Come Drink from the (Music) Firehose!
Anybody out there remember when they couldn’t get enough music? I mean, not just listening to it, but getting news about your favorite or even new bands. I for one still get excited when I hear about my favorite bands (do people still have favorites?), but I really start to get bogged down when hearing about newer groups.
I mean, there are so many! For better or worse, the internet has made it all available to us, and in no time at all we can find ourselves drinking from the proverbial “Firehose”. I’m talking about a situation where we are inundated with so much more information than we find helpful, maybe even healthy.
I just started my Christmas list this year, and I’ve tried to keep the music portion constrained to under 20 albums. That’s a hard thing to do! I don’t buy music all that often (one album a month), and I refuse to download illegally (artistic solidarity!), but I’ll accept all the free downloads you’ll give me (thank you eMusic!). Despite my best efforts, and my quite selective taste (noise and unconventional guitarists), I still find myself falling behind; still getting knocked over by that same damn firehose! I mean, I can’t even keep up with things that are directly within my own taste, let alone dabble outside of it (i.e. jazz and twee).
What Should Be Done?
I’m going to propose something that many are not going to agree with, but I think regional/geographic constraints are better for an artistic community! In fact, I think it’s better for consumers as well. As music consumers we are so pressured to keep up with the latest musical trends, stay loyal to our past loves, and even gobble up the historical goodies (another Beatles Re-Master!). It’s more than I can hand, I’m only one man. I think the future of music, rather than it being made available for free, is actually to intentionally limit and constrain its boundaries. I don’t know how it will be done, maybe some kind of label turf-war will ensue, but I don’t think product placement and sponsorships are the future.
What do you think?
Signed,
The Jay