Found this today in my e-mail. Thought some of us might find it interesting. I certainly do. And it's quite true.

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060110/tc_afp/afpentertainmentbritain"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060110/tc_afp/afpentertainmentbritain[/URL]

LONDON (AFP) - Internet downloading and MP3 players are creating a generation of people who do not seriously appreciate songs or musical performances, British researchers said.

"The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North. North led a team from the University of Leicester, central England, that monitored 346 people over two weeks to evaluate how they related to music. They concluded that because of greater accessibility through mass media, music was nowadays seen more as a commodity that is produced, distributed and consumed like any other. It could also account for the popularity of television talent competitions, particularly in Britain, which allow viewers from the "iPod generation" a rare chance to engage and appreciate music and live performances, they suggested. "In the 19th century, music was seen as a highly valued treasure with fundamental and near-mystical powers of human communication," said North. "The pace of technological change has accelerated further over the last 20 years or so and these fundamental changes in the nature of musical experience and value have arguably become even more pronounced. "Because so much music of different styles and genres is now so widely available via portable MP3 players and the internet, it is arguable that people now actively use music in everyday listening contexts to a much greater extent than ever before. "The degree of accessibility and choice has arguably led to a rather passive attitude towards music heard in everyday life. "In short, our relationship to music in everyday life may well be complex and sophisticated, but it is not necessarily characterised by deep emotional investment." The academic's assessment follows a warning last week from rock legend Pete Townshend, The Who guitarist, that listening to rock music on an MP3 player through headphones could cause deafness.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

yea mp3s makes it much easier to get bored of a artist style much easier then say when you had to save up for a cd

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

hadn't really thought about it, but I think there's a least a kernel of truth to it, now that I do. I certainly think of music differently now than I did before the dawning of the mp3.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

i agree, i used to buy only a few cds, and i knew every song by heart. And the songs i didn't like in the beginning could grow on me and some of them became even my favorites. All that is gone now. I hardly have a clue what i have. let alone that i listen to it over and over.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

christ as if we haven't been listing this as one of the huge reasons why we have shitty electronic music atm. in every technology vs the vinyl battle, someone (me or some other hardline vinyl elitist like myself) had always said that digital media detracts and makes music less valuable. Technology is like inflation, but for music media.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

people talk about 40 or 60 gbs of music like its nothing and it does suck.

i have noticed, now having started burning cd singles that i need to conciously slow my dling and my burning down so i can get to know the tracks i enjoy to like i did with my records.

just like anything else i feel mp3s need to be downloaded and collected in moderation.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

Technology does really make it hard to really get into and really enjoy the music. I remember back before all this stuff and I used to listen to cassettes for all my music. I still feel really connected to that stuff. Not as much with new music. Unless it's what i spin out all the time. I do feel a connection with that.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

i believe it. fewer and fewer people are taking time to really listen to music.

it makes me sad.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

I don't agree. I pride myself on knowing what i like and what i don't like - the way i obtain music doesnt affect that at all. This week I have downloaded Digital Witchcrafts proton set from 2003 - I absolutely loved it, its been on my ipod all week long. My point is that it wouldnt matter if I had bought it on cd, vinyl whatever - its a good set and the format it comes in doesnt detract from that.

I would agree with the opinions that music is becoming more of a commodity - the ease with which I can download something to the ipod know means I can pick and choose what I want. In the past I would have to record it in realtime to my minidisc, therefore meaning I would have to devote more time to actually obtaining it - those days are gone for me thankfully.

Therefore, if my listening time is increasing, surely it's beneficial for me? I'm getting hold of good music, discarding the sets I don't enjoy, and staying happy!

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

I totally agree that technology just made it harder for me to devote time to music ... in other words now i just get the music and it stays with me for a long time maybe without listening to it at all cuz i've been catching out on what i got before and so on ...

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

to much information can generate to get bored

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

I agree with this. I've found myself barely listening to some artist's work and moving ahead... no real appreciation.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

nah it all comes from the wide selection we have now. but once u will settle down a bit more and if the music really means anything to you then u´ll automatically learn more about it. just don´t listen to the others and build your own opinion..

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

it's kinda like the guys in the promo section that are constantly putting up new sets for us to download. I still have yet to listen to a number of the Creamer sets and the Hawtin sets and many more.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

I agree completely with what they're saying - and worse still, it means that it's encouraging [I]more[/I] overtly commercialised shite to dominate our ears. Why? Because it has to appeal more and has to appeal quicker than ever before. Okay, so none of us are really big on pop music - but I doubt any of us want it to become even more dumbed down than it already is.

It's another reason why I prefer to do a monthly Proton show, rather than weekly/fortnightly - quite honestly, I would find it near-impossible to generate and find enough [I]quality[/I] unique material to fill a more frequent timeslot. (Props to those who can ...I just don't have enough hours in the day, I'm afraid!) I'd prefer to have the material that people will go back to but ... jeez ... fuck me it's an uphill battle to get there!

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

[QUOTE]In the 19th century, music was seen as a highly valued treasure with fundamental and near-mystical powers of human communication[/QUOTE]

Back in the early half of 19th century, the only way to access music was to listen to it at a live performance. With the advent of technology to record music, this key value in music was by-passed.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

I noticed this back in 2001 after I had amassed a mere 30GB of music from Napster & Scour Exchange. As strange as it sounds, I actually found myself torn on whether my accelerated music acquisition habits were positive. On the one hand, I was getting exposed to a huge swath of artists and at a very fast pace. I felt like I was making up for lost time by catching up on all the electronic music from the past decade (1991 - 2001). But on the other hand, I was devoting less time to each individual artist than I did when I'd bop down to a record store and plop down $15 for a CD.

So for me it really boiled down to a breadth vs depth ideology. I came to the conclusion that it was more beneficial to have a broad awareness of thousands of artists, than to know every note in the albums of 10 artists.

While I still download lots of music (I've got somewhere in the range of 900GB now) and a wide variety at that, I've found that my listening habits have come full circle over the past 5 years. I tend to dedicate more "quality" time to my favorite artists like John Digweed & Thievery Corporation. And by "quality" I mean listening to their music in the absence of other distractions. I might load my iPod up with 10 new DJ sets each week and listen to those on my iPod while driving to work, but when I relax in the evening while around the house I listen to my favorite artists. So I can still get that wide range of exposure to new artists and new music while driving, but I can give undivided attention to my favorite artists in the evening and still develop an emotional attachment to those songs, albums, & DJ sets.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

^ what JetaTek says - I listen to lots of new things each week, but also return to the sets/mixes i know are good. Out of the new sets I dl each week, a few of them get played again and again and hence become 'classics' too

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

what they say is quite true, but on the other hand, in the times of cassettes you would listen to a track only because it was there - many quite shitty tunes among a few gems possibly. You'd say it grew on you but really you'd just get used to its medicority cause you didn't have much choice. Now if I'm to listen to a track or set more than once, it's got to be really good... There's always more competition when the choice is wider - and that's good.

Re: Music downloading creates listener apathy

Threads like this create reader apathy.

It's scientifically proven.