Sharing musical knowledge through social media

Hi. This is my first blog and I’m rather new to the whole online social networking thing.

I’m a professional composer and musician and I founded my music-for-media company (mainly in the areas of television and advertising) over 20 years ago.

That makes me sound terribly old (I’m not). It could also possibly infer that I have been around too long to offer anything new. That’s wrong too - every day’s a school day, as our American friends say.

Now, what my years composing for this business have given me is experience – experience and insights that perhaps eluded me when I was just starting out. It’s time I shared some of this knowledge and that’s what this blog is all about. I may go off topic here and there, but mainly it’s all about the music – the good the bad and the indifferent. If you're reading this, chances are you may be interested in the same sort of thing – so please feel free to comment and discuss anything from my ramblings.

In this first post I thought I’d take a look at where us humans are with music. Not just in the media, but how we use (and abuse) music in general…

Now that downloads are the norm and paying for music is a rather old hat with the kids, has our attitude to music changed? We have easier and cheaper access to music than ever before, but has this enhanced our appreciation or diminished it?

Undoubtedly we are all able to explore different musical genres that perhaps we may have given a swerve – browsing the net, it’s easy to go stumbling upon (or be sent from a friend) some musical exotica that may have otherwise passed us by and this can most definitely broaden ones musical horizons.

But has music become a commodity? Is it too disposable? Consider ‘classic’ albums – Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ for example. If the Floyd were at the same stage of their career now as back then, would this have reached the same heights, had the same impact and become the icon it has if it were to be released now? – I think not. Sure we’ve all bought in the past on the strength of a great single, only to find the rest of the tracks were distinctly average, but we don’t need to do that these days: We hear something, we like it, we buy it (or blag it). If we are sufficiently curious we may check out other offerings from the same album or artist. But now we can audition them and either keep or reject them straight away. No ‘bedding in’ period, no time to let a song grow on you. Instant gratification: Like it and keep it, or loathe it and bin it. Nothing in-between.

I’m no saint – I’m as guilty as anyone else. My point is that maybe by being so flippant with our use of music we are also unintentionally losing the emotional attachment to much of it. We no longer have the sense of ownership on songs and artist’s that we once had. Kids these days can have 80 gigs worth of music plopped on to their iPod with hardly any knowledge of the musical endeavours or creative thinking that the writers of the music have gone through. Sometimes they don’t even know (nor care) who the artist is. This lack of respect for the process of creation is filtering through to my work in media composition – that will be the subject of a further blog though…

I love music – it’s a very personal and emotional journey for me. I don’t like the idea of something I have poured love and labour into being used, chewed and spat out like gum. If you love music too, give it some TLC.

Technorati Tags: Pink Floyd,iPod