I’ve been thinking a lot lately — ever since I started this blog and began seriously reengaging with music, in fact — about the whole of experience of listening to music.
Growing up, music was always a social experience. You got an album, you went to someone’s house, and anywhere between two and twenty people would cram into someone’s bedroom and listen to said album. People would talk, smoke, pash, play chess, read a book, read a magazine, or engage in any other number of activities at the same time — including just listening to the music and poring over the liner notes — and the music would just seep into our collective unconscious, passively and actively absorbed like the smoke in the room.
Do people still do this? Do those who grew up when that sort of thing was normal still do it with their friends now that they have hit middle age? Do kids?
The general theory is that listening to music is now a much more individual experience, at least on one level.
The album has been replaced by the downloadable song as the primary unit of music, and the delivery system isn’t some sort of stereo in someone’s room listened to by the many, but an individual player delivered straight into the individual’s ears.
But of course, that isn’t quite right. Or at least, it doesn’t mean that music has necessarily become a more selfish, individual experience.
Music would cease to be without it social aspects and so live concerts have never been more popular (and therefore more expensive) and there are a whole range of ways in which people share music with each other, despite the best (and most stupid, counterproductive) efforts of music distributors.
It is hardly surprising that social media networks like Facebook and MySpace have come into their own at around the same time that people moved away from the bedroom stereo and into the individual earplug.
Anyway, I’m just curious about how others listen to music these days and how — amongst what I’m figuring is the older Crikey demographic — that has changed since you were all teenagers. It’s something I’m going to chew over from time to time on here and this piece was prompted by a couple of articles on new developments in music technology.
The first is this piece about Spotify.
Spotify is a music streaming site that is apparently about to get its own iPhone app and that some are touting as the future and saviour of music.
The idea is that instead of buying CDs or downloading songs, you will pay a monthly subscription and have access to millions of songs through whatever device you like. The Wired article I link to raves about it, though I’m far from convinced that this is the way to go. (There’s more positive things about it in this piece.)
The other article I wanted to mention is more specifically about reinventing the album as a shared musical experience:
Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.
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Physical album sales have fallen sharply as music retailing has evolved from CD album purchases in retail outlets to digital downloads of songs from online stores.
Although consumers continue to purchase large amounts of digital music, they are buying individual tracks rather than higher-margin albums.
Apple is working with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group, on a project the company has codenamed “Cocktail”, according to four people familiar with the situation.
The labels and Apple are working towards a September launch date for the project, which aims to boost interest in albums by bundling liner notes and video clips with the music.
“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.
Consumers would be able to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple’s iTunes software, executives said.
“It’s not just a bunch of PDFs,” said one executive. “There’s real engagement with the ancillary stuff.”
Again, I’m not totally convinced that this is the way to go or that it will have the desired effect — will those who have grown up in the iPod era embrace a way of listening to music they have never known? isn’t this just the sort of idea that is being driven by a perceived economic advantage to the producers rather than by any particular demand by the consumer? — but it is interesting to see these being mooted and experimented with.
Anyway, this is just some unorganised thoughts on the topic. There’ll be more as we go along…
17 Comments
For me the best concert hall is my car, which comes equipped with a 6-stack CD player, Bose amplifier and lots of speakers. I can play what I like as loud as I like. Certainly in the home there are limits to this if I want to maintain a pleasant relationship with other residents. It also means I am more likely to listen to albums as a complete work rather than songs randomly selected in the iPod style.
Yeah, good point. I listen to a lot of stuff in the car. Sort of like a big mobile iPod, isn’t it?
I think I’m a bit younger than you! Didn’t really have the bedroom rock concert experience. Alas. Moving right along…
I go to music festivals with friends, though we often seem to split off and do our own thing. But then I guess I’m in a big tent with 00s of people who like the same music. I have a gig buddy and we meet occasionally and play our latest finds on the CD player. Don’t drive as often as I used to in uni days, so am limited to the Ipod, which I find, ahem, limiting. It will only play me what I’ve already got, and because the Iriver is only FM, I didn’t bother getting one of those. So that monthly service, depending on the price, might be for me, on and off.
I agree with your general argument – that music seems to be, increasingly, a personal, individual experience. It’s sad. Your description of part of your well-spent youth makes me want to hold a music party – 80s wear optional.
Cheers
Me again. Further thought: affluence. We have more money, we can buy our own CDs, and don’t need to hang out with friends to listen to their CDs. It’s contributing to isolation and individualisation.
I have the same theory on parties – developed from my parents’ experience in postwar England. When good food was a treat, parties were a big deal, because you only ate really well and had treats there. Now we eat so well most of the time (well, many of us do), what’s special about a party?
Hmm.
True enough, Jenny. And I guess “shuffle” cancels the need to make each other mix tapes too?
On a personal level, music now for me is *infinitely* more social than when I was a teenager. Blogs — having and reading others, social networking of various types, the eMusic community. I also have an active real life live music community, the Sydney Dylan monthly meetings ( http://www.sydneydylan.org.au ) and live country gigs ’round town every weekend.
When I was a a teenager in the 80s and 90s, I was sitting by myself listening by myself to Johnny Mathis 45s a random uncle left at our place, and everyone else was listening to Nirvana together.
People who’ve grown up with iPods have also grown up with Last FM, Facebook, Meetup.com and the like — if anything I see growing evidence of people looking to connect over music.
I think part of it is a mindset that unless you are sitting in a pot smoke filled room with someone it doesn’t count as properly social or actively participating. Nothing could be further from the truth imho. Those real life get togethers are wonderful, but so are the possibilities online for expanding not only your musical tastes and collection, but the circle of people who appreciate it like you do.
I don’t know how it will play out on an industry level. Singles have always outsold albums, but now you can choose which individual song you buy not just be restricted to the A/B side the label puts out.
Also, I like to try and remember that I am not a typical consumer of music — and neither really is anyone else who would comment on this blog. People who self-identify as big music fans are far more likely to favour the full album for the authenticity and completeness of the experience, whereas more casual listeners (most people, and most iTunes downloaders) are more likely to just want the hits they hear on the radio. Of course the two groups overlap — I also like being able to get the one or two songs I like off whatever greatest hits comp. I have no idea then how it will play out on an industry level, but I just really see nothing to suggest our experiences are overall becoming more insular.
Nice post. I don’t doubt any of that and yeah, agree, someone like you is probably not typical. I also agree that it is wrong to presume that the shift from “bedrooms” to social media and iPods necessarily means less social – I wasn’t trying to imply that and again agree that in some ways these things have made music more social.
I guess the two groups I had in mind most here were my age group and specifically the people I grew up with who simply don’t engage with music in the same — or remotely similar — social way that they used to. They just don’t, and the experience has become more insular for them (on the whole). And maybe that’s a failure to embrace the new tech?
The other group I had in mind is kids around my son’s age who definitely do the whole social thing differently and it mainly involves Facebook and other online communication. I wouldn’t say it is less social, but it is definitely different to what I grew up with and there does seem to be a lot more hoarding of individual favourites. That is, they do share stuff, but they also seem to have a bunch of favourites that they don’t share or feel the need to share. It’s quite different. Then again, a lot of them perform one way or another, and so there is that whole layer of sharing and socialising around music.
I’d also add that with my cohort, one way that the social hasn’t changed is when we get together and play music together. If anything, that has increased, and it is partly a factor of having money for instruments (and even recording equipment) etc. It’s great and does involve sharing new musical discoveries.
Anyway, as I say, I’m just starting to get my head around these sorts of changes and it’s kinda fascinating. Love reading these comments (along with emails etc).
Perhaps age in general is an issue? Music is one of the big ways teenage and young people relate to each other and identify themselves whereas as you get older that changes and it become less important for those reasons, and so less important overall. I’m sure being mad keen and getting every LP and magazine when you are 18 but only going to the occasional stadium gig when you’re 50 is a pretty common trajectory. For reasons totally unrelated to technology.
On the other hand, I wish I had a buck for every time friends have said to me, “God, I wish we had this technology when we were growing up.” Meaning, we would’ve given our right arms for the sort of access to music, esp clips and concert footage, that people take for granted these days. It’s brilliant.
Not sure about your last point, though it is probably a common trajectory. But it sort of underplays how music is still integral to that cohorts identity etc even if it plays itself out differently socially. I guess that change is what interests me. There seems to be a point reached where for my sort of age group nostalgia is not enough but the tools for finding new music (by which I mean, the social structures) aren’t immediately apparent. Cause finding new music is all about sharing it with your friends and people need ways of doing that. So the new techs do come into play. (OK, not being hugely coherent, but I’m starting to get my head around this question I’ve set myself.)
One quick point: don’t underestimate the social entirety of the online world. While not having the same physical interactions as traditional human socialisation, these online communities are – for some – their primary “playground”.
If you look at entities such as artist forums, some people start posting in these before they are even double-digits in age. Their peer group becomes other forum members, and their ‘coming of age’ experiences are linked in with their rabid fandom.
In that sense, it is not just the experience of listening to music that has changed – but the entire process of forming social identity.
Interesting topic, Tim. With a couple of teenage kids, I have in recent years (almost inevitably) been reflecting on my own experience of growing up and how things might be different now. I even get to share in my kids experience – kind of a participant observer. The best thing about having teenage kids is that you get to be a teenager again, but without the angst.
I agree with flopearedmule. Music may well be more social now that it was in our day. I have two teenaged girls, both are into music (they play as well as listen). Music, for them as for us, is essentially about felings and relationships – it is still the glue that binds friendships and defines social groups. The MP3 age hasn’t diminished this at all. File sharing is definitely a social experience, and it actually facilitates a broader range of musical experience than may have been the case in the past. New fads spread like wildfire. One kid discovers a new passion, and within a week everyone is listening to it and chatting about it. Dumping the contents of someone’s MP3 player onto your PC or laptop is a great way to get to know them. (As a nice byproduct, I have some weird stuff on my PC now that I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.)
However, I’m pleased to say that the same thing is happening at my work among the 40-somethings in my peer group (if not to the same extent). The appeal, in part I suspect, is that it makes us feel like teenagers again. We do the same thing with books. Perhaps I’m just lucky to work with a great bunch of people.
What may be different is that the actual experience of listening is probably more private these days, though I’m not sure it’s significantly so. I used to listen alone a lot, just as my kids do. And they sometimes put music on in the background while their friends are around. (The car is also a good public space for listening to CDs). What’s different is that they don’t put an album on the way we used to. They don’t have the same concept of listening to an album, for the obvious reasons. They might do this privately, but rarely (if ever) among a group. An album is just a collection of sings by the same artists. They are just as likely to chop it up and weave the pieces together into a new playlist. Here’s a different question: how many artists still try to produce coherent albums?
My final observation is one I came across recently in a book. (I think it was This is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel Levitin .) The author noted that the biggest difference in the experience of rock music between now and then is its present corporate ubiquity. It’s everywhere: shopping malls, elevators, advertising etc. The media is saturated with it. Once upon a time you had to tune into a crystal radio at night to hear it, or a sit in your bedroom playing it on vinyl. Rock’n’roll was the voice of a counter-culture. When I was a kid I still remember the rock and pop stations were one choice among many that still including pre-rock’n’roll popular music. Shopping mall muzak was in its infancy, and shops didn’t play a blaring Top 40 sound track. TV advertising wasn’t saturated with guitar riffs. I guess the change started happening in the mid-70’s, when the corporatisation of the industry started. The kids reacted by creating an alternative scene, which was then corporatized and hence a new reaction started etc etc. The story is obvious and doesn’t bear repeating. But the interesting point, I think, is that this has involved a change in the listening experience. Rock and roll used to be both personal and communal in a way that it isn’t any longer: Personal, in that is had to be experienced in a private rather than public space; communal, in that the experience connected you to a community likely minded that was to some extent outside or opposed to the mainstream. These days, the music is either everywhere, or it’s nowhere. It’s 24/7 shopping mall, or it’s such a niche that the community of listeners is tiny. Rock and Roll will never lead a revolution again.
Blake, that’s a good way of putting it: “it is not just the experience of listening to music that has changed – but the entire process of forming social identity.”
Pedro, I read Levitin’s follow up book, Six Songs, which is worth a look btw. Also, Mikal Gilmore’s Stories Done makes a similar point about “corporate ubiquity” and music. It’s an interesting point and reminds me of Thomas Frank’s point in his book The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism.
Gilmore says, “…cultural, commercial and media mechanisms have become adept at assimilating or discrediting pop cultures threats…” meaning that the whole social framework within which it all happens is quite different, esp in regards to music as a force for change. Maybe that’s what Levitin was getting at too?
Reminds me, I must review the book once I finish it, which should be soon.
I’m not sure Levitin was thinking that broadly, Tim. His analysis was more about the individual aesthetic and auditory experience, but it begged a few big questions that Gilmore seems to have picked up. Look forward to your review of Gilmore’s book. Also look forward to your review of The Weakerthans
“Growing up, music was always a social experience.”
Yep, can relate Tim. I’ve fond memories of the 70s in Toronto, heading down to the record store w/ yer mates, taking in all the brill, evocative vinyl jackets, heading back for a smoke, sip, munch whilst ripping up the songs on yer parent’s stereo (or buddies in the basement, lucky fella)…chatting about relationships & other way out things. Good times. For some albums the excitement & buzz was palpable. I’m thinking Led Zeppelin: Zoso (lV), Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, Boston etc…
Loved “concept albums” like Genesis: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway…glad the “concept” thing made a return in late 90s (Godspeed, Surface of Eceon etc.)
“I’m just curious about how others listen to music these days and how”
Now, I primarily download music from eMusic (member since 2001) & listen to it w/ my wife as we walk or cook dinner. Or if I’m cleaning up in the day, gardening too.
Or listen alone late at night, putting up music links by way of YouTube on various blogs. And sharing info about bands by way of the internet or chatting to mates on the phone. Much to do w/ convenience & time restrictions…& easy access by way of the web. Still listen to MANY albums, EPs and such a year…but generally not as in-depth as a youngun. Often background music. However, the odd album grabs my interest and finds itself staying for awhile in the multiple disc player.
When cooking we use the RANDOM function.
Recent faves that make the RANDOM (excluding those mentioned in a recent post):
Chet Baker: Lonely Star
Ray La Montagne: Gossip in the Grain; Joan Armatrading: Into the Blues;
Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt;
She’s Your Cook But She Burns My Bread Sometimes (Various artists)
Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy: Unseen Music, Unheard Words
Captain Beefheart: Electricity; Frank Zappa: Hot Rats;
Ben Aylward (Aussie…ex-Swirl): Guns in the Sky EP (A good Sydney-based mate picked this up at the concert for my birthday, had it signed & sent it up to Brissie);
Russian Circles: Station;
Bill Callahan (Smog): Sometimes I wish we were an eagle
Stafraenn Hakon (from Iceland): Gummi;
Malcolm Middleton (ex-Arab Strap): Waxing Gibbous
The American Dollar: The Technocoloured Sleep…
N’
The ‘re-socialisation of music’? Interesting turn of phrase from four of the biggest record producing entities on the planet; who, btw, own distribution rights to what must be an extraordinarily large back catalogue of published music. My cynical side tells me there are album masters and the relevant artwork/liner notes laying around not earning income, just waiting to be re-released in a huge marketing plan based around ‘nostalgia’. Now that should boost sales, to an extent.
Yet Tim, although I do recall how new music had a social element attached in days gone by, the theory did not always apply to musicians, or, shall we say budding cover bands disguised as suburban rock stars. I cannot recall ever being asked to take ‘Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues’ album along to a social gathering.
Nor Paul Butterfield or Muddy Waters.
(Which reminds me of my ol’ pal Bon Scott. Bonnie was so obviously into blues music, the AC/DC inclusion of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ on Jailbreak album brought back memories of the real Bon, and a wry smile to my face. Bon had performed this song brilliantly back in the 60s with his own covers bands so many times I was not surprised and pleasantly reassured the real Bon was true to the blues cause).
As some contributors here have rightly point out, music (taste) is ‘personal’, both in the first instance, and thereafter.
Resocialisation = Marketing, IMHO.
Something which hasn’t been mentioned here is music rhythm/singing games such as guitar hero/Rock band. They are very commonly used as a group music experience not dissimilar to the album listening process you describe. When these games are played in a social environment, the people in the room are engaged in a mix of playing, watching the performance, listening to the song (in a deeper way because the individual parts are brought out more closely) or singing along. It’s a very social way of appreciating music.
There’s interesting academic commentary on the game genre – http://guitarheroresearch.blogspot.com/2009/05/schizophonic-performance-article.html).
Interesting point, Jeremy. Must admit, I’ve never tried them, but I take your point…