Live music importance is relative to the technology we use to listen to recorded music.
When you had an album it was a memory in it self, a few songs were listened to at a time start to finish, interaction with the physical medium, connection with the band inherent. Record labels were very open minded back then. Without Video the beautiful ugly musicians were heard. Labels developed bands on small tours to larger ones, introduced singles before entire albums were invested in. Home audio and video was primitive and gas was cheap so live music was worth it.
From the needle drop to hearing chipmunks while fast forwarding tape, to seeking the track, to spinning a virtual wheel through thousands of albums the supply of our demand as consumers dictated a need for efficiency. Efficiency and catering to not opening one's mind to listen through music that is not liked at first. Think of how many albums you didn't like, at first. Then they grew on you, or the fact that you had the CD a friend focused your attention to something specific.
CD's brought a level of whole albums listened to but gave the speed of track selection to the user. 100 feet back I see it as conditioning to chose your favorites. Consumers still knew the album in its entirety with the advent of multi CD players...for the most part one album at a time. Music labels now focus on a larger investment, target markets with types of genres for a total return of investment across the label. Labels at this point have conglomerated to less than 20 majors. Pop music is changed forever with fabricated groups polished to the specs of market research. Instead of showing a wide variety for the consumer to give sales feedback, labels have determined what to give the audience to keep sales up with far less focus on longevity of a given group. "Telling" the consumer what is popular by saturation, selection, and depletion of a lot of similar groups...(hair metal, boy bands, Grunge, Nu-metal)
The technology created by musicians for musicians - mastering compression, autotune/ pitch correction, Digital recording, consumer playback audio, etc. accelerated the change.
iPod generation - No Memory, no exchange with a physical medium - album art is dying. Multiple albums split by track multiply exponentially. No connection with a band just the product of the band with thousands of others. I see it as consumers demand for what is good for them at that moment. Albums are recorded for less and less with Singles being sold or given for free ultimately the value is reduced to less than nothing...It is now the free market of recorded music. The computer speakers we can buy for $50, with tracks engineered to sound good played from anything, car audio at an all time high, and cost of transportation also at an all time high. Since the late 80's bands realized it is cheaper to rent your equipment for each show than truck your own, Volume/ SPL has gotten tamed with cleaner Pro audio/ education in acoustics: The investment for live music by cost has been unfavorable for quite some time. Bands don't tour, it costs too dang much... The musician changed the delivery and now proves the value to the label with likes, shares, and direct return of investment data. Non musicians percieve the devalue of music in recorded form, and no longer rely on going out to get music. One can watch every recorded concert since 1970 on youtube, pull up a track for free, look up a band and socially stamp themselves with said band by sharing it.
It is important to the remaining generation of musicians not the masses. Everybody that plays needs to make instruments cool again.
Crap music exists everywhere, in every genre. So does genius.
