Downloading CDs teaches youth music appreciation

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 5:01 am

Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, 11/21/2003 wrote: ...My three kids -- their ages spanning the college years to high school -- never, exclusively, developed a taste for contemporary hard rock. Neither did their friends.

Their tastes are all more eclectic than to be confined to a single genre, and more sophisticated. My kids listen to -- and this is only a very partial list -- Mozart, Prince, James Brown, Black-eyed Peas, Notorious B.I.G., Iggy Pop and the Cramps ("Look Mom, No Head!"), Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, the Who, Outkast, the Clash, Daft Punk, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, Tim McGraw, Aretha Franklin, the Strokes, the Pixies, Steely Dan. I once walked into my 16-year-old daughter's room and she was playing a downloaded CD of, and I kid you not, Judy Garland favourites.

The operative word in that last sentence was "downloaded." Whatever one feels about the ethics of downloading music (and I do not want to go into it here), the Internet has given my children and their entire demographic cohort more exposure to different types of music than I ever had when I was their age. The Internet for them is the musical equivalent of an art museum, one they can stroll through at their leisure....

What surprises is me is the extent to which the old "classics" are informing the tastes of the young. The Beatles. The Stones. Hendrix. The Doors. And yes, Led Zeppelin. My kids' request for Christmas last year? Zeppelin's double-DVD of live concert performances. From the 1970s. It would be the same if I had asked my parents for a Fats Waller 78 r.p.m. for Christmas when I was 16 -- which I might have, if I hadn't been busy at the time playing air guitar to Whole Lotta Love.

I put this to my daughter one day after enduring an afternoon of '60s and '70s rock that she insisted we listen to in the car. Between a Hendrix tune and an old disco chestnut I used to dance to in three-inch platform shoes, I asked her why her generation didn't "get its own freaking music" because I was getting mightily tired of having to listen to mine over and over again. She said:

"Because our music sucks."

Her older brothers and their friends feel the same and have said so -- that much of the new music billing itself as cutting edge is monotone, often morose, and worse, unhummable -- an angst-ridden universe of sophomoric poets whose songs resemble the scores of Andrew Lloyd Weber, in that they are eminently forgettable. (My picks for most overrated and unlistenable bands? Coldplay and Radiohead. As dreary as English winters.)...

source

Rozard · Post by **Rozard** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 12:17 pm

Looks like one Canadian has it right

Except about the Coldplay and Radiohead part

Kuroryuu · Post by **Kuroryuu** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 12:28 pm

That is very true, downloading music off the internet expands your musical horizons even further. From my own personal experiences, the internet has led me to many different musical "alleys" you could say, like I had never heard of Black Metal until 4 years ago or so. Now that is almost the only music I listen to, and I love it. Also I love J Pop/J Rock, and I had never been able to find any CD's in that type of genre at all, until I got the internet ^_^. Downloading music shouldnt be illegal, or anything, neither should P2P programs like Kazaa or whatever. The RIAA needs to fuck off and let it be.

Jace Tsunami · Post by **Jace Tsunami** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 1:35 pm

No one wants to make downloading music illegal, they just want to moderate it.

You KNOW record labels (big and small) don't enorse kids downloading ENTIRE albums, burning them to CD, and never making a purchase. Yet at the same time Record Labels fully support file sharing, they themselves put music up for download all the time.

The RIAA just wants to moderate file sharing, to make sure that the only music getting around is music record labels approve of.

rubyeye · Post by **rubyeye** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 2:25 pm

Jace Tsunami wrote:No one wants to make downloading music illegal, they just want to moderate it.

The RIAA just wants to moderate file sharing, to make sure that the only music getting around is music record labels approve of.

Hence, the dumbing down of America and civilization in general. They just want to force feed us this crap and then we bullshit ourselves into actually liking it, justified by the fact we give them our money to surpress our guilt for not "stealing" it.

I'm sort of glad I have to go out of my way and do some surfing to find music I like instead of being told to. It makes finding it and liking it that much more intimate and meaningful.

Amen to those kids for having good taste.

Jace Tsunami · Post by **Jace Tsunami** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 2:35 pm

um, I said big AND small labels. Small labels don't force feed you shit.

I can go surfing to a few various small label's websites and find atleast 5 CDs worth of free music. They offer most of the album to be previewed, they give you music before it's released, they give you music that will NEVER be released.

For such a music pioneer you don't know small labels too well.

Now think about this, if you were a small label making sure you were doing absolutley everything you could to give these kids decent previews and spit out all this free music, would you like it if these kids just ignored your efforts then pirated entire records off Kazaa and never paid a dime of respect to anyone?

I'm not talking about labels only giving you the bands "single" that sounds absolutley nothing like the rest of the album so you get a shitty preview and buy a crap album, and then are "breainwashed" into thinking you like that album. I constently download like 8 tracks of 12 when i preview albums from record labels. They'll gvie you like 1 or two songs at a time through out the corse of a year before the actual album is released.

all record labels want to do is moderate downloads, they're not trying to brain wash kids with "crap" or force feed you shit. They endorse the downloading of free music, they do NOT endorse pirating. Pirating is the downloading of an entire album and burning to CD with out ever buying the album.

Sometimes I'll download entire albums straight from the record label. The difference is they've been so kind and curtious to me that I actually BUY the music when it hits stores.

All kazaa is to me is stealing free goods. You shouldn't feel the need to steal something that's free in the firs tplace, why don't you try asking first?

I have absolutley no problems getting the necessary amount of preview material i need. I have spindles of burned CDs with unreleased music on it, and free preview tracks. I respect the labels for giving this to me and in turn buy the albums.

you're stelaing for no good reason. Stop being a dumb cunt and making assumption about all record labels based ona few big rotten eggs. Even some of the big record labels arn't 100% evil.

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 4:15 pm

the only time i download an entire cd is when i plan to buy it(get a taste of the full album)

right now, i have purchased every single cd that i have fully downloaded.

if i had to rely on the radio id be stuck listening to rap, country, pop, or spanish music(only local stations and they all inhale vigorously)

if i had to still rely on buying music buy guessing, id still be buying half good cds)3 or 4 good songs with the rest being garbage)

the internet is a great tool for being exposed to good music, and if you purchase a cd if it is good, then you save yourself the hassle of buying another useless cd you wll be tired of in 2 weeks.

rubyeye · Post by **rubyeye** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 11:48 pm

Jace Tsunami wrote: you're stelaing for no good reason. Stop being a dumb cunt and making assumption about all record labels based ona few big rotten eggs. Even some of the big record labels arn't 100% evil.

Name three............................................................................gotch ya!!

Ah, seriously though, I do have my reasons for what you call "stelaing" (I believe you mean "stealing"). I'm poor and I'm resourceful enough to know how to budget my costs- if it's free and it saves money, take advantage of it. I won't label myself a sucker by paying for something I later decide I hate, don't want any more, or simply collect dust on the shelf. And when I try to "sell" it back, I'm only offered 1% of the original price, which they in turn label as "used" and jack it back up for the next "sucker".

Yeah, I've had a lot of bad experience being taken advantage of (until I opened my eyes). So if it means being an asshole and screwing the system back, so be it.

Damn it's late........zzzzzzz

Jace Tsunami · Post by **Jace Tsunami** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 11:54 pm

so you're saying you download so you can get a preview, and so if you get something you hate you ended up never spending money on it. Fine.

However, do you ever buy and of the CDs you LIKE?

I didn't fucking think so.

nailz · Post by **nailz** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 1:15 am

Metal heads typically have a collection of 100's of cds.