We are in the midst of the digital age. There are no flying cars, robot servants, and our houses are not orbiting above ground. The same stench of pollution and smog-filled skies still occupy our daily lives. For a while, it seemed like the future had us all fooled.
Thankfully, the thing the future did give us holds such an intrinsic value, that the other entire futuristic letdown seems miniscule in comparison.
This is what the post-millennial world is currently offering us: a constant stream of digital artistry in the form of limitless music. It’s time to give our ears some pampering.
Gone are the days when you had to travel to another country to buy an album that was not released in your homeland e.g.
In fact, you would not even have to leaf through a “magazine” any longer. These days, the artists’ mind is just a click away. The numerous webzines dedicated to covering music is numerous. Not to mention personally-maintained band blogs. You can visit a site like the Royal Artist Club and obtain exclusive news straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. The olden days of trying to figure out the lyrics to a song printed in superscripted text on the back of an album sleeve is today replaced with musicians informing you what they had for dinner last night – either through their blog or through hip mediums such as Twitter.
On the road and without access to a PC or your laptop – but you really need to hear a song right now? The mobile apparatus of today knows no boundaries. You could literally be almost anywhere around the world and have access to the most obscure song.
Needing that fix of Beatles rarities while having tea in a remote café in
There is always that small quandary – many old school music fans believe the fact that everything is within reach drives away the intrinsic purpose of the art of music. The mysteriousness of certain bands is no longer possible in these day and age where every form of information is just a click away. And there is no denying the rampant ness of illegal downloads and album leaks.
Regardless of where one stands in the argument for or against the increasing availability of music (remember when indie rock band Pavement sang “There are too many bands”), one must be quiet the pessimist to not believe that the internet age has given us so much good music that during any other time would have had no chance of being heard. The word-of-mouth travels faster than ever before, and today, everybody and every musician get a chance to shine. If you’re not yet a musician, there is better time to be one than today.
Somebody, a long time ago said “Music should be free.” Perhaps we haven’t reached that plateau, but we’re getting closer than ever before.
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