nobody buys anything anymore, they just lease a license or steal it. You know, to perpetuate the industry.

Marik said
Wait, you don’t buy CD’s? They still sell them you know.

I'm poor. I haven't bought, or really listened to a new album in...years. I just listen to my old shit.

A lot of music made now sucks anyway.

Dervish said
I actually like CDs in a way, because listening to an album in its entirety often tells a story. It's way too tempting with MP3s to just put everything on shuffle, which isn't necessarily improper, but sometimes you lose the impact of the music that way.

It's interesting - my parents have spoken before about how songs have changed because of the format they're listened to. Songs used to be a segment of a deeper, ongoing story, told through the whole album, as they were all listened to in a row. It was an art to transition one song to the next, one piece of the story to another. That art has largely been lost now, when each song is written like a single, intended to be listened to in a self-contained way rather than as part of a larger whole. Maybe that's why people feel the quality and degree of meaning in songs has decreased. The connection has to be made in minutes, not an hour.

Halo said
It's interesting - my parents have spoken before about how songs have changed because of the format they're listened to. Songs used to be a segment of a deeper, ongoing story, told through the whole album, as they were all listened to in a row. It was an art to transition one song to the next, one piece of the story to another. That art has largely been lost now, when each song is written like a single, intended to be listened to in a self-contained way rather than as part of a larger whole. Maybe that's why people feel the quality and degree of meaning in songs has decreased. The connection has to be made in minutes, not an hour.

There's still a lot of music that does that, but you're definitely right; a lot of music now adays (and probably in the past) treats each song as a single instead of a cohesive story. I'm not one to subscribe to the whole "old music is so much better than new music" argument because the stuff you hear from previous generations is the stuff that survived, the vast majority of it forgotten. Every generation has good artists, every generation has bad ones. Every one has innovative trend setters, every one has mass produced sell-outs. It's actually interesting listening to the radio and seeing what songs from my youth are now the common go-too songs that are like the big ones on say a classic rock station. After a decade, it's still getting regular air time verses the sea of shit that wouldn't be around if it weren't for the Internet.

Dervish said
There's still a lot of music that does that, but you're definitely right; a lot of music now adays (and probably in the past) treats each song as a single instead of a cohesive story. I'm not one to subscribe to the whole "old music is so much better than new music" argument because the stuff you hear from previous generations is the stuff that , the vast majority of it forgotten. Every generation has good artists, every generation has bad ones. Every one has innovative trend setters, every one has mass produced sell-outs. It's actually interesting listening to the radio and seeing what songs from my youth are now the common go-too songs that are like the big ones on say a classic rock station. After a decade, it's still getting regular air time verses the sea of shit that wouldn't be around if it weren't for the Internet.

I think it is more prevalent now, because the change was brought on by modern changes in technology. When people used to buy vinyl albums, it was expensive, and you'd really have to pick your favourite bands and stuff to buy. When you listened to it, you'd put on a whole album. But the way we listen to music has changed, as you noted - and that's what's brought on the change. Its not a matter of old being better versus new, just that the music has adapted alongside the manner in which we listen to it.
I agree with the point about music surviving - it's called survivorship bias, I think, Vsauce (really interesting videos on YouTube, check them out) mentioned it in his last video. There was another interesting example he gave - when planes came back from battle in WWII, extra armour was added to the places with the most bullet holes, the logic being that they were the areas most targeted and most at risk, but they completely missed the fact that it was the survivors who suffered most damage there, and the armour needed to go everywhere else - i.e. the ones who didn't make it back were the ones who were hit where the survivors weren't.
I'm starting to experience that now - songs from my childhood that are now my generation's classics. Things like Busted and McFly coming back for a big reunion tour... shit, I was listening to them when they were originally together, and now they're having the famed big reunion tour every major broken up band has. Wut. Realising Doctor Who restarted in 2005 and that my favourite over childhood game, Pokemon Ruby, came out in 2004 or some such made keep feel ancient.

Speaking of CDs, I just found my mom's stash of early 90s electronic CDs

There's a fucking Messiah album in there omg

idlehands said
Urge to kill rising...

Okay Grom

Smiral said
Speaking of CDs, I just found my mom's stash of early 90s electronic CDsThere's a fucking Messiah album in there omg

I wish my parents were metal-heads. I'm assuming you mean Messiah the Swiss thrash metal band...

Halo said
I wish my parents were metal-heads. I'm assuming you mean Messiah the Swiss thrash metal band...

The British electronic band, actually, stuff like this:



But there was also a Test Dept CD right beside that so~

First CD I owned:


I was the coolest kid in third grade.

Mtntopview said
Follow the urge, it's for the best

Trust this guy, he's an Imperial officer.

LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!

Blitzkrieg said
First CD I owned:I was the coolest kid in third grade.

this is actually fucking rad

EDIT: Oh my god it's the album with the fucking I'm blue if I was green I would die song on it I h8 everything

I WAS the popular kid, then my mom's friend gave me my first Sountrack CD.

Then I was ruined.

Smiral said
this is actually fucking radEDIT: Oh my god it's the album with the fucking I'm blue if I was green I would die song on it I h8 everything

Move your body, Eruopop, Too Much of Heaven, and Another Race are still cool songs though.

Blitzkrieg said
Move your body, Eruopop, Too Much of Heaven, and Another Race are still cool songs though.

Europop is fucking awesome, you can totally tell it came out right on the edge of the 2000s

Oh god, I hate it when my inner 90's kid comes out.

The first CD I ever bought was Dark Side of the Moon.

My first cassette tape I bought was The Doors.

I grew up listening to my parents music.