Just 150 years ago music was a different thing. There was no “music industry” and if you wanted to listen to music you would have to find musicians and physically inhabit the same space as them as they were playing in order to hear it. It was not short of its own industrious qualities. Many of the most famous pieces of music from centuries past are complex orchestrations composed of dozens of musicians on different instruments playing melodies, harmonies, counter-melodies, drones, and theatrically amazing passages meant to wow the listener. Yes, this was an industry in and of itself but pales in comparison to the modern and often corporate system we all participate in today. Yes, we all participate in it, whether as a listener, creator, venue owner, licenser, or even if you just watch TV, stream a show, well…you get the idea. The art of music has shifted in incredible ways over the last century and half and that’s where we’ll meet you at the end of our summary but let’s take a short musical trip through the times.

The first major shift in recent times was the invention of the reproduceable audio recording. Though not ground breaking at the beginning it found a useful application in sharing historical records, preserving ideas, and of course, a few rogue recordings of music. That all changed when the phonograph did the one thing every new invention dreams of from its birth: it became affordable and accessible to the common person. These people did not want to listen to stuffy lecture snippets or obscure recordings of songbirds. No, they demanded the most difficult and most entertaining of all audio experiences for the working class family: music. Yes there were other inventions like the player piano, wax cylinders, and the like but the phonograph was different, it was a durable format, easy to operate, and of course made a charming addition to any home. It was not without a few drawbacks of course the most important of which is the short length of time per disc. They could only hold about 3 minutes per side! That 3-4 minute length still dominates the modern music industry today and whenever we release a song over that length we get complaints from radio DJs about how they’re “too long” and we’re “showing off” or some other silly complaint that we laugh at as we dismiss their humorously narrow-minded musical critique.

Now, the “music industry” is finally born into the world around this time. They saw the demand for songs that could engage a listener in under 4 minutes, can be replayed without nauseum, and of course, sell, sell, sell. We were given many selections of the Great American Songbook during this early era as composers flocked to this new shorthand medium to pump out quick melodies to talented artists and get them into publication to hungry ears everywhere. The industry found its system and quickly started creating labels and genres to categorize the artists so the consumer can make quick selections, order new discs, and try unknown songs with a level of confidence. One of the most famous of course was the genre of “Race Records” that sought to bring “race music” to what we can only fathom to guess would be considered “non-race” peoples, though we do not believe this was in a post-racial 21st century type of mindset. Musical celebrities were soon born into this budding industry, renowned for their recordings and seldom interacting face to face with people compared to the ears that were consuming their sounds.

This trend continued through the inventions of the 4os as microphones got better and singers were now able to be more intimate with their performances. The belting of Bessie Smith gave way to the softness of Ella Fitzgerald as recordings got better and the dynamic range of a recording got stronger. Over time the time constraint of the disc based system was overcome when the magnetic tape became compact and the 8 track was soon spinning its magnetic splendor through the 60s and 70s until bowing out to the cassette tape. Finally the industry had found a way to bring longer selections of music to a reproduceable format but the trend was set, the 3-4 minute song remained as standard as ever. Why would you write a 10 minute song to sell once when you can write 3 songs at the length of 3 minutes to each sell once? Once televisions started to enter the living rooms of the modern home people everywhere tuned in to musical performers now glowing out of a cathode-ray glass bubble. They flashed to life reproduced through the wonder of electromagnetic science and were almost always seen smiling as they were seen trapped in their strange modern fish bowl like venue made out of the fanciest of one-way glass. No longer were musicians trapped by the limitations of reproduction, they were free to appear to people in their own homes, play as long as they’d like to, and perform to smaller crowds with a bigger reach. Soon, the music industry found it’s firm footing as it exploited all these formats and outlets to create superstars and mega celebrities that dominated our ears and eyes and were shoved down our collective consuming throats via anything with an antenna attached to it.

As we know this all came to a dizzying explosion with the invention of the internet. Originally an obscure network designed to share historical records, preserve ideas, and share a rogue piece of music or two it soon did the very thing every new invention dreams of from its birth: it became affordable and accessible to the common person. This was different though, the industry finally felt the impact of this growing network as their ability to dictate what was popular began to fade as people no longer needed to pay for music but could conceivably get it for free online. Music piracy was not new. There are legends of Soviet music pirates etching American rock music onto X-rays to smuggle into the USSR during the cold war. You can of course always pour a liquid rubber solution onto a record, let it dry then rip the mold off to create a new copy of the original. Then of course the cassette tape allowed the recording of radio broadcast to a blank tape which gave way to those awful mix tapes where the radio DJ is talking over the outro and intro of your favorite songs. The internet was a new form of piracy. For the first time a listener could acquire a song that was not being broadcast, was not possessed by a local store or friend, and that they’d never even heard before! The problem for the industry was simple: they were no longer in charge of what people could consume. It was a beautiful moment of musical anarchy as kids and their paranoid parents everywhere soon became experts in copyright law and all the definition of the word “discography”. The music industry made feeble attempts to fight this new wave of unleashed free consuming non-profiteering world but eventually gave in and gave us what we wanted: access to whatever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want, and occasionally interrupted by credit card offers and advertisements for home services unless you pay $9.99 a month. (ok, maybe not that last part).

Well, here we are: now. So what has changed and why are we here? Well the shift in the industry did something amazing to the artist over the last 150 years. Musicians are no longer simple artists. We are “content creators” or we are running a “brand”. We are expected to compete in the free market that is the industry whether we are signed on to participate in it or not. You see, before an artist could create something, put it out into the world, live their life, then create more. They could release what they wanted then go dormant again, but not anymore. Nowadays the musician is expected to be an auditory experience that is enhanced by visual releases, updates, pictures, samples, stories, and of course no musician is complete without their own hashtag.

#THELARKANDTHELOON

There is great merit in all of this as now the artist is able to bring their fans along the journey of creation and show them what it looks like to travel, to perform, to rehearse, and to record. The downside of course is that fans expect all of this from an artist. Music is not enough for the musician. You are expected to commodify yourself into something that transcends artistry and into a celebrity to those who want one. Whether you are famous to 1 or famous to 1 million you are expected to present yourself as though you are a jovial whimsical creator who is flowing with creativity, insight, and connection, like a careful tightrope walk between being a cult-leader and an obscurely loved genius. This is not going to change, this is how we consume this artform now and this is how we are expected to create it. We are all left to wonder if this constant expectation of a steady stream of fresh new content coupled with behind the scenes glances at our greatest works in progress is leaving some of the best works of our peers and idols buried under an avalanche of lukewarm requests to join Patreon pages as we fight for a few seconds of each other’s attention every day. The best part of being a musician is the same thing that was wonderful about being a musician 500 years ago and 1000 years before that: creating art that can be enjoyed by a willing consumer to interpret, enjoy, dislike, dismiss, or love as they choose. Whether in person or digitally is of no concern to us but we remain steadfast in our own ideology that has always driven us through our hundreds of shows in countless cities, states, and countries: we are not the product. We don’t even like looking at our music as a product but the modern music industry dictates that it is only that. We will always love interacting with folks, and are not afraid or embittered by social interaction, it is only the expectation that is placed upon the artist to be constantly performing that fills us with a cautious curiosity about the integrity of the modern music industry and the economic ecosystem it has created for all of us.