting for something to completely blow their minds tbh.
Something is out there somewhere in the world bubbling away waiting to take over.
You don't have to be too old these days to start saying " back in my day..."
I'll continue to buy physical media, full length LPs, it's the only thing I can control, but I have to also accept its a new age for the consumption of media in all its various shapes.
Every generation of music fans have had a change forced on them, but I do have to admit, the smaller music scene is far more exciting to me than the huge area/stadium scene.
Wolf Alice are one of the most exciting new(ish) UK bands for a long time.
As always David cool improv, what a warm up, brill stuff, love how you correct mistake notes and carry on to a very cool rendition from the heart. Please keep up your music it keeps musicians like myself on track to keep learning to produce from the heart. David maybe you need a new Quest, change happens we cannot stop this, it is part of the human Quest to evolve and so it seems will music, but it is important to keep the roots alive. How about a possible documentary from yourself on your outlook on the history of world music so far, some detail of great gigs and bands from working class to the top. The truth of creative music struggle.
Besides the excellent points Dave made. I kept thinking about how much the more recent advancements in technology hurt music the internet and streaming being obvious ones but all the digital tools and such musicians have access to now definitely can cause things to be very cookie cutter and uninspired sounding. Musicians treating each other like crap doesn't help either, we need more lifting each other up instead of trying to climb over one another. Also, there's some fantastic comments here so its nice to see others that genuinely care about music. I'll never stop getting together with people to go looking for music or to listen to whats new.
Dave I've been feeling this way about the state of music for years now and I am really really worried myself as well
I found your mention of alice in chains and pearl jam interesting purely because I found it quite relatable. Back in the 90s I bought albums by both bands and back then I didn't really hear pearl jam. I played pearl jam but I didn't really hear them and value the music until 20 or 30 years later. AIC always struck a chord with me, and that doesn't mean AIC were a better band than pearl jam or wrote better songs or did music better than pearl jam. the difference was always me. value is in the intention of the music maker and in the listener. entirely subjective, and perspectives change. bands change, musicians change and so do listeners. value... we all determine value.
I'm 50 years young now and feel the same way about not only music but life in general. Music has been my favorite (and probably most effective) med for most of my life and it doesn't feel the same anymore, so I mostly listen to older stuff with a few exceptions. I also catch grief from the people who prefer the soulless instant downloads for doing so, but I know I'm getting so much more out of it than they are so I'm not going to worry about their opinions. Lately I have been inspired to learn to play guitar by people like yourself so don't feel like you and other artist who put their hearts into it aren't making a difference because you do!
Dave you are right, it needs a revolution as The Who would say "Long Live Rock"
I'm 65 and my music obsession was kicked off hearing honky tonk women on a radio.
I was 13 had no money for albums and no record player anyway lol
Music kept me alive and my shit guitar kept me sane
Great musicians always find a way.
Music is unstoppable
When it seems like it's all over just means something new and exciting is coming
My thought is that mainstream music has become extremely not about music. It's always been about money, but has morphed into something even more bizarre, hard to define. The underground scene I would claim is more thriving than ever.
My young shredder can play all of Adam Jones guitar parts from the 10000 Days album by TOOL. I'm so proud of him, he's 19 :)
Hi Dave, I'm a 1962,at 5, on the coffee table belting out Elvis,etc, music was Big, no internet, black and white tv, in my 18's, Twisted Sister rented out a car wash to practice, went to see, Vixen Rainbow,Pat Travers,The Cars, Pink Floyd, Madison Square Garden, and so much more. People today and the Industry,I don't know what happened here but it's sad, Troy from Alantic City
This is something that has been eating at me for a couple of years now. I’ve got more thoughts than I could ever fit in a comment on this topic. Too many factors play into it. Technological advancement. Cultural norms shifting. New generations hurtling forward to kill the old trends and install their own. Where and how we consume music is itself currently in flux. We are on our way to Demolition Man. We’re all going to be singing commercials before we know it. I would love to be able to have an extended talk about all this because It would help me get out of my own head and I do see a potential way forward. I feel there is some fragile hope. Keep faith man!
I have a turntable and buy albums of all genres online and from second hand shops.
Since going back to Vinyl life has become exciting again. I agree there's no scene today, I agree.
The Lockdown was one of the major contributors in my opinion.
I totally get it. I've been writing my own songs and just generally enjoy playing for my own sake. I'll post them on RUclips but haven't really found a group of people I belong to. I'm 26 and would rather hang out and make music with friends, but again, haven't found my group yet. I truly don't like social media. I feel hypocritical for trying to expose my music on any platform. It's useless and incredibly depressing. Music is the only thing that makes me happy, but without that connection, why even bother?
Streaming has made the process of consuming music too boring and harmful to the average musician. I miss talking to my friends about bands, swapping albums every now and then. I still owe many great discoveries to them and I hope to have done the same. Nowadays the algorithm is your only "friend", telling you what to consume next. Bandcamp all the way, as least it is fair to the artists!
Dave, I hope that I can give you a little bit of hope here. I am 54 now and have experienced a lot of what your talking about. I have a sixteen year old daughter who has been writing, singing, playing guitar, flute and piano in one form or another since she was eight. Her hero is Taylor Swift (like that or not) and as we did/do, she waits in excited anticipation for an album launch. Like us, she takes the album to her room and plays the living daylight out of every track until she knows every line, word and note. Music still means a lot to our youth and thankfully they don’t need record companies to put their music out there. Things have changed in a consumer society but I think there will always be anarchism and people that care. We have to accept we are a different generations living in a world where bastards will bomb our kids standing in a crowd. One great thing is RUclips and social media gives us access half way around the world to musicians like you that realistically I would never have heard of or seen 20 years ago. Remember its the minority that lead change so your doing you bit as I see it. Chin up mate, every cloud and all that.. 👍🇦🇺
Having listened to you and read the comments below, I'm in agreement with how you all feel about music, I'm of mature age, shall we say, I can recall hearing Leadbully for the first time on a BBC request show for troops deployed out in the British Empire somewhere, one Sunday morning after church. Then later, I heard The Beatles on the same show. Those events stuck with me. Then at the church youth club, the older kids brought their records in to play on a Saturday night, from early Presley, Carl Perkins, Eddy Cochran, and all of a sudden John Mayall. The first 2 albums I bought with my 13th birthday money were "The Blues of T-Bone Walker", and a "Golden Guinea" compilation of Rhythm & Blues featuring John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Howlin' Wolf. Of course The Beatles had exploded by then too, along with many others, and my generation had something to base a culture on, the haircuts, the fashions, and a lifestyle where music was at the centre, and separated us from the previous generations. As time has gone on many other genres had their moments in the spotlight too. I'm always keen to listen to music of different genres, good music, well played. More recently music has not been able to break through the cacophony of media available to everyone, and in particular to the younger ones hungry for something special for them. Having said that you might be interested to know that there is still a hunger out there. My son teaches music technology at university level, and even through the pandemic they have been oversubscribed on all their courses, kids keen to get into the business as performers and the whole thing. I should also mention that Andy James who was at college with my son, has recently joined "Five Finger Death Punch", and now based in LA. Andy was often ridiculed for pursuing his style of playing back then, during the rise of Oasis and Blur, but he stuck at it, and has built a great career from it. I think we can all take some encouragement from these. It won't be the same as before, but it will come. You must press on with your music, you just never know when an opportunity will turn up.
CD’s are cheap, a quid in the charity shop. The reason they’re cheap is because people space-save with a laptop and spotify. What a great moment to build a massive cd collection. Vinyl on the other hand, is worth more than ever, so thats a good sign. There was so much money in music videos in the 80’s that at one point, bags of coke were pinned to the worksheet noticeboards on shoots. Look how albums emerged, because such great singles were made. Release 7” singles on vinyl.
Maybe it needs to be the grassroots local bands performances that keeps music alive, kinda like how bands in the past decades created the roar of music in peoples lives in the first place. Support your local live music scenes...
I guess One Direction is Oasis' successor, kind of. Different genre but the same buzz, although it's a bit difficult to make comparisons since social media didn't exist in the 90's. It's a weird time to feel that passion with music, the kind of passion I feel myself and the one you describe in the video. It seems like people don't have the time or interest anymore in, for example, spending 26 minutes of their life listening to 'No Control' by Bad Religion, let alone a 50-minute album.
My take on this is, music felt really "revolutionary" back in the 70's or the 90's, people identified with it and it made them think, it felt like a movement, but since the 00's and until today, everything took a 180º turn and TV/social media/busy lifestyle/daily worries/negativity/mental health/lots of other factors affect people much more, and instead of finding an exit or an answer in music, society has chosen (or has been educated) to find other ways that are more "passive". Gaming, streaming, infuencers, celebrities, TV shows etc. have taken the spot and they create today's "rock stars". Nowadays, music is just something you play in the background while you wash dishes, drive or party. Back then, it was the same, but also much more than that.
I may be wrong, I may be idealising the 90's and not understanding today's society. Maybe this is a problem that's been there for decades, only now with social media it has accentuated much more. I'm just a 24 year old guy from Spain who's been raised right between the Oasis era and the One Direction era, so I might be wrong. But yeah, it's a shame that feeling true passion for music is the rare thing now.
I think you are right and that’s a very perceptive comment.