by Aaron Ross, assistant editor
Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, file sharing and MP3s have all changed the ways we listen, and interact with music by allowing people to listen 24/7 and cheaper than ever. Critics argue that these changes have destroyed music, cheapening it to nothing but a commercial product, and flooding the billboard with trashy pop music. While these claims (depending on the time of year, artist, type of chart and so on) hold various indications of truth, many people agree with them. In order to see why, we have to venture deep into the history of music.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact date “modern” music was created, but we know it was sometime around the late 1950s and early 1960s. Around this time the record player was cheap, and well on its way to becoming a staple in America. The baby boomers were growing up and there was no huge war for them to fight in. A new market demographic had appeared.
The music industry sprang up; they were ready to prepare, package, and propel their goods forward. Elvis, one the first huge rock stars, was marketed as a rebel, and in many ways he was. America during the 50s was a very conservative place, and hip-swinging seemed to many a scandalous activity. However, record companies and corporations carefully crafted this rebellious image. Kids wanted to dance and have a good time, while businesses, wanting to capitalize from this, gave them an idol to rally behind.
In order to compare this to current music we have to ask: is what the record companies did morally sound? Elvis is a figurehead of this example, but nearly every band/artist has, to some degree, been packaged by record companies: from Michael Jackson to The Beatles. Is it okay that artists have to go through a middle man, which exists solely for profit, in order to reach an audience?
The same people who argue that music has gone downhill in the past 15ish years, would probably argue that record companies were bad, and call them greedy for wanting to profit off of music. The problem with this is that power has recently shifted away from the record companies, and towards the consumer. It is hypocritical to claim to hate those who wish to profit off of music, and those who wish to share it with everyone for free.
Without the internet we would still be in the MTV era, being force fed whatever the advertising executives thought was cool, this time of the week. Now at least people have the freedom and ease to find whatever they want. Sure, things are still marketed to people, but now at least those who have differing taste can find things to enjoy as well.
Internet access allows us to try new things with the click of a button. People love to hate the tools that artists use to spread their medium, but the truth is without them they wouldn’t have heard of them the first place, and they might have not even existed.
