The Day The Music Died.
Jul 27 '00
Our mothers warned us what would happen if we listened to Metallica...
On Friday, July 28, 2000th year of our Lord, Napster will die at midnight, condemned by a federal judge and betrayed by Metallica, well-known servants of the devil. Having pledged their souls to a modern-day Satan, better known as the RIAA, these wicked henchman have in all likelihood ushered in the next one thousand years of postmodern darkness.
As yet, it's grown dark by such little degrees that only a little light named Napster has alerted us to its encroachment--the distant glimmer of truth. And how things can be brighter!
Since when has it been appropriate, I wonder, to even speak of a "music industry"? Shed light on those two words and the mere juxtaposition ellicits a certain feeling of disgust, a disgust for a world where beauty is put up for sale and where aesthetics are judged by the number of units sold in a given time period.
With music, as with everything else nowadays, our choices are gradually being constricted. A trip to your local CD store will verify that a market democracy has a stronghold on our buying power. We only have the freedom to choose from the music that's placed before us, and worse yet, people cannot freely see the music that does not lie on those narrow shelves. If this unseen music is, in fact, music (which it is), it has a value that has nothing to do with currency or units sold. Unfortunately, it's a value that our justice system chooses to execute along with Napster.
And not without admonishing those who believe in music either. The 300,000+ user-identities pilfered by the attorneys who represent Metallica were also judged. We were the supposed evidence of criminal activity--our crime was collecting what music pleased us and, crime of crimes, enjoying the act of listening to it. I can't say I understand the friends of mine that held over three thousand songs on their hard drives, but I also say no one can understand the way I felt and what I thought about the hundred-or-so songs that were on my hard drive.
Now, I'm told it's wrong for me to have had access to Beethoven's Fifth, that I was owning it and sharing it illegally. Well, the fact of the matter is, I'm not trying to own music. Can anyone and should anyone "own" music?
I'm all for intellectual property and creators getting their dues, but wouldn't it be ideal for us to not to be so hasty in assuming that music is 1) "intellectual" rather than emotional and 2) should be treated as "property".
Clearly, art in the space age isn't what it used to be, and this shows not only in this court ruling, but also in the dying funding for art, theater and music education in our youths' schools. But, then again, this is only because education isn't what it used to be. We are told that music as well as literature have little value, unless "you're lucky enough to make it big." The result: beauty is discouraged, even feared.
I must say, there are certain inescapable ironies to fear. Surely, you all noticed the title of this review "The Day the Music Died" and recognized it as a line from the song "American Pie." Looking at it now, I can't say why I chose that title other than for the explicit purpose of making this opinion more marketable. Just a small, irrelevant example of the trap we're all in. The same trap that makes me distrust the quality of the CDs I buy. That same trap that even makes me wonder why we all decide what music we buy. Or why some people insist on letting others hear what's blaring on their car stereo.
So now you see why Napster offered us light. It allowed me find the music that pleased me, with rare consideration of what status that music held with other people. It allowed me to personally seek for the music that I could not find elsewhere, and it freed me from the chains of cynicism.
But now, my cynicism has returned in full force. Money rather than humanity reigns supreme, and, more frighteningly, it constantly is in search of ways to strengthen its own influence. Death, Famine, War, Pestilence, and Metalicca, the five Horsemen of the Apocalypse are well on their way, it seems. In any case, the end of Napster is nigh.
[****Note: I've never purchased a record from Towerrecords.com, but I go there often to listen to 30-second clips from CDs (Even ones I can't find in any store nearby. Their database is much larger than what they can contain within any one store). I'm sure the RIAA doesn't want this site up either, as it lets me find out if a band has more than one good song...or any at all before I decide to buy. I'd recommend the site to like-minded music snoops.]
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Epinions.com ID:
Mocoso
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Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 12 members
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