Will
file sharing on the internet and MP3’s ruin music? The fear is whether having
all the music be on MP3’s instead of CD’s will cause the “album” as we know it to
gradually go away. Of course, we’ll still have the old ones, but the trend may
encourage today’s musicians to dribble out singles onto their MySpace page instead of working
over a period of time to actually build something. Sort of like what email has
done with correspondence, but now it’s music? I’m not saying a hit song is bad.
I’m just saying that complete albums
are good. And I personally don’t want to see less of them. I want to see more of them. More. Not less.
And furthermore, how often is it the case where your favorite songs end up
being anything but the ones that made you buy the album in the first place? Exactly.
But you wouldn’t know now would you? Since you only downloaded those first
couple of songs.
The loss of
retail stores (Tower Records, etc) is also of concern. The removal of impulse
or spontaneous buying—is of concern. You walk around the store. You see
something that catches your eye. You didn’t even know it
existed! This is discovery. This is walking around in a library or book shop.
It’s been a while since I myself have been in either. The argument is not that
internet shopping isn’t convenient as hell. Or that I’m not lazy and fat. The
question is whether the internet will lead to too
much choice.
On an entirely
different note, another concern is that too much dilution of artistic
production will lead to less collective focus—and this will diminish the
occurrence of mass spectacle. Like if the Catholics only had bunch of small
churches—and were never willing to put all
the money into one big one like St. Peter’s in
The Internet is
also dangerous because you can totally get drunk and email your ex-girlfriend
that you love her, when in fact, not only do you not love her, you don’t even
really like her—at all. Maybe you just think she’s hot. Or maybe you just think
you think she’s hot. Hell maybe
she is. Either way, you were lonely. And drunk. And you forgot to turn off
your computer before starting. And it wasn’t even a weekend? Dammit. You can
also use the internet to buy a stock. Maybe three stocks, all of which are as
determined to go bankrupt as I apparently am.
The one glaring
exception to all of this is politics. I can’t help but think the ability of
video sites like YouTube to catch politicians
saying what they actually think can only be a good thing. As someone who might
vote (once you can do it from home), why would I not want this?
April 2007