Of course I am exaggerating, but, there is a part of this that I feel is true. Before I had my iPod, I carried around my CD case. It looked like a family picture album. I, every morning would take to CD book to my car and removed at the end of every day. I desired to have all of my music with me at all times. I never knew what type of mood I would find myself in, on any particular day.
But, the day arrived, I received my very first iPod. I was to never be the same. My life changed. I now reflect on my life as Pre-iPod and Post-iPod. It was a watershed moment in my life. I now had everything that I could possibly want to listen to on something no larger than an index card.
With this Ipod, I could now go seamlessly from the Beastie Boys to Beethoven to Nelly depending on my mood or fellow passengers in my car. With this invention, it changed the way I listened to music. I could now develop my own soundtrack to my life.
So, how do I listen to music now? Well, I still listen to albums and a bands full catalog but now I
find myself developing themes. Creating a musical essays in my head based on certain songs. For example, I have listed some songs below that I think could be an example of a dating relationship. The beginning of the relationship to a possible break up.
Cupid- Sam Cooke
The Lovely Linda - Paul McCartney
Hallelujah I love her so- Ray Charles
September- Earth, Wind and Fire
Let's Stay together- Al Green
I Still Miss Someone - Johnny Cash
I think about music and its ability to cross boundaries, to communicate complicated emotions. So my question is, has technology ruined art, and specifically music, or opened it to a whole new world of interaction?
Like I told you on the phone, ever since I got the iPod, I rarely listen to albums. This is a fault of mine. Maybe I should say I only listen to the albums I had already been acquainted with 'before' the iPod.
ReplyDeleteBut I do think the advent of the iPod is going to change and is changing the world of music. Because we can just pick and choose - buffet style - whatever song we want when we want it, and we can even have easier access in listening to just 'parts' of songs rather than the whole song, this has got to put some kind of burden on the artist when making his music.
Organizing songs according to themes is very cool. We can only wonder what Rob Gordon in High Fidelity would have done with an iPod or iTunes. Who knows? Maybe he would hate it. The collection of albums might be considered an art in itself: album sleeves, artwork, not just on the case, but the record or the CD itself.
But it's so cool to be able to arrange songs according to themes, motifs, or moods in your own life. Like you said, you can coordinate certain songs to evoke the mood you think accompanies the start and finale of a dating relationship! We can assemble a group of songs that evoke the mood for wanting to exercise, songs that inflame our adrenaline.
In my case, I've compiled songs that could accompany what I feel when I see the sun setting or rising. For example, when I hear Your Love by The Outfield (or, Dance Hall Days by Wang Chung or, Don't Dream it's Over by Crowded House), I feel like driving when the sun is setting. Of course, the song conjures up other feelings, but in my case, that's the predominant one. Or, remember when we purposely decided to cross the bridge into Charleston while blaring Boys of Summer by Don Henley: the sun was setting, the windows were down, the wind coming in, and we were both silent, soaking up the scene, because we both knew why we were doing it: because it evokes in us a feeling of beauty, and we feel really happy for a moment.
And I do remember the days of CD cases! Wow, are those days long gone for me.
So, to your question: has technology ruined art? Not directly, I think. Technology is primarily an instrument that makes something easier: accessing and organizing songs. But I don't think it's ruined art any more than tractors have ruined farming. Tractors make farming easier than otherwise. Similarly, iPods and iTunes have made it easier to organize and access music.
But then we might have different relationships: like, what about the relationship between technology and corporations? Corporations flourish on the heels of technology. And corporations have a monopoly on art, especially music. This monopoly ends up being the guardian for what counts as good music, and good music becomes tantamount to 'whatever music brings in the most cash'! If the links in that chain lead there, technology might be indirectly responsible for ruined art. But by that logic, I'd have to blame Adam and Eve for Hitler, since without Adam and Eve there would be no Hitler: in this sense, Adam and Eve are indirectly responsible for Hitler. But we wouldn't fault Adam and Eve: that would be absurd. So, I don't think I'll fault technology: at least, directly.
But back again to that relationship between corporations and technology: it's a vicious circle. iPod is owned by the corporation Apple, and I'm pretty sure in an office somewhere with no windows on the 2345th floor of some skyscraper, Apple bureaucrats got together and came up with the idea of an iPod not to further the cause of art and music, but to further the cause of their bottom line. Now, sometimes these causes coalesce: greed and prospering art aren't in an inverse relationship. But since the art depends on the greed, all it takes is for the ignorant masses to demand inferior art - greed will then oblige, using technology to circulate art feeding that inferiority.
So, I guess it all depends. There's just too many variables.
Tell me what you think!