It’s common knowledge that the record industry has taken a beating in recent years. Illegal downloads are a fact and major artists like Radiohead and Wilco are allowing fans to download new releases while asking for individual donations. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, legal downloads have jumped more than 600 percent since 2004. That is a staggering statistic, and for we digital-savants living in the iPod generation, it seems natural that the Digital Age has swept up the music industry.
But sometimes I stop to think: What does this mean for the musical art form? This change has been a long time coming, ever since the Walkman made music portable. On the T and on the street, I see our age as one that’s detached from the raw and fundamental power of music. I see us, the audio-audience, removed from the performance and focused on only what comes out of our ear buds. I see the artist, sitting beneath his mega-producer, adding effects to an over-processed art form. I see the loss of organic sound to the blips and clicks of ones and zeros.
But what I am most concerned about is the separation between artist and audience. Isn’t the primary aspect of music its ability to communicate emotions? How could Pink Floyd have ever intended, when writing “The Great Gig in the Sky,” that their heady transcendental acid-fever would be co-opted and pumped out of speakers at the local pizza shop? If this is how music is going to be used, then how does it affect the way it’s made?
When taken out of the iPod and put into an interactive setting, music is alive. Music is one of the most basic forms of communication — a universal human language. To me, this is the basic societal building block. There was a time when music meant spirituality. African tribes use drumming and dance to build community. In old England, folk singing was a way to connect a village, and certain songs at certain times of year brought everybody in tune. Folk music is full of its importance and mystical power, expressing history, community, progress and continuation; and everyone participated collectively. Have we let that power slip away?
Western culture leaves no room for face-to-face interaction these days. Our experiences are screened though television and YouTube. It’s a bit one-sided. Still, nothing compares to live shows and seeing the performer, a person, playing and emoting and communicating directly to the audience. The media barriers are down, and we’re all in the same space at the same time, all one within the experience. When the crowd gets frenzied, so does the performer, and we feed off each other’s reflective energies to create something amazing. Oh, how the power of music can entrance the human soul!
But something has happened when audiences no longer feel like active participants. People are convinced that only those with record labels can create music. What an erroneous mentality! Music should be collective and interactive, so its potential emotional power can be reached. Everyone should become involved, bring shakers to concerts and clap and sing along! And we should all go to live shows to support our bands — every band — since we’re all just downloading their music for free in the first place. But when we go, we need to allow ourselves a collective experience instead of simply standing arms akimbo and glaring up at the stage.
Galen Mook, a senior in the University Professors Program, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
