The Value Of Music
BBC News this morning had a story about singles. Forty-fives that is. The records with one "hit" song on it, on which the music business was based before artists in the mid-Sixties picked up the gauntlet laid down by Sinatra/Riddle a decade earlier and turned to albums as the vehicle of their expression and which is once again the model as people download their favourite tracks on MP3. Singles are now sixty years old.
People were emailing in, describing the first record they bought - the song, the artist, the label. The label! As though names like Jerden, Decca, Regal Zonophone and Cooltempo had mystic qualities. It struck me that labels on singles were like covers on albums, something that gave it added identity, the orange and yellow swirl of the Capitol label jumping out against the glossy black vinyl giving the same pleasure as looking at a great album cover. But the viewers' memories and the value placed on them were also tied up in the disc itself. Holding it was in itself a satisfaction. I don't think this was nostalgia. If forty-fives didn't have a sensory power that no MP3 can match then today's teenagers, with no record player, wouldn't be buying a million a year. Just to be clear, I'm not dismissing MP3s. You only have to move several thousand albums, singles and CDs across multiple continents to appreciate what a fantastic development digital music files are. More importantly, coupled with the Internet they expand time and space, making a century and a planet of music an arm's reach from desire.
Then the pop pundit came on to distil the event through mediated opinion. If I knew how cross he was going to make me, I would have remembered his name. I think he writes for The Daily Telegraph. What made me crunch my cornflakes was his declaration that music has lost all its value. "It's everywhere these days. It's ubiquitous…and it's free. There's no value left in it anymore." What drivel! This from a man who receives all his music free, hundreds of CDs, files and concerts a year, then writes about the artists and albums that excite him, hoping to persuade us to invest our own passion in them as well. A month ago he was probably deciding on a Top Ten list of the year's best.
I have been listening to the music business chant this mantra about "the value of music" for some eight years. It took me awhile to realise what they meant was "the price of music" and to the modern music businessman, price and value are probably the same thing. Their accepted view is that because it has flowed from the status of a premium product to that of a commodity, it has lost its value. You might as well say that water has no value. It's more important to me in a desert, but it still has tremendous value when it flows from millions of taps.
Music is just as precious when it's everywhere, when it's ubiquitous, when it's free. If no-one cared, why do sites like iMeem and Last.fm each have over 15 million members? Until they shut down due to licensing pressure, why did sites like Mixwit prosper with customers investing valuable time and thought to create mixtapes? The value is there, it's the pricing that has disappeared.
Later that day, waiting in the Tube for a train, I noticed a young, cool looking couple sharing iPod earphones. She was hitting the fast forward button and he was guessing the track.
Click. "Pink Floyd. 'Thin Ice'. From The Wall.
Click. "Keane. That driving song."
The train arrived. We got on.
Click. "Oh…that wanky Christine Aguilara one."
"No, the other one."
"Britney."
Click. He grinned and started bouncing to the beat. "Spamalot."
Click. "Ohhh…this one you have to imagine you're in Ibiza….Foam is coming down from the ceiling….It's really hot and sweaty, everyone's in the same place…." He looked dreamy and far away. "I don't know what it's called but I love it."
Locating MOG account...
Comments (47)
My house is being remodeled, and from my office in the attic, I can hear the workers on the floor below. Sometimes they start talking about music ... one is probably mid/late-40s, the other early-30s, one a classic rock fan, the other raised on the twin prongs of punk and hip-hop. Whenever one of them brings up a song the other doesn't know, I load it immediately onto the computer, crank up the volume, and play it. They never cease to be amazed at the instant accessibility to the songs ... and I get to offer an audio addendum to their conversations. None of us, as far as I can tell, have a problem finding value in this.
I know plenty of people who just had to get everything certain Indie labels released; Sarah, Factory, 4AD, Rough Trade where the designer labels of music back in the 90's & 80's.
my first 45's were cheap trick's i want you to want me and neil diamond's desiree
both pop goodies that worked on a six year old!
i recently chatted with a teen who was initially quite freaked out cuz he had to turn over the record to listen to the other side
what a work out that must have been for him
he did finally say it was worth the extra effort
I love being able to get (Stu Gardner notwithstanding) whatever song I want within a minutes. It's taking some adjustment though, being a music junkie, with all this music around. It definitely doesn't make the music any less special, but it has changed me.
You make a good point about the difference between price and value. For the folks that never held the records it has got to be a totally different thing..I love my vinyl, but I am swaying toward the digital world. I'm not always happy about it, but most of the time it is great.
It really creates time management problems for me, between listening to music and searching for music. With the amount of stuff I like, there isn't time in the day. It is a bit daunting, this easiness.
Hey Jonh, your post made me think about why I had a very modest 45 collection compared to my expansive 'album' collection (a mix of vinyl, cassete, CD, and recently, dowloads from Amazon and 'collective commons' sites). I think the first singles I bought were because I didn't have enough money to stretch to buying an album, then the motivation moved purely to 'completist' tendencies for certain bands. I think the only time I have dowloaded a 'single' track is to sample what a band sounds like, but with more tracks appearing on Deezer or being posted to YouTube I tend to do my sampling via streaming audio/video and not downloading.
I was trying to think of the first single I bought, but actually could not remember. Mmmm. There is a stong possibility it was Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen, and yes I remember the EMI label and the plain black paper sleeve.
Regal Zonophone! Man, I always marveled over that U.K. label-name, which seemed insane and exotic to an American boy. As for the Telegraph turd-brain, he's either a hypocrite or a loveless, soulless git. Oh yeah. Cheers to the couple in the Tube station. My kinda people.
ooooh, that last description made me swoon.... "this one you have to imagine you’re in Ibiza…" this story is fabulous for so many reasons, Jonh. some people are so spoiled and no longer enjoy the riches. while the rest of us still listen with childlike wonder to each note and each silence. indeed, the couple in the Tube sound like my kinda peeps too!
Masoo - You must be the perfect client! Does being the heavenly juke box result in better workmanship? (Speaking of value...)
Neill - Amen brother. What was interesting on the news though, was that any label name had value. Decca was just as important as Blanco y Negro or Two Tone.
Neil - Good first choices! Your excellent taste is still showing, if I may say. Lol re your teen - but did he get off on putting the needle to the record?
Cody - Aye, there's the rub - So much music, such rubbish search engines. Periodically I look at the vinyl and think "sell..", but I just can't bring myself to do it. There's too much enjoyment in watching first time visitors go into stunned silence when they see 36 feet of albums.
Robin - There's one of you in every crowd. :-)
Mike & Mollifire - I instantly saw them from half a platform away - amazing how fast you can spot a fellow traveller. I was getting really excited as the hits kept coming - Floyd, Python, and wanky Britney? My kinda people! Eavesdropping has never been so much fun.
Sometimes you get what you ask for and its scary.
I remember record stores in the late 60's to 70's that were 45RPM only and I went a couple of them before the LP really took off. There were songs it seems you could only get on 45's , things have changed.I remember each had its own design. This also transferred over to albums. I can tell what year a record was released by this design, if it was an origanal release or later something that doesn't really happen with CD's.nice post
Jonh, what a perceptive essay you've written, up to your usual standard. It occurs to me that the term "singles" was born when 45's arrived because LP's arrived around the same time. Before that, 78's hadn't been called singles because there had been no LP's to differentiate them from. On the other hand, there had been (literally) albums, meaning books each containing maybe six 78's. Perhaps people did refer to 78's as singles to differentiate them from albums.
Record labels before the CD era always had the record company's design on the label. Every CD, on the other hand, has its own design, because the artists (i.e., the musicians) are Artistes and the record company is just a faceless organization. Maybe that difference is also because it's not much more expensive to print different designs on the discs now. I'm speculating.
Anyway, great post!
Jonh, this is a fantastic post. I don't really have much to add to what's been said, except I wish I could've followed that couple around to hear the rest of the conversation.
cpeter - In the BBC news story I linbk to they interview a guy who runs a shop that has only sold 45s for more than 30 years. He's just going to close the shop. But he's moving to a market stall. It's an interesting point that record companies didn't transfer their label policy to CDs.
Spike - Why thank you sir. It's a good point re 'singles' and 'long players'. I wonder where the term 45 originated - from the industry or teens? After all, no-one called LPs "33s".
Groon - There's eavesdropping and then there's stalking.
Jonh, i love this post, especially the labels:singles - covers:albums analogy. i've been following labels since day one - those Neill mentioned, Sub Pop, Beggars Banquet, Touch & Go, Clairecords - and it is no less true today (Anticon, DFA, Kranky, Domino).
with the absence of a solid music scene, or shows, where i am, labels are some of my saviours.
Weird, I was just mentioning in a post a few days ago that the first several hundred singles I ever had were free, thanks to the lady next door who worked at a radio station and had a soft spot for her three-year-old neighbor. I don't think there was ever a problem finding music valuable....
If the paper was indeed the Telegraph, then I'm betting the writer was that toad Neil McCormack. He is probably the most consistent music writer I can think of, in the sense that he is spectacularly wrong about everything....
poe - Harvest, Domino, Ninja Tunes, Boys Own....these lists can go on forever can't they. But these are labels that carved and carve identity with specific philosophies. What was notable on TV was that any label was mentioned as equal to the other.
Bill - Trust you to unearth the man. Yes, it is Neil McCormack. And on the Telegraph web site, among his credits, are Top live events of 2009, Album of the year 2008, and a few more. Learned members of the jury, I rest my case.
OK. so I went onto Neil McCormick's (sorry, misspelled his last name originally) "blog" on the Telegraph and unearthed this quote about Elvis Costello:
"I am a big fan of Costello. He is one of the most creative, enthusiastic and genuinely multi-talented musicians this country has ever produced, an incredible singer-songwriter and veritable musical polymath who has turned his hand to rock, pop, country, jazz, classical (and all kinds of unusual blends of these forms), usually with interesting results."
What rare and penetrating insight! What masterful prose! What a yutz....
Hi John
Sorry to have got you worked up (or maybe not, getting worked up about music is a kind of joy in itself) but I think you are both misquoting and misrepresenting what I was saying (as should be clear from my blog on the subject at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2009/01/06/the_return_of_the_45__7_singles_are_cool_again?
Or maybe in the few brief minutes I had on the couch I failed to get myself across. Well, it was early. When I was talking about music having no value today, I was specifically talking about the real emotional / spiritual / incorporeal value of a song which the listener receives by investing his own time and effort into it. I was suggesting (it was a complex idea to get across on the breakfast couch in a sound bite at 8.20, admittedly) that if a young music consumer is being introduced to songs through unlimited downloads on his pre-loaded phone, that he might flick through in their hundreds, they were unlikely to fall in love with it in the same way as you might a single (or an album, or a live band) that you have to invest with time and effort and (in most cases, for most people not in the music business) money.
King Creosote once said to me that he would never give away music. He didn't much care what people paid for his home made cds, and would happily accept 10p, but he felt even that small investment would guarantee that they paid attention when listening ...
The ironic thing is that personally I don't much care what form music comes in as long as I can hear it ... but I suspect I needed that early investment of time and effort to set me on this path ...
I have written about the cost of free music many times, most recently here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2008/10/24/free_music_you_get_what_you_pay_for
And as for Ivylander ... cheap insults, inaccurate but uncheckable asertions, quotes taken out of context ... you have all the makings of a real music critic!
cheers
Even though I can get pretty much everything I want in a few clicks, I do miss this mystery that started for me with listening to the radio and 45's. The theatre of the mind thing. So much about the records and who made them was left to the imagination..not so anymore.
When I started looking for rare records (or the sample records of the 60's and 70's) there was no documentation, no web sites, no compilations, no reissues of soul and funk records. I found the records by hand, talked directly to real people, took chances based on LP covers, read zines,and just generally inhabited the vinyl world. Digital world is not the same. No matter how rare the record that I get a digital file from is, the feeling is different. Again, this only applies to me, and my overstuffed with music brain. I just have to get used to it, but I can't help but feel the ubiquity of music has taken something out of it for me. I'm not willing to say that for any wider group than that, though.
The strategies adopted by the major record companies (videos,Cd's,killing the single,multi national partner synergy), at almost every turn, may have added to their survival time and quarterly profits, but I do think they have tended to make music even more of a "product."
Neil, good to hear from you. In the piece, the parts in quote marks are what you said - that's what got me cranky. But as you say, coming up with succinct simplicity around a complex subject at 8.20AM is a challenge. Having been there, I know what it's like.
I think we'll agree to differ on experience/investment. We're both too old to know what it's like to get your first music experiences the way kids do now, but watching my 13 year old daughter acquire the music she likes, I see just as much emotional investment as I had. All her energy goes into anime and manga and her music discovery comes from the soundtracks to anime music videos she finds on YouTube, which she watches in endless rotation. It's a genre of Japanese pop music that's a bizarre combination of drum 'n' bass and jpop, with occasional ideas ripped from Timbaland and Kanye. (Trust me, it's a really really difficult listening experience.) When she hears a tune she likes, she somehow finds and downloads an mp3, bumps it to her phone, then quite happily listens to it 20 or 30 times in a row. The tools are different but I don't see too much difference between that and me at 13 with a transistor radio under the pillow sucking up all the British Invasion I could.
Uh-oh, maybe it's just me getting old then... But ,although no one doubts the power of music: j-pop,hip hop, or be bop, does it make it different, that the tunes are in service of an anime ? Or is it just another positive because it exposes more music? Or are kids today so media savvy that the disctinctions between media don't matter.
Cody, it's more complicated than that. Some of the tunes are the theme songs to anime tv shows. Some are the radio/single version of the tv theme tune. Some are from games. And some are just tracks that a fan has edited anime to so that it can go on YouTube. She seems entirely aware of which is which, not that it's come up more than a handul of times - just as a dance music fan will know all the remixes of a particular track.
I don't think she sees a distinction between media either. She's tracked down a number of Japanese stations on our Internet radio and if she hears something she likes she notes it then either finds the mp3 or the video on YouTube - which she uses as a radio when she's doing other stuff on the pc, like her homework. I draw the line, though, on the radio station that only plays music from Mario games.
If it bothers the parents, it must be good. Clearly my son is crazy about music..all kinds, no filters, no preconceptions. I'm sure that ain't going anywhere. It's just me I have to fix, I guess. My preconceptions are pretty much through the ceiling.
Ha ha, you said it. My gameplan from when she was a baby was that when I heard her listening to a music that I really liked, I would disapprove on the grounds that she would then like it. It really pains me to hear myself telling her to turn the helium voiced racket down or off -- Just like a parent! On the other hand, her favourite album of last year was Los Zafiros - Cuban doo wop from the 60s.
Great analogy with water. I'd go even further and say it's like air. Air is essential for life, and without its vibrations, what's the point. Who cares what media creates the vibrations? I started buying singles when I was about 8, and it was always a problem that they'd stop. The music stopping, it's just not natural. When I bought my first album my mom questioned if I had the attention span. She had no idea. With MP3s (or lossless files), the music flows uninterrupted, the way it's meant to.
I am honored, sir.
What an inspiring post? Indeed what is the value, worth, asset of music? Reading your thoughts and Mr Neil McCormick's reply, I'm not sure about my question. All I know is that music is passion. Proof your post and Mr McCormick's practice of autogoogle.
Great stuff Jonh,as usual...
"Polydor" silver on black? ..
"The Beatles"..
"Parlaphone" silver on red ? Peter Sellers...
"Virgin" red and green ,transposed "A" and "B" sides?...XTC/Public Image..
First single i remember buying and listening to in the shop,to check it was the right one.."Venus" by "Shocking Blue" on the"Penny Farthing" label..covered by "Bananarama" in the 80's (?!)
As a tecchie aside ..i was amazed to find when i got around to buying a couple of things from "I-Tunes",last year ,that,what you get in the way of files are not Mp3's but Mp4's..a file extension conversion being required to play them on anything other than an "I-Pod" or burn a CD .Surely a bit "fiddly" for many? No wonder people file share! I for one have never coveted the overstyled "I-Pod" or any other Mac product... News is that this "over-protection" is coming to an end.presumably we will be given a choice of Mp3's or "straight to I-Pod"?
Chris - The thing about iTunes is - it works. Most people don't car what file type it is as long as they can do what they want with it. From my limited experience, MP$s also work on mobile phones, so those loading a S-E Walkman don't have any problems. Only we superior beings care about this stuff.
Excellent article Jonh
I remember when I was younger how much music was a part of my life and actually music WAS my life. Every minute I could listen to music was great minute. If I couldn't listen to it I would be whisteling it driving everyone crazy. If they had given me an Ipod and computer back then I would have died from music overload with a totally shortcircuited brain. But it would have been a happy brain.
music, the eternal language of the soul is still the #1 driving force in my mind, keeping me alive and well. I've watched the music world go from 78 records to LP's with STEREO. 45's, cassetts, CD's to total digital even phones which store megabytes of songs. Wow what I would have given to have Half of than then.
But, Music has lost it's value I forgot...... Who in their right mind could even THINK that? Thr fact that we even PAY for music says to me how valuable it is when there is so much free music everywhere. You can't get away from it and Who would want to. Seems to me that your Misguided Pop Pundit whose life Seems to hinge on music is a bit blind to the fact that to Him music is the MOST Valuble tool in his life, in the World.
Indeed, lets go crunch some Corn Flakes.
Wow, you are taking me back to when I had 45s. I know my first 45 was some cartoon song for kids. It was a very flimpsy plastic that was not breakable. However, the 1st 45 I bought is a mystery to me but I do remember buying about 6 45s from Michael Jackons's Thriller album. Human Nature, Bille Jean, Thriller and some others. I may still have it at my parents home.
I thought it was an ingenous idea because the singles were wrapped in sleeves with Michael's image and then they were placed in the plastic sleeve that had Michael Jackson's signature on it. I believe they were ony sold in a set and not individual. I did have Thriller on vinyl but the beauty here was that you had pictures for all those 6 songs. i cannot recall what was on the flip side of those 45s! Ughhh.
I still think the media that music appears on makes a difference..There is something about cracking open shrink wrapped vinyl and committing to spend the time to put it on and listen to it (sound quality issues aside). Just like the smokers process..sure it's mostly about the nicotine delivery, but the packing ritual, initial burn and such are part of the process..I don't smoke, but I'm addicted to music.
Playing a new digital file is different than playing a new LP. I realize this is a learned behavior, but the process of finding a record, buying it, carrying it in a bag on the subway home..the anticipation + the physical interaction with the disc and turntable is something special..for me. I don't think I'm the only one.
I don't remember my first 45, but I had a close and play, and I worked it. I know I grabbed the top 40 list next to the 45 section and dreamed I could have all of the 45's on it.
The first LP I bought with my own money was Devo, my first 12" was Planet Rock.
For the most part, I just want to hear the music...all the music. I don't care what format it is in, but I'd be lying if I said there was no difference between files and Lp's or 45's or 8 tracks or cassettes.
I think it's a bit much to assume that the recent generations of listeners value music less, and based upon the medium; the very same may have been said when the technology was developed to record music in the first place. (Music not live? Bah! Where's the soul in that?) It may not even be valued very differently...it seems various sorts of people have always taken their music various sorts of ways. The kids who plow through 20 or 30 tunes in the span of minutes probably had "ancestors" who scattered their 45s across the bedroom and spent a night listening to the best hooks. It's just a bit easier to do now.
But my main point is: this discussion is largely just academic. We know how we feel. We're only guessing as to how everyone else thinks.
i would further add the following: to assess one generation's behavior within the mold of another generation's model of behavior is erroneous. for example, with the premise that an instantaneous load of electrical stimuli is nothing out of the ordinary to kids today, then flicking through countless songs in an iPod does not devalue their experience of music necessarily.
This reminds me of another related topic..What are people's thoughts on the single song vs. a package of songs.
I didn't get albums til much later in my music life, partly cause I could only afford singles, then at some point the album became the obvious choice/value, but I still have my fave songs on a album.
Is the album something we all agreed on as THE music unit and we are just used to it? Is that "agreement" over?
Cody - Depends who and what it is. I'm a mad fan for 'Psychotic Reaction' by Count 5, but there's no way I've ever wanted the album. Coming forward a few decades, I really dig Girls Aloud's sleazy camp pop singles, but no way do I want to hear the album. On the other hand, I'm digging the new Kanye album (well most of it) - the single works fine as something I hear on the radio. In the UK we still have good radio and a vibrant singles market. I think that colours perception
Vibrant singles market
Yeah, we don't have that here..unless you count itunes.
What a brilliant thread to come back too!
Wow, great post. I'll have to read through it later when I have more time, but I concur with your thoughts about the value of music. What I love is that how ever old and jaded I get, someone comes along and reminds me of why I love music. And if this happens at a concert, it's especially precious and valuable. My latest "Thank God for Rock n' roll" moment was at an Of Montreal concert. Truely mesmerizing, energetic, non-stop, euphoria. All I could do is look for the kids in the audience and send them psychic thoughts "listen to this...this is what it's about". It's moments like that I realize it doesn't matter what an album costs (which, BTW, Of Montreal has been extremely creative with how they offer their latest album), there's a price you can't put on an amazing live experience. Live music will never die, or be valued properly.
One more thing to add. Do you remember the scene from a Godard film (I'm thinking it was Breathless), and one of the character works in a Record Store. It's Chic and the beautiful french women/clerks bring records over to listening posts for patrons to preview. Now if this isn't indicative of future designs of Apple Stores, or how the face of record listeners changed, I'm not sure, but I know it's some sort of prediction of something to come...
I don't remember that scene but you've just given me a reason to watch Breathless again. It's been sitting in the DVD pile for over a year. I think the key words driving me to watch again are "chic" and "beautiful French woman". :-) I've never thought of an Apple store as chic, but that is exactly what they are. This lunch time I will research whether the clerks fill the second part of that equation. :-D
I agree with you about the power of great live music, but don't forget the power of a great piece of recorded music. A few weeks ago I heard the opening chords of 'Anarchy' and it just demanded to be turned up loud. It still sounds fantastic. Later the same day I heard the opening chords of whatever Pink's latest single is. That demanded much the same response. I can nitpick the lack of sonic quality caused by all the over-compression and digital recording, but it still sounded really exciting, especially to the 13yr old. And if it gets her excited, then job done.
Definitely, recorded music is fantastic as well, no disagreement there. I think of something that affected me like G N' R's "Welcome To The Jungle", when I frst heard that, still get's my blood pumping today.
I've been thinking of a post on Great Intros. That's definitely one of them.
Ooh, here's another (with a preface). I'm not much on using songs as a ring tone, because I hate a song I like to get warn out by the mundanity of daily life - but, I put Led Zeppelin's "Custard Pie" as my wife's voice mail alert, and it still get's me strumming some air guitar everytime someone leaves a voicemail. Not many songs have an effect on me like that.
And as for "Studio Mastery" in recordings, did you read about the recent discovery of the mystery chord at the begining of "A Hard Days Night"? Studio wizardry at it's finest!
I had the intro to "Rock and Roll' on my phone for the same reason. Makes me feel better just for the hearing of it. Then I switched to "Four Sticks". "Voodoo Chile" works wonders as well - that was Mrs. Ingham's exclusive tone. :-) Well at least it wasn't the shower scene from Psycho, which one guy I met had as his wife's tone!
I missed that on the mystery chord, but I did catch Lou Reed on Elvis Costello's show demonstrate the "missing" chord in 'Sweet Jane' that nobody plays.
There are a lot of observations on this here thread - to my ears, if you rate "Bat Out Of Hell" or "The Joshua Tree" more highly than the works of Esquerita and Harmonica Frank Floyd, then you have no idea what the power of music is all about, and never will do. It's not about how well you can mix the instruments, how clever a producer you are, or how intelligent your lyric is - it's very simple indeed - DOES IT CONNECT with any bunch of molecules sitting idly inside your napper?
So...iTunes, downloads and the Interweb - good things or bad things? On balance, good, but only just. anything that enables old musos to find long-deleted tunes they missed in the shops gets my vote, subject to the caveat that, where the music is still in somebody's lawful ownership, you should pay its creator.
Due to certain quirks of Jamaican copyright law, most of the tunes I post on here are not "owned" in any true legal sense; some have been downloaded from dubious sites, but none (to my knowledge) have been downloaded from posted copies of commercially available CDs. That is the point at which I draw the line, and I hope it falls on the right side of hypocrisy.
Intro's..yeah, I love intros. Please,please make that post.