An interesting view on the evolution of the music industry

Personally, I don't think I'll be going back to vinyl or CDs. My last turntable perished in the flooding of my home's basement years ago.
https://www.thenation.com/article/societ...stry-ipod/

I have always loved music. I played piano, organ, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar, and drums and was also a singer. As I aged, doing so became increasing difficult. However, I still love listening to music. I am a fan of lots of music genre from Renaissance to Baroque to Classical to New Age/Neoclassical. I also like Jazz, Blues and many other types of more modern music with the exception of Rap which I do not classify as music as it does not have clearly defined melody and harmony. My apologies to Rap fans.

I have experienced most of the music storage media: 78 rpm records, 45 rpm singles, 33 1/3 rpm LP vinyl, reel to reel tape recording, cassette tapes, 8-track tapes, compact disks converted from analog recordings, and compact disks recorded, edited and transmitted digitally (DDD). However, my favorite is the current high resolution streaming at 192 khz or higher sample rates and 24 bit depth. The CD format is limited to 44.1 khz and 16 bit depth. Technically, an LP record properly recorded and preserved can go even higher than a CD as it is analog and not digital. That is why some audiophiles prefer analog recordings, but even those have limitations due to turntable tracking issues. The advent of lossless file formats such as FLAC allow these high sample rate and bit depth recordings to be saved on a hard drive without any loss of content. While I still have a collection of a few hundred vinyl LPs, I seldom play them as streaming is so much more convenient.

I realize that music streaming has made a huge dent in the production of vinyl recordings and CDs. The same can be said of newspapers and magazines being replaced by online blogs. The Sears and Roebuck catalogs and brick and mortar stores have been replaced by online shopping. Iconic department stores like Macy's are struggling. Film cameras and photo prints have been replaced by digital photos. Progress always leaves behind remnants of older technologies. While most of us drive some form of automobile, the Amish still drive wagons pulled by horses. A good wagon and team of horses can cost as much as an automobile.

Sometimes, history repeats itself. When I was a kid, we had a local dairy deliver milk to our doorstep ones a week. The Wonder Bread bakery delivered loaves of bread. A Jewel Tea man came to deliver orders for various items to my grandmother who was the primary cook of our household. Then giant supermarkets made such home deliveries obsolete.... or so we thought. Now rather than going to the store or restaurant, we can order online and have everything we need delivered to our door. During COVID, my sister never left home for about 18 months. All her groceries and other necessities were delivered to her front door. Sometimes what goes around, comes around. Even vinyl records are making a comeback.

Rap is infused with a strong rhythm, accentuating the spoken word. (Not intending a discussion about rap, but using rhythm as a segue)

As a lifelong multi-instrumentalist I did not think much about rhythm and percussion until my sons joined the percussion ensemble in high school. At about that time, I took up banjo and old time fiddle music. I was fascinated by the powerful drive and rhythm provided by OT and traditional bluegrass bands: they have a very percussive feel without any percussion instruments. The various string instruments provide the rhythm as well as melody and harmony.

Getting back to the topic of the original post, I lament the great cultural loss as recorded music evaporates as the machines able to replay the music disappear. I was only able learn and appreciate OT fiddle music because people like Alan Lomax and Alan Jabbour recorded Appalachian fiddlers, giving rise to the folk music revival in the 1960s. Thankfully those recordings are preserved by the National Archives, and have been digitized and made freely available. Who knows what cultural treasures will be lost due to changing technology.

We still have vinyl and a turntable but when the turntable bites the dust that's it for the LPs.

Of course we have CDs also, but most of my listening is done digitally (as in via computer) today. My phone (a computer) has well over 1000 songs on it along with my favorite albums. I use my smart phone more for music and games and much less as a phone. When it is used for calls it's for calling out and I tell people to never call me on it but to call the landline. The music on the phone came from CDs, and the 'net.

In the article it's mentioned about being surrounded by music all the time. I must say that I absolutely detest background music. When I listen to music I make a determined effort to actually listen to the music as a primary activity. The closest I come to "background music" is when I go to the gym, but even there while I exercise, my ear buds are in and I'm actually listening to the music to allow it to carry me away from the boredom and eventual pain of my therapy. The ear buds have background noise neutralization and that helps me to further put myself into a cocoon of music.

When I read the subject line what immediately struck me was the thought that I'd had for half a century and my fav' group of all time, the Moody Blues which was called a progressive band. I also like classical, and the Moody Blues mixed electric guitar and a Mellotron with classical instruments and sounds. I could never quite understand why they were called progressive when they included sounds from a few hundred years previous. Probably due to their mixing of the sounds. I just know I liked it then and even more today, half a century later, esp' the music from their classic years and the Blue Jays album that Justin Hayward and John Lodge made w/o the rest of the Moody Blues members.

FWIW, I can't play a note and when I sing I sound like frog. It's just not a talent that I was given, and when I was forced to play an instrument... well, forcing me to do anything just isn't going to work. But in my mind the music there that other folks made is always perfect. I recently had a conversation with a friend and she stated that she hated music. I didn't inquire further, but it struck me how anyone could hate music. I can understand not liking this or that, but "music" ? No I can't understand that at all.

The music industry today and my phone... I asked the same friend for a good music app and she told me "Pandora". I wanted an app to play my music and fought with Pandora to get it to do that. It always wanted to connect me to listen to modern garbage. I finally got rid of Pandora after a few weeks and went to an app that allows me my playlists and such. Maybe that's why that friend of ours says that she hates music. I would too if that's what I had to listen to.

I dislike streaming music for the most part, though I will listen to lossless digitization. My one caveat is that I decide at all times what I want to listen to, so I like to pay once only for stuff, and therefore I'll buy digital versions of my favourite music. Spotify and other streaming platforms are not something for me.

However, my preferred way to listen to music is at home, in front of my music system, and mostly off an LP. I don't claim that this is the best way to listen to music, but it works for me.

I do not need to be surrounded by music all the time, and I limit myself to my 'sit down sessions'. I believe it enhances my appreciation of the music and the deliberate choice of what to listen to is part of the process.

I don't listen to music at work or in the car. In fact, I drive in silence......there's enough of a soundtrack in my mind that I do not need external distractions.

Rap is infused with a strong rhythm, accentuating the spoken word. (Not intending a discussion about rap, but using rhythm as a segue)

As a lifelong multi-instrumentalist I did not think much about rhythm and percussion until my sons joined the percussion ensemble in high school. At about that time, I took up banjo and old time fiddle music. I was fascinated by the powerful drive and rhythm provided by OT and traditional bluegrass bands: they have a very percussive feel without any percussion instruments. The various string instruments provide the rhythm as well as melody and harmony.

Getting back to the topic of the original post, I lament the great cultural loss as recorded music evaporates as the machines able to replay the music disappear. I was only able learn and appreciate OT fiddle music because people like Alan Lomax and Alan Jabbour recorded Appalachian fiddlers, giving rise to the folk music revival in the 1960s. Thankfully those recordings are preserved by the National Archives, and have been digitized and made freely available. Who knows what cultural treasures will be lost due to changing technology.

You are absolutely correct about Rap having a strong rhythm; but to me, a song has to have melody, harmony AND rhythm to be considered music. As someone who has played guitar, bass guitar, and drums, I am well acquainted with the importance of rhythm. 

In a Bluegrass band, lacking percussion, the string bass, banjo, and the mandolin provide rhythm. Sometimes you might even have someone playing the jug to provide extra rhythm as in the case of the Dillard family bluegrass band who played the part of the Darling family on the Andy Griffith Show. In some bluegrass music, someone might play the washboard, spoons or washtub bass. Appalachian families used whatever was at hand to produce their style of music. Some street performers still use similar instruments today in places like New Orleans.

If you like early recordings of original music, I recommend you visit the Birthplace of Country Music, Bristol, VA/TN, a city that straddles the state line. My wife was raised in Bristol. There is a museum in Bristol that commemorates the Bristol Sessions. In 1927, some record producers from the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York came to Bristol and invited folk musicians from the surrounding hills of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to come and record their original music. Some famous singers who got their start at that event were the Carter Family and Jimmy Rogers. The Bristol Sessions introduced original Gospel, Bluegrass and Country Music to the entire country. Thus, Bristol can rightfully be called the Birthplace of Country Music; although Nashville is the center of country music today. If you ever find yourself in the area, be sure to visit the museum. They have some of the original recordings from the Bristol Sessions as well as photos and other memorabilia. You might even want to plan a trip there.

Thanks RayClem ! I never made it as far west as Bristol when I lived in central Virginia, but I was in close proximity to attend music and dance festivals in Narrows, Campbell County, Rockbridge, Mt Airy NC, . . . sigh.

Thanks RayClem ! I never made it as far west as Bristol when I lived in central Virginia, but I was in close proximity to attend music and dance festivals in Narrows, Campbell County, Rockbridge, Mt Airy NC, . . . sigh.

They hold fiddler's conventions annually in Galax, VA. While I never attended one, there are YouTube videos that will allow you to attend from the comfort of your home, no matter where you are now living. It is not just fiddling, but folk dancing, bluegrass bands, banjo pickin', etc.