| The End of Music |
|
|
|
| Written by Roger Born | |||||||
Page 2 of 5
THE ADVENT OF POP Who put the bomp In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp? Who put the ram In the rama lama ding dong? Who put the bop In the bop shoo bop shoo bop? Who put the dip In the dip da dip da dip? Who was that man? I'd like to shake his hand He made my baby Fall in love with me WHO PUT THE BOMP Barry Mann It was in the Fifties that music was first referred to as POP. POP is the first of its kind as a media, to define us as a culture because it was made to fit in the two and a half minute time frame of the 45 RPM record format, developed by RCA. The music, of course, were the popular songs of a new teenage generation called the Baby Boomers, who embraced this new media completely. There was also a new kind of music on the charts called ROCK AND ROLL. Rock dominated the POP music charts. Overnight new performers became idols, usually on the strength of a couple of hit tunes. There were still instrumentals and ballads, but Rock was it. New record companies were formed by a few individuals, producing the country's first instant millionairs. Magazines sprang up to feed the need of the teenagers. Television also catered to them, as well as Madison Avenue, the Mecca of Commercialism. These all discovered that teens had money to spend, and buying power. So went the milieu. There were, I am sure, other forms of music that were desirable and that could have been popular. But few ever heard from them. It was the choice of a few men in key places that determined what was to be popular, and therefore a commercial success. The rest, both good and bad was lost to history. THE MODERN AGE OF MAN To every thing, turn, turn, turn There is a season, turn, turn, turn And a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time to laugh, a time to weep TURN TURN TURN The Byrds Soon everything was following this 2 1/2 minute format, from shorter newspaper articles to the songs sung in church, (which ruined forever the single verse forty minute format of ecstatic worship). Television commercials and even news stories soon followed this new time format by fitting their media to it. Today, there is not much in our culture that is not affected by this time frame, from fast food, to the stop at a 7-11, to the average phone call. This is where POP came from, and it changed more than the music or the media of a generation. It changed how we perceive time, and it changed the attention span of every generation that followed the Boomers. If you want to reach the majority of a culture today, you have to make your message short. Of course there are sub cultures such as our little group who like longer things to fill their time, but by and large, our culture will not hear you if you can't keep the delivery of your message to under two minutes or less! THE COST OF THE MEDIA If you choose to you can live your life alone Some people choose the city Some others choose the good old family home I like living easy without family ties Till the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me Right between the eyes PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM Elton John/Bernie Taupin Let's shift gears here a moment. The cost of the media is another interesting thing, which has steadily dropped in price from something only the very rich could own, down to where it is today, which is next to nothing on the Web. I believe this is a byproduct of technology, because everything that has to do with technology has followed this pattern. Remember the very first electronic calculators with their red LED displays? How about the first digital watches? They used to cost hundreds of dollars. You can buy the same thing today at the check out line for a dollar or less. The same is true of the first radios and record players. Every other form of media took the same path. CD players, computers, anything that is mass produced. Even the automobile, regardless of the rise in price, still costs about 20% of a working persons income. This of course means that your new Mac will eventually only cost $1.98! (That is Apple's cost. What they charge YOU will be a different matter.) There is another cost to the media of music we haven't mentioned in all this, which is the cost of a SONG to an individual. Most amazing is the fact that this cost per song has not changed over the generations. From the cost of attending a symphony to buying sheet music, to purchasing a 45 down at the music store - it all is about the same amount of pocket change it has always been, based on your income. However, the cost of a song today has changed in two respects. Either it is free or it is outrageous! With all the music on the Web that is available for easy downloading, the cost of music is free. At the same time, the cost of buying commercial CDs have skyrocketed. Never before has the music itself cost so much to own. No wonder record companies and recording artists are upset with all the free music on the Web! It IS their monopoly, after all. Like you, I wonder where this new trend will lead us all. It will have repercussions to everyone on the Web. That is about the only fact we can be sure of. Will we still have freedom on the web a decade from now? Will music forever be held hostage to the Syndicate of the record companies? Will there be a revolution over this? Interesting times you and I live in today! |
|||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|