4/26/2009

The Devil's Music


With the possibility of digitilizing a piece of music to the format commonly known as MP3, the possibility of consuming music as a bag of popcorn has also become reality. The consequence is the diminished value of music, and the disappearance of the album seen upon as a piece of art and time document.

Before the digital 'revolution' people went to the record store and actually bought an album. You couldn't buy every record you wanted, so you had to make a choice. That circumstance also functioned as a filter, preventing you from getting hold of more albums than you could handle. You had time to discover the uniqueness of every single album, by looking at the cover, studying the inner sleeve, reading the lyrics, while listening, fantasizing. You were given the complete picture, and each album and the songs on it became an almost sacred thing, not a popcorn thing, where you grab a piece here and there, over and over again, without reflecting on what you're doing, and still you gotta have more.

The digital world is a clone, a poor substitute to reality, it can never replace the physical world, especially not man made music, and it should certainly not be the platform used to distribute it. Digitalizm degenerates the original artistic creation to a glimmering but cold and empty shell. There you have the devil's music, for real. The debate about legalizing file sharing or not is a non-issue, because the fundament of the whole discussion, music in digitalized form, is a dead end from the start.

And yes, I completely agree, a digital radio station, even though using vinyl only as source, it's a poor substitute. If I were you, I'd find myself a 100 % analog station - Vinyl only and analog transmitters - A real station.

Tonight you're going to
Overload your mind
Move into another world
There for you online
A high speed chase that
Leads you to the unknown
Time will disappear so fast
For you and you alone

A universe in isolation
Feeding your imagination

No-one cares about
The role you play
Generations lost in space
A million miles away
Life moves faster
Than the speed of sound
You think you've got
Complete control
It makes your world go
Round and round

Digital communication
Feeding your imagination

Coded warning
Now you're falling into overload
Countdown started, no way out
Hit the mother lode

The power that you crave
For more and more
You try to understand the things
That you are fighting for
When multi channel meltdown
Gets to you
You'll reach the breakpoint
When it's over, what you gonna do

Seeing your determination
Feeding your imagination

A universe in isolation
Feeding your imagination
You're looking for a new sensation
Gotta find a real sensation

Into overload...


Mick Box & Phil Lanzon, 2008

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