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Originally Posted by Dotoar
I don't see the point of being so dystopian, especially regarding artforms such as music. Music itself has probably been around since man discovered fire but popular music as we know it has only existed for like 50 years or so, and it has ever since constantly evolved and branched off into a multitude of styles and purposes. Mainly thanks to the equally evolving technology, which brings us to the larger picture.
'History is doomed to repeat itself' says the ringer of doom, but consider this: During the last 100 years, more development has taken place in our world than during the entire history of mankind up until then. We have gone from walking by foot to the next village over the course of one day to catching a plane from Stockholm to Tokyo in the same amount of time. We have gone from having to collect hopefully dry firewood in the forest to chop up and set fire to in the stove to gain heat, to turn the thermostat on the radiator half an inch to the left. We have gone from baking bread out of grinded bark and fermenting fish to typing in an order on a website for pizza. We have gone from hardly being able to read at all, and if so, barely ever coming across something to read, to having access to just about all the knowledge in the whole world without even leaving the room. And we have gone from writing letters with - at best - a quill-pen and sending them through a postal service that took weeks to deliver, to instantly throwing out short and sharp messages about how today's music sucks on a virtual place dedicated only to music, which everyone in the whole world can access. And as you read this, there are dozens of things just around you at this very moment, that you don't even pay attention to but that didn't even exist just a 100 years ago, whose absence probably made life a lot harder then. Would you believe such things would occur in 100 years time, had we lived at the turn of the last century? I doubt it.
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Take for example Ancient Rome; they had plenty of great luxuries (heck, had these luxuries not ****ed them over like they will us, they might have discovered electricity). Their water system was ingenious, they had brilliant military and scientific minds. They had plenty of things to do in their spare time, such as bathing (a big passtime), the colloseum, etc. Yet look what happened. Their lust for savagery, their inability to deal with incoming attacks due to their obsession with laziness (and, according to the Pope, being sinners) led to their downfall. All over the course of history, people have had luxuries that either constitute their downfall or wind up being reappropriated to another civilization (not a passtime, but for example, Romans using Greek Gods by power). It's only natural that we get MORE of them, because we're building on something that previously existed. But just because we're building off of something, doesn't mean that that 'thing' won't tumble. "History is doomed to repeat itself", says the realist.
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What I'm trying to get across here is that we live in a unique time in history, despite the fact that yes, there are still powerful people out there who will always try to gain control over certain things. But it's harder than ever for them to do that since the ultimate proof of the advantages of a liberated world is all around us in the form of development, technology, science, culture and the most basic assumption: The acknowledgements of human rights and freedom that stem from the philosophical revolution we generally refer to as the enlightenment, in turn sparking the political conditions under which the industrial, and in time technological, revolution could take place. This was simply something unheard of ever before and historically speaking, the turning point that once and for all proved the capabilites of man. I'm not saying that it's the best of worlds, but I do say that it is arguably the best world we have yet seen.
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So the Greek philosophers and the spiritual/intellectual/revolutionary enlightenment it led to don't count? Yes, the philosophes of France during the Enlightenment coined something special for their time, and it IMPACTED the common class more than say 'Leviathan' or something, but it had been done many times before, in the same fashion. We look back on our recent history as something special. It indeed was, the names, dates and places all fascinate me to say the least (history is honestly the best bottomless pit to ever exist), but it's not without its visible patterns. Simply because we're more in touch with the Francophones who invented the first encyclopaedia, doesn't mean we can say it's without visible comparisons.
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And ok, that's a grander historical perspective but music isn't isolated from that either. People often ask me if I'd rather live in the 60's/70's since the music back then was so much better than today. My answer nowadays is alway a strict no, because why would I want to go back to a time where I could only listen to the music that had yet been made then when I instead can stay here and listen to all that wonderful music and best parts of the music being made today? And why would I want to leave behind a time where I can access all that music by the press of a few buttons, and in addition, look up information about the bands I on the way find interesting? No, I'm not a technocrat, because in discussions like these I don't really see the machines around me as machines. I see needs being fulfilled through the visions of other people, people who strive to make a certain little part of our lives just a tiny bit easier, and in the process actually get to realize it and be rewarded for it.
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I find the question is just meant to see how much nostalgia you have in your system. Living in the time of your favorite music is a lot different than experiencing it thirty years later. I personally agree with you on staying here, though.
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The same thing goes for music; It's easier than ever to realize your musical vision so yes, we have to put up with everyone and his grandma trying to prove themselves worthy of airplay, but would we want to trade all that for conditions that filter away everyone but the ones who are granted access to the microphones? Would we cut back on the technology in order to save ourselves from teeny-bop pollution and in the process having to go back to expensive records that in addition there aren't too many of? Would we want to give up on an open virtual society through which we can listen, collect, share, advertise, showcase, trade and discuss - all by our own choice - music? No, we wouldn't, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a liar or a music hater. And possibly a closet misanthrope.
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Not against everybody giving music a chance in the slightest, so I doubt this is addressing me. I simply feel as though all of these people are going to have a hard-as-**** time trying to get a 'deal' or whatever they wish to get based off of how manipulative, controlling and arbitrarily-selective their taskmasters will end up being.
I would like to add that this is probably the most personally interesting debate/topic I've ever had on MB, and I feel the site needs more of these wall-of-texts debates that merit miles more discussion.