Older music

Though the song isn’t quite as old (approaching 40), the title “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)” got me thinking.

That was 50 years ago.

Listening to the song, and other songs from CD’s I’ve long since packed into storage, I kept thinking about how much more complex and multi-layered the older music was.  I’m sure the modern equipment can far outstrip the old in terms of “# of tracks at once”, along with “fixing” everything, but then why doesn’t the music sound better?

Why does so much of it sound so much worse?

It’s similar to how, if you never walk and only drive everywhere, you limit where you can go. At first it is by choice, but then eventually you need the car.

The car is auto-tune in particular, but technology in general. Listening to older albums, you’ll notice differences in each chorus, because it was performed multiple times just like in a live song. I don’t hear that anymore when I do find myself exposed to mainstream music. Fortunately this is rare.

I’m quite optimistic about the indie music scene as I am about the indie gaming scene. The Internet is our infrastructure, and “we” don’t need the big companies anymore, at least not in the traditional sense.

Despite all the craziness currently going on in the world, I have the classics to listen to, and the future ones that are being written right now.

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