In general I am not at all sure that everything was better in the good old days but I know that one thing was: the "Sound" of Music. Technology has made it very easy to get and disperse music in ways almost unimaginable a few years back but the sound has suffered greatly. The reduction of music into things like mp3's coming out of ear buds is an insult to musicians and listeners alike. They just sound awful. It's like eating the American junk food diet and losing all sense of taste. We get so used to hearing these gutted shadows that we often forget what things should sound like. Anyone can hear the difference when an mp3 is compared to a record on a good system. The mp3 is not as good. All of the information is not there. It's like watching an old TV picture made up of many tiny dots as compared to a high definition system. Why are we so concerned with HD video but not sound? These digital representations don't work. I agree with Neil Young when he says that with mp3 type sound he just can't feel the music the way he used to. With this low quality of sound music in general is not valued as highly as it should be. Of course none of this is new to you and other appreciators of fine sound but I am reiterating it anyway (ranting). Vinyl record sales are actually up (yay!) and our friend Shawn over at Mobile Fidelity reports that these days he is spending most of his time remastering classic LPs for vinyl release. Better head to the thrift store for a turntable before they are all gone!
I thought of all this (again) after playing a duo gig with thugz bassist Chris Lushington. We had only an acoustic guitar, bass and minimal sound reinforcement but it was such a refreshing experience. We played very softly but the sound of the two instruments and the polyphonic style we were doing felt real good. There was a richness to the sound that I just don't hear in the music played at most of the restaurants, coffee houses and such where digital music is used as a background or wallpaper. I'd like to see more businesses have a live musician or two to improve the atmosphere and quality of their establishments. Some seem to think that there are just so many music shows these days. In one sense there are quite a few shows but they are found only in the large "Live Nation" type venues or some of the bigger clubs like maybe the S.F. Bay Area's Sweetwater, Slim's, Terrapin Crossroads,etc. Everywhere else, live music is disappearing. There is some hope I think. Many folks are now discovering the value of organic food, handcrafted beverages, and other healthy living activities. These people are surely going to want their music to be of the highest and most real quality possible. I hope so. Let's get folk singers back into coffee houses, string quartets in the mall, a sitar player at the Indian restaurant, an old time string band at the feed store, etc. etc. The public, especially youths, are getting inundated with phony artificial unhealthy sound everywhere. It numbs both the body and mind. Back not that long ago ( well ok, maybe 40 years ago) kids wouldn't even thing of going to a dance where only records or tapes would be played . They wanted a real band they could feel, no matter how good or bad it was.
This feel of the music and the human interaction of playing and improvising music with good sound is what I experienced playing with Chris the other night. I hope we can do more and more. End of this rant for now.
P.S. - On a related subject - do you think beat boxing is actually music? The Stanley Bros. & the Clinch Mtn. Boys once had a guy do barnyard sounds and sound effects but it was a comedy routine.