Heated
To the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts ("working to remove the barriers to social progress") in this fine old building tucked behind the Strand in London's busy West End. I was invited to take part in one of their Thursday lunchtime debates, entitled How the digital revolution is changing the way we discover, create and consume media. It was about the digitopia and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. David Jennings, a smart individual who runs an online learning consultancy and is also a trained psychologist, has written what looks like an interesting new book called Net, Blogs & Rock'N'Roll, which formed the centrepiece of the debate, with a very nifty PowerPoint presentation to go with it about the "discovery" part of the download/online/networking world we are all now forced to inhabit. David's view is not apocalyptic, by the way - he's all for it, and just believes we have to adjust to the new methods of discovery, and see them as enabling rather than oppressive. The other panellists were a Swiss-born musician, Claire Tchaikowski, who was dropped by her record label with the masters to her first album (produced by Mike Hedges), and our chair, Paul Hitchman, founder of Playlouder.com. While David delivered his address, with slides, I grew more and more passionate about my angle, which was to express my concern about the download world. I had brought along with me, showman that I am, a plastic bag full of vinyl records (including the first record I ever owned - rather than bought - the Jungle Book soundtrack album, and the last vinyl record I'll probably ever buy, the seven-inch of Arctic Monkeys' When The Sun Goes Down from last year), and although I was very kindly introduced as a "tastemaster" when I came to speak at the lecturn I was more interested in speaking as a member of the public. A member of the public who's concerned that technology and the attendant ridiculous ease of access has created a generation who do not appreciate art, who do not value the product, as there is no product, and who have enough disposable pocket money to go and see Michael Clayton at the cinema even though they're not interested in seeing it, and then proceed to talk and text all the way through it. (Although I appreciate that not all teenagers do this, I worry about them as a whole.) I got quite worked up while saying my piece and I don't think it was out of place. I produced an empty plastic bag and said that it had the new Radiohead album in it. Ha ha. Pure theatre. After that, and Claire's tale of woe, the discussion, which included questions from the audience, covered a lot of ground, with a big focus on the record industry, but we ran out of time before we'd really scratched the surface. I hope people enjoyed it. I did. It was certainly something unusual for me to be doing of a Thursday lunchtime, and if we even nudged the barriers to social progress it was worth the Tube ride. (I hope you like all the links in this entry - I did them to impress David Jennings, as his blog's like that. Sorry, I mean his blog's like that.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:59 PM
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24 Comments:
Does the fact of something being easily available necessarily make it less desireable or valued though?
I don't think having the option to pay nothing for in rainbows makes me think it's worth less to me.
Sounds like an interesting discussion, like the empty bag trick.
Those of us lucky enough to remember the joy of getting a new vinyl record out of its sleeve and placing it, with care, on the turntable, will always, I think, appreciate music, in whatever form, differently to those who have only ever known it to be an instant commodity.
Agreed Andrew, even the smell of the vinyl was something special. It might explain the addiction; personally I thought Polydor records always smelled the best, maybe because they were 'Porky Prime Cuts'?
Did the Arctic Monkeys smell as good, or have they changed the formula?
I'm not convinced that the problem is entirely down to the difference between downloaded music and music bought "preloaded" onto a medium because I feel that I have more ownership of a downloaded album than I ever had of an album on a pre-recorded cassette. These days however, when I buy a CD I very rarely play it, as the first thing I do is to rip it to MP3 so that it can be played in my car, on our ipods and in any room or PC in the house so, apart from the artwork and lyrics (and of course it's often cheaper to buy a CD than to download it!!), I might as well have downloaded it. Nobody is going to take my vinyl collection from me though!
I appreciated cassettes more than vinyl for these reasons:
a.)They looked like they were from the future.
b.) You could fit two whole albums on a C90.
c.) They didn't get scratched like CDs or vinyl
d.) You could borrow your mates albums, copy them then return them.
e.) You could make rickety compilations with love in every clicking switchover.
This vinyl fetishism is quite strange I think. Though I'm fond of the crackle of vinyl and the division of albums into two sides, vinyl is now a relic, as are cassettes (sadly) and now CDs are pretty archaic too.
I think this love of the medium on which we listen to music is an unnecessary distraction and totally arbitrary to a love of the art therein. If you can't love an album because you've nothing to hold in your hand, then surely you're missing the entire point of listening to music? It's about nothing solid, it's about the sensation of hearing beautiful sounds.
And finally, discrediting kids for downloading stuff for free seems a pretty low shot. I was always (and I mean pretty much daily) copying music onto C60s, C90s and sometimes VHS, ignoring the unintentionally amusing anti-piracy ads as I went. It's no worse than that and if I was their age without a disposable income besides what my parents gave me, I'd be doing exactly the same.
I'm with 'the kids' on this one.
I too am quite confused by the vinyl fetishism. CDs generally sound better (unless you pay a lot of money for a top end record deck) and are easier to carry around and take to a mate's house to play to them.
I do agree that there is something worrying about the culture of just downloading MP3s though.
One of my key gripes is that people generally only download a song or two from an album. I have a 16 year old brother who listens to lots of music, but the idea of listening to an album would be quite alien to him. I imagine that must be pretty disappointing for musicians who spend a long time crafting a whole album, carefully arranging the track listing to give you something that's more than the sum of it's parts. There are several albums I own which simply wouldn't work as individual tracks.
And then of course there's the illegal downloading issue. I'll put my hand up and admit I've done it on occasion, but it's not big and it's not clever. I've had big arguments with a friend of mine who has an entire hard drive full of illegally downloaded music. As far as he's concerned music is art, and art should be freely available to anyone. He thinks it shouldn't be treated as a commodity and record companies make too much money anyway. I'm sure you co-panellist Claire Tchaikowski would have something to say about that last point!
you could 'skin up' on an album cover while listening to the contents. try doing that with a keyboard.
(not that i do that anymore)
I had to stop letting one friend skin up on my CD cases. If he didn't have any roach he would tear off a corner of the inlay whilst I wasn't looking!
Jades - I always skinned up on books - then you could close the book should someone authoritative walk in on you.
As for only downloading tracks and not entire albums, the problem there lies with 50% of artist these days producing filler. There are a great many albums with only three decent tracks on them. I'm a fan of albums too, but to save memory in iTunes I'll delete loads of songs from great albums that are, frankly, crap buffers to the singles they surround.
The Babyshambles album has one or two unlistenable monstrosities on it but Down in Albion, Fcuk Forever and a few others (notable Pipe Down) are superb songs. You don't need the crack-addled guff that surrounds them, so why buy the whole album?
Not the best example - but even the Beatles had one or two duff tunes that the downloader can simply avoid. It's better for the consumer, surely?
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for a very amusing lunch hour yesterday...
I loved your take on the topic.
What a pity you heard a tale of woe from me, since I feel no woe. Being dropped by the record label was one of the best things that ever happened to me!
I have an incredible team, Mike has been rock solid in his support and mentoring for 5 years now, way before and beyond the record contract, and I own the masters to my first album. I can license the record to a label or endeavour to release it "alone" somehow in a slightly new and creative way...
The point of my take yesterday being that I'd much rather do both, collaborate with a label to release the record in a creative way that benefits both artist and label, and the rest of the team.
Or any other new way I haven't even thought of yet?
I hasn't all been a walk in the park, definitly, but no woe, this is a good time.
Onwards and Upwards,
Claire x
Vinyl, mon amour.
Seems like we're in a very fluid time and everyone's trying to work out what's going on. I'd certainly say that it's more difficult to value stuff that is too easily available. But I think the digitopia suits the way I've followed music, ie cherry-picking - formerly from the radio with a load of blank c90s. Now I have a better chance of buying the really obscure gems. You also have more choice about exactly what you pay for. There's so much music out there that it isn't that easy to find stuff you'll really love - finding the right radio shows, magazines etc is still pretty essential.
Records were just so beautiful. Must've been great for musicians to hold in their hands the first record with their music on. Inspiring too. Phenomenal how heavy a box of them is though... and they always made me a bit anxious, especially after I managed to smash my brother's copy of Giant by the Woodentops, just taking it off the turntable. CDs will be forgotten I reckon.
I think we have just got used to music sounding a bit worse these days.
I remember buying a CD of Who Cares Wins by Mega City Four after owning the LP for a few years - and was disturbed by how bloody safe and shiny the whole thing sounded compared to the slightly edgy distorted vinyl version. It took me ages to get my head around it.
Sure, Mega City Four weren't exactly the most dangerous sounding band ever - but if it does it for them what does it do to people who first heard Big Black on vinyl ?
I've found myself in this two-tier world where I'm happy to download albums that I quite like (or would like to hear) but if there's anything I truly love then I need to own something as a declaration of that love!
I bought Big Black's Atomizer on vinyl but I have to say it's always sounded a bit thin to me. Some CDs do sound that way too but if it's a record I love then give me a properly mastered CD anyday.
That said, if it's done right then a 12" sleeve plus an inner sleeve plus a decent slab of vinyl can make up a more potent, cohesive whole than any CD I've ever bought. An album with no tangible medium and packaging is a devalued album to my mind. And I still play my copies of Bill Nelson's Furniture Music and Klark Kent's Don't Care partly because I love to see the red and green (respectively) discs sitting there on my turntable. (In the latter case it may be the only reason.)
A lack of funds and a certain amount of disenchantment with the way music is going have recently caused me to start buying up any charity shop 78s that look like they might be interesting. They can sound pretty terrible (though not that bad for records from the tens, twenties and thirties) but I've found some things I really love. This has been my reaction to the download revolution. (And poverty.)
And downloading stuff, you don't get the lyric sheet. And yes, vinyl albums were fantastic for the artwork. So I get pissed off by the Arctic Monkeys producing two great albums with crap CD "artwork" AND no lyric sheets. And their lyrics are bloody great. So I have to download the lyrics from elsewhere & I paid how much for those CDs ? Arrrgghh !
Dave, I'm with you. You've hit the nail on the head with:
That said, if it's done right then a 12" sleeve plus an inner sleeve plus a decent slab of vinyl can make up a more potent, cohesive whole than any CD I've ever bought. An album with no tangible medium and packaging is a devalued album to my mind.
Both Arctic Monkeys albums are available on vinyl Maria.
Ror me, having the tangible article in my hand is as important as the music it produces. Having said that, this is probably an age thing and download will become just as acceptable to future generations as vinyl and cassette tapes were to ours. This also begs the question - just which generation do CDs belong to?
I agree with all the above. But could you post something about the bleeding Rugby World Cup Andrew?
I've got something I need to get off my chest, I've got nowhere to post it and it's eating away at me.
ah.. oldnathan, you'll be wanting David Hepworth's blog then.
I liked what Pitchfork did with their marks out of ten here:
My thoughts on the Rugby World Cup are now posted.
So, "The Jungle Book" was your first. It was mine too: if I remember rightly, I was given that and the classic "Hits of the Wombles" for my birthday in the same year as "God save the Queen" didn't get to number one.
It took me a few years to cotton on to punk.
I still possess both albums, just as I still possess every other record I've ever owned. (Cassettes are a different matter. I realised my mistake soon after buying an album by a future drug addict with the initials WH and swapped it on the Muscovite black market for a chunky Red Army belt.)
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