Connected to Music
“Listen to Tommy with a candle burning, and you’ll see your future,” says Anita Miller in 2000’s semi-autobiographical Almost Famous.
(Before we get started, seriously, watch that trailer. It gives me chills.)
Anyhow –
For “ELEVEN?!?!”-year-old William Miller, the on-screen version of real-life journalist-cum-director Cameron Crowe, those words begin teenage years full of sex, drugs and rock & roll – and a pretty sweet Rolling Stone writing career. For me, they begin a movie that perfectly portrays what it means to be a fan – “to truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts,” as Band-Aid Sapphire says.
Crowe drew from his experiences touring with and writing about bands in the 1960s and ‘70s, but Millennials’ relationships with the artists and music they love aren’t all that different from those of the Woodstock Generation. They’re just more technological.
Instead of meticulously crafting a mixed tape for our crush, we’re laboring over the perfect playlist (burned CDs are, like, so 2001) for everything from parties to a summer roadtrip. Instead of writing fan letters to Jon Bon Jovi, we re-tweet Lady GaGa’s tweets and become fans of the Kings of Leon on Facebook. Instead of camping out in front of the box office for front-row seats for The Rolling Stones, we’re stalking Ticketmaster.com, refreshing again and again until the very moment tickets go on sale for…actually, possibly The Rolling Stones. Wanna talk about “viral marketing,” we’ve got it down when it comes to music.
Music “is a lifestyle and a way of thinking,” says the fictional Jeff Bebe, lead singer of the fictional (though quite good) Stillwater, “and it’s not about money and popularity…although some money would be nice.”
“But it’s a voice that says, ‘Here I am…and [screw] you if you can’t understand me.’”
We Millennials weren’t the ones who wrote the words, but that doesn’t stop them from saying exactly what we’re thinking and feeling. Even the best of us can only dream of being that prolific (I can whip out a news story or blog post in a half hour, but I’d probably die of old age before I’d be able to finish a good song), and that’s why we send them as tweets and text messages, and we use them as statuses and in “favorite quotes” and “about me” sections on Facebook, MySpace and AIM. Our favorite songs say exactly what we want to in a way we never could.
And that’s why music connects in a way no media really can. Our favorite songs can bring back memories of everything from that one day laying by the pool in the summer to that crazy party during college. They also remind us that we’re not alone in whatever we’re thinking, feeling or going through.
Does a news story or an ad do that?
Photo Credit: roomiccube
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[...] music is the theme of the week. The following is another piece I recently wrote for The Next Great Generation. [...]
But here's the burning question: are you willing to pay for it? Or more precisely, how do you feel about sharing it?
Am I willing to pay for it? Absolutely, yes. I go to concerts all the time, too, so I feel like that's a good indication. If I could pay for it all the time, I absolutely would.
How do I feel about sharing it? That's a little more complicated.
Sharing music has been going on forever — copying records, mix tapes, etc. It's just that, with the Internet and all, it's more prevalent, and it's a much bigger issue, since you can share with people EVERYWHERE, not just your friends.
I would love to say that I never share music, I never illegally download, etc. — but I do. I would LOVE to be able to pay for music all the time, because I know it's unfair, but when you have to pay bills and whatnot, you can say all you want that you think downloading is wrong, but when it comes down to it, music is less important than car payments. And, of course, my friends and I share music all the time.
I do, however, buy as often as I can. Generally, I check out an artist's older stuff online and will buy their newest release, and I always buy the CDs of my favorite bands. When it comes down to it, I still enjoy the feeling of having something tangible for my money. There's really nothing like ripping open the CD packaging and putting the new CD into the player — seriously, it might be my favorite part. That's also why I don't buy off iTunes.
Sharing, though, is a big part of how people find out about new music. I'm not going to just download a band I've never heard of, or go walk into a record store and buy their album, but I will listen to it when my friend gives me a copy of their CD or puts a song on a mix. That really makes sharing a good thing in the long run.
Thanks for replying. I like your point of view, and I am hugely relieved you do not think all music should be free!