Music’s endangered species
Last month metal fans had something to yell about.
Metallica finally gave in to iTunes.
The heavy metal band became the latest in a long list of bands to join the online music retailer.
With only a few holdouts remaining, many people wonder if the music business is ready to go 100 percent digital.
The number of compact discs sold in the United States has been slowly dropping, while digital music seems to be gaining more and more popularity ever day.
A survey done in June by the Student Monitor showed that the iPod has become more popular on college campuses than beer.
Yes, you heard me right.
A small number of big name artists have yet to sell their music digitally, including the Beatles, Radiohead, Garth Brooks and Led Zeppelin.
There are a few bands such as AC/DC that sell their music digitally on other sites, but not on iTunes.
Experts in the music business say that these artists can’t hold out forever.
Eventually they will have to give in to the ever-growing online retailers. But until these groups sell their music online, the transition from CDs to digital music won’t be complete.
For many students growing up in the digital age, the tremendous shift from CDs to MP3s might seem like one of the greatest events to happen in our culture.
But at the same time, one of the greatest accomplishments in modern music will be destroyed – the album.
Anyone who knows a thing or two about rock ’n’ roll history knows that the Beatles are famous for much more than their music.
They used techniques in the studio that nobody had dared to try before them, and they forever shaped the pop music.
One of their biggest achievements was redefining the album’s role in music.
Before the Beatles came along, most music was released as singles.
The singles were played on the radio, and could be bought in record stores.
Albums were 33-inch records known as long-players, or LPs, and contained collections of hit singles after the songs became popular.
This is how most music was released, especially in the United States.
The Beatles changed all this by recording whole albums containing 10 or more songs. Any singles that were released would come straight off the album.
For the next 40 years, almost all genres of music were recorded this way.
Bands like Pink Floyd, Electric Lights Orchestra, the Moody Blues and the Who started putting more energy into the albums and less into the individual songs.
These albums were meant to be listened to as a whole. Without the context provided by the surrounding tracks, the songs mean nothing.
Digital music abruptly takes away this context.
MP3 players, CD burners and user-created playlists allow the Beach Boys to be followed by Ludacris, or Buddy Holly by Rascal Flatts, or Howlin’ Wolf by Tool. The combinations are literally endless.
With the option to create our own playlists, the masterpieces these artists have spent thousands of hours creating have suddenly been torn apart.
Artists won’t have to record a dozen songs at a time.
Hit singles won’t need to be surrounded with worthless songs recorded to take up space on an album.
Record companies won’t have to spend millions of dollars manufacturing and shipping CDs.
Just like the musician who isn’t in the music business for the money, or the DJ who cares about the music he is playing, the album will become a thing of the past.