Image from: Yahoo! Music - new.music.yahoo.com

In a recent article I read on Yahoo, Rock ‘N’ Roll Might Be Over, Says…U2?, the popular (insert musical adjective) group, U2, explains that Rock ‘n Roll as we know is it a dying breed. Even more, the group’s bassist, Adam Clayton says:

“What is rock ‘n ‘roll in this changing world? Because, to some extent, the concept of the music fan–the concept of the person who buys music and listens to music for the pleasure of music itself–is an outdated idea,”

Alright alright, so the traditional music fan doesn’t exist. I wholeheartedly agree. But I think there are way different reasons as to why this is, and I personally think they are good.

First, to say that the traditional music fan is dead, or in essence, the music industry itself, is pure ignorance. People love music today just as much, if not more than yesterday, the day before, all the way back to the beginning of time. Although I’m biased, I don’t think people can really get tired of music. However, in regards to the music INDUSTRY..? yeah things are changing, but things always change!

In all reality, music HAS to change especially with the speed in which written publication has changed. Think maybe 8-6 years ago. If you had no clue how to create a webpage and write HTML, what would have been your best bet in publishing something that you wrote? The newspaper? Damn, I never thought I’d write something that more then 5-6 people would read. But I was in 3rd grade. Basically, publishing something you’ve written is as easy as clicking a button on a webpage. In relation to the music industry, that should seem unreal! And scary!

With the introduction of YouTube (the music player) people have been uploading remixes of crap they’ve done (heck I did one with Michael Jackson and Rhianna last year), covers, or even original compositions that sound pretty much as good as a lot of the stuff that companies are making major money with. The whole idea behind finding the next ‘American Idol’…. is it really that hard? I would hope it isn’t. That show just takes out the work. With all the people who say they hate capitalism, you’d think this would be a growing trend… but people like drama on television I guess.

Music today is more accessible. People can download T-Pain apps on their iPhone, or learn how to play guitar on YouTube! People can sample other works, and make cool mash-ups or remixes themselves, and above all, be proud of it! When professional musicians feel their music is changing, they should be happy, because only then, will they know that their fans are banding together to move music in more and more directions. And its all happening organically.

So to make my long story short, I think musicians today who have a hard time with people having fun with music..(ie: musicians who hate Guitar Hero… HELLO! Of course its not like playing the real thing, but is Madden anything like playing football? Is Halo anything like shooting aliens? Is NBA Live anything like playing in the NBA? I don’t think so!)… should just take a chill pill. As technology continues to evolve and shape the way we live, peoples tastes will change, but so will their involvement. Music is turning into an art form where people can continue to evolve and shape the real and beautiful artistry of it! Stand alone pieces? Elvis, the Beatles, Mozart, Chopin, Shakespeare, DaVinci, Monet, Rowling, and U2, just to name a few, all have created great works of art, but the inspiration and ideas their works instilled in others, should be an art form in and of itself. That is progression!

Peace