Where is the love?

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

So we're all resigned to a bit of a slump in pop and teenpop, but... am I imagining it, or is everyone getting spikey about music in general? I know "I Love Music" has rarely lived up to its name in the last 5 years, but it does feel like a lot of stuff (new stuff) is getting ACTIVE dislike more than seems usual (or healthy, to me).

Is this because things are "on the move" and people are trying harder to be "taste makers"?

Or perhaps I am just imagining it, and no explanation is needed.

Settle my mind, or solve my conundrum.

Comments

A possible explanation

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

In terms of getting to hear music there's a kind of pyramid of motive viz

1 I've heard this without trying to (i.e. on the radio/in a club etc.)
2 This sounds bad but I want to see what the fuss is about.
3 I'm interested enough to give this a go.
4 I am really keen to hear this.

As access to music becomes easier (and more often free), #s 2 and 3 expand enormously. That's what's been happening: more people able to hear and offer opinions on music they wouldn't otherwise have bothered with. A lot of them aren't going to like it so the opinion-giving trends more to negative. And there's no much music being discussed that there's not many people bothering to qualify or explain there judgements before hopping onto the next thing.

Re: A possible explanation

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Bah my long post was eaten. Basically #2 and #3's lives are also made easier by YouTube, which is an order (or two) less fiddly than P2P and doesn't bother The Man much because you can't easily extract things like you could with the brief experiment with embedded mp3s (which survives mostly on amazon pages now) and even if you can it's an enormous flash file most of which is quite shitty video. And even non-single stuff without a video will be the soundtrack to someone's home footage: I had the urge to hear The Mountain Goats' Game Shows Shape Our Lives, and now I'm listening to it while someone's dog cavorts about in an unseen tab of my browser. From thought to listening in about 10 seconds, it's the internet the way that people not on the internet thought it worked (or for that matter how some people on the internet thought it probably worked Further In and Higher Up).

I realise this isn't the most original observation ever, but I'm particularly feeling over the last month, as restrictions on the web in work have relaxed == I can now actually hear what people are talking about on the "this week" polls.

Re: A possible explanation

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was thinking of YouTube more than P2P!

For some reason the unseen fan video shit happening on a tab under what I'm doing creeps me out though :(

Re: A possible explanation

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Again with the obvious statement, but what Youtube is to P2P, Spotify is to Youtube.

Re: A possible explanation

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Except I can't get Spotify through the company firewall :(

I have started a Poptimists collaborative playlist which I will post tonight, though.