The week was filled with the usual niceties, for example “hello my name is professor so and so welcome to my class here’s what your grade is made up of,” and then we were posed with the classic question: does this generation have terrible taste in music? Now anyone below the age of 30 has been asked this or been accused of this. If I could count on my hands how many times my dad or grandfather has said the phrase “you haven’t heard anything like this before” or “they sure don’t make music (or really insert anything) like they used to” then I would be in the Guinness book of World Records for over 1 million fingers. Growing up in a modern, eclectic American household my music taste reflects my upbringing. I listen to everything from American bluegrass (not country, exclusively bluegrass) to Saudi Arabian folk songs to Brazilian pop. My parents CD collection ranges across the globe and as a classically trained vocalist I have certainly heard it all, but it was not until this class did I hear the phrase dynamic range be used in the argument against my generations quality of music.

I believe the phrase used to describe the quality of compressed music with minimal dynamic range was “grotesque impoverishment as the result of industrialization” and a result of “mechanization taking command”. So what do I, as a young person of the modern age, a consumer of modern media, and arguably part of the problem, think about the claims of my professor? I completely agree! Two claims that I identified with are:

-We are lazy (hence the minimal desire to adjust the volume)

And

-Is the best art, art you don’t have to pay attention to?

With the industrial revolution (where it always seems to start) the desire for rapid production consumed our economies, creating mechanical titans which continue to cheaply mass produce, providing American consumers with one less thing to worry about. So said consumer can walk in to a store and pick out anything, from bread to apples to sushi to pie, all without having to exert any laborious effort. Has everything lost its value now that you can buy the same exact footstool as someone else at IKEA? Or purchase tasteless Wonder bread are your local supermarket? Have we achieved the American dream of efficiency or have we entered an era lacking individuality? In my opinion yes and no. We find a mundane, repetitive, consumer reality on the surface but if you are able to seek out exceptions you can find freshly made bread, locally grown apples, undistorted music, and much more. The ability to do so connects to another question raised: is more expected of our generation? The pressure of the 9-5 rat race and the nuclear family is still prevalent in a society where your income is one of the primary factors determining your worth. Due to this stress and demand to focus on work and nothing else for eight hours a day does this leave time for art and music? I would like to pose a few questions of my own: Has music been repurposed? What was once an art form for aesthetic pleasure, much like film or visual art, is now completely versatile. It is used while driving, while working out, while doing homework, as a defense mechanism or barrier, as a sense of status or “coolness level”, to dance to, to enjoy at home, and much more. Is this versatility a reflection of the modern era or is a sign of demise? Additionally, is this accessibility not a benefit of modernity? Once an exclusive art form of those who could afford a record player or radio or tickets to a concert, can now be enjoyed by listeners everywhere, eliminating the income level exclusion (to an extent). I’m not sure the answer to these, hopefully the next class will provide some insight!