Let’s tackle a big subject today, one that’s pervasive and pertinent to the way we experience music, yet elusive when we try to pin down its true influence. I’m talking about how the Internet, in all its manifestations, plays a role in music consumption.
It makes sense to begin this exploration with a synopsis of how the Internet has the potential to be the Holy Grail for those trying to discover, listen to, share and sell music. Call me naïve, but I don’t see how a system can possibly be better suited for the aforementioned tasks associated with the music business than the Internet.
Anyone can upload content to the Internet. Therefore, assuming you have a computer and the instruments (or whatever you use to create tunes), your song can be heard by anyone else with an Internet connection. It’s an incredible idea and one that’s difficult to comprehend because of its scale.
With such an open system that allows anyone to hear anything that has been recorded and uploaded by anyone at any time, one might expect a diffuse and broad range of artists to achieve a relative level of popularity and only a few, if any, to morph into mega-stars. I mean, if people can truly opine in whichever way their inner music-lover wishes, shouldn’t we see an increasingly broad musical repertoire among the masses?
I don’t feel this scenario has played itself out at all. It seems that there are still only a handful of hot-shot musicians in the public eye at any given time, though their shelf-life might be a bit shorter now than it was a few decades ago.
Here’s how I see it: Despite a greater potential for diversity, those on the cusp of stardom are getting more attention now than musicians have at any other point in time. With our new and evolving technologies (namely the Internet), popularity is compounding. When a music video goes viral it becomes nearly impossible to ignore because people can share it with all of their friends on Facebook, Twitter or whatever social media they’re on. If the same video is in your face day-in and day-out for a month (I’m looking at you, PSY), you’re going to click on it eventually. If everyone else apparently likes it, you probably will too, right?
This bandwagon effect is no safer with something that is (seemingly) benign and innocuous like music than it is with politics or the economy. There is a lot of potential for consumers to be manipulated by this system.
Okay, I should probably address the argument of “Well, consumers define what’s good or bad, so really, it’s the responsibility of artists and producers to best accommodate their desires.” In a perfect world, I agree with this statement. However, when the point of your art is to make lots of money (which is a main goal of big record labels and media conglomerates in general) I think it’s fair to ask questions.
When all it takes is a viral video to propel a nobody into stardom (yes, I hate everything about MTV, past and present), who’s really deciding what’s popular, the producers or the viewers? Yes, people still need to accept something in order for it to be popular, but the formula for a hit single is pretty simple. You take nine parts something that has worked in the past and mix it with one part of something slightly novel and, voila, you have something you can sell.
The Internet has however, not been a totally polarized paradigm shift towards one way of consuming music. For many, it has opened up channels to artists that in the past could have never been discovered by anyone without unlimited time and funds. On a micro level, the Internet has led to great things within the music community. Worthy artists do, in fact, get some much-deserved attention. The Internet has in a way brought about a musical renaissance in which we’re seeing an incredible diversification of style and genre—something that any music lover can appreciate. Let’s try to continue moving towards this latter state of usage.
Has the Internet improved your listening experience or turned you into a music-hating curmudgeon? Let Andy know! Send him an email at aholsteen@dailycardinal.com.
