General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ General Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

---

Has the Digital Age Killed the Music??? (Call Me a Wacko...) (Long)

208.176.169.92

Posted by Todd Krieger on February 27, 2001 at 02:22:37

Recently, a new pastime has sprung up- bashing of music of the '70's and '80's. Some prime targets are songs such as McArthur Park, Village People, etc.. And in the wake of today's music, which in general I'd say is anything but inspiring, I was wondering why such bashing and ridicule has sprung up.

Then, on an FM oldies station, Richard Harris' McArthur Park was played. And to be honest, it didn't sound like anything how I remembered it. Everything was there, but it sounded like a sequence of music notes, as opposed to a once-popular song... It was downright boring...

But... To me, *all* music from that era doesn't seem to sound the same. Case and point. I remember a great rock tune by Emerson Lake and Palmer, "What a Lucky Man." (The title might not be exactly right.) Now I remember this being a musical tune- in fact a favorite amongst audiophiles when the song was popular. It was a sweet recording, and I especially remember the spine-chilling deep-bass synthesizer at the end of the song- It was a great tune to show off both musically and sonically. But when I heard it several years ago, it sounded like a nothing song. That bass synth sounded dead. Nobody talks about it as an audiophile fave anymore. Even the 60's faves sound dead, be it the Beatles, Four Tops, or Elvis... FM, CD, or LP... (Even when the CD first came out, I actually liked the way it sounded!!)

It's almost to the point that in spite of my disdain for today's music, older music doesn't seem to turn back the clock... And quite possibly, since I never heard an unadulterated analog rendition of today's music, I'll even admit that *my* perception of today's music could be corrupted... (And maybe, the musical element was thrown out the window because it no longer sounds impressive.)

So I ask, what in the heck is going on??

But now, the kicker. I grabbed an analog cassette of a recording I made off of a turntable of some *disco* music back around 1980. The Trammps' "Disco Inferno." Not exactly my cup of tea musically. (It was made for a party tape at the time.) Out of curiosity, I slapped the cassette into a walkman (I didn't have a home deck hooked up at the time), and I was stunned. DUMBFOUNDED. I could not believe what I was hearing. I had an adrenalin rush that I haven't experienced listening to any audio system in almost 30 years. I then grabbed a Pat Metheny cassette recording from about the same time. And that tape sounded better recorded off an early '80's mid-fi and played through a Walkman than I've heard it on any high-end system of recent memory. I could go on and on...

******But, when I then played the tapes on a high-end cassette deck on either of my high-end systems, only a small fraction of this sonic nirvana was captured. What I suspected may be true, albeit it may seem to be off the edge...

I am now convinced that the proliferation of digital devices (audio, computers, processor-controlled devices, etc.) has corrupted our perception of music. EVEN WHEN IT'S ANALOG!!! It seems that we are producing so much RFI, as a byproduct of the digital age, it seems to corrupt even analog versions of the music. But when analog music played on a system independent of the electrical AC mains, and devoid of a digital source, even if it's a battery-operated boombox, the music regains much of the old magic!!

I really feel like a wacko stating this, but if any of you have cassette recordings (even pre-recorded ones) from before 1982, play it on a walkman, in the car, or on some other battery-operated system. (Preferably on a device *devoid* of a digital source.) I adamantly believe a key element of nirvana in playback of recorded music has been killed by the excessive RFI of the *widespread* digital and RF devices around us, and this becomes sickly obvious only when an analog-era recording is played on an analog device isolated from electrically-borne digital RFI.

(Could this be why leaf and ribbon tweeters lost popularity? Could this be why vacuum tubes and tube amplification have made a huge comeback? [Nothing against tubes, BTW.] Could this be why people have been willing to spend their second mortgage just to get satisfactory sound out of their home audio systems?)

A related question- For audiophiles who were into this hobby back in the '60's and '70's- Did you have the *constant* urge to upgrade your system during that time? And to blow tons of money to do so?? When I owned *far* lesser gear in the late '70's and early '80's I certainly didn't!!! (For those who got into this hobby later, playing an old analog tape on an isolated analog system could be an enlightening experience.)

Maybe the ticket to sonic nirvana and musical satisfaction is a battery-powered home system. Maybe the person putting together that "extreme" system on the Shakti website was really onto something!!

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Herbie's Audio Lab

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---