Technology Brings Tools and Challenges to Music in 20th and 21st Centuries

In the 1970's the challenge in music was to be LOUD. Technology was just allowing bands to fill stadiums with sound and amps were finally going up to 10...and the race was on to see who could get to 11 first. Bands like THE WHO headlined this effort. 


Now, the challenge in music seems to be getting bodies to shows. With technology again in a featured role, the Internet with video, websites, and social media, as well as smartphones, with apps and access to the web, people in the tech-oriented affluent first world are accessing more audio and video media than ever. The Internet allows musicians to share work, from demos to full albums, in ways that was never before possible. Technology allows musicians to record music in their home, instead of clamoring to get a major label record deal, one of the ONLY ways to get professional quality recordings in most of the 20th century. 


Now that technology allows musicians the means to create and share their music digitally and in the cloud, the challenge that faces us in the 21st century is physical. Physical bodies in bars, clubs, concert halls, etc. that come in person to see music. Perhaps recording technology allows music to get too "heady" and be so introspective that people would rather listen to it at home on speakers than experience it in person. 


The means by which something is created, is the means by which something is experienced. Music that is CREATED LIVE is more apt to be successfully performed and enjoyed live. Music that is CREATED IN THE BOX (i.e. recorded in a studio, edited widely, etc.) is more apt to be successfully enjoyed IN THE BOX-- i.e. in someone's headphones, or speakers. There's nothing better or worse with either approach but take note if the way you're creating music ends up being the way you experience it, and how you expect others to experience it.