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Ask Slashdot: Can Digital Music Replace Most Instrumental Musicians?
deviated_prevert writes "Most instrumental music used today in television commercials, background sounds and themes even on the majority of produced shows comes from completely digital composers who produce the product through digitized instrument samples. This has almost eliminated the need for real human instrumental musicians. For many listeners this makes no difference, as such music is essentially background in nature and does not need to have a true musical interaction with a listening audience at all. The same thing applies to the waves of digital music produced for things like raves. To quote one observer at the Globe and Mail 'So now we know why Deadmau5 and Daft Punk wear helmets when they perform. Everybody is digging the music, but no one is dancing. It is a sad development; the headgear of the maestros is there to mask their tears.' Will the live performance of instrumental musicians also become a thing of the past, or will there continue to be a real need for it? Purely instrumental groups like Booker T and the MGs, as well as solo performers like Herbie Hancock or John McLaughlin, seem not to take the spotlight as they once did. It is apparent that unless someone with a young fresh face is singing, today's producers will not attempt to seriously promote them. Regardless of how great today's instrumentalists are musically, there no longer seems to be a market for real musicianship. Even great performing classical musicians and ensembles are becoming scarcer due to faster and cheaper digital music production."
yeah and it's a fucking stupid thing to say since _most_ dancing music -counted by hours per person per time on dancefloor- is electronic. full electronic, there's no pretense about how it was produced. ever since the rave revolution of '90s.
and then compare that to metallica. why the fuck did the author bring dancing to this at all? especially when classical concerts pretty much as a rule nowadays have __no__ dancing or even possibility for dancing - so concerts with dozens of actual instrument players have no possibility for dancing whatsoever while deadmau5, skrillex, daft punk, js16 etc concerts HAVE NO SEATING AT ALL.
so what the fuck? total fail.
if it sounds good it sounds good, don't let anything else come between you and the music - don't give a shit if it's produced by entering a program into a c64, if it's just one dude and his mouth and a loop-device, if it's a full symphonic orchestra, if it's just an 80's sequencer, a "normal" rock band, a guy with a guitar.. none of that matters - music is very easy to judge, just listen to it. music schools can teach people what sounds "right", but they can't teach people what people will enjoy, this is why music schools focus on complicated to play shit jazz nowadays... they can judge the players skills with it, too bad the playing skill of the player is just a small portion of being a good artist people want to actually listen to play.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Synthesizers : The Fast Food of musical instruments. Manufactured, preformed and frozen. Just waiting to be dropped into the fryer when you want it.
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