blog.maestro.fm

Is it just me? Has anyone else noticed it? In the past 10 years, people have become less and less attached to their music, further disconnected from something that they used to identify with so closely. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, you could tell a great deal about a person by the music they listened to, and vise versa. They were so closely connected emotionally with the music they listened to that it often defined them as an individual. Walk down any street and you would see AC/DC t-shirts, entire punk-rock outfits, boom boxes shoulder-high blaring Run DMC.

People, and their music, were connected. They were intrinsically bound together through an innate personal link between them. This connection drove the passion that led to loyal fanhood, people who followed artists across the country for entire decades, knew every song they wrote by heart. It wasn’t just a rare occurance…it was commonplace. Think about it for a moment…do you feel the same way about the music you listen to now, as you did a decade ago with the music you listened to then? Odds are, you are shaking your head no, with the majority of the populace.

Nowadays, you don’t see this passion between people and the music they enjoy. The connection is more distant, the loyalty less extreme. What happened between the music industry and the hundreds of millions of fans worldwide who would anxiously count down the days ‘til a new CD was released, or a band/artist came to their hometown?

Look at what has made the news lately: labels suing average Joe Music-listener, illegally downloaded content running amuck, retail storefronts closing down, thousands of sporadic online music sites popping up. Artists come and go every month, having smash hits and then never being heard from again. Instead of one seamless music environment, we are now greeted by thousands of scattered music attempts void of a cohesive experience that music lovers can really bond with. It is changing…a little…but attention needs to be brought to what’s really going on here. Otherwise the pendulum of the music experience will swing towards a passive, almost apathetic, point of view.

The situation at hand saddens me to no end, and as a music-lover, I hope that affected parties will work together to find a solution. In fact, I believe this is likely the only way to solve the growing disconnect. You see, the answer to the question I have posed can only be found when you search for the root of the problem itself. The problem is the environment we have surrounded music enthusiasts with. The music environment is now hostile, unsure, and displaced…broken. With such an environment comes the loss of the bond between the average person, and the music they enjoy. The REAL question then, is how do we reconnect these two parties…how do we bring people, and their music, back together again?