I recently watched a video by Rick Beato, where he talks about how music became worthless.
In essence, he holds up a Led Zeppelin record and expresses how, back in the day, if he wanted to buy it, he’d have to get off his backside, do some work and save up the money.
His point being, (among other things) that this gave people financial skin in the game and it formed a big part of their lives.
(Watch my video summary below, or keep reading below):
The video got me thinking because I talk a lot on this site and my YouTube channel about how music means more and is valued more when people actually own it, and I agree with him that the loss of this is one of the reasons why younger generations (Gen Z if you like) simply don’t care about music as much older generations.
I think this is a huge reason why, and it’s also one of the big driving forces behind the revival of vinyl records.
Music doesn’t hold as much importance socially as it used to, and I believe there are many factors behind it, but the most significant of all is the rise of the internet.
Before the internet, pop and rock bands would become international sensations that defined their generation in a way that just doesn’t happen anymore in quite the same way.
In the UK alone, through the generations, you’ve got Beatle mania, Marc Bolan & David Bowie, and later on movements like Brit Pop and Oasis.
These were movements that had every school kid across the country talking about them and getting swept up in the hysteria on a national (and sometimes international) level.
For example, back in 1996, Oasis sold out their huge Knebworth shows that ended up being a definitive moment in the so-called Brit Pop era.
More than four percent of the population applied for tickets to see Oasis at Knebworth, which at the time was the largest-ever demand for concert tickets in British history.
There were also over 7000 people on the guestlist, drawing in celebrities from popular culture at the time, and the concert even had its own radio station!
Can you imagine one band creating quite the hysteria today?
There’s a quote I like from the Supersonic documentary that I feel, whether you like the band or not, really sums up my point here:
“It was the pre-digital age. It was the pre-talent show and reality TV age. Things meant more. It was just a great time to be alive, nevermind a great time to be in Oasis. We were about to enter into celebrity-driven culture.
And I always thought that it was the last great gathering of the people before the birth of the internet. It’s no coincidence that things like that don’t happen anymore.”
Noel Gallagher
This hits a nerve for me. I truly believe the 90s was the last decade where these kinds of music-driven pop culture phenomenons could occur. It’s the same with the grunge scene in the US. A movement on that scale that defines a decade simply isn’t possible under the culture in which we now live.
The internet changed everything:
The internet turned music from something you own into something most people now simply rent.
It’s opened up communication to a level where national differences are less distinct and culture spreads more fluidly on an international scale.
It’s broadened people’s entertainment options; when I was a child, there were only four TV channels, and the options were far more limited, which meant the entire nation was consuming the same content daily, resulting in a far more homogenized popular culture.
In contrast, with the internet, everyone is pursuing their own micro-subculture. The result is a much more siloed popular culture. People are far more atomized, and this naturally prevents popular music scenes from developing on quite the same scale as they used to.
Now that this pandora’s box is open, I can’t see a world in which we return to a place where decades have identities culturally in the way they used to back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
It’s a strange thing to accept for those born before, let’s say, the mid-80s – like myself.
In fact, arguably, people around my age are likely the last generation to remember the world before this pivotal moment that had such a profound impact on the direction of humanity.
I don’t think we can go as far as to say music means nothing to younger generations. Certainly there’s new music, and it will always play a part in entertainment as a whole (I mean, can you imagine a video game or a film without music…it would be odd, to say the least).
It’s certainly got more throw-away, though, and according to another video by Rick Beato, with the encounters he has with younger kids, their entertainment (and even their earlier exposure to music) centres more around video games than it does around music.
He goes on to suggest (in more or less words) in the video entitled “Why Gen Z doesn’t Care About Music” that, video games are perhaps offering more in excitement to them than perhaps music is – maybe it’s a dopamine hit that they’re just not getting from music in the way that previous generations did.
He does, also stress, however, that it’s not like his generation didn’t have video games. The same can be said for my generation. I played video games as part of the mix while growing up – so what’s different now?
What’s certain is that consumer entertainment habits have changed. The turning point, in my view, really does boil down to the internet, and whether or not you care about these changes may boil down simply to when you were born.
If you can remember what it sounded like to have to physically dial into the internet, then there’s a good chance you’re on my side of the fence.
The good news is, as I’ve alluded to in previous videos and articles: the continued growth in sales of physical media, such as vinyl, and increasingly CD and even tapes suggests that some sort of levelling out and correction is taking place, at least for those who what to seek it out.
Instant gratification, it would seem, isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, at least for those for whom the wider experience of music matters.
Does music matter to younger generations in the same way it used to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Further reading:
Why Buy Vinyl Records in the Digital Age
I’ll preface this by saying that I’ve been collecting records for close to 50 years, and had my own simple record player as a child and still have all of my records and CDs and love to listen to them on my upgraded stereo system and high end turntable. I’m all in with you.
But I have a hard time with the argument that kids today don’t like music. As you mention, listening devices are ubiquitous today, everyone has pods in their ears on the street and public transit – something I wouldn’t do. The popularity of Taylor Swift concerts nullifies your statement about “could you imagine a band today filling a stadium…?” My point, though, is that today the access to music is at a level that I would have jumped at to achieve when I was younger. Collecting CDs and Records is an expensive hobby, even back in the day. You had to really hope that you were making the right choice. Even then, what you really wanted might not be available, all of the albums by your favourite artist, across genres, it was impossible for the record store to carry everything, no matter how much you were prepared to pay. And one can call into question the quality of streaming services but with a great system and options like Tidal, that’s not the case anymore. We’re in a unique time where there’s a hundred years worth of recorded music history to dive into, and anyone with an ear for music can listen to whatever they want and so they do. We’re not subject to trends in music in the same way, from the hit-maker radio stations or MTV. I wouldn’t trade my past experiences with music – my early records hold a special place in my soul – but I know that I would have been very tempted to open up the treasure chest of online streaming services to access so much more than was available to me at the time.
Thanks for your additions to the topic, Sean. Good point about how you had to be selective in your purchases and hope you got it right. I know I certainly bought some albums that were duds. But then again, there were many albums that I didn’t love immediately but grew to love more than some of the ones with instant appeal. Because I’d invested my money into the albums, I gave them more time. The abundance of choice when Napster arrived was exciting at first, but looking back, it was the beginning of the end of a magic we’ll never get back.
Still, as you allude to, the abundance of choice is really quite amazing. A huge body of work to explore for those who’re willing. Happy listening 🙂