A few years ago I had my own radio shows, every Friday night I'd be rocking it loud & proud on local stations in Scotland. Yes I know, listen to the music I make and you'd never think that's I'd been to see almost every heavy metal and hard rock band going, but that's just how it is;-)
On these shows every few months I'd go on a rant to the younger generation listening about buying their music, and how they buy their music today!
You want an album or single nowadays, immediately download it when it comes out! You want to know the set list for a band your going to see, YouTube it, even watch the whole gig before you go! and that's what I was trying to tell them, they had missed out on a whole magical journey with music...goes something like this:
when I was about 12 and getting into heavy metal, the only way to find out anything about up and coming bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, Van Halen etc here in the U.K. was to buy a music magazine called 'Sounds' Now this wasn't a heavy metal mag, it was a music mag, but as they realised heavy metal was getting popular and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands (NWOBM) were happening they dedicated the back pages to heavy metal and hard rock.
In here we would find out when a band was touring or an album was coming out. To listen to any up and coming bands or albums I did 2 things as many others here in Scotland did at the time! On a Friday night from 9pm to midnight I listened to Tommy Vances (R.I.P.) Rock Show on BBC Radio 1, then from Midnight to 2am I listened to Tom Russells rock show on Radio Clyde in Glasgow...
There was no immediate fix for us as it is today, it was wait until Friday to see what these guys played, if they played new tracks from an eagerly awaited new album from Dio or Motorhead...announced a new tour from a band or had an interview set up with a band etc..
Now when it came to buying those records, that was a REAL journey! I'd meet up with my best mate Jim in Glasgow city centre. We'd head to Virgin records, HMV, 23rd Precinct and a few others I've forgotten after all this time! we'd troll through the heavy metal sections, see something we wanted and buy it. Now here is where the whole journey was different and better. At that point we had maybe heard a couple of songs from said album on the radio, what the rest of it was like we had no idea!! It was then a quick pint (ahem only kidding mum!!) before heading home. On the way home the back cover/front cover, inner sleeve were read and re-read as the anticipation of listening to the whole album grew......
Finally home, on the turntable sit back and enjoy...a great journey with the anticipation of getting home and hearing some great music for the first time...
That is ALL gone now!! just sit in your bedroom, in your garden on the toilet even! and order your music instantly!
Eventually our own heavy metal magazine came out 'Kerrang' and made it a bit easier to find out what was going on, but it was still snippets, so there was always the anticipation of hearing new songs when you eventually got down to the record store to buy it!
It was the same for concerts and gigs, you maybe thought you knew what a band would play, or how things would look, but it wasn't until you got to the concert and the band were playing you really found out, and sometimes there was even a great stage set you knew nothing about!
So todays music buyer/concert goer, has lost ALL of this, no journey, no anticipation build up, no laughs with friends in the record shops, no concert going with little knowledge of set lists or stage set ups, all gone..never to return.....
and that is sad, my kids look at me like I'm Darth Vader (the kickass one from the end of Rogue One!) when I go on about this, but I feel sorry for them and all the other younger generation now, who have missed out on what the musical journey was really like...
I'll just keep ramblin' on about it, and if I'm ever famous I'll ramble on some more about it on some talk show type place....;-)
MMc
Comments