The problem with modern music

We all know the story. You’re at that party and Living on a Prayer comes on and everyone goes a bit nuts and become best friends. Well that’s until the end of the first chorus when they start demanding the next song and suddenly you feel like you’re in one of the mob scenes from Les Miserables.

We have so little patience or loyalty when it comes to music these days. Our musical attention span seems to only last for about 30 seconds and then our thumbs are itching to push the skip button. In fact, a recent study by the Statistic Brain Research Institute found the average attention span is now just 8.25 seconds, compared to 12 seconds in 2010. That’s less than a goldfish!

Worse than this, our tastes have become attuned to the same digitally enhanced ‘doof doof music’ (as my Mum would call it) that seems to dominate the mainstream media scene these days. We now seem incapable of appreciating what’s good as opposed to what’s good to dance to.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got as many ‘modern classics’ on my iPod as you do and I know music, like any art form, is subjective and often foreign to older generations. I’m pretty sure my grandparents thought the world had gone nuts when the Beatles gained their cult following and my grandmother would shudder whenever mum played Why Don’t We Do It On The Road.

Then again, I am only 24 so surely I should be down with the current musical scene, as the cool kids would say.

My point is our ability to really listen to and appreciate music, rather than just using it as the soundtrack to another mindless run or boring commute, seems to be dying in this age of technological advancement.

“It’s hard not to develop an aural antsiness when YouTube is there for the flighty browsing, iPods for the impatient shuffling,” writes journalist Hermione Hoby in The Observor. “Meanwhile, Spotify and every other streaming service allow us to take for granted a song being there for our ears when we demand it. In short, our restless listening might mean we’re in danger of becoming careless listeners, too.”

This ‘restless listening’ is not a new phenomenon, as Alan Taffel points out in his article The Attention-Span Gap. Having to sit through a five-minute piece by Mozart would amount to cruel and unusual punishment these days, let alone a 40-minute concerto, which was the norm back in the heyday of classical music.

Nonetheless, Mr Taffel says it’s the recent rise of the so-called ‘Song Generation’ that has seen a rapid decline in our ability to listen to music properly. He pinpoints four musical developments that have led to this – pop and rock radio stations, the CD, LP ‘singles’ and digital music devices. Giving us the ability to skip, shuffle and select is testing our loyalty to both music and musicians.

Music used to be an event, a peg to hang your favourite memories on. Our family road trips consisted of tapes my Dad had made of Abba hits where you had to sing through a chorus of Yellow Submarine acapella while it turned over. Play Diana Ross and I’m upstairs at home, legs dangling over the balcony, watching my Mum belting her heart out while ironing.

Sadly, these days it seems it’s just the soundtrack to another mindless run or boring commute.

But apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. A study by a group of researchers published in an online journal a few years ago found the timbral or tone quality of music released in the past decade or so had rapidly declined. This, they concluded, has seen music become more homogenised or sounding the same, with less variety in instruments and recording techniques used.

I can’t say reading this was a total shocker but it did get me thinking about how bad the shuffle, auto-tuned music culture we have today has got to become before those the music is targeting say enough is enough.

There are already clear signs that this is already happening, as the recent resurgence in records shows. Sales rose by more than 50% last year, according to Forbes. Groups are also being set up to champion the characteristic ‘warmth’ of records and to encourage people to re-learn the skill of actively listening to music. However, this movement is still very much regarded as a niche.

I suppose this is just the nostalgic rant of someone whose own musical tastes run against the current trend but I believe the way we listen to music is indicative of how we live our lives. And if that’s a little too cheesy or dramatic for you, perhaps Berlin-based DJ and producer Benjamin Fehr puts it better.

“I have known a life without Internet, smartphones and computers and I really miss the attitude and the quietness of watching and understanding things,” Mr Fehr told website DJ Broadcast. “I know the satisfaction and clearness in your head without being distracted every minute. Having an understanding of something in your own way, without the intrusion of feedback from someone else.”

All I can say to that is Amen.