The Music Fan’s Lament #2: Over Saturation
Here is the second part of a series of posts where I have a think about a lot of the common complaints I hear from music fans, as they react to the massive change which the industry is undergoing at the moment. I’m just trying to think about it from a fan’s point of view at this point, trying to figure out if these laments actually have much merit, whether or not a normal fan really cares, or whether we’re just being silly.
Once again, here are the various articles that prompted this little festival of self-indulgence, so you have some idea what to expect:
A Penny For Your Thoughts by The Vinyl Villain (read the comments as well, because some of them are very thought-provoking.
Does the World Need Another Indie Band? by Tim Walker, writing in The Independent.
Why Has Modern Music Lost So Much Impact? by the Kings of A&R.
This comment, from a reader called Alex in the comment thread of my recent podcast – The Tribecast.
And here are the other posts in the series:
1. Fragmentation
2. Over Saturation
3. Hype Overload
4. Decreasing Quality
#2 Over Saturation
I am in real doubt as to whether or not over saturation really exists, but perhaps I have to concede that it does. There is a fuck of a lot of music out there to be listened to, but then there always has been.
Realistically, I think it is fair to say that there is probably more music being recorded and presented to the world as a whole for listening than there ever has been. Fair enough – cheaper technology and better access to distribution, even distribution as limited and basic as websites, blogs and MySpace all make this infinitely easier than it was before. So I can agree that perhaps the total quantity has increased, but I don’t think that makes a shred of difference.
If you think about it for even a moment, there has always been more music out there than you can listen to. What’s the difference now? More outlets? More outlets pushing more songs than before? Fewer filters between the musicians and the listener? I don’t know, but I think there are two things that have changed which influence people’s feelings of being overwhelmed by the quantity of music out there.
Firstly, we seem to be burndening ourselves with this odd sense of obligation to actually listen to more stuff. A lot of the time this complaint comes from bloggers and other enthusiasts – in other words, not the casual fan and not necessarily the deranged obsessive. The casual fan has always just listened to whatever comes along, sought out a little more of what really captures their imagination, and then drifted off to do something else and not thought about it. It may not be my attitude, but it is a healthy one. The really mental obsessive – the likes of John Peel and voracious vinyl accumulators – have always known and accepted that it was impossible to listen to everything anyway. Did Peel not say something that roughly paraphrases as: it would take me a month to listen to the amount of music I receive in a week. He knew it was fruitless to try, obviously.
I think the only people who worry about this are people like me, and probably you, if you’re a keen enough fan to be reading a niche page like this. The mid-level enthusiasts who are finding the explosion of availability exciting and yet overwhelming. We want to explore everything, leave no stone unturned, no bedroom talent unappreciated and we are starting to realise that it is just impossible. Without wishing to be brusque, there is only one solution to this: get over it, forget about it, it was never going to happen anyway. We can’t even listen to all the stuff we hear about, never mind all the stuff that no-one ever mentions. There’s too much for one brain to absorb or for one lifetime to even make time to listen to, there always has been, so get over it and stop worrying. Just enjoy the stuff you do listen to and stop whining.
Secondly, I think there is sometimes a little too much pressure to actually participate. In the old media model this stuff was delivered to you in a linear fashion. The radio was on, a band was playing or whatever it was – you listened, you absorbed it, or you didn’t. It was your choice and your only obligation was to engage or ignore, that was it – it was easy to be listener back then. Nowadays, with things like my comment section gazing pleadingly at you at the end of every post – two or three a day, remember – and the explosion of message boards, bands directly contacting you asking you what you think and all manner of other interactive media, there can seem to be a lot more to being a music fan than just sitting back and enjoying the tunes.
If you read this site every few weeks, which is how often I read a lot of websites, then the sheer volume of music and interaction you are missing can seem like an accusation, I would imagine. If a band drops a friend request into your MySpace inbox, ignoring it can feel like ignoring a specific question addressed to you in a conversation at a party. You feel you have to answer, and of course you don’t. Web 2.0 is an opportunity, not an obligation. If you want to come here, read a couple of posts, not bother commenting and then not come back for a month then no-one minds! If you want to ignore a hundred borderline-spam friend requests from MySpace bands, then so what? If you listen to a song, kind of enjoy it, but have nothing to say about it then so fucking what? You are the audience, not the artist and there is no obligation to anything, not even listen.
You can tell where I’m going with this, can’t you? It’s such a false lament: there’s too much music. There always has been, stop burdening yourselves with non-existent expectations and just enjoy the stuff however the fuck you please. It’s supposed to be fun!
(The Real) Tuesday Weld – It’s a Dirty Job but Someone’s Got to Do It
Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye
Bob Geldof & the Vegetarians of Love – The Great Song of Indifference
I consider saturation to be a positive good; in fact, I’m not sure “oversaturation” is even possible. I mean, there has always been more music out there than anyone has time for, but the recent explosion in access to music from distant parts via the internet means that there is now more ENJOYABLE music out there than anyone has time for. I can’t remember the last time I heard a song on a blog that I truly hated, but I used to hear dismal songs on the radio all the time.
Isn’t any malaise caused because the arbiter of taste, the record company/distributors/charts model, has disappeared. People now have to take responsibility for what they like rather than being told what they ought to like. Thats a bit harsh on creatures that like to herd. Imagine going to a party and announcing that you think the Black Kidz album rocks. Clearly a path to gentrophilia and social exclusion.
Its almost as if, instead of giving you a menu, a chef invited you into the restuarant kitchen and said, “well, theres the ingredients, what d’ya reckon i should make?”
So theres not too much music, theres are too few taste flags to run to. MySpace is big but lets face it, they couldn’t give a shit who listens to what as long as theres a chance that they will click on the BMW advert thats been put next to a song about cars.
The trouble is, theres not much money in arbiting taste unless you can get a paid writing gig or similar. And to do such, the old rules apply, you have to be able to “deliver” an audience. You blogging guys may not always do it for the love day in day out (though like unpaid runners in TV, you’ll give it a ruddy good go)
So there you go, the willing herds are looking for someone to tell them what they ought to like and the mavens are looking for an audience so that they can tell people what to like for a day job.
Eventually, you will all meet, get cosy and get a room. EMI et al can sit outside in the corridor and sulk.
I think you’re right. The filters between artist and audience are all over the place, but they’ll settle eventually. I like the kitchen analogy actually – works perfectly.
The other thing is that I think a lot of real music enthusiasts, who are used to having things vaguely under control, are starting to think that they have to listen to everything and it’s stressing them out. So what if there’s loads out there – who cares?
Like you say though, being told what is good is quite handy for people who are less bothered about it all – leads back to the fact that people use music they have in common in order to bond, and for most people they don’t care what it is as long as it’s vaguely pleasing – the important part is having it in common.
One important point in all this perhaps might be, that with *all* this music and *so* many outlets to feed the masses (us included, let’s not be elitist here just because we enjoy the niches, many of us soak up plenty of Mariah Carey too), the opportunity to finely tune a “personal identity” exists. So herds do still exist but not in the way they did in the past. Places like MySpace exist because you’re able to identify yourself as a, for example: a Christian, Nick Cave-loving, Trance fan, skate-boarder, mother of two, with three Welsh Terriers. You have seemingly contradictory and unique tastes yet you post them online in order to find others like you, and ya know what? You do. No, oversaturation will never occur because in this age of extreme individualism brought to us by the alienating forces of market Capitalism we will continue to create markets to attempt to connect, to forge bonds even as we carve out our own personal spaces and music is always integral to that process. Ask any 15 year old with access to the internet what she does with her free time and she’ll tell you that she’s listening to music (well she’s lying partly cause she’s also looking at porn, lol) but she’s searching for an identity as we all did and continue to do, music defines us.
Hear hear! Well said, Toad.
There’s loads of music out there; just enjoy it.
Web2.0 gives bands a new opportunity to interact with fans (and more importantly, I guess, potential fans) but it’s nothing a suitably obsessive band couldn’t have done before. It seems like websites have been around forever, but even before the ‘net came along there were fan clubs, ‘zines and snail-mailing lists to keep the fan base grounded.
My guess is that nothing much has changed with the birth of web2.0; it’s just become slightly easier and more accessible.
Bands will always want to build a “community” around their music, and there will always be obsessive music lovers. The only difference is that now it’s easier for someone to be a “casual obsessive” and only get hot-under-the-collar about music for half an hour or so at the weekend.
If you ask me, this is a good thing.
People will always connect to and be touched by great music, and now there’s less industry gumph in between the listener and that music.
Hey, I’m not anonymous! Must’ve forgotten to fill that bit in my eagerness to comment; what a klutz I was…
Hi Toad.
I had a ‘crash’ on Thursday &, finally, after months of running into the wind with lead weighted diving boots, I hit the wall. & thank fuck I did. I was 1000% exhausted (from proper job + USA trip just gone & USA trip to come + radio + pre-records + interweb updates & all that involves, etc.) & simply couldn’t do any more. I took a day off. A rarity. A faery at the bottom of the garden rarity. Hence no response to your responses in the previous post in this series.
Anyway, on the evening before my day off I attended a house party of a friend of mine, who I’ve played a handful of times on the show. I was kind of dreading it as she is, to all intent, & with love as I do value her, an idealistic old hippie. The prospect of being at a party with her friends, who I didn’t know from Adam but knew they’d be an assortment of 40/50-something dreadheads, crusties, pseudo travellers, raggamuffins & toking philosophers, wasn’t something I really wanted to be in proximity with (what with a mental state of bubbling iron ore). Also, I was attending with my friend Anthony Reynolds (he from Jack) who has a drinking capacity like I’ve never seen & a bottomless depository for pill & powder vices. In all, it looked likely to be a plane crash in search of a mountainside. The only thing that made me go was it was my friend’s birthday, hence the party.
Anyway, to the point which refers to your post here. The evening took a few surreal paths, as it would in such an environment (one of them being the next door neighbour & his son battering the fuck out of a punchbag they’d affixed to theside of their outside kitchen wall; every 15mins one of them would come out, knock seven shades out of the bag, then go back in. Until 3 in the morning. I & another guy were the only ones who found this a little, umm, odd). The party goers were exactly as I thought they’d be (there were little kids running about – all couples in attendance, with kids, with one boy called Nemo & one girl called Jazz… need I say more?) &, of course, most were musicians. At various points the thing descended into very drunken shout-singing (in the ‘look at me, I’m the best at shouting this’ vein) & arguments over who’s going to play next. Then a trumpet player turned up (which was interesting for me as I’ve been looking for a trumpeter for a while) & the place turned into a smokey New York afterhours bar. During all this the conversation inevitably went through the usual gambits until settling on the ‘what do you do, then?’ fall back. Which lead to the talk of music, the internet & blogging.
Now, I am not sure if I was surprised by the reaction I got from people when talking about this stuff, or surprised that I was surprised, but all of the people there, bar Anthony who is an attention slut & will do anything to self promote, either didn’t use the internet at all, didn’t know what blogging was, or didn’t understand the concept of music available as download, or music being played/radio stations on the internet. This struck me as very refreshing but also very confusing. The age ranges were between 26 to 55 & most were genuinely perplexed by TWR & the concept of, found the idea of a music blog strange & pointless (yes, pointless), & almost all saw musi sharing as a fad & therefore of no interest because they get their music from live gigs (i.e the sort of Celtic Folk fests this kind of circle run in & put on in order to guarantee gigs for their brand of carbon copy Celtic Folk). Music sharing as a fad? Coming from hippies? Bizarre.
It’s my niaivete I guess that has cushioned me in this somewhat arrogant belief that everyone knows what is happening in the world & therefore everyone must be au fait with the internet & its goings on. I thought iPods were, basically, even though not everyone owns them, the clarion call to music lovers because they are seemingly ubiquitous – even if only in people’s concsiousness – & therefore the gateway to knowing about things like MP3s, therefoe downloads, therefore the internet & so on. Clearly, on the evidence of this party, not.
Anyway, I came away from the thing, spending my day off in glorious fuck all to or want to do bliss, thinking about how is it, then, people pocket themselves into their likes & dislikes, into what they are willing to expose themselves to, what governs their boundaries as acceptable or obnoxious music, etc. I must say that answer is a long way off coming, but I do believe that music (types of/genres/styles – which all means the same thing, really) isn’t over saturated at all. Perhaps, most likely definitely, within the bubble we camp in we get to hear too much of the same thing/artist because we’re all pointing at roughly the same horizion, but not as a whole. I think, sometimes, cross-over artists (e.g. The Ting Tings, to be topical) get caught up in an unfair battle of criticisms as a result of either independently tapping into a zeitgeist or being forcibly jim-crowed into one by money, PR & circumstance. They, by proxy, are then on the end of an unfortunate campaign of ‘hit ‘em hard while it lasts’ constant rotation (cue iPod/Tunes, etc.) until people get sick of it/them. Even so, I’m not so sure that adequately describes over-saturation, especially after that group of 30 or so people I met who didn’t even really know who The Ting Tings were, nor did they care.
If you entered these guys’ world for a month or so, we might come to the concluision that the type of music (perhaps artists, too, if there are any contemporary recurring names/acts) they listen to has over saturated their market place because there does seem like an avalanche of stuff heading their way constantly. This doesn’t mean to say any of it is any good (or bad), but in a relatively large minority music taste group (in that nearly, if not all, major cities will have a bar or a venue that has this type of music every Tuesday or whatever) the target audience is very narrow minded (not in a conceited way – well, some are, I have to admit – but in a ‘know of what I like & nothing else & can’t be arsed looking’ way) & the music has a very shallow ‘marketing’ strategy with its appeal outside of those boundaries. Correct me, please, if I am wrong, but it’s really only ever been the likes of The Waterboys, Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians, All About Eve (to an extent), Hothouse Flowers, Del Amitri, The Pogues (but they’re more [Celtic] Punk Folk, but still made an indelible impact), The Corrs, The Levellers, that have crossed over & stayed in the conciousness of your average record buyer.
& it’s the same for the likes of you & I, Toad (&, yes, you can argue that the Celtic/Folk tinge is somewhat present in some of our likes) – we operate in a certain field of understanding & whatever crosses the radar is either dismissed or embraced because of its functionality in furthering our appreciation of an aesthetic we know works for us.
So, on reflection, I’d say, it’s all about perspective & the view from your own back garden. We just have to learn how to ignore or be less enthused as & when appropriate.
There’s probably a better argument against & me refrencing a gang of stoned paisley-wearing, face pierced, uber-tattooed idealists (they all have decent, good money ‘proper’ jobs, yet ‘the man’ is their enemy, man) probably undermines any of the above ramble as secondary smoke hippie analysis.
Matthew,
I think over saturation of music is primarily an mp3 blogger’s problem – I have it, you have it, but I know most of my real world friends don’t have it at all. If anything, most people listen to radio hits because then their shared musical culture is much broader than your average indie fan’s. Referring back to your article about fragmentation, I think indie fans and anyone over the age of 40 underestimates the prevailing influence of rap and hip-hop. I was at Virgin Mobile’s festival in Baltimore last weekend, a very non-indie festival, and seeing the level of enthusiasm for Kanye and Lil’ Wayne compared to the bands I was there to see was a wake up call. I listen to that music, but if you’re not tapped into the pulse of mainstream culture all the time, it’s hard to see where things are going.