This has been posted on the Popjustice forum in response to a question by another poster: “Do you really enjoy music nowadays?”
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Because of the downloads music lost a lot of its magic. There is nothing like a record difficult to trace. When Saint Etienne issued Method Of Modern Love recently only in the UK, people bitched to the skies about how irritating and wrong it was. I still got my copies through the old-fashioned method of asking a fellow Brit’s help. And I have to say I was thrilled when they arrived in my postbox. But, simultaneously, I was pissed off to have to wait a WEEK until I get them. And now I ripped them to my itunes library and there is no difference between a .m4a of “Method of Modern Love” and, say, .m4a of “Umbrella” as far as it comes to playability, sound quality or, well, anything else. They’re just files.
We live in the time of More. More jobs, more music, more lovers, more food/drinks/drugs than we could even think about 30 years ago. And all of those things lose value. It’s too easy to get stuff. Music is too cheap (or, in most cases, you can find it for free within a minute). We know too much about musicians — look at the Chris Brown and Rihanna case, I don’t WANT to know all those details, I don’t want to see the photographs, read about her father/grandfather/manager publishing statements, yet I am morbidly fascinated by how this is developing. I don’t want my pop stars like Britney, televised 24 hours a day. “NEWSFLASH: BRITNEY DRINKS FRAPPUCCINO!!1!” I want my pop stars like Mylene Farmer who doesn’t have an official website, myspace or facebook profile. I don’t want free downloads, with no booklets or credits, available at a click of the mouse. I want records to be difficult to find, expensive and unavailable, because then once I get what I looked for I feel so… privileged.
Once I went to a record fair in Utrecht, looking for two records: Sparks’ “Hello Young Lovers” and Electronic’s “Electronic” on vinyl. I found Sparks first, hidden in the “new wave” section of some stall or other. But nobody seemed to have Electronic. I was exhausted at the end of the day, having seen far too many records (and not that many buyers) but I decided to go through one last box before going home. And there it was — the German pressing of “Electronic”, missing Gangster (WHY?!), 10 euro. I was thrilled beyond imagination, tiredness suddenly went away and I was almost shaking in excitement. The elusive record WAS MINE. And I found it. And it was difficult, and it took lots of time, but it didn’t matter. It’s like climbing a mountain, I suppose.
Let’s compare that to Morrissey’s recent Years Of Refusal. I already knew two songs and thought they were crap, the two singles on his Greatest Hits. I downloaded the album two months before release from some site or other. Didn’t even play it once, only played Paris and that was it. Then this week I played it, twice, declared it “not bad”. It is now filed in my library of downloads. I am done with it. Next! (I will buy the vinyl, though, once I find it a bit cheaper than 18 UKP Amazon charge for it. I like the cover, I want that in large size.)
I believe Pet Shop Boys are taking the wrong route with the release of Yes. The itunes download has bonus tracks and a track-by-track commentary. But I believe people who download albums don’t care about crap like that. They want their quick fix. That’s all. They don’t care about the commentary or artwork or what the artist has to say. They just want the “product”. I believe it should be the CD that gets a DVD with in-studio commentary; something as simple as PSB filmed in the studio, songs playing in the background, PSB talking about the songs.
I have read an article recently about how Internet made people more lonely, because the “contact” we get through forums/MSN/whatever means that we don’t have to go out and face actual humans. But people are wired to be social. To be physically social with each other; to talk using their mouths and ears, to touch using hands, to drink beers at pubs, to enjoy music at gigs, talk about a record one is carrying under his or her arm, make music at a rehearsal studio (said a guy who recorded an album with a friend living in Austria using ICQ, email etc. to send each other tracks and comments). Not to download music for free, put it on our ipods, then put on headphones to cut ourselves away from strangers.
No, we don’t miss much in these times. In the last years I never had the problem I used to have constantly in the 90s — that I would hear a great song and I wouldn’t know who it is by and I wouldn’t even know who to ask. These days I find out about new music through PJ, going through ukmix release schedule and downloading stuff that sounds like it could possibly be interesting (which means that if a new exciting electronic pop act call themselves TJ feat. Shontelle and their new single is “Get Off Ur Booty” I am 95% certain to never listen to it), through music blogs and friends. I never listen to the radio, and when I do, it plays “Romantic Hits of the 80s”. If there is any good music I miss, I remain oblivious to the fact, because if I knew about it, I would have it on my hard drive within five minutes.
I suppose I could stop downloading stuff and, like my friend, stick to CDs and vinyls. Refuse to purchase a download, ever ever. Basically, act like someone who says “goddammit I am never getting into one of those modern ‘car’ things, what is wrong with a horse and carriage or a good ole’ steam train?!”. But I don’t think I could. Not in the age of 99% singles sold in the UK being downloads. I’d have to withdraw myself from all music forums, which discuss a song/album/remix package five minutes after it has leaked, and then once it is released three months later nobody even remembers what it sounded like.
I suppose Generation More might have turned, without realising, into Generation Too Much.
