Food for thought, and discussion:
I wrote this a few years back. I ran across it today, and I think the
ideas here, MAY be affecting Ham Radio, as I will describe at the end of
the piece. Bear with me, please, I do have a solid point to make,
although I lack a conclusion.
---)
My wife's gotten into playing the guitar lately, in a big way. She loves
playing the thing. It does my heart good to see her dive into this
thing with both feet.
But watching her go through this process, has got me to thinking about the physical relationship between music and those listening to it, and playing it.
There is an addicting quality I think, to playing music. And frankly
years ago there was a similar quality to listening to music. There was a
physical relationship in both cases.
Things have changed, however.
Consider the idea that with vinyl records and to a somewhat lesser
extent with tape, there was a physical action going on and there was an
interaction between the listener and the material being listened to.
There's a record going around.
There's a tape in that machine that you can see being played. You had to
put something there, you actually have possession and control of
something that makes that sound. The equipment requires at least basic
upkeep and a basic understanding to make those sounds. The maintenance
and operations of such beasts is as much an art form as it is a science.
There is a personal interaction at that level between you and the
music.
With some more recent formats, say, CDs, and certainly with MP3s and
streaming, there's nothing of the sort going on. There is no physical
connection between the music being played and the listener. And it got
me to thinking that maybe that's part of the reason why music hasn't
been selling all that well lately. There's no holding it in your hand,
no watching it being played. No technical expertise required to make all
that happen on the listener end.
(Say what you will about the quality of MP3s, I will likely agree.... but frankly that's a discussion for another time.)
In the days of vinyl and whatnot there was a lot of listener input to the Hobby, if you will. That's no longer true.
I can't help but wonder if that isn't a major reason why sales of music
has been dropping off, and why high-end stereo stores aren't doing well
except for those engaging in sales of retro material and equipment.....
The Resurgence of tape and vinyl.
Granted, the music isn't what it used to be either. For the most part
it's been absolute crap for the last 20 years. But I'm starting to think
that that's only half the issue. And the Resurgence of tape and of
vinyl records for home use speaks loudly to me on that that point.
But but you know, about that as well, so much of today's music is being
played on equipment and instruments that are as plug and play as the MP3
player.
Example:
It's certainly a lot more costly, less dependable, and certainly more
fragile to carry a Hammond B3 /Leslie 147 combination around on the road
with you everywhere you go. So, most people simply carry the
synthesized equivalent. And it simply does not sound the same. Sorry, it
just doesn't.
Another example would be Auto-Tune. Does anybody record vocals without it anymore? In listening to the radio these days, one has to wonder.
For that matter radio is another example of what I'm talking about here.
Years ago every music station that you listened to had very little if
any automation, or at the very least it was quite primitive and required
a lot of user input. (An exception might be Drake Cherault, and their
beautiful music systems.)
Back when top 40 radio was King, you had one or two folks on at all
times who knew very very well how to run a manual live control board.
Not only was there an art form to running the equipment but there was
also an art form to making the sound. Every mix on the air
was done live, you used Records & Tapes. There was "no holds
barred" talent involved, there was a direct connection
between the people on the air and the listener. I suggest that's one
reason that Top40 music of the period remains popular to this day; there
was a connection between the music and the listener that was aided by
the relationship between the radio talent, and the listener.
Not so, anymore.
These days radio stations can run 24 hours a day without any human input
at all. Every single element is pre-recorded, voice tracked, the
mixdowns on-air between each element, are sloppy at best, the connection
between the broadcaster and The listener is completely gone. And radio,
is, as an industry, alas, is struggling, and wondering where their
listeners went. Radio has become bland, impersonal, mechanized. And all
of this before we come to AI running the show, which I assure you is
coming and in a few cases is already here.
So again we come to the question... Have we succeeded in separating ourselves from our music by means of Technology?
(---
So runs the bit I wrote for general consumption a few years back and to the question I'll raise, here:
How does this trend i mention above, (possibly) affect Ham radio? Some
of you will see where I'm going with this already, but let's spell it
out:
I must wonder if the objections to the digi modes, the FT*'s etc, is not
rooted in the same trends I note in the above piece. I must admit that
it's possible, but if so, there's a lot of Ham ops mislabeling their
objections, to the detriment of their own arguments.
If the comparison is true, (Obviously, I think it is) then the objection
driving the complaints about digi modes, is the lack of human
connection. And so anything that reduces that connection is labeled as
"Not Ham Radio".
Yet, we are without question a technical hobby, a tech minded group of
folks. Ham radio is placed in a rather unique position.... we're supposed to be on the cutting edge,
at least if you take our charter seriously, which seems to suggest that
the goals of maintaining that connection and being of the techie
cutting edge, (At least at the current levels of technology) are
mutually exclusive.
Is there a solution to this disconnect?
I invite your thoughts.
