|mind-gloaming.net|

So I’ve been listening lately to some older “classic” music, in this case, mainly some Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Clash. These are three bands that I know exist on vinyl in my basement somewhere. These are bands that my parents bought when the music was current and those bands’ members were all living and still in the same band. It got me thinking about the future of these kinds of things. At what point does something become a classic? As this music enters it’s second or third generation of fans and presumably sails and distribution what becomes of it? Is there a point when people who listen to a band like The Mars Volta aren’t aware that they are borrowing pages from Pink Floyd’s book? Do people stop acknowledging their roots after some period of time? I guess that shift away from one’s roots only occurs when there is upheaval and a rejection of past innovation, when old things are bad and innovation becomes the norm not the exception. I guess one can see the staying power of this particular music as evidenced my the fact that many people alien to the culture it came out of still listen to it. Why does this happen? When was the last time you listened to Frank Sinatra? or Bach? There is a continuation also of style and attitudes from these same periods, of the continuation of lifestyle movements the music they partially represented. This seems shows something of the acceptance by us of the world our parents and their peers built for us. It shows also perhaps that we are clinging to the world that music came out of. Is there anyone who listens to the Grateful Dead and doesn’t wish that they were there on tour with the Dead when Garcia was still alive. We have nostalgia for an age we didn’t see, that our parents may have seen but largely ignored or didn’t actively participate in. Where does this clinging emanate from? Paying homage to those that paved the way for us is one way to simultaneously honor the past and present. It seems one cannot listen to Phish and not be aware of The Grateful Dead. (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t listened to much Grateful Dead or Phish.) I wonder if this trend of remembering extended to other things that I am even less knowledgeable about. I’d guess it does, doing honor to predecessors seems something ingrained in western culture since The Renaissance, when ‘Classical’ civilization was put on the pedestal is has existed on in the minds of scholars since, when it was given the status of being the root of our civilization, our philosophy, mythology, literature, and thinking.
Again, I come to no conclusions, I think therefore I write. Hopefully if you’re reading this i provoke some thought in you. If you feel so inclined leave a comment.

Music: Pat Metheny – Bright Size Life

So I read a few days ago that a high quality band out of New York City, The World Inferno/Friendship Society is releasing a new albumn on the 11th of July. This in my mind at least, brings up an important concern about emerging/small/indie/local/not rich bands. This question is as follows: Do I buy their record? Normally, this would be a given if they were a local band or a 1/2 way decent opening band (like this one or this one.) assuming I had money on me at the time said purchase was available. In general I won’t buy music if the band is not one of my faveorites. I’ll definetly go out and buy (maybe even predorder, which is an interesting topic all to itself.) the new radiohead album or given the chance I’ll to buy Spiritual Rez’s new cd. I say I’d buy these CDs because they’re both one of my favorite bands and in the mostly capitalist society in which we live sending people your money is like giving them your capitlist meritocrazy thumbs-up. World Inferno is also one of the most interesting bands I’ve heard in a long time. Anyway, all of this got me thinking and raised a few un-answerable (to me at least) questions:

So how does one decide when one should pay money for something one might otherwise attain at much smaller cost but greater befefit to the producer of said good? How does digitally receving things at little cost to the end user change the captial dynamic between the producer and consumer.
(I’m talking producer in economic terms, in the music industry the producer seems to fuck the band in the ass regardless of other factors, for instance I hear [from a somewhat reputable source on LP things] Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory made the band almost no money, which sucks becuase it was their only good album.)
How long will it take for the inevitable death of physical media to come about? Will this cut out the middle man that sucks profits from artists or replace him with another possibly better or worse?
(at the moment iTunes at least seems to be decent as it recently stopped recrod lables from moving away from the 99 cents a song model that has thus far been successful, though I can’t seem to dig up the slashdot story on it from a few months back.)
Anyway, all of this has been raised in one form or another hundred of times by other people who know more about dirstribution technologies and the music industry then I do. I guess what I come away with is this, a core tentant of capitalism and the [mostly]free market: If something is valuable, pay for it.