Music and Technology

            Music affects almost everyone’s lives nowadays. From creating the perfect workout or study playlist, to attending a concert by your favorite band, music inspires and motivates us, and can offer great stress relief. With music having such a universal impact, it is worth taking a look at how technology changes the quality of that music and the genres that we listen to.

            While still attempting to remain contemporary, we could start this discussion as far back as the proliferation of electric guitars and basses and how they changed the musical landscape, but I will focus on the more recent deluge of synthesizers, keyboards, and turntables that brought about what we might call “electronic” music. This revolution in sound reached its stride in the 80’s, with synthesizers becoming nearly as widespread as guitars themselves.  The carefree and danceable sounds created with these instruments lent themselves to, well, dance music. This music’s popularity reinforced the idea amongst its listeners that everything was going just great, and there was no need to worry. This idea works well for the purpose it was intended for, to energize the dance floor, but it could be argued that it is not as effective a philosophy when it seeps its way into mainstream culture as the music did. Some bands did adopt the new technology and use it to deliver a meaningful message, but most did not see mainstream success. To be fair, the most successful electronic (and I would argue, but not here, the greatest) band of all time, Depeche Mode, are amongst those that adapted the music in such a way, but their success was not typical. So in general, the 80’s proliferation of electronic music brought us a turn away from the self-searching lyrics of rock and towards a more lackadaisical approach to lyricism.

            New technology took a break from having much of an influence on new genres in the 90’s, but sprouted up again in the 2000’s in a big way. Software for audio creation allowed for fully-featured music to be created with a minimum of hardware, thus making it easier than ever for anyone to start making music. This DIY approach led to an onslaught of DJs, creating their own electronic music and remixing others’. Emphasis was placed on experiencing the music in a live setting, for the purposes of dance and the communal experience. Music in the mainstream became less about the artist, and more of a social lubricant, an excuse to go out, dance, and relieve some stress. Lyrics hardly mattered, but if present, would certainly not present any ideas that might challenge the listener or give reason to think.

            Technology, then, had a powerful effect on how society thinks about music, and music has a powerful influence over how people think about life. New technology led to music becoming more of a tool for stress relief and entertainment, and less about finding meaning and inspiration in lyrics. Past this point, we could get into arguments of whether or not this change is for the better or worse, or if it is simply neutral, but that is simply opinion and I don’t wish to get into it in this blog, any more than my word choices already have. All observations in this blog come from examining the mainstream music culture, as it is by definition what most people are listening to and thus being influenced by. In any time period, there is of course an almost endless array of styles of music for a variety of purposes, but I have attempted to examine only the music that shapes the majority of culture in any given time period, and how advances in technology have been used to change it.