He was partially right, which means he was partially wrong too.
Yeah, a lot of isolated music listening (I'm not going with consumption, sorry) did happen. I can definitely attest to that as someone from the "Walkman generation".
But all the kids forming "bands" all over the world show that the active social interaction of music didn't go away. Or maybe I'm just lucky, as on a weekly basis I stumble upon the sound of people jamming while taking random walks in my city.
I read "they would be alone in their own rooms passively listening" and think of Björk's song headphones ("my headphones, they saved my life") and just awe at the seemingly infinite range of human thought and emotion ...
People were forming bands long before recording artists were popular. It wouldn't look like the beatles though. It would be you on accordion and your friend on upright bass taking turns singing polka songs for weddings, funerals, in bars, at war, or anything really. If you wanted music back then you needed a musician, which probably meant there were more musician jobs overall. Maybe in some ways, back before the rockstar era, it might have been more realistic to set out and make a career as a musician in a band.
These days though, you don't need a couple musicians in each and every bar in town every night for drinking music, you just open spotify, and if you actually do hire a local musician to play the drinking music you are something of an anomaly.
Yeah, regarding your comment about people playing music together before, I’m reading “Men, Women, and Pianos” after seeing it mentioned here on HN and it’s a great read about that (obviously centered on keyboard instruments).
And regarding your comment about bars and musicians, I was reminded about a scene from “El Mariachi” in which the guy walks into a bar trying to get a job and is faced with the bartender saying “why would I need a mariachi when I can get the full band”, followed by the demo from a digital keyboard :)
So yeah, the point I tried to make was that despite the changes brought about by technology, the social aspect to music still lives on, and I personally love the private side of it that came thanks to technology. Not going to argue about the difficulty of making a living as a musician, but life is all about change and careers come and go.
> These days though, you don't need a couple musicians in each and every bar in town every night for drinking music... if you actually do hire a local musician to play the drinking music you are something of an anomaly.
Maybe where I am (London) is an outlier, but it's not hard _at all_ to find a free neighbourhood pub open mic night on any day of the week, not to mention full on live music venues.
I'd say its an outlier. There are places like that in the U.S. of course but the vast majority of bars and clubs just play a playlist off of some workers phone who is on the clock that night.
He was partially right, which means he was partially wrong too. Yeah, a lot of isolated music listening (I'm not going with consumption, sorry) did happen. I can definitely attest to that as someone from the "Walkman generation".
But all the kids forming "bands" all over the world show that the active social interaction of music didn't go away. Or maybe I'm just lucky, as on a weekly basis I stumble upon the sound of people jamming while taking random walks in my city.
I read "they would be alone in their own rooms passively listening" and think of Björk's song headphones ("my headphones, they saved my life") and just awe at the seemingly infinite range of human thought and emotion ...