Researchers at the University of Leicester in central England have determined that “internet downloading and mp3 players are creating a generation of people who do not seriously appreciate songs or musical performances,” the AP reported earlier this month.
The researchers concluded that because of greater choice and accessibility, music is now a commodity to which we have a passive attitude. Although we may well have a “complex and sophisticated” relationship with music in our in everyday lives, “it is not necessarily characterized by deep emotional investment,” the researchers sniff.
This isn’t news. You have to reach back at least before the Ohio Express’ “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” to tag an era when this might have been still true, and the researchers do, pining like Miniver Cheevy for the nineteenth century, when “music was seen as a highly valued treasure with fundamental and near-mystical powers of human communication.”
Ha ha! The nineteenth century! Of course, in addition to their apparent shamanistic music beliefs, the enlightened commonfolk of that time also thought biological evolution was a fanciful notion, blacks and whites were two distinct species, and microbes were generated spontaneously. Fucking idiots.
I think more to the point is that digital music sharing and downloading don’t create listener apathy—they can brew new passions for the medium. Music downloads for me, legal and otherwise, have helped me discover music I never would never have crossed paths with otherwise. It’s inspired me to buy CDs, attend concerts and share my appreciation with others.
When I was younger, my musical interests were influenced by top-40 radio and friends whose interests were informed by top-40 radio. Now, in the great days of the internets, I not only invest more time listening to music because of what I pick up from LimeWire or the iTunes Music Store, I regularly read snotty indie music review sites. I learn about and sample obscure or forgotten music at passionately written music blogs such as Spoilt Victorian Child. I peruse and listen to what music-aficionado musicians like David Byrne are spinning in their spare time. And I use programs such as Pandora to unearth new music based on what I already like.
It may not be deeply emotional, but it’s hardly passive.