Why music is on life support

Why music is on life support.

If you can’t confidently say you are young anymore than you should not only remember what a record is - you should remember what they smelt like, how they felt, the visually titillating artwork, the crackle of the needle, the warm bass and the subtle treble.

I am not a vinyl enthusiast; I am far too lazy, messy and clumsy.
I would like to be though and I do have fond memories of the wax disc.

After vinyl came the lovely cassette.

Maybe it’s harder to conjure up such fond memories of this device. The sound of an old tape…sounded like a devil screaming from your head deck, the painful task of trying to re thread a tape, the annoyance of your sister taping over N.W.A with Madonna.

They did have good qualities though. Like the fact it was the first time we could create our own mixes. I used to love making tapes for people, mainly girls;
What hooked me was the subtle use of hidden lyrics and the arrangement of songs to create the perfect journey. Another new benefit was the ability to create tapes from radio shows. Depending on the station and who was recording the tape this could also be an act or aural evil.

Next on the sound platform was the CD (we’ll skip Mini disc due to the fact that it never really managed to get it up, a shame really). The CD was a technical marvel in sound terms so my Uncle proclaimed. He created one of New Zealand’s first stomping factories and is a bit of a whiz. I asked him why then the record sounded better? He argued that a records bass would distort and treble would be cut out as the sound range was not there but we as listeners found this pleasing, technically though these wonder laser read discs were far superior.

I found they sounded compressed and were not made to last (on purpose me thinks).
The inevitable scratch in the middle of your favourite track was so annoying that we almost hugged the next format…

Digital.

Yes here we are at the promised land, the holy soundscape of user friendly downloads and portable devices.

I am in a way a fan of digital music. I have an I-pod, and I think it’s easy.

It’s just not the same.

It worries me that there will be a whole generation of snotty nose kids, with white plugs stuck in their ears that have never seen an album cover.


Kids these days don’t buy albums they “buy” singles. Some of my favourite tracks have been the hidden gems.

Record companies only push singles; they used to do that so you would cop the album now they do it so you’ll buy a single.

Borrow one of your friends I-pod’s and see how many albums are on it.

Not many if any.

An album is a work onto it self.

You don’t go to an art gallery and stare at the brightest part of the piece and not notice the beautiful brush strokes to the left, do you?

In this day and age music is not about creating a body of work, it’s about making some quick cash, by getting people to download a sound file that’s probably so bad in quality we will All be deaf by the time we’re 50.

What will save music?

See the top of the page – the record my friends.

We must return to the love affair with wax, the spinning record, the crackling spirit.

I know it seems strange but check this out:

Records never really died, they have been lurking in the crates of DJ’s worldwide.

True fans will buy them if they actually came out, only a few non dance albums come out on Vinyl.

If record companies want to stimulate the dying music market they need to push Vinyl.
Get kids into albums, get them into truly listening again, get music stores to phase out CD’s and bring back the record.

This way true fans will pay for their favourite artists music, and their cheap friends won’t be able to copy it, easily.

I don’t want my child listening to only one bad quality song from per album. It seems about as productive as reading one paragraph from a poorly printed book.