Music downloading shown to create listener apathy

Music downloading shown to create listener apathy
 
 Internet downloading and MP3 players are creating a generation of people who do not seriously appreciate songs or musical performances, British researchers said on Tuesday.
 
 "The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North.
 
 North led a team from the University of Leicester, central England, that monitored 346 people over two weeks to evaluate how they related to music.
 
 They concluded that because of greater accessibility through mass media, music was nowadays seen more as a commodity that is produced, distributed and consumed like any other.
 
 It could also account for the popularity of television talent competitions, particularly in Britain, which allow viewers from the "iPod generation" a rare chance to engage and appreciate music and live performances, they suggested.
 
 "In the 19th century, music was seen as a highly valued treasure with fundamental and near-mystical powers of human communication," said North.
 
 "The pace of technological change has accelerated further over the last 20 years or so and these fundamental changes in the nature of musical experience and value have arguably become even more pronounced.
 
 "Because so much music of different styles and genres is now so widely available via portable MP3 players and the internet, it is arguable that people now actively use music in everyday listening contexts to a much greater extent than ever before.
 
 "The degree of accessibility and choice has arguably led to a rather passive attitude towards music heard in everyday life.
 
 "In short, our relationship to music in everyday life may well be complex and sophisticated, but it is not necessarily characterised by deep emotional investment."
 
 The academic's assessment follows a warning last week from rock legend Pete Townshend, The Who guitarist, that listening to rockmusic on an MP3 player through headphones could cause deafness.

[Bags]

Originally posted by Hanover Fiste:
 "The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North.

this makes sense to me.  When I was a kid, then a teenager, getting an album was a VERY big deal.  It meant saving up, taking it home, unwrapping it and reading and inspecting every bit of the album cover and inside sleeve while you listened to a new album for the first time.  It was a multi-sensory digestion process, and I can remember so vividly my first Go Go's album, Adam Ant's "Friend or Foe," and the Police "Zenyatta Mondatta".  Really visceral memories.
 
 I'm not sure it changed much with CDs, because instead of great album art you got those CD booklets that you could pore over.
 
 Downloading one song at a time, no attendant packaging and no need to get (or much less wait until you can get) a whole album, is so far from that.  There may well be different but equally emotional aspects to the new age, but I don't get them if there is.  I think the bond, the personally felt connection, with the band may suffer.
 
 Shit, there's a reason I *still* buy CDs in 2006.  [Cuz I'm crazy, really...]

You cannot show off your downloads to friends either like you can with CDs, "Hey look at the rare Hawkwind disc I got last week off Ebay!"

[africa]

blah blah blah blah

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

The same problem is happening to the porn industry!

[you be betty]

Originally posted by Bags:
   

Originally posted by Hanover Fiste:
 "The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North.

this makes sense to me.  When I was a kid, then a teenager, getting an album was a VERY big deal.  It meant saving up, taking it home, unwrapping it and reading and inspecting every bit of the album cover and inside sleeve while you listened to a new album for the first time.  It was a multi-sensory digestion process, and I can remember so vividly my first Go Go's album, Adam Ant's "Friend or Foe," and the Police "Zenyatta Mondatta".  Really visceral memories.
 
 I'm not sure it changed much with CDs, because instead of great album art you got those CD booklets that you could pore over.
 
 Downloading one song at a time, no attendant packaging and no need to get (or much less wait until you can get) a whole album, is so far from that.  There may well be different but equally emotional aspects to the new age, but I don't get them if there is.  I think the bond, the personally felt connection, with the band may suffer.
 
 Shit, there's a reason I *still* buy CDs in 2006.  [Cuz I'm crazy, really...] [/b]

I completely agree with you, Bags.  
 I mean, of course we did not grow up in the exact same age; but I do remember, too, the times when I acquired my first couple of cds...and being so excited about them.  When I've just downloaded something and plopped it on my iPod, it does have less meaning.
 
 What this eliminates, though, is also that feeling of looking forward to a cd, going to great lengths to get it, and then it sucking...
 
 But still.  I try to buy as many cds as I can, too.  I don't like buying off iTunes...and I don't like it even more, that you don't have full rights to the songs when you buy them (you can only authorize 3 computers to play them, you can't send them to other's, you can only burn the cd a certain number of times...etc.)

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

Originally posted by you be betty:
    I don't like buying off iTunes...and I don't like it even more, that you don't have full rights to the songs when you buy them (you can only authorize 3 computers to play them, you can't send them to other's, you can only burn the cd a certain number of times...etc.)

YES!!!  99 cents a song sounds cheap, but if you buy a whole CD's worth of songs, you've paid almost as much as a real CD, you don't get any of the packaging, and you have far fewer rights to your own music!  That may not seem to matter until your hard drive goes kablooey and you have to restore your music collection....

[chaz]

Originally posted by Doctor Mood:
  The same problem is happening to the porn industry!

Yeah kids don't know how good they have it today.  When I was 13 or 14 a porno mag was like gold.

[Frank Gallagher]

Isn't I-tunes 99c per song but 9.99 for the whole album? I'm sure it is over here anyway. I-tunes works perfectly for compiling new spinning compilations. I don't have to buy the whole album just for the one song I want to use.
 
 I used to enjoy the whole cd-buying event.... taking a nice cup of coffee into the shop, looking around at other cd's, giving the listening stations a go and talking to other people in the store etc. but with the traffic/parking situation here in Cork it's just not worth it anymore, and HMV in Cork is just the worst layout ever, imagine trying to browse cd's at the Metro Centre escalators during rush-hour and you get the idea. Virgin is okay though. Then when you've bought your cd, the frustration of fighting to get the security tape off the bloody thing makes it quicker to download a whole album online using dial-up.

[HoyaSaxa03]

i think it's a bit different for me ... i try to only get full albums, and when i import music, i take the time to research the album a bit, tag it with appropriate genres, copy the cover art, listen to each track and rate them, etc, etc ... actually more of a process than i had for alphabetizing my CD collection ... the only difference is sheer volume: i have thousands of albums now, and only a few hundred when i was buying CDs

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:
   

Originally posted by Doctor Mood:
  The same problem is happening to the porn industry!

Yeah kids don't know how good they have it today.  When I was 13 or 14 a porno mag was like gold. [/b]

and they dont have to worry about their mom throwing away their best ones!

[you be betty]

Originally posted by Doctor Mood:
   

Originally posted by you be betty:
    I don't like buying off iTunes...and I don't like it even more, that you don't have full rights to the songs when you buy them (you can only authorize 3 computers to play them, you can't send them to other's, you can only burn the cd a certain number of times...etc.)

YES!!!  99 cents a song sounds cheap, but if you buy a whole CD's worth of songs, you've paid almost as much as a real CD, you don't get any of the packaging, and you have far fewer rights to your own music!  That may not seem to matter until your hard drive goes kablooey and you have to restore your music collection.... [/b]

exactly...I try to wait and find stuff in LA used; or here on the cd release day (typically $9.99 at Best Buy if they will have what i'm looking for in stock)...and that way, I have paid the same amount; AND have it way better than I would have on iTunes.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Doctor Mood:
  The same problem is happening to the porn industry!

While user appreciation might be down, I think quality is way up.
 
 The internet has levelled the playing field and the market has dictated that a certain price for a monthly subscription is the going rate.
 
 That has forced all of the sites to compete over the same dollar, and in order to do that, the quality has increased exponentially.  Higher quality videos, better stories, better pictures, more eye candy - I love what the internet has done to the industry and I think that only the vets truly appreciate it.
 
 By the way, I could be talking about either industry here.