Most of us at Bingham hardly remember the days of CD players, boom boxes, vinyls, or even walkman’s. All we know are the days of itunes, ipods and illegal downloads. Thanks to the interweb.
“The internet as far as selection goes has made music like 300 times as broad,” said Jesse Hancock, writer for music website Showscoop. “ Now you can’t even keep track of all the different types of music.” Fifty years ago, there were about five dominant genres. Rock ‘n Roll, Country, Jazz, Folk, and a few others. Nowadays there are countless amounts of genres. Trap, Dubstep, Rap/Hip-Hop, Alternative, R&B, Reggae and countless sub genres within each of these.
“Music today is very viral. Everyone in the world can know a song within a week. Whereas 20 years ago it was run by the record companies,” said Jesse. Twenty years ago the record companies decided who got big and who didn’t. The Internet has changed all of that. There are countless ways for bands to get their music out there as opposed to what used to be the all-important record deal. Itunes, blogs, social media and streaming websites, allow any band to have the potential to become famous.
The digital age we live in has also changed the way artists make music, not just the way it is commercialized. Thirty years ago people would buy a 12 dollar CD for just one really great song. The artist could then put on a bunch of less-great songs and people would be forced to buy the whole album because of one song. Now, people can simply go onto itunes select the one song they wish to buy. Artists are now forced to create better albums as a whole because of the digital age. Album sales have fallen almost 20% the past four years because of this according to Billboard.com. Because of this and the easy ability to steal music through piracy, now an artist’s main source of revenue is concerts.
The interweb has also boosted the average person’s creativity and motivation to create music. Jesse said, people have always been making their own music, its just now being recorded a lot more. This is a chain reaction. People see other’s efforts and are inspired to create their own music. The interweb has changed music in more ways than one. From the way it is made to the way it is sold to the public, the whole process is very different because of this one invention.
5
