I’ve written the following pieces for the Opinion section of Hidden Classics. Check it out in full at
Hidden Classics.With the rise of the I-Pod, Mix CDs and compilations for everything, the way we consume music is moving ever faster towards the single track divorced from the artist. Often, as in the case of downloads we know nothing more about the track than the file name. Even with Mix CDs and compilations we only get the bare facts regarding the artist. We live in a world so overflowing with choice it’s no wonder the DJ has been elevated to chief taste connoisseur. Part of this is due to the explosion of genre’s and the indistinction between the artists within them. This is happening increasingly in all of the art’s where you will find the curator/expert is king.
I believe that downloads are the hidden classics treasure trove of the future. I can see a rich future for someone with great taste in mining out the truly outstanding tracks which diligent bedroom producers and hungry bands have been flooding the net with since its inception. Would the artists be paid or even acknowledged, unlikely. It’s hard to track these people down today and who even respects the copyright of established artists anymore, never mind 10 or 20 years down the line. The paradox is that we are living in an age where we are producing more music than ever before but the artist is at their least regarded.
The thrill of hearing a new track or sound which we feel passionate about is like a drug to some people, but like any drug the feeling wears off. Maybe its inevitable, but as we get used to something, no matter how new and exciting it once was to us, eventually we tire of it and look for that feeling again through more new music. The feeling is what this all about, the rush, the excitement of it. So we hunt for more things in the same genre or even change completely, always searching for that same buzz of finding something that takes are breath away, makes us get excited all over again. Now this drive might go away with age and circumstances but you know what I mean. I have yet to forget what this feels like and as I have got older I have become better at recognising the tracks that do last a little longer. We should count ourselves lucky if music is one of the things that does it for us, that we have not developed some very rarefied passion which we seldom get to experience. Music is all around us, whether in public places or at our own private disposal. While music is now more accessible than ever before we should be even more careful not to take it for granted or we risk forgetting why we once held it so dear.
