Posted on March 30th, 2020

In the last couple of month, after listening to some new releases of some bands I tend to listen to a lot a certain thought circled my head until now. While listening to this bands, that I knew so well, I went back to when I was an 11 yrs old kid, and what it meant to go and purchase a Vynil record at your local store back in the 80’s. It was way back then, that 2 albums fell on my hands, (courtesy of my dear cousin Felix, who avidly and religiously listened to the “radio difusora Venezuela” station) these were, RUSH: exit stage left and ELOY: planets. These two records change my life completely. This by itself wouldn’t been a major event except by the fact that it was then, that I discovered that I had a facility for music and percussion instruments. So here I was, could you imagine?, 11 yrs old, and listening for the first time the strokes of a young Neil Peart!!!!....I was in heaven, Nirvana, my kundalini has awaken, you name it…I felt elated. But I digress. What it’s important is that at that time, purchasing a Vynil record, was a whole odyssey. Being a kid and all, just saving some parental stipends and avoiding to buy sweets in the corner store allowed me to save enough cash to take a ride in the local bus, towars “Caurimare” (a neighborhood close to mine in Caracas), a little stroll after getting off the bus will put me in the only specialized record store back then, that sold music from other planets, “ELTRON”!!!!, there you could find, RUSH, CAMEL, ELOY, Klaus Schultze, Tangerine Dream, P’cock, Genesis, Vangelis, you name it…

Riding the bus back home with a smile wider than the ocean, sit in the living room and open the record, and stare and its art , the insert lyrics, reading every little print, even if it was in German, English it didn’t’ matter. Then spending more than an hour listening to the record. Which brings me to the point at hand, this is precisely what we have lost. Nowadays when we purchase we download, or burn it from some friend. It’s , obviously extremely comfy to have everything imagined at the tip of your fingertips. But that “event” of taking time to sit down and listen to a whole album, is gone. In fact people rarely buy a CD anymore, they buy (download) one song or songs they like from a particular artists, not the whole “album”. I’m of the opinion that this is another collateral damage of this digital era we live in. CD sales are incredibly low. Making a concept album is something for lunatics and some few brave ones, (like Porcupine Tree, and others, but they represent such a selective market and target, it has a cult following, and its culture it’s extremely underground, they’re not ‘mainstream’). The few Stores that exist are “used” cd stores, you can find gems for low prices, and the retail giants, (walmart, Best Buy) have a few shelves with cds. Music, it seems, has and incredibly in your face presence, it’s pervasive, even invasive particularly among the youngsters. But amidst this ubiquitous presence, never has music seem so ineffective , so futile, so harmless. Gone are the days of mystery and romanticism that surrounded music and playing a musical instrument. I’m not sure if I’m being stupidly nostalgic or is a by product of me entering the realm of the 40’s. But’ I’ve never seen music so much around us and at the same time so lame and flat, so innocuous. A presence so present that it’s so easy to ignore because it’s so much around us all the time, like the construction noise, or rumble of the streets outside the windows. I’ve been witness of this event, while I taught at a community music school. I experienced kids complaining after 2 months of learning the instrument that they weren’t able to play a steady groove or simple beats on the drum set!!!. 2 months!!??, Could this be the fault of certain games , such as Rock Band, -no matter how fun they can be- that make people believe, and particularly those more easy to impress, that have people fooled. This games make people believe that picking up an instrument and play them is a piece of cake!...to some it’s is, to some it’s hard work! Particularly those who love them and love music. I’ve been playing for 20 yrs or so and I still struggle to get some grooves and certain things….and I’m not complaining, it just means that I know nothing yet!

Put all this things together and we’d go back to the point of people not listening and devoting time to music, enjoying an album. How is it possible for music to be something so prevalent in our lives and at the same time lacking that mystery and mysticism that makes people fall in love with music and the instruments that creates the sound??

Am I crazy or am alone in this thought?

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