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Are you not glad?

Are you not glad?

  • Um, sure.

    Votes: 14 27.5%

  • Whatever he said.

    Votes: 2 3.9%

  • Not really.

    Votes: 10 19.6%

  • Once. 1978. August. For about an hour.

    Votes: 13 25.5%

  • Rutabaga (I did win, right?)

    Votes: 12 23.5%
  • Total voters
    51
comatosedragon

comatosedragon

Oct 12, 2014
1,840
2,959
Rockingham VA {616}
#1
*disclaimer -This thread has no point. As such, it should not be viewed by anyone, let alone responded to or voted on. You have been warned*

Aren't you glad the internet wasn't available 50 years ago?

Could you imagine if Geddy Lee, Mel Schacher, JPJ, Chris Squire, Lemmy, John Entwistle, Geezer Butler and Paul McCartney were all members of TalkBass back then, and spent their days arguing about the perfect scale length of a bass guitar? The pros and cons of Flats vs Rounds? Perfect strap button locations? The difference .5mm makes in string spacing? The obvious tonal superiority of (this wood) over (that one)? The importance of Tort? What color bass is best for rock? And of course, the thread where JPJ wants to buy that new Jazz bass, but needs to make sure Entwistle and McCartney validate his choice first, and while he is interested to see Lemmys comments, he will most likely just ignore them, or respond back with a snide 'I'm better than you so your opinion is not valid' post ... priceless.

I'm just glad they went out to the garage and make rockin tunes instead!
Too many choices (America), it's not healthy!
 
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#2
Talent is not denied by the Interwebz. Seems to me we would have known about every great musician much earlier. Just like we see and hear every 8 y.o.
wonderkind today.

I think one of the things that is different today is that groups were the avenue to success back then. Everyone was focused on getting in a gigging band with hopes if making it big.

With the diversity of technology available today, there are many more avenues to success with many people unwilling to put in the years that it takes to become a competent musician, especially with the declining pay and availability of local venues.

Just sayin'.
 
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#10
One of things I miss from the pre-internet days is the mystique of bands and individual musicians. Information was somewhat limited so the only way to learn about them was through magazine articles and liner notes in albums. There was a sense of trying to get to know the musicians. In some ways, they seemed larger than life. I used to love getting an album and reading the liner notes while listening to the album. A lot of that mystery is gone now because we can find out almost everything about every band and musician within minutes.
 
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#12
Spidey2112 said:
I voted before I saw the disclaimer...

... can I get my money back?
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Just forward me your PayPal info, and after a simple restocking fee of 65%, the remainder will be refunded to you (minus PayPal fees, and applicable state taxes).

Oddly said:
I'm pretty curious about what happened the other two guys (or gals) that voted August 78, to be honest.
Click to expand...
Nobody ever gets my George Carlin references . . . . fine & dandy . . .
 
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#13
Meh. I recently turned 40 - my childhood was entirely analog but I do not miss those days at all. The internet has made it so much easier to discover new artists, it's never been a better time to be a music fan. In my teens, you'd have to watch or listen to broadcasts by genre (sometimes only once a week) to hear new tunes and potentially discover new bands, picked according to the interests of the host and/or his/her team. You'd have to take guesses when buying tapes / CDs because you only heard one or two singles, at best. Tapes and CDs were much more expensive then, too, taking into account the lower cost of living back then. Another big plus (for me, at least) is that you no longer need to clutter your house with CDs, tapes, and vinyl records to have a huge music collection. Now with the internet, it's an all-you-can-listen-buffet, 24/7. Artists from around the corner or around the world, that you would have never heard of otherwise are now just a click away. The only limit is your curiosity and the time you're willing to spend following different leads. More and more artists are marketing their music directly to the audience this way, too, which I think is the way ahead.

I agree with you about TB's sometimes ridiculous obsession over gear, but on the flipside, a lot of valuable info can be found here - more power to the consumer. Back in the old days, you'd have to go by what sales personnel would tell you at your local store, or a teacher (who sometimes worked for a music store, too), or the sometimes biased and limited knowledge of another guy on your block, or at your school, who played guitar. If you lived in a rural or semi-rural area with only one music store and you had no musicians in your family / circle of friends, as a beginner you really were at the mercy of that store in terms of the advice you'd get about gear. New and seasoned musicians alike have now access to much more data to make informed decision on equipment. Yes, the all-too-frequent tort/flats/j vs p/4 vs 5/best underwear for metal threads can be annoying, but it's easy enough to just avoid them.

I don't think having a presence here and playing in a band or writing music are mutually exclusive options either. I think most groups are represented here (although probably not equally), from bedroom/basement players, to semi-pros, to full-time pros. Nobody rehearses/writes 24 hours a day.

Anyway, that's just my 0.02$ :)
 
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#15
I would expand on this concept by asking how many great musicians / bands haven't bothered going for the gold because there is no gold to go for? I mean back in the day there was money and fame at the top and it was accessible if you were great or even just talented and unique. Now it seems to be an insider's club certainly with little reward to non-club members. Keep your day job, right? I would say that if the internet was available then, many of the greats probably wouldn't have bothered. For 99% of the 'musicians' out there - including myself - playing is a hobby. Couple that with the reality that the internet has allowed many consumers to quit paying for music altogether, the incentive to produce new music is lost in it. Especially stuff outside of the box. Most don't aspire to make music their career and i suspect that would have happened back then too.

This provokes yet another question - How many of the old school bands would have gone down in flames had Facebook / Twitter / etc existed in their heyday? Scandalous behavior, criminal mischief (and worse), etc would have spread farther and wider than it did. Things to ponder...
 
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#19
BobKos said:
I would say that if the internet was available then, many of the greats probably wouldn't have bothered. [...]This provokes yet another question - How many of the old school bands would have gone down in flames had Facebook / Twitter / etc existed in their heyday? Scandalous behavior, criminal mischief (and worse), etc would have spread farther and wider than it did. Things to ponder...
Click to expand...

Yup. Although I claimed to have no point to make, you pretty much made it.
 
#20
BobKos said:
This provokes yet another question - How many of the old school bands would have gone down in flames had Facebook / Twitter / etc existed in their heyday? Scandalous behavior, criminal mischief (and worse), etc would have spread farther and wider than it did. Things to ponder...
Click to expand...

I don't know...although pop and hip hop have pretty much taken rock'n roll's spot in terms of scandalous behavior/criminal mischief, you still see artists succeed despite (or thanks to) the publicity a good scandal provides. I could be totally wrong but I don't feel things have changed much in that regard.
 

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