IPODS:The Death Of Music As An Art?

Cauldron_Born · Post by **Cauldron_Born** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:38 am

I already posted this to a couple other forums. My apologies if you have seen it before:

While the IPOD already contributes to piracy,I am afraid it will be the death of music as an art in general in the long run. Most people I encounter on a daily basis no longer buy CDs. Even if they don't download the music illegally they only buy the "hit " song or songs from the album and say the hell with the rest. I believe over time that this will lead to the dumbing down of the appreciation of music. Only songs that are immediately catchy on the first listen will be accepted,the rest cast aside. Eventually there will be no interest in the artists who create the music because it all is so depersonalized. It might as well be robots or a machine making the music. Maybe as Metal fans none of this matters to us. I still buy CDs,listen to my old cassette tapes and I have boxes full of vinyl(though I need to buy a new turntable). What do you guys think about this?

voidghast · Post by **voidghast** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:28 am

I think this applies mostly to pop and rap music. Both of those are almost completely singles generated and have seemed quite dead for awhile. Sure they rake in tons of money and people buy their downloads online for their ipods but as far as albums go it's a lost cause. It's quite hard to fill an album with the kind of shit people put out today. I mean how many songs about ass or break ups can you have on an album? It doesn't help matters when about 6 of those songs are completely obvious filler tracks. I think metal has a tangible appeal that will enable it to ride out the ipod craze. I could have every Hell demo downloaded or Gotham City release but I long to have them in vinyl before my eyes,in my hands. I think we all feel that way on here about metal in one way or another. Vinyl will be around for us and of course for punks in their various forms. I don't have an ipod and will never get one. If i want to hear something from my computer in my car then I will burn a cd. I don't need to listen to music while I am walking or while I am grocery shopping and shit. I often get the feeling that ipods themselves are based on songs and not albums. This doesn't mean that everyone who owns one just listens to random songs but I feel like a majority of people do. Wasn't the first ipod that ipod shuffle?

MEXDefenderOfSteel · Post by **MEXDefenderOfSteel** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:42 pm

i totally agree with this!!!....is madness, fucken commercial shit....but guess whta....heavy metal will never die....true dihard heavy metal fans want the real stuff, not a bunch of songs in a lilttle thibgy like an ipod, im against that shit regarding music (can be useful for videos and shit...)

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:48 pm

I agree in general, but I don't think Ipods make a difference in general. The "only the hit songs and the hell with the rest" mentality has always been king to the vast majority of occasional music listeners anyway. I think there will always be a demand for music with more heart and soul regardless of which format will be dominant in the future. If anything, I fear that in the future some bands will no longer make albums as such but release a song here and a song there, which seems kind of boring to me. I like the concept of albums as opposed to isolated songs.

I myself have an Ipod since three years and it's packed with metal (only albums that I have bought of course). It's very handy for listening when traveling by train (which I do a lot), while walking, at work etc.

Korgüll · Post by **Korgüll** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:43 am

mordred wrote:I myself have an Ipod since three years and it's packed with metal (only albums that I have bought of course). It's very handy for listening when traveling by train (which I do a lot), while walking, at work etc.

Yes, I am in the same situation. I used to have a CD walkman, but it was a hassle carting around my CD's.
I couldn't live without my ipod, now I can cart around 100's of CD's & thousands of songs in one little machine; especially for long traveling overseas & when I try to go for the occasional walk or before bed etc... a great invention!

...and as said previously, I don't think we have to worry about it being the death of metal music or metal CD's, cassettes & LP's, it's only people that aren't really into music that download & buy songs for them...

Abyss · Post by **Abyss** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:21 pm

The funny thing about mp3 players is they keep increasing in capacity when you know damn right the average user does not own enough music to fill one or even know of enough music to download to fill one with.

bigfootkit · Post by **bigfootkit** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:02 am

I don't know about the I-Pod kiling music, i seem to remember many such claims being made about "home taping" in the '80's, and it's still with us.
I do think it could have a knock on effect on album artwork however.
With more & more people only ever seeing album artwork on a two inch I-Pod screen, where's the incentive for bands & labels to invest in interesting artwork to help enhance, explain & sell their product?
The medium already suffered with the switch from vinyl to cd, but if the I-Pod becomes the predominant force in music, the artwork shrinks yet again, rendering elaborate design on the cover obsolete.
I sincerely hope this is not the case, the visual accompaniment of sleeve art, can bring an album to life whilst you listen, it can tempt you to take a chance on a record or band you've never heard, it can help explain themes contained in the music, or maybe just look really cool.
A two inch square will not be able to do that, that's pretty much a bold logo type and a dominant colour, with the album title a barely legible blur along the bottom.
Perhaps the death of art in music then, if not actually the demise of music as an art itself?

Helm · Post by **Helm** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:56 am

if anything this'll push artists in the future to no longer record albums but instead work on a single-song-at-a-time basis. The album format is a marketing issue to begin with, it's not essential. Bands and artists could in the future focus on writing a good song, selling that and then working on another and selling that. The song can be 20 minutes or 3, and it can be micropaid accordingly. This'll be how it goes down, I think.

Music, of course, doesn't die. The music business either, it will adapt. We'll probably pay a subscription fee in the future and have access to as much music we want in relevance to the rate we're paying for. Ease of use (one click, one instant download, one micropayment for 30 cents) will win over music piracy by and large. Most of us that listen to a lot of music aren't inherently unethical and out there to rip off artists when we download. It's a mixture of curiosity and an inability to find the music through legal channels in a fast and reliable way, and of course high prices. If music was decently priced (and given no manufacturing costs for digital music, the emergence and progression of home recording, the auto-PR of good music on the internet, a decent price isn't really much more than half a dollar per song) and easy to find and aquire on a service, we'd probably all migrate to such a format.

Cauldron_Born · Post by **Cauldron_Born** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:51 am

bigfootkit wrote: I do think it could have a knock on effect on album artwork however.
With more & more people only ever seeing album artwork on a two inch I-Pod screen, where's the incentive for bands & labels to invest in interesting artwork to help enhance, explain & sell their product?
The medium already suffered with the switch from vinyl to cd, but if the I-Pod becomes the predominant force in music, the artwork shrinks yet again, rendering elaborate design on the cover obsolete.
I sincerely hope this is not the case, the visual accompaniment of sleeve art, can bring an album to life whilst you listen, it can tempt you to take a chance on a record or band you've never heard, it can help explain themes contained in the music, or maybe just look really cool.
A two inch square will not be able to do that, that's pretty much a bold logo type and a dominant colour, with the album title a barely legible blur along the bottom.
Perhaps the death of art in music then, if not actually the demise of music as an art itself?

If it weren't for the album covers I probably would not have picked up VENOM-BLACK METAL and WITCHFINDER GENERAL-DEATH PENALTY on vinyl back in the early 80's. There are many other albums I bought just because the cover told me what the lyrics and music would be like but these are glaring examples. Great post bigfootkit.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:10 am

Cauldron_Born wrote: If it weren't for the album covers I probably would not have picked up VENOM-BLACK METAL and WITCHFINDER GENERAL-DEATH PENALTY on vinyl back in the early 80's. There are many other albums I bought just because the cover told me what the lyrics and music would be like but these are glaring examples. Great post bigfootkit.

If it weren't for the cover of Death Penalty you would probably have gone home with a porno mag instead.

msp · Post by **msp** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:24 pm

I have a Ipod and it makes it so much easier when travelling on the train or holiday abroad than to take a bag full of CD's. I put my CD's onto Itunes and then transfer to my Ipod.

I hardly ever download anything and if I do it is just to sample the music of a band. If I will like it I will still buy the CD or LP or tape as I like to actually have a product in my hand.

In general downloads are for people with the attention span of a gnat who don't have the desire to search out quality music for themselves. Instant gratification is what it is all about.

The day I sit in front of a computer screen wearing headphones with a fully digital music collection is they day I hang myself

bigfootkit · Post by **bigfootkit** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:57 pm

Cauldron_Born wrote: If it weren't for the album covers I probably would not have picked up VENOM-BLACK METAL and WITCHFINDER GENERAL-DEATH PENALTY on vinyl back in the early 80's. There are many other albums I bought just because the cover told me what the lyrics and music would be like but these are glaring examples. Great post bigfootkit.

Same here with that first Maiden album all those years ago.
I just had to know what the record sounded like if the cover looked like that!