I have a close friend called Brian Doherty, he is my rep at the Fox Affiliate in Orlando, and he often tells the story of my being his first sales call and after it was over considering quitting the profession. My point is that sometimes it takes time to forge friendships and the exact same thing is true of music, sometimes it takes repetition for a song to sink in repetition is the method in which music reveals itself.
But in 2013 there is no time for repetition, we no longer listen we sample. In 1993, you bought an album a week took it home, and gave it time to grow on you. You’d invested time and money in it and you had a vested interest in enjoying it. In 2013 every new release is at your finger tips every Tuesday morning, all you have to do is stream it, and they have no time to make a first impression, all they have is the time between hitting play and hitting next.
With nothing but choices available to you, how do you listen to music that is difficult to penetrate the time it takes. What do you do with this music? Do you not listen to, say, Shostakovich because it requires concentration and time to reveal yourself. I love beats and melodies as much as the next fellow and more than most but if you have ever listened to industrial beats you will note that where it came from is very difficult to listen to: even as dance it pounds you hard and the preprogrammed rhythms re not a cool trip.
So if we can’t get from Industrial Beats to Britney Spears or from classical dark strings to Disney soundtracks, if thew time to get difficult music stops, how does music evolve? If we won’t give music time, what will happen to music?